Death

Marama:25. Luca:32.

What exactly is the difference between death and rebirth?

That thought never left my mind as I lay in the hospital. Knife wounds in my right side from my waist to my thigh, three broken ribs and being bruised to death.

I assumed I led a normal life. Getting up early, drinking my coffee, getting ready, and leaving for work. Normal, but secure. It was sure as hell boring, but I didn't intend to live like that for very long. I was supposed to start backpacking and traveling the world next month. Everything changed about a week ago when I was attacked. Now all I can think about is figuring out how to get out before anyone finds out I survived.

(A week ago...)

"Mara, you're early today!" Lisa, one of my coworkers and best friend, stated. After three years of driving in Beyrouth, you learn the hard way when it's time to leave for work. Furthermore, today is a big day for me, so I decided to arrive early and prepare. As an IT manager, my job is to find the best solution for my company or any other institution we work with, and to propose what works best for our systems during a bid. And winning this bidding today will be my ticket to leave here and start living my dream.

"Yeah...there wasn't a lot of traffic." I tell her, then sigh and add, "I hope the bidding goes well." With a worried expression, I admit what's on my mind.

"Oh, don't be worried." Lisa stated, rolling her eyes. "You've been preparing for months, and you've never lost a bidding war before, so take it easy."

She is correct; I am skilled at what I do. But I'm not sure why I'm having a bad feeling for today.

When the clock strikes 11 a.m., I gather all of my papers and proceed to the meeting room, where our head department, all of the requested parties, and, of course, Adam are present. We're both here to present our plans, and the one with the most votes wins. He is basically my enemy. Always competing to see who can get to the top first, but that only makes me more determined to beat him, even though he took it to a whole new level by threatening me to withdraw from this bidding. But he is the one to talk rather than act sort of person.

I leave the meeting room with a big smile on my face after three long hours. Lisa rushes towards me as soon as she notices me, "sooo..." she exclaims impatiently.

"I won!!" I say- joyfully.

"Aaahhh, what did I say? We should definitely go out tonight to celebrate ". Lisa jumps around me, and I can't stop laughing at my friend's reaction.

"I warned you to stay out of this one."

The hair on my nech rise as i turn around and lock eyes with Adam.

"And what is that supposed to mean." I snap at him.

Lisa grab my hand and drag me away from him before I could hear what he had to say. "Don't listen to him; he's a jerk." She had always despised him.

Before hearing a knock on my door, I checked myself in the mirror one last time. I look at my watch, surprised that Lisa has already arrived. I rush to the door, saying, "Wow, I thought..." The door slams in my face, and thwo men enter, followed by Adam.

"What do you think you're doing, you bastard?" I yell at him.

"I warned you," he says as one of the men punches me in the face. The blow almost knocks me out, and I taste blood in my mouth.

I try to stand on shaky legs and narrowly avoid a second blow to the stomach. Another one grabs my hair and yanks me back, exposing my neck to him. "What exactly do you want us to do?" He asked Adam while drawing a knife with his free hand.

"She's all yours; just get rid of her." He says this in a bored tone, as if he hadn't just told those men to kill me.

Panic washed over me as I realized what those men were going to do to me. I start kicking and screaming and manage to slam my lamp into Adam's head.

"You bitch," he gritted. Then take the knife from the person who is holding my hair and stab me in the thigh. As he drags the knife all the way to my waist, I feel agonising pain. I scream as the person holding me drops me to the ground and they all begin hitting me.

Death. That was all I could think about while lying on my floor, drowning in my own blood. I'm sorrowful because I won't be able to travel the world, learn new languages, or make memories. All I can think about is why. And for what purpose? I'd start laughing at my fate if it weren't for the pain. I'm dying because my opponent refuses to accept defeat. Because of a stupid job.

I'm not sure where the blows are coming from, and the last thing I hear bedore drifting into darkness is Adam telling them to leave and that I should be dead by the time someome shows up.