Cursed Ground

She pushed the sharp edge of the shard closer. A trickle of blood seeped down her neck. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes willing herself, gearing up for that final brave act that would put all of the wrong things right…

Do it!

But she couldn’t. No attempt could will her to make that quick thoughtless cut. An abrupt horizontal incision from one direction to the other… that’s all it took. But she was a coward.

She dropped the piece of glass on the floor and ran for the front door. She had to get away. Away from the truth, away from the loss, away from herself… and maybe if she ran fast enough she could run toward something—toward everything that she’d lost and find it again.

But the moment she stepped outside, she knew no amount of denial would set the loss in reverse. Nothing she did would help her reclaim what was already gone.

She dropped to her knees and cried. “Jacob! No!” It was a low deep gut-wrenching wail that could only be matched by another mother whose loss was of equal or greater value.

She reached out for Jacob, almost seeing him there, but no… nothing. He was gone. It was just an empty space that contained the lingering image of his face conjured up by her effective imagination and pretty soon that would be gone too. And then all too soon it was… and left in its place was nothing.

She sobbed, knowing that was the life she’d live from that day forward. A life with nothing in it.