Chapter 1
I was born with two heartbeats. I can not feel that heartbeat within myself, but I can hear it pulse inside my ear, separate from my own, more hushed.
About a week ago it began to grow steadily louder… It’s the type of thing that is so steadily changing that you only notice it once it has changed marginally from its original.
The sound is now slightly louder than even my own heartbeat and I wonder if this noise is really my own, or if it may belong to another.
It’s not “loud” per say, but I am a person of patterns and schedules, even when it slightly changed I noticed and in turn I have lost sleep listening to the soft rhythm of my heart beating.
Tonight of course was no different, but it was very prominent today specifically, so I decided to go for a walk.
As I rise from my bed, the creaking of my bedframe making me cringe, I look at the clock, 12:07. It’s pretty late, but I’ve got nothing better to do, and the air looks very nice tonight.
I slip into my warm boots that have been close to the heater, grab my jacket off the rack and step out into the perfectly cool air.
As I walk down the sidewalk the soft tattoo of my heartbeat keeps my feet moving. I can hear the sounds of distant traffic, the subtle rustling of the leaves and my own footsteps around me, but my thoughts remain within myself.
I pause finally as I realise how far I have walked, glancing around I see vaguely familiar surroundings, yet none that are in my immediate area. But now I completely stop, the heartbeat I hear has now grown to almost the same volume as my own. As I ponder this I now grow more aware of my surroundings.
My gaze shifts from directly in front of myself to across the street, there is a large darkness where the streetlamps give no light to. As I make this move the heartbeat within me begins to race, but as I press my palm to my chest I feel my own… steadily beating.
