It Happened In A Heartbeat Novels & Stories

“I fell overboard!” The beam of a spotlight swept over her, and shouts of alarm followed. Within seconds, she felt hands grab her, pulling her onto a small rescue boat. She let herself go limp, tears mixing with seawater as she gasped for breath. Someone shouted. “We’ve got her.” As the rescue team focused on her, no one noticed the dark vehicle slipping through the night without headlights. It moved like a shadow itself, gliding silently to the rendezvous point. A door opened, and the lone passenger slid in. The vehicle vanished into the night as quickly as it had appeared.

I had finally grown up, finally able to give her the life she deserved, yet she never lived to see a single day of it, because they stole that future from her. Before I knew it, my hand flew up. I slapped Ryan as hard as I could. "Get the hell out!"

Then he nods. Then Dr. Carter says something and the room moves and I stop thinking about shareholder meetings and twelve-year conspiracies and corridors and Gabriel Kane and all of the things that have been requiring my attention for six weeks and I think about one thing. The heartbeat. Small and fast and completely certain of itself. The way it was from the very beginning. The way she has always been. Already certain. Already here.

My heart skipped a beat, my tears moist right then. I dropped to a crouch and held him, pressing my ear against his chest again. I could hear his heartbeat, thumping powerfully through his thin shirt. It was such a familiar sensation. It was Stan's heartbeat. As I closed my eyes, my tears flowed ever so quietly. We stayed like that for a while, and as I wiped my tears, I held Nathan firmly in my arms once more. "Please live a good life with Stan's heart." - Nathan walked with me to the gates of the orphanage, but I never once turned to look at him again.

Only seconds later he passed and then the hallway was quiet again. I let out the breath I had been holding and turned around. Immediate heart failure. Crap, crap, crap.

Rather I accept my fate, knowing that my time is up. Ready to succumb to my fate, I lower my head to the ground, no longer trying to keep it up. I can hear the steady rhythm of my heartbeat, as it begins to slow. I can hear the pounding of my chest echoing on the tile. Which is when it dawns on me. There's no way it could be my heart. It's far too powerful for it to be my heart.

What the fuck had just happened? They'd gone past me, like I was a different person. The siren really had done something, but what? I pressed my hands into the dirt, and pushed myself up, standing on shaky legs. The trembling was subsiding and I could feel the ultra fast beat of my heart finally slowing down. I pressed a hand to my chest, taking deep breaths. With how startled I've been the last few days, I might just have a heart attack soon. My heart skips a beat, as I start processing what just happened.

His legs flattered, he gripped the griddles of cot to balance him. “The condition is called tachycardia. The baby’s heartbeat suddenly dropped, and this happened,” the doctor explained. Theodore lifted the baby into his arms, tears streaming down his face. His hope, his joy—everything shattered in an instant. He couldn’t believe destiny could be so cruel. The child who had brought him and Aria together was gone. It was unbearable. He kissed the tiny hands, his eyes lingering on them, hoping for a miracle, for the baby to come alive. But miracles happen in fairy tales, not in real life, where one must face bitter truths.

My heart skipped a beat, and a bad feeling filled my heart. “You did something and connected their server to you…. Your heartbeat.” My heart stopped beating when I heard her. Vincent’s grip on my fingers tightened again. What the f**k? “You …. You mean to say th… that I connected my heartbeat….. a natural mechanism to a server?” I asked her in a shocked voice, my brain short-circuited at once. “Yes, babe, and to my relief, I don’t know the full details because you never told me.” She replied, and my eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets.

(Isabella’s POV) The heartbeat changed. For weeks, maybe months, it had been slow. Ancient. Patient. Like something sleeping. Now it sounded different. Faster. Alert. Aware. The moment it echoed through the mountain, every lantern in the infirmary flickered. Not enough to go out. Enough to make everyone notice. Nobody spoke. Nobody needed to. We had all heard it. We had all felt it. Adrian looked genuinely horrified. And somehow that frightened me more than the heartbeat itself.