Art by Mori_art_ti

Challenge: Astrological Sign

Aries

Idea by @mere_inkslinger

Your life flashes before your eyes but the visions you see aren't your own.

minipage

Sometimes, we accidentally step in front of cars.

Or in my case, buses.

Most of the time, we're able to step out of the way in time, or we get pulled back by a stranger.

Or in my case, you don't get pulled back or remember to step back.

You get hit.

And it hurts.

But in a way, I really just felt the impact then fell asleep. 

While I slept, I dreamt about the future. 

It was just flashes, glimpses of the life I should have known, but never got to.

The first montage I saw was of myself and a handsome man.

We met at the grocery store. Then we were on a date; I was laughing and he was smiling. Then we were on another date. And then we were----

Engaged.

Then I was walking down the aisle, in slow motion to await my fate.

Then we were newlyweds, dancing around the kitchen of our new house.

And then it stopped.

Moving on to the professional part of my life, I had opened my own publishing company, Carly and Co., with the help of this mysterious man.

It had been a dream of mine.

Every single detail I had envisioned was expressed in the little building off of Main Street.

Our first book was published.

Everything seemed so happy.

My life would get better, if I was given the chance to live.

Then it all flipped.

My marriage began to crumble.

Where were the three kids I had envisioned?

My question was answered by an upsetting doctor's visit.

Carly and Co. couldn't stay on it's feet; we weren't getting enough manuscripts in.

It was investment after investment until I was closing the doors on it and my marriage, with the stroke of a pen.

Well.

Multiple strokes.

Then I was alone in a tiny two room apartment, crying on the phone with my sister.

Then I was going back to school to become a teacher, begging banks to give me student loans.

But then the visions stopped and I was frozen in time, back where I should have been.

I was being given the chance to fight back.

But I couldn't go back to that.