FATE REDEMPTION

CHAPTER 1

Thunder roared like lions in the tar-black sky covered with heavy clouds. Rain started pouring first as drizzling and then turned into heavy rain, tapping against the windows and roofs. The leaves swayed gently with the cold wind, and the sound echoed through the street. People opened their umbrellas and started going inside. As the rain increased, the city wrapped itself in an eerie silence disturbed only by the occasional distant thunder. Street lights flickered weakly, dimmed by the raindrops; the city's lights on the wet road were projected as a sea of light.

Lucy ran out of the palace door without an umbrella while crying. Her tears mingled with rain could hardly be detected. She was soaked through; her clothes clung to her like a second skin. Lucy ran towards the streets and downtown, splashing the water; the streets were empty, and usually bustling lanes were muffled by the pitter-patter of rain. Blake followed her, running to reach her. Lucy was just mindlessly running and running; Blake grasped her hand, forcing her to stop; she stopped and turned to face him.

"Where are you going?" shouted Blake due to thunder. Lucy stared at him with her clenched fists at her side, amazed at his audacity and thinking about everything that had happened, and he was asking her this?

Blake held Lucy's shoulders, and they looked at each other, holding stares.

"I… I am sorry, Lucy, it was a mistake. We can go back to just being friends. You don't have to go," said Blake, cupping his face with both hands, his spectacles blurry and wet.

"I love you, Blake, and you want us to be friends? And on top of that, you think what we just had was a mistake?! Do you think it's so easy to just go back to being friends? What happens between us means anything to you? Thought Lucy.

Lucy's hand reached up, and she removed Blake's hand. Lightning struck through the dark sky, illuminating their faces for a fraction of a second. Shaking her head, she removed Blake's hand from her face and got rid of his grip. Then, without saying a word, even though she had several confessions to make, she walked away from the palace, a place she once called home, and from him, a person she once thought was hers, and decided never to return there. The thunder's rumbling muted her cry; she walked far away, leaving Blake standing there. At that moment, she wished Blake to stop her, say that he would be with her forever, and assure her, just like he did when her father died. Alas! He didn't.

Blake just stood there, watching her go away, and at that moment, he felt as if a part of his soul had been torn away like a piece of his heart had been ripped off.

The rain intensified, and she fell onto her knees, clenching her fists and crying, questioning the universe why. Why always here? Was it not enough that she was already an orphan? That the only person she loved got stolen too? The thunder's rumbling at a distance muted her cry. As she sat, looking up at the sky and complaining, Lucy got up and glanced back at the palace from a distance. Then, she just walked and walked, going nowhere.

The rain stopped after a while, and Lucy kept walking, wandering like a lost soul. She had nowhere to go, and at that moment, she hated her introverted personality and the fact that she only had Blake as her friend; she wished she had some friends so she'd have someplace to go, at least. She wiped her tears and decided to forget about everything and be emotionless; she told herself she was stronger than this, that she had been through this before, and that losing a loved one was not new for her. A tear escaped her eye; she wiped it with the pad of her thumb and refused to let emotions consume her.

"We will be best friends forever," Blake had said to her once when they were twelve.

"But what about when you get married?" She asked.

"If getting married means leaving you, then I will never marry."

"Yeah that's okay, but who is gonna marry you anyway, lazy bones?" joked Lucy.

"Ah, after all, I have you as a backup."

Lucy raised her eyebrows with a mischievous grin and threw a pillow at him. Blake pushed Lucy down on the bed and tickled her. Both of them giggled and laughed.

The sound of that giggling and laughing echoed in her ears as she reminisced about the memory, that innocent and cute face, but those elderly words had always fascinated her. It was one of her core memories of hers; as she reminisced about it, the whole memory flashed through her eyes.

The rain had stopped, the cold breeze dried her clothes, and she felt a shiver down her spine; the hair on her arms rose as the chilly wind collided with her body. Tired of walking, she sat at the bus stop; as she rested her head on the glass of the bus stop, she closed her eyes.

"What am I gonna do now?" She thought.