Love Is Never Ugly

Chapter 56

Charlotte was alone. Alone in some place that was cold, dark, and empty. Seemingly abandoned. She shuddered at the chill the went up her spine. Where was she?  Why was she here? She didn't like this place. Not at all. Something about made her feel as though she were standing in some abyss of gloom and despair.

 From far off she heard a pitiful groaning and she followed it through a moon lit maze. When she reached the center, there stood the handsome young man. Just like when she first dreamed of him, he looked very sad but this time he appeared more sad than ever. He had tears in his eyes and he was quietly  weeping . She approached him with caution and tenderly placed her hand on his shoulder.

"No please." She said. "Please do not cry. I cannot bear to see anyone cry."

He looked at her with eyes full of longing and for the first time ever, he did something she completely did not expect. He spoke.

"I cannot help but cry." He said.

His voice was just as beautiful as his face. Beautiful yet familiar. She knew she had heard that voice before but at the moment she could not place who she recognized it from.

"You can speak." She said. "I...I assumed you were mute."

"I assumed that I was mute in this world as well. But recently I find myself becoming more and more like who I really am here."

"What are you talking about? And why are you crying?"

"I am crying because you have left me and I miss you."

He sounded so weak. He looked weak too. His tan skin had become so much paler, his movements frail, and his brown eyes foggy. His wonderfully gentle brown eyes, that looked so much like...

"What's wrong with you?" She asked worried by how unwell he seemed. "Are you ill?"

"Yes I am ill. I am ill because my heart is breaking. It has been ever since you left my castle. I'm afraid that you will forget me and never come back."

"That could never happen. Never!"

"Never say never. I know that it is inevitable for you to discard me as a faded memory and to love another. I shall gladly accept your choices but I cannot see any reason to keep on living."

"Don't say that!"

Charlotte desperately clung to the poor fellow and buried her face into his chest. She could now feel her own tears falling.

"My darling." She heard him say while feeling his hands gently comb through her hair. "You mustn't feel guilty. It isn't your fault. I told you that you could leave."

"But you didn't want me to leave!" She sobbed. "Why didn't you tell me that you would feel so much pain once I was gone? If I had known that then I never would have left!"

"That was the point. I didn't want you to stay out of compassion and sympathy for me. I knew how much you wanted to see your father again. It would have been cruel of me to guilt you into staying. So I lied to you about how I really felt and I with held what my true desire for you was."

"I don't understand. What do you mean your true desire for me?"

"I was going to ask you to marry me." She felt his arms embrace her. "I wanted you to be wife. There was truly nothing in all the world that I wanted more, but I soon realized what a fool I was to even consider having a life with you."

"No Alastor!" She protested. "You are not a fool! If only you had told me all this then I would have gladly agreed to-"

She looked from the gentleman's chest and saw that she was now in the arms of her dear beast. She didn't realize it until now, but Alastor and the man from her dreams shared the same voice. Shared the same eyes. Shared the same touch. And shared the same weak state.