Serena
A Story Every Day in 2024 June 30th 182/366 and a just in the nick of time entry for Belle's The Conviction [an unofficial challenge]
This story comes with a Dharrsheena warning.
They say death is a funny old thing, whoever they are. I assume they mean peculiar as there's nothing humorous about it. And I should know as I've met it face-to-face this week.
I suppose, if you imagined the Reaper as a grinning spectre arriving to cut the thread that ties you to this mortal existence, then his sinister smile may pass as funny. In both senses, actually.
That's what she was at the end. A grinning spectre. A hideous figure. I could go through all the usual descriptions: having the life sucked out of her; she was like a wraith; I swear I could see her bones through her skin; she was barely there; she was no longer the person I'd fallen in love with.
All of these things are, were, true. Except that last one. Because she was very much the person I'd fallen in love with. She bore no physical resemblance to her, but she was my Serena.
She was such a fighter! Every day, approaching the end of her life with a smile. She hid the grimaces but the mirror on the wall showed me, sly, unscrupulous, spiteful glass. A glimpse of excruciating pain, the drugs working like a cold cloth for a fever, only wiping the brow of the cancer as it continued its relentless mining operation to hollow her out to a husk.
She did it for me, I know, presenting the brave face. She needn't have. I felt every last vestige of her pain myself.
We once had a pup when I was a child. A lovely little thing. Small soft body, enormous ears. When my mother ran her over by accident, she survived. I can remember her taking the little dog to the vet and him examining her. No bones broken, he said but internally...
When she was brought home, she had a look in her eyes. I was so pleased to see her. She's going to be alright! But no. Something had been lost and her eyes showed it - pain unseen. Would it be too pretentious to say despair?
Serena never asked me but I saw it in her eyes.
I did what I had to do.
***
366 words
The link to Belle's wonderful challenge is here:
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180/366
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More stories from Rachel Deeming and writers in Fiction and other communities.
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Comments (7)
The results for this challenge will be posted shortly. They are ready to publish, and have been for the last couple days, but I am having issues saving and publishing! I just wanted to update to let you know that they are finished, just trying to get around a bug! Thank you so much for your patience. <3<3
Incredible, Rachel! Sincerely gripping. Anyone who has experienced the death (or more specifically, prolonged death) of a loved one felt this all too close to home! I'd like to apologize for the great lateness in publishing the results on this challenge... They will be released shortly, and I will notify you immediately! Thank you so much for entering!
This was both gripping and gutting. A very well written piece with such a heavy story stitched within. The description of seeing pain in the eyes was tremendously well done
Gosh. That’s real love. I think watching someone you love battle cancer is one of the worst things. I spent weeks with my grandmother at the end. It was horrific. You wrote this with such compassion and heart. All the best to you Rachel.
This was difficult to read, Rachel. But I have to say that nobody I currently read could write of another’s suffering quite as convincingly as you have here. My father died of cancer, and it was very much like this (minus the euthanasia). If you have seen someone die of the disease and never complain, never admit to the pain, then that might explain the miracle that is this story. But if you have not, then your capacity for empathy as a writer is at a level outside the power of my comprehension.
Oh, that is cold. But much better than pain. I believe that people have a right to request euthanasia. No one knows the pain which another is feeling.
I was excited to read this story because my cousin's name is the same as your title but spelled Sereena and then I saw the warning. Gosh, there is nothing that scares me more in this world than sad animal stuff 😅 I appreciate you so much for that warning, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart 🥺❤️ I scrolled down slowly so that it would register as a read.