Bullied By My Fated Mate

CHAPTER 2

STRANGE WOMAN

I didn’t stop running until my lungs started burning. Cold air scraped against my throat as I stumbled down the empty sidewalk, tears blurring my vision so badly that the streetlights melted into streaks of gold and white.

The argument at home kept replaying inside my head like a cruel loop. You’re being selfish, Abigail. We have to think about the twins too. Be realistic for once.

I wiped angrily at my face, hating the tears that refused to stop falling. Maybe they were right, and maybe Crestfall was stupid. Maybe dreaming that someone like me could belong somewhere extraordinary was pathetic.

A bitter laugh escaped me. I should’ve known better by now. People like Emma and Ethan belonged in places like Crestfall. Beautiful people. Wanted, and chosen people. Not the extra daughter nobody fully claimed.

The streets were nearly empty this late at night. A few cars passed occasionally, headlights flashing over wet pavement from the evening rain. Somewhere in the distance, music drifted faintly from a party.

But around me, everything felt strangely quiet. Too quiet that it deafened me.

I slowed near a small convenience store, wrapping my arms around myself tightly. My phone buzzed inside my hoodie pocket. I stared at the screen for a second before declining Veronica's call. I couldn’t talk right now. If Veronica heard my voice, she’d know I’d been crying, and I was too exhausted to explain everything falling apart again.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket and kept walking aimlessly. That was when I noticed her-an old woman stood beneath a flickering streetlight across the road. I froze.

Something about her immediately felt wrong. It wasn't dangerous exactly, just unsettling.

She wore a thick long dark coat despite the warm night air, the fabric hanging strangely around her thin frame. Silver jewelry glittered softly around her wrists, catching the weak light every time she moved.

But it was her eyes that made my stomach tighten. They were fixed directly on me, like

she’d been waiting for me. I glanced behind myself instinctively, wondering if someone else was there, but there wasn't anyone.

The woman smiled faintly.

“You finally broke,” she said softly.

A chill crawled down my spine. I should’ve walked away. Every normal instinct in my body told me to keep moving, to avoid strange people standing alone under streetlights at midnight. But my feet stayed rooted to the pavement.

“I’m sorry?” I said cautiously.

The woman tilted her head slightly, studying me in a way that made me feel exposed.

“Years of silence,” she murmured. “Years of pretending their neglect does not wound you.”

My breath caught, and I took a small step backward. “How do you know me?”

“I know loneliness when I see it.”

Her voice wasn’t warm, and it wasn’t cruel either. It was calm and certain, like she was simply stating facts that had already been written somewhere long before tonight.

The flickering light above her buzzed softly.

“You dream of escape constantly,” she continued. “You write about powerful girls because you have never felt powerful yourself. You love a boy who does not truly see you and you ache to be chosen by someone for once in your life.”

My heartbeat slowed painfully because she was right, a that boy was Archibald.

I never mentioned Archibald to strangers.

Hell, I barely admitted my feelings to Veronica.

“You—”

“You wish to be loved,” the woman interrupted gently. “But more than that you wish to matter, even if it's just once."

The words hit so hard my chest physically tightened. For a second, I couldn’t speak

because that was it. That was the truth underneath everything. Not just Archibald or

Crestfall, I wanted someone to look at me and finally think she matters.

The woman reached into her coat pocket slowly. "You stand at the edge of your life tonight, Abigail Parker."

I went completely still. How can she know everything? Even my name.

Fear finally punched through my confusion. “How do you know who I am?”

Instead of answering, she pulled out two small glass bottles. One shimmered gold beneath the streetlight, the other glowed a strange deep crimson and my stomach twisted uneasily. The liquids inside looked almost alive.

“What is that", I asked, taking another step back.

“Opportunity,” she said simply.

I stared at her like she was insane.

The woman extended the bottles toward me.

“The first potion grants success. Doors that once refused to open will open willingly.”

I blinked. “And the second?”

A strange smile touched her lips. “The second, shimmering red grants love.”

I almost laughed, actually laughed.

Because this had to be some kind of joke.

“What?," I blanked.

“The person you desire most,” she said calmly, “will fall hopelessly in love with you if they are the first person to see you after you drink it.”

The night suddenly felt colder and I looked down at the bottles again uncertainly and confused. “This is crazy."

“Perhaps."

“You expect me to believe these are magic potions?”

“I expect nothing,” she replied. “Destiny unfolds whether you believe in it or not.”

The way she said it made my skin prickle.

I swallowed hard. “You’re insane.”

“Maybe.” Her silver bracelets clinked softly as she pressed the bottles into my hands anyway. “But you are running from a life that no longer fits you, child.”

I stared at the glass pressed against my palms. The liquids felt strangely warm, almost like it had a pulse.

“I don’t have money,” I admitted quietly.

The woman smiled again. “I am not asking for payment.”

“Then why are you giving these to me?”

For the first time, something unreadable flickered across her face. “Because the world has been asleep for a very long time,” she said softly. “And you are about to wake it.”

A sharp shiver ran down my spine.

I opened my mouth to ask what that meant but a loud horn suddenly blared nearby and a car sped past the intersection and I flinched instinctively. And when I looked back again the woman was gone, complete out of space.

My breath caught as the streetlight flickered weakly above an empty sidewalk. There were no footsteps, no movement-nothing

“What the hell…?” I spun around slowly, panic creeping into my chest.

There was nowhere she could’ve disappeared to that quickly. The road stretched empty in both directions. I stared down at the bottles still sitting in my trembling hands. Gold and crimson, it was warm and real.

A strange unease settled heavily in my stomach. This had to be some elaborate prank, it had to be.

But as I stood alone beneath the flickering streetlight, one final sentence echoed hauntingly inside my mind.

"The first person to see you after drinking it will never escape you again."