Words of Fate

Arabella's POV  I feel light fluffy sand slide through my fingers, I look down to my hand and watch as the microscopic grains of sand fall back into a small pile I've created. I don't know where I am, yet, I feel at peace and distantly remember being here before. I lean back and fold my arms behind my head staring up at the night sky. I hear the soft waves of the ocean flowing across the beach. I find myself looking for constellations, immediately I spot the Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. I close my eyes, take a breath in and smell the salt of the ocean. I hear movement to my left and I turn my head quickly. I watch as a blurred figure begins to approach me. Normally, I'd freak out and leave, who wouldn't it's in the middle of the night and you see a dark figure quickly walking up to you. But peacefulness washed over me, I was calm and the world around us had a soft glow. The figure laid down next to me on the beach. It was still blurred but I could tell it was a girl as her dark brown hair flew off her shoulders and on top of the sand.  "This world is not the way it should be. People no longer have to worry about the person they’re meant to love but some are now forced to live their lives forever alone or together in constant fear of the death penalty. Love is in any form, the body and gender are not what decides love, it is only the soul that has such a power." "Why are you telling me this?" I ask.  "You have a difficult life ahead of you child, you will face many hardships but I promise you that you will make it through" "What about my Fated?" I finally realize that this isn't real. There's no way this is real, I don't know where I am so I must be dreaming. Why would I dream this though and why can't I see her face? "They will find you when the time is right and though you may not get along when you first meet you will soon learn how to love and care for each other. The power of your love will be stronger than all else."  "Who are you?" I ask wondering if my own mind can give me the answer I'm looking for.  "That is unimportant, you will never speak to me again after tonight though you may see familiar characteristics. I am simply here to help guide you along the path of your life. You are unique and you cannot let anyone take that from you."  "But-" She places her hand on my cheek instantly silencing me.  "It is time for me to leave but I want you to hang onto what I've told you and hold it close to you. Goodbye Arabella" Her voice fades into the wind and the world around me blurs.  My alarm blasts and I jolt awake. I take a few deep breaths and bring my hand to my cheek where I feel a faint tingle of the touch from the woman in my dream. I rub my eyes and allow myself calm down. I begin to think about what she was telling me, she was obviously talking about the penalty for same-s*x couples because they're all going against their fate and leaving their assigned soul mates for someone they cannot reproduce with.  Throughout the years, our government has changed. Now, we have so many laws with terrifying consequences, most people don’t mind and they just accept who they’re fated to and live their lives with their fated. When everyone turns 18 a set of words will come into your mind and that set of words will be spoken to you by the person you’re fated to. You never know who your fated will be, but it's always a man and women. There was a rebellion I was forced to learn about years ago that ended in a man named Alexander Heart taking place as director. He renamed the city to The Heart and cut off travel out of the city keeping our population in control.  Alexander Heart had spent years healing all of the confused people that believed they were fated to the same s*x. Some couldn’t be healed because they hadn’t gone to get healed willingly and as far as I know all of those people were sentenced with the death penalty. All of the classes I had to attend that explained the history of The Heart always made me uneasy. The only thing said about the people was that they were healed but no one was ever told how. I don’t know how much of it I believe but I’m only a small dot in this city, it’s not my job to be worrying about stuff like that.  Two years ago when I was eighteen my words of fate were unlocked in my mind. It was the weirdest thing, I was about to go to bed when the words seemed to seep out of my heart and rapidly climb into my brain. They were also boringly plain but it gave me hope that I’d find him quickly.  ‘Excuse me, Miss, you dropped this.’ Are my words of fate, anyone could say that to me, I have no clue who he could be. Here I am in my 20's and I still haven't found my fated, I’m definitely late on it. Most people find their fated between eighteen and nineteen.  I realize I’ve been laying down for longer than I should so I drag myself out of bed and force my legs to take me over to my closet. I pull out whatever is closest and walk to my washroom. I change out of my tank-top and shorts and into a pair of leggings and a random shirt. I turn my sink on and brush my teeth until I'm sure they're clean.  Now, to tackle my hair. Most mornings I don't bother doing much more than giving it a quick brush on the top layers and throwing it into a ponytail but today I feel like getting out of my apartment for a bit so I take my hair down and force my brush through every section of my hair until it's tangle-free.  When I walk back in my bedroom my phone rings loudly, I swipe right and pick it up without bothering to look at who’s calling. "Hey" I bring the phone to my ear groggily.  "Hey, Ari. What are you up too?" Luca’s voice is loud and he’s clearly hyper.  "I was about to go down to the cafe and then to the library, what about you?" Luca has been my closest friend for the majority of my life.  "Nothing. Want to meet up at the library? I'm bored."  "Sure, but I need to get a coffee first, do you want anything?" I ask.  "Nah, I just finished a coffee and if I have two I'll talk your ear off." "I could just buy a second coffee and drink it for you if you don't want it" I let out a laugh.  "You and coffee have a special relationship, don't you?" I chuckle lightly. "Yes, we do. Deal with it. Alright, I'm gonna head out now, I’ll get some coffee then meet you at the library. See you soon." I say to Luca. "See you soon." And with that, I hung up. I grab my purse and my keys from the hanger behind my door and walk outside locking the door behind me. I decide to leave my car here, it's not that long of a walk, plus I could use some exercise. The summer sun shines high above the sky as I listen to the small songbirds lightly sing their song. Soon enough, I reach the cafe. As I walk in, I notice it isn't as busy as it normally is. There is a couple sitting in the back corner talking and giggling. There is a girl who is reading and has a pile of books that lay unread in front of her. I walk up to the girl at the counter. "Good morning, may I take your order?" The girl says kindly. "I'll take a cappuccino please," I say politely. After I pay, one of the girl's co-workers brings out my cappuccino. I smile kindly and walk out of the cafe. As I begin to walk towards the library, I'm stopped by an unfamiliar voice. "Excuse me, Miss, you dropped this." A girl rushes towards me, her wavy dark brown hair flowing behind her, her dark brown eyes have a sort of twinkle in them. It takes my brain a second to register the words she had just spoken to me. I panic but force myself to speak.  "Thank you, I'm such a clutz." At that point her eyes widen, this isn't possible. "We can't be seen, but we need to talk." The strange girl begins to walk away from me, I don't follow her, soon enough she realizes that, as she turns around she looks me dead in the eye. Her dark brown eyes twinkle in the summer sun, she's beautiful, I can't be thinking this. It's against everything I’ve known, everything I’ve believed in. If someone finds out we’ll die.  "Are you coming?" Her soft voice speaks clearly, I nod my head and begin to follow her. She brings me to a dark alley, not many people saw us even then they would think we're just friends and were walking home. "What are your Words of Fate?" She asks quickly. "Exactly what you said. What are yours?" I ask nervously. "Thank you, I'm such a clutz. Look, I don't know you, but I'm gonna assume this is just a fluke in the system. We shouldn't be together, let's just go on with our lives. Don't tell anyone about this either." The girl’s voice is stern and serious.  "I agree, but wait, what's your name?" I ask. "Vivian. Yours?" "Arabella." As soon as I tell her my name she gives a nod with and walks away briskly. I stand there for a moment or two, just thinking. I leave the alley with my thoughts clouded, I haven’t even heard of this happening in years. The last time I even heard mention of Fated’s who mistaked each other as their true loves was when I was a child. I start to wander around the city aimlessly to clear my mind but it doesn’t seem to work at all. My phone goes off in my pocket and I see a text notification from Luca. ‘Bish, did you ditch me?’ I type my reply quickly stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.  ‘I'm so sorry, Luca, work called and asked me to come in. I totally forgot to text you, I'm so sorry.’ ‘Don't worry about it. I just wanted to make sure you're safe.’ I hate lying to him but I couldn’t possibly tell him what was really going on.  ‘Yeah, I'm fine. I just reached the door, can I get a rain check on the library?’ ‘Of course. Just stay safe, anything interesting happen at work today?’ I let a smile come to my face, even though Luca is being caring he still needs to know if there was any drama.  ‘Nope, I had to go in because Evie got sick and couldn't come in.’ ‘Aren't you a good employee.’ I begin walking again and I swear I could hear the tone of his voice through the text.  ‘Yep!’ I shut my phone off knowing Luca won't text back and decide to just walk home and take the rest of the day to just think and try to relax. I feel bad for lying to Luca but I have to be alone for awhile, if I had gone to the library he would have been able to tell I was hiding something within a second. I get into my house and jump on my couch laying down and staring at the ceiling to let my mind wander, my thoughts regardless of how I try to direct them always came back to Vivian. I can’t stop myself from thinking how beautiful she is and how her words drew me in. I couldn't force myself to stop thinking about her, it’s impossible to get her off my mind. Suddenly, a small sharp pain erupted in the side of my chest where my heart is. I wasn't sure why this pain was happening, but I didn't like it. When I bring my hand over it seems to die down a bit but I force myself to get up and get a few pain pills to make the pain go away. It’s probably just because of how I was laying on the couch.  While I was waiting for the pain meds to kick in I had a long debate about how or if I should tell Luca but every time I had come to the conclusion that it’s just too dangerous to tell anyone else no matter how much I trust him. Throughout the rest of the night, I couldn't stop thinking about Vivian, this shouldn't be happening. I lay in my bed for the majority of the night just thinking about her. I need to get rid of my thoughts about her, it was just a fluke in the system, it could never happen. It won't ever happen.  *** It's been two days since I met Vivian. I haven't seen her since not that I really expected I’d see her. I’m starting to get worried because the pain in my chest has grown and the pain has become more intense making me take a few pain meds every hour to try to make it feel better with little success. I have a feeling the pain is connected to Vivian, it must be some sort of punishment for being fated to someone I’m not supposed to even think about a relationship with. I've tried to get my mind off of her, scared that maybe all of my thoughts about her are adding to the pain but it doesn’t work. My brain is consumed by her voice, the way her chocolate brown eyes twinkle in the sunlight and her beautiful hair. Everything about her seems endlessly amazing.  I step onto the bus and walk over to an open seat. The rest of the bus is filled except for one seat next to mine. I pull out a book from my bag, it’s a hardcover and very old, the name was faded from the spine so I thought I would just give it a chance and see what the book is like without knowing the name. I was in the basement at my parent's house and I found this book. It's not too big, and it seems interesting even though I’m under halfway finished. I started reading and about halfway through the book, the bus comes to a halt at the bus stop.  No one moves to get off but one familiar brown haired girl boards the bus. The one who gets on is the one who all my thoughts go back to. Vivian. She looks around the bus looking for an empty seat. The closest empty seat is next to mine. She walks cautiously over to me, and I noticed something strange, the pain in my chest quickly fades as soon as she sits downs.  "Arabella," Vivian says to me, as she sits down next to me. "I...I can't stop thinking about you." I admitted to her. "I can't either. This is going to sound stupid, but I've had a pain in my chest and it's gone now, now that we're together the pain is gone." "It's not stupid, I have the exact same pain, and it's gone now that we're together," I say anxiously. "What are we going to do? I read that anyone who finds their true fated will have their souls merged as one the first time they encounter each other and will feel the strong pull of the other half of their soul. I’ve read that if they’re separated long enough it can lead to death." Vivian's voice seems thick like she didn't want to think about even trying to stay away from each other. I'll be honest, every time I think about staying away from her my sadness becomes physical, spreading all over.  "I don't know. Look, I have no idea how this whole Fated thing works in a situation like this. But I think we should continue to try to avoid each other." I swear I see Vivian flinch."If anyone found out about us, we would be killed. The government doesn't allow the same s*x to be together."  I point out in a hushed voice because the bus is packed.  "I know. But within the two days, we've been away from each other, the pain has been getting more intense. What if it keeps getting worse and worse until-" Vivian swallows hard not wanting to end the sentence.  "I know, but there is no way we can stay together. I won't let you get killed if the government finds out, we'd be dead, and I'm not going to let that happen to you okay, Vivian? Even if it means we both have to deal with some pain to live." I say to her. "I understand. I don't want you to get killed either, I suppose this is the best option." Her voice is laced with sadness. After a few moments of silence, Vivian speaks up. "What are you reading?" Her voice still has a tone of despair.  "If I’m being honest I don’t even know the name of it”  I close the book over my thumb to show her the cover. "But it's really good." I add.  "So, do you like to read?" Vivian asks. "I love it, my apartment is filled with books. What about you? I noticed you had a stack of books in the cafe" "I read a lot, but apparently, I’m not as dedicated as you are if you're willing to read on a bus." She says with a soft chuckle. Damn, she's cute. "My stop is coming up, I've got to go. Um, it was nice talking to you, Vivian." I say to her as I put my book back into my bag. "Have a good night, and call me Viv." "Well, in that case, call me Ari. Have a good night as well." I say to her, as I walk out of the bus and onto the street.  That night as I try to fall asleep, all my thoughts kept going back to her. The pain in my chest has grown since I last saw her, and it is definitely more intense every time we walk away from each other. How could I possibly forget her when I can't even get her off my mind for a minute?