Dear Don, We Can Never Go Back to 18 Chapter 10
A small news story appeared in the local papers a few days later.
Elena lost control of her car late one night and drove straight off the River Bridge. She died instantly on impact.
The identity of Elena was gone forever.
That same day, a highly agitated woman was admitted into the Suburban Private Psychiatric Hospital. She screamed and fought against the staff nonstop.
“I’m not crazy! This isn’t real!”
“I am Elena! I’m still alive! Let me out of here!”
“Enzo, you’ll pay for this!”
The hospital staff restrained her to a bed and injected her with a sedative.
Dr. Greg Moore, the attending psychiatrist, shook his head after examining her.
“The patient suffers from severe identity disorder, delusions of persecution, and violent manic episodes.”
“Following the family’s requests, we will begin regular electrotherapy and long-term psychiatric medication to stabilize her condition.”
Enzo traveled back to Ada’s Hometown and the Western Cemetery once more.
He knelt down and carefully wiped dust from the tiny tombstone of their lost child.
Then he turned to Ada’s grave and brushed dirt from her headstone.
His hands shook the moment his fingers brushed over her name carved into the stone.
“Ada, how cruel you were.”
“You wouldn’t even let me see you one last time.”
A bitter laugh escaped him.
“But I have no right to complain.”
“I wasted every chance I had while you were alive. Why would you grant me a final goodbye?”
He thought back on everything. Ada’s final acts had been far less cruel than her words in the farewell letter.
She had only struck Elena a few times and reclaimed her Guardian Angel medallion. She had never
truly sought revenge beyond that.
Tears fell from Enzo’s eyes and soaked into the dirt beneath his knees.
He began hearing Ada’s voice carried on the wind more and more often.
He would spin around, but no one was ever there.
Hallucinations plagued him day and night after her death.
Sometimes he heard her young, cheerful voice from their high school days, calling to him from the Varsity Basketball Court.
Other times he heard her broken sobs from the day she lost their baby.
Just as she had written in her letter, she haunted him endlessly.
He knew he deserved every moment of this torment.
He struggled with insomnia and swallowed handfuls of sleeping pills every night, yet terrifying
nightmares still jolted him awake again and again.
Dr. Claire Bennett, his therapist, warned him he was showing early signs of schizophrenia.
Enzo did not care.
When Ada died, she had taken every spark of life left inside him. He was nothing more than an
empty shell now.
He had once believed his love for Elena was real passion, a new excitement to fill his days. But all that faded away the second Ada was gone.
Memories of her grew clearer and brighter with every passing night.
Enzo, you played terrible today!
Enzo, you’re so clueless.
We’re going to attend the same college together!
We promised to stay together forever.
I love you.
I hate you. I will always hate you.
Enzo curled up on his bed, clutching his head as pain overwhelmed him. He let out a broken cry.
Late that night, he dressed himself in a formal suit and tied his tie neatly in front of the mirror.
He walked into the bathroom and filled a large bathtub with cold water.
He stepped inside and sank down slowly.
The water rose higher and higher, covering his ears, then his head.
The cold water wrapped around him, and he finally felt a quiet peace he had not known in months.
His vision blurred. For a moment, he was transported back to the summer of his eighteenth year
Ada ran ahead of him, her hair flying in the breeze.
She turned around and smiled, her eyes shining bright with joy.
“Enzo, you’re too slow! Hurry up and catch me!”
A soft smile tugged at his lips.
“I’m coming.”
A string of tiny bubbles rose to the surface of the water, then faded away.
The bathroom fell completely silent.
Not a single ripple disturbed the water ever again.
