ManyWriters

The tenth year of competing alongside Seraphina
She's getting married.
I provoked her fiancé at a chess tournament.
After she found out, she revoked all my competition qualifications.
I didn't cry or make a fuss.
But she went crazy, pinning me against the wall and kissing me: "Why aren't you making a scene this time?"
I won't say. Because, you see, I'm dying.

Trophy Given to Her Childhood Sweetheart By Girlfriend

That chess piece wasn't even the one she had originally shattered.


Seraphina simply refused to admit it to herself.


I don't love her anymore, not loving her means just that - I don't love her.


Later, she came running up to me saying,


She had found it. Found a way to repair the chess piece.


You can't even find the remnants of the chess piece you originally broke.


Desperately trying to mend a completely meaningless chess piece.


Just like our relationship, utterly meaningless.


In the days that followed, Seraphina stayed by my side constantly.


I was taking handfuls of pills, unable to sleep night after night.


The reflection in the mirror grew increasingly gaunt.


Seraphina would hold me, covering my eyes.


Not letting me see the nurse injecting my already bruised arm.


Needle marks, big and small, had begun spreading across my hand.


Chapter 7