Read A Beautiful Fate for Free Online Page B

against the back wall, looking as good as ever, but this time he had a girl hanging from his arm saying something in his ear. The girl was tall and skinny and she had jet-black hair that came to a sharp angle right at her jaw line. It was perfectly straight without a hair out of place. She had dark eyes but pale, crystal-clear skin and big, full, naturally red lips. She was perfect for him and my heart came crashing down to earth in a million little pieces.
    Ari noticed me looking and I was extremely thankful that at that very moment Rory came up to steal my attention away.
    “Having fun?” He asked, holding a beer in his hand.
    “Yeah, sure, I guess,” I answered somewhat honestly. This party wasn’t the most fun I had ever had but it beat wallowing in a pool of my own tears.
    “Oh, come on, this is great; here let me get you a drink.”
    “No, no thank you, I don’t drink.” I said, looking around and noticing that I was one of the very few people not drinking at the party.
    Rory continued talking to me and I listened for a bit and then zoned out. I felt like a jerk for not listening, for not being as good a friend to him as he had been to me, but I couldn’t help being seriously bummed out. After a bit, I excused myself from the group and started walking back to my room. I allowed myself one more glance at Ari, but he was nowhere in sight and neither was his pretty friend.
    I went back to my room, put on a tank top and a pair of boxers to sleep in, and crashed hard. I quickly found myself back in a nightmare. This time I was in the dimly lit hospital, a nice reprieve from reliving my mother’s death. I walked the halls and listened to the cries of all the people behind the doors. I did my best to drown out the insults some of the people were throwing at me and through the din, I heard someone calling my name, not in a begging way, but just saying it to get my attention. I stopped at the door and read a name that I did not recognize, Maya Xenos. I could hear her in there calling to me. I could hear monitors beeping in the background.
    I hesitated for a long moment. I nearly turned to walk away until I heard a quiet “please” call out to me from the other side of the door. I turned back and opened the door out of curiosity. In the room, I found a tired, lovely older woman sitting up in bed. She looked incredibly ill. She was defying an obvious need to be lying down, her eyes were shrouded in dark circles and her skin seemed too loose for her frame. Her face lit up when I walked in and that surprised me a bit. This woman was not recognizable to me, but she clearly knew exactly who I was. She beckoned me forward; I took a few steps, and then stopped, standing at the side of her bed.
    She held me in a long hug. When she finally spoke, her words were quiet and breathless. She asked me to help her, to save her and allow her more time. She motioned to a little boy, who could not have been more than two years old, curled up on the bed next to her, asleep. I looked around the room and it was far different from the room Perry was in when he visited my hospital nightmare. The room was old, but still beautiful. The walls were made out of large stones and were accented by charming, handcrafted furniture. There was a window that peered out into a garden, but my mind would not allow me to focus on anything beyond the garden.
    The little boy was darling, his cheeks chubby and round and his little fingers were so delicate. The backs of his hands had little round dimples for knuckles. I had an unbelievable urge to scoop him up, hold him to me tight and kiss his little, creased forehead. I looked back at Maya, not understanding what she was saying or what she meant. I could tell that she was dying, and I gathered that she was the only person the little boy had left. Maya gestured to a clock. It showed the year, month, day, hour, minute and second. It was off by an hour. I looked back at her puzzled.
    “I’m sorry,” I said,