A legend begins ...

[Angelica]

Here is something I wrote a while back.  I had to really look to find something that would pass as a PG13 category.  Hope you enjoy.

~~~~***~~~~

She had no idea how long she had lain there. Every inch of her body felt as if it was doused in acid and burning as pain racked her small frame. Thankfully, the incontrollable shivers had stopped a while back … every move had sent a fresh pang of pain jolting through her nervous system. She closed her eyes, her thoughts slowly retreating to the back of her mind … slower and slower.

Voices filled the space around her as light suddenly flooded the small space she was cramped into. She instinctively huddled into a tighter ball, too scared of what the light heralded. She felt a pair of strong hands tighten around her wrists as they pulled her out of there. An anguished cry of pain escaped her lips, her body shuddering at the intensity of it.

“Good lord, Sire,” a horrified voice said next to her. She heard a scurry of feet on the floor as she was lifted into the air, a pained gasp escaping her lips. She felt something warm wrap around her … wrenching another cry of pain from her tortured mind. She wrapped her fingers around something and held on for all she was worth as she tried to pry her eyes open. A face … she had not seen before looked down at her in a mixture of horror and worry.

“She is very weak, Sire,” the voice spoke up again from the other side.
“I can see that,” his deep baritone voice snapped irritably.

They were moving. She whimpered against him as every stride hurt. She closed her eyes against the blistering sun … it had been weeks … months since she had last seen it. The fresh air was almost suffocating as her laboured breathing hissed past her dry lips. They finally came to a standstill as he took a seat cradling her to his chest.

“What is your name?” He whispered softly against her ear, small tendrils of dark raven hair wilting from his cape in which he had wrapped her.

“Guinevere,” she said in a breathless voice, before darkness wrapped its dark clutches around her … her entire life hanging in the weigh of this man’s arms. Arthur stared back at the priest with murder in his eyes.

[Angelica]

Another one.  This one is titled:  Dying Young

~~~~***~~~~

They roll her out of the operating theatre, she looks pale ... her features haggard and tired. For a moment I stand and bite down on my bottom lip, giving in to the tears I have been fighting for so long. She’s asleep ... she won’t see.

I sit down next to her, letting my fingers slowly run through her long dark hair as I wait for her to open her eyes. She is lying on her stomach, the blood soaked gauze on her back testament to the attempts at stopping the disease that has been slowly ravaging her body. I know how very brave she has been, how hard she has tried to put on a smiling face for the sake of all of us ... I know my sister very well.

Two hours later her beautiful hazel eyes finally flutter open, she groans as her features contort in pain ... that look that has marred her expression for the past seven years. I give her a warm smile as I run my fingers along her cheek.

“Hey Beautiful,” I say softly. “Welcome back,” I add and my heart wants to break. Is it wrong to want her not to come back? I don’t know why she is holding on so tightly to the life that is but a mere flicker in her veins. She has just turned 30, her whole life still ahead of her ... being a hopeless romantic she is no doubt still waiting for her knight in shining armour to come and rescue her, to move into the house she has been dreaming about her whole life, to have a whole rugby team of kids to run around her and play ... I plaster on a happy smile, my eyes overly bright.

Life is never fair ... life is a fragile and fleeting thing that is here the one day and gone the next. I owe her so much ... she has showed me how precious every moment is and how important it is to live your life to the fullest ... despite what life might throw at you.

It is absolute torture watching someone you love slowly die in front of your eyes ... it hurts so much.

“Hey,” she groans. “You and Mark are still coming to visit on Sunday, right?” She says, looking at me with those eyes that say if you don’t come I’ll deck you! ...and I’ll probably let her as well.

I can’t help but laugh.

“Yes,” I say as I put my head against hers looking into her smiling eyes.

“I love you,” I softly whisper in her ear, not knowing if it will be the last time I get the opportunity to say those three words to her ...