The Pain in My Heart [Completed]

Chapter Twenty-Six ~Zaria

"I must say, this is the most delicious breakfast I've had in a while," I tell the man who checked us into the inn.

The night had been wonderful. Perhaps it was the pure exhaustion from our travels, but it was the first night I had not woken up startled. I can feel the energy of the extra rest pumping through my veins. Oh, how I've missed feeling alive.

I had snuck out of the room as softly so as I could as to not wake Lucy. When I had first awoken, she caught my eye immediately. Her face had looked absolutely at peace, no muscles strained or taut. Her shining curls lay strewn across her pillows like seaweed. I had done everything in my power to sneak across to the other side of the room, open up the creaky door and slip out without waking her up.

She deserves her sleep, and I'm relieved to see that she's resting. For the past few months, she has been my morning buddy every now and then. She'd find me in the Study before the sun had come up. For the first few nights she wouldn't say anything. We never talked. It just hurt too much. But then, one morning she came in and it was the first time I had laughed since that night.

***

I pour myself a cup of tea as I sit down at the Study. Watching the purple tea leaves lazily stain the water hypnotizes me.

I open up my book and read, my fingers tired of sewing from last night. Sinking into the cushions I breathe, but it doesn't come easily like someone has lodged a knife in my back. My breath hitches on every inhale.

Just get through the sentences, I tell myself. One word after another.

I can't even concentrate on anything I'm reading. I'm just scanning letters mixed together into words. There is no story, no fairytale in my mind, just a jumbled mess of words.

"You've been reading the same page for the past four nights."

I startle at the voice behind me, my heart jumpstarting in my chest.

"Lucy?" I say both as a question and out of relief.

"If it would help, I could read it to you. You can listen."

I have to look at the cover of the book to even know what I've been so callled reading. 'Beauty and the Beast.' How ironic.

"Just a fairytale," I tell her. "Aren't they all the same?"

"That depends," she says. Does this one have a happy ending?"

"Of course it does."

"What's the point?" she says throwing herself on a cushion next to me. "I'm so tired of everything being one-dimensional. You know? Black and white. Right and wrong. Is anything ever that easy?"

"That's the reason it's called a fairytale. It's the epidemy of everything we don't have." I sigh. "It's supposed to be easy. Villain defeated, the guy gets the girl, happily ever after."

"Yes," she breathes. "Except the story continues and you never hear what happens after the book is closed," she answers cupping the side of her face. "Nothing is permanent."

"Pain is permanent," I say, and I don't know where it comes from.

"You're wrong," she counters quickly. "Pain doesn't last forever." She shakes her head, looking down at her cupped hands.

"Ooh. Watch out, Lucy. You'll start sounding like you're part of a fairytale." I say trying to lighten the mood.

I lift the cup of tea to my lips. She tosses her hair dramatically. "I already am."