Happily Ever After.....Maybe

Chapter Six

    I stepped back my heart pounding in my chest. Could it be him? I had hoped he would be here, but I wasn't sure if he would be, "Hayden?" I whispered holding my breath.
     My mother smiled, "I believe that was his name, he arrived about a week and a half ago. He was so young and handsome of course it made us curious about his death, so we had to find out his story and he talked of this beautiful princess he fell in love with. When he described her I knew he was talking about you."
      Tears slide down my face and I crumpled to the ground, "I..... I miss him so much." I sobbed.
        "And you can see him again!" My mother said eagerly, "I saw him this morning on my walk to this dead garden. He was outside the pub if you go back to the path and keep walking left you should get there."
       I wiped my eyes on my sleeve, and stood up, "What about you?" I asked my mother.
        She shook her head softly, "You don't need me anymore." Around my mother her blue glow slowly starting turning yellow and getting brighter and brighter till it lit up the whole garden of dead plants. She lifted her head to the sky above us. A greater force lifted her off the ground and she slowly rose towards the sky.
        I gasped in shock at what I was seeing, "Wait! Mother where are you going?" I shielded my eyes with my hand as I gazed up at my mother.
      She smiled down at me her face glowed like an angel. "To a better place"
       "Mother don't leave me!" I jumped reaching out to grab her foot anything to keep her from flying away from me. My hand sank right through her foot. Why did the dead have to be transparent around here!
     "Goodbye my darling! My business is done here, now go to him!"
      My hand shielded my eyes as I gazed up watching my mother till she disappeared from view. Tears of joy escaped my eyes, I'll miss my mother. Even if I wasn't her biological daughter. She was always my mother to me, I wish I had more time to be with her. But knowing she was in a better place and not rotting away in this awful dead enchanted forest gave me a small feeling of peace and hope. Wiping tears from my eyes I turned and made my way back to the path.
      Reaching the path I froze and looked towards the right and then the left. Mother had said if I go left I would find the pub where Hayden was. Did I want to see him? Could I even see him again and be able to leave him when the time came? Or would I just be digging myself into a deeper hole of heart ache and despair?
      Not sure what my mind was thinking, I let my feet and my heart guide me. Which I probably would regret the heart ache later; I just had to see him......
       I stopped when ahead of me on the path stood a pub or what was left of it. The red brick shingles were falling off the roof and laid in heaps on the ground. The walls were made of concrete and not very well kept. Dead Ivy and moss plants clung to the outside of the pub. The windows were cracked and broken. The door to the pub was completely rotten away. There was no laughter or jolly music coming from the pub, and it stunk bad outside like rotten eggs mixed with rum. I wrinkled my nose in disgust. My gaze soften when I saw him. He was sitting outside the pub on a wooden bench with the support on one side of the bench laying on the ground the bench tilted awkwardly.
      Tears came to my eyes he looked just as I remembered him the day he died. His black leather pants with the black cotton shirt and black leather jacket and boots. Hayden's black hair that curled around his ears looked a tad curlier than usual; but he looked just as handsome as ever. He hadn't seen me yet, for his head was bent looking at the ground. A stick crunched under my boots and I froze as he raised his head and his dark brown sullen eyes looked directly into my blue ones.
      Hayden's dark eyes lit up as he recognized me, "Amaya!" He jumped off the bench nearly break the last support the bench had, he darted to me running as fast as he could.
      A sob caught in my throat and I couldn't bring myself to say anything. I stood where I was watching him run to me; knowing that in seconds of reaching me his body would go right through me. Sure enough as he tried to wrap me in a hug he went right through me. Calmly I turned around to face him.
      His face held a look of confusion as first then it dawned on him that we couldn't touch. That he could never know what it's like to hold me in his arms again or touch my lips with his. "Argh!" Hayden yelled slamming his fist into a dead tree which didn't do anything because his fist just went right through it too.
      "How does it feel to be dead? A lot better than being alive."
      Hayden turned to me his anger fading, but a look of hurt pierced his dark eyes as he gazed at me, "That's not fair."
        "No, I'll tell you what's not fair." I said stepping closer to him so that I was inches from him, "What's not fair is you dying, you leaving me alone to face this awful world alone. You knew the cost Hadyen! You knew what saying 'I love you' to someone would do! And you did it anyway!!" Tears brimmed my eyes as I gazed up into his handsome face, "I had to watch you die right in front of me, do you have any idea how painful that was?"
        "I do, I see the look of pain in your eyes, it's the same pain I held when I woke up and found that I had killed my brother." Hayden paused, "Please Amaya, I don't want you to feel betrayed by what I did. I didn't want to go a single day without telling you that I love you, and now I can tell you it freely whenever I want." Hayden smiled his dimples showing, "I love you Amaya, I love you so much!" He went to grab my hands but his fingers passed right through me, "No curse is holding me back from telling you how much I love you, I just wish I could hold you again. Feel your body against mine like in the Enchanted Forest of Love."
      I laughed with joy he loved me, tears fell down my face. I leaned my head down and let it hover slightly above his shoulder standing as close as I could by him without us passing through each other. "I miss you so much!" I sobbed. "I don't understand why you had to go, I need you Hayden. I need you for my life to make sense, I don't know where to go."
      "Hey." He murmured, "It's going to be alright, I love you." He smiled joy filling his heart it felt so good to be able to finally tell her that!
      I stepped back to look at him, for being dead he was so hot and sexy! "You don't get it we can't be together! We can never break our curses together, marry, have children, or grow old together." My lips trembled.
       Hayden's eyes glimmered, "You wanted to grow old with me?"
       I threw my hands up in the air with a roll of my eyes a said, "Of course I did you goof! Hayden, I wanted everything with you. I love you."
       He ducked his head shyly, "It's funny, after Henry died and then with Killia left me I didn't think anyone would want to be with a murderer. Then I met you." He smiled at me and I felt those same butterflies stirring in my body again.
        I tucked my hair behind my ear, "Hayden, there's something you should know..... The Great Wizard, he.... He planned us falling in love. The whole thing. He had you kidnap me and drag me to his house, then sent us on that adventure to get the necklace because he knew your heart wouldn't be able to resist me, it wasn't about getting the necklace, he just wanted us to fall in love and for you to die. He planned it all."
        Hayden shook his head, "The Great Wizard always up to his tricks." He frowned looking at me cautiously, "Amaya, how did you find me? How did you know I would be here?"
        "In one of my dreams about you, you showed me a map with The Enchanted Forest of Dead on it. I didn't know if you would be here or not, I just hoped you would be." I smiled then it dawned on me Hayden's little brother Henry was dead, it he be here to? "Hayden, is Henry here?"
        Hayden shook his head sadly, "No, I looked for him as soon as I came, but I haven't found him and nobody else has ever seen him here."
        "Oh Hayden, I'm so sorry."
        "I just wish I could have apologized to him."
         A deep voice behind us spoke up suddenly surprising us, "You don't have to, it wasn't your fault."
         I stared at man in his forties with short gray hair, and a peppered beard. His face had wrinkles and scares from hard work. He wore boots, brown leather pants, and a white cotton shirt. I have never seen him before in my life, but judging by the pale look on Hayden's face he had. "Hayden..... Who is this?"
       Hayden took a shaking deep breath and looked down at me and then back up at the man, "He's my father."