Scarlet's Daughter

Chapter 12: The Chosen Mate

    Zora's apartment was immaculate! It was a decently massive, the joined living room and kitchen helped the room look more open. The walls were decorated with pictures, paintings, and some craft objects. Zora noticed me looking, "the pictures are of friends and family. The paintings and crafts are either gifts or I made them myself." zora says proudly with a large smile on her face. The wall paper was white and had detailed gold trim on the bottom and top. The flooring looked like tiled white marble. "Not to sound mean, but you don't seem like the kind of girl to have such an expensive apartment. Not that I don't think you could own it, but I mean is that this place doesn't exactly fit you. You seem more punk rockish, not this." I say jestering to the gold trim white wall paper and door. "You're right, but this is your first time here. So, I wanted to impress you." Zora says shrugging her shoulders and snapped her fingers. 

    In a blink of an eye everything changed and it seems like I'm standing in a totally different apartment. The wallpaper is black, making the pictures, paintings, and crafts stand out more. The flooring is now checkered white and black, but stops three feet from the red couch that signifies the living room. As I made my way to the living room I noticed that was a mini bar area with a huge, full liquor cabinet behind it. The living room area was different, the two walls were made out of red brick and had black hardwood flooring. A large tv hung on the wall right in front of the couch with a large cabinet full of games underneath it with an Xbox one and a PlayStation 4 on top. Off to the right side of the Tv was letters that spelt PUNX and the left side was RAD with a backwards R. Under the RAD sign was a door, a few feet away from the door was a a pool table, and against the wall was a huge bookshelf full of movies. Under the PUNX sign was a library area, tall, white bookshelves that stretches almost all the way to the kitchen. A red beanbag chair and a small white table stand occupy the corner of the area where one shelf meets the other. Zora's kitchen was like any you'd see in a newly refurbished kitchen with a long, black, island. The kitchen cabinets were an odd assortment of black, red, and white. 

Zora leans against the kitchen island with a huge smile on her face, "what do you think?" she asks. "Now, is what I imagined your apartment would look like. Definitely fits you more." I tell her giving her a smile of my own. "It gets better," Zora walks over to me taking my hand "let me show you the rest of the place!" walking straight ahead towards the main doors Zora stops in front of a regular white door. "This is one of the bathrooms attached to the kitchen and living area." Zora pulls me into the bathroom and through another door, " and THIS is my indoor pool, hot tube, and zen garden!" Zora says letting go of my hand allowing me to explore. This whole area is basically a patio that's screened and fenced in, outside. The hot tube was the first and next to it was the large inground pool. Walking further down Zora says "There are two other doors that lead out here. There is this door, which is off the kitchen before the bathroom we just came from. The other is attached to the hallway, down there." As we continued down I noticed a shower area that's outside close to the pool, "What's the shower doing out here?" I ask. "Some people like to rinse their body in cold water before jumping into pools. It helps them to adjust to the temperature of the pool." Zora says shrugging her shoulders, taking my hand once again as we made our way down to the other door. "I'm still working on the garden, hoping to finish it up before you get back. So I'll show you your bedroom!" Zora says smiling widely, getting slightly excited. 

    "It's the first door to your left." Zora says shoving me forward. "Okay?" I say and slowly turn the knob and push the door open. My new bedroom was MASSIVE, bigger than my old one and could probably fit the living room in here! "You're joking?!?! This can't be mine!!" I say to her as I'm checking out the room. There was a fancy bed that has a Tv, console are, and storage for video games and books. To the right side of the room was a set of french doors and a full glass door. Zora laughs at my excitement, "nope. THIS is your room." I look at her in astonishment, "THANK YOU!!" I tell her running up to her to give her a bear hug. "Can't. Breathe." Zora struggles to say, causing me to let go. Still, unable to wipe the smile off my face I run to the french doors. I inhaled deeply and pulled the doors open revealing a deep walk-in closet. "Oh. My. Gosh." I whispered to myself and slowly walked into the closet that contained punk outfits and flannels on one side; sophisticated and girly on the other. "What? Did I guess wrong? Not your style??" Zora says jogging to with an apologetic expression on her face. "No, no, no! You...umm... guessed right! It's my hidden secret, I love this style of clothing!! It's perfect." my mom would love to see this! mom... I turned slowly around to face Zora. I was trying to ask her if she'd gotten anything from Orwin about the funeral, but no words came out. Instead I started sobbing and tears began to run down my face.

    "Hey, it's okay. I'm sure she's watching you right now, or dancing with our beautiful moon goddess." Zora says softly wrapping her arms around me, allowing me to cry on her shoulder. A few minutes had passed and my tears had finally stopped and was able to catch my breath. Zora was in the corner of the bedroom closest to the bedroom door trying to reach Orwin. "Orwin? Finally!! This is like my third attempt. You never said how soon the funeral was? Everything ready? ahuh. okay. We are on our way." Zora hung up the phone, walking towards me. "She's ready. Are you?" Zora asks draping one arm around my shoulder. "I'm gonna have to be." I say letting out a heavy sigh, while clutching my locket. 

    It took fifteen minutes to walk to the cemetery, there my mother laid in a beautiful sleek black coffin in her favorite dress. Her head was no longer at an odd angle and skin was no longer covered in scars. Although, she was paler than before she still looked beautiful and young. Orwin stood to the left of me and Zora to my right. I had to convince Zora to stay, she really wanted to finish the garden for me. So she says, but she went into that mood again. I wonder what happened to her roommate. The pasture from the church moon goddess, was saying kind things from the goddesses book regarding the afterlife. Orwin said a few lovely words to her, that brought everyone to tears. By the time the funeral was over everyone had bloodshot eyes and sniffling. It wasn't till I heard sniffling in front of us somewhere behind the pasture did I realized there was more than just the four of us attending the funeral. "Oh, Barin. I wasn't aware that you were here. You are welcome to come over." the pasture says to Barin, who awkwardly runs his fingers through his hair and slowly makes his way to us. Zora, Orwin, and the pasture excused themselves as Barin made his way to the gravesite. 

    "Hey." Barin says giving me a hug, causing my body to heat up and tingle at his touch. "Hi, you've got some explaining to do." I say to him pushing out of the hug, causing him to sigh heavily. "Zora told me about isabella, and I saw you two together. I know why you agreed to having a chosen mate, so I won't be too hurt when you decide to reject me." I gave him a few minutes to respond, but he didn't until I tried to walk away. Barin grabs my arm preventing me from leaving, "wait. I'm not going to reject you, but I'm also not gonna turn down Isabella." Barin says grabbing my shoulders. "You can't have us both, and frankly I won't share." I say forcing his hands off me. "Too bad, you're MINE. I won't allow you to go off with another!" Barin yelled at me his eyes turning from light brown to angry golden eyes. "Fine. If you are gonna be like then I'm gonna force you to reject one of us." I yelled back at him and removing myself from his grasp. I turned toward the pack apartments and started speed walking. "Annie?!" I heard someone yell in a female voice. Thinking it was Zora, I turned around quickly and began walking in the direction I heard the voice. Only to see it was Isabella jogging towards me, her long white hair giving her body a holy glow. Great, I thought to myself. 

    Isabella closed the distance between us, by full on sprinting to me and throwing her arms around me giving me a hug. "I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't even imagine!" Isabella says letting go of me. Isabella was wearing a silky white dress that compliments her figure. Although, she looked beautiful she had to have been in her thirties. "Thank you. It's difficult to go through this alone. I'd thought I would have my mate by my side, but it seems like I'm doomed to live the hot and cold life. I don't want that life. So, tomorrow I'm planning on leaving." realizing what I just told her I quickly added, "I'm sorry. I didn't... I mean that, I know why you guys agreed and I don't want to ruin things." putting my hands up showing I meant no harm. "No guy is worth fighting over. To be completely honest, I would have rather waited to meet my actual mate. It's not fair to you or my mate.. whomever he might be. But understand that if you do decide to get in between Barin and I, I will have to intervene." Isabella says understandingly and adds, "well. I've got to go. I want to end things on a good note. It might seem impossible but I would love for us to be friends." Isabella gives me a quick hug, and begins walking away saying "goodbye".