The End Of It All

THE END OF IT ALL

Javier Moreno

Copyright © 2023 Javier Moreno

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Cover image created by King Designer from Fiverr.

This book is self-published.

All rights reserved.

To my wife for her unending love, for allowing me the long breaks to pursue my interest of writing and for serving as inspiration for aspects of my female characters.

To my kids for always loving their father no matter what crazy endeavors he takes on.

And to my mother for supporting me all these years unconditionally.

Special thanks to Dan Bixler for helping me proof-read my work and invaluable input. It was like having my own professional editor.

FOREWORD

The beginning of my personal writing tale starts on high school. Our English teacher liked to give big projects for the end of each semester. First it was a short movie, but the next task was to write a book. I took it as a challenge and found out through the process it was something I always wanted to do and really enjoyed it. The story was born out of a simple concept. I wanted to write a book that didn’t have a happy ending. That was all. It is perhaps odd, but that was what I set out to do. And, I believe I achieved my goal as another student decided to write his book as a follow-up to mine. He didn’t like the dire ending so turned around the story. I am sorry, but I won’t spoil that ending for you just yet.

Through the writing process, this simple concept grew into a story that took the main character through several cities around the world. I really put effort into trying to make it feel as real as possible. I did a lot of research to make the locations feel believable. A fellow student had the gift of drawing beautiful illustrations, so he took care of making the illustrations and I took the task of writing the story. I was very happy with the result. And I wish, dear reader, that I could tell you this is the story you are about to read. Sadly, that story ended up on digital media that was lost in time as technology moved forward. The few hard copies I gave away I couldn’t recover.

But that put me on a path. I enrolled at my hometown’s Writer’s Guild for a course on storytelling and I produced some nice short pieces I still have and may release as a short compilation someday. I kept on trying to write using simple concepts as the driver for the story and watch it evolve. I have left a few unfinished ones, but this is one of those that I refined until they are where I like them and can see them as a finished piece. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

CHAPTER ONE

IT BEGINS

WEDNESDAY 10

THE BRIGHTLY LIT display of the clock on the nightstand showed 10:00 PM, causing Ernie’s anxiety levels to keep rising. He took another glance at his schedule. So many events this month. Next week: meetings, travel and deadlines. His mind shifted for an instant, and he wished to be back home, back into her arms. Back to those tender hugs that, like good wines, are better with age. But, he knew that was impossible.

Another peek at the clock: 10:01 PM. Despite working non-stop for several hours, he did not show the slightest sign of being tired. But he was stressed,