Make Believe

Chapter One- Forget Me Not

There wasn't much I believed in. His blue eyes burning with a determination I had never seen before as one of his knees dropped down. A smile I had only seen once before, when I had accepting his offer of a date many months ago in the cafeteria of Cambridge University.

His mouth opened slightly, beautiful words pouring out of them. Beautiful words I had secretly wanted to hear for a long time.

"Sarah Williams, will you do me the honor of marrying me?" he asked, but my smile never formed, and no tear of joy fell from my eyes.

"No," I said, sadly, quietly, and I walked away. Yes, it was those words I had always wanted to hear, but it was also those words that I dreaded. Oh, I dreaded them more than anything else. Because those beautiful words were coming out of the wrong mouth, I just knew it. No, it was more than that, I felt it.

Yes, there wasn't much I believed in, but I always believed in myself.

It wasn't much later that I found myself on my bridge. My special place. I sighed, kicking off my black high heels and stretched against the ledge. My green dress tugged on my sides a bit, pulling me back into reality.

It didn't have to be this way; I knew it didn't. I was twenty-three, my twenty-fourth birthday happening the very next day, and I couldn't stand the idea of wasting my time with the wrong guy. I knew the right guy was out there. Someone who could challenge me and someone who would respect me in a way that these other guys couldn't. Yes, I knew he was out there… wasn't he? He had to be.

"Ugh, why am I so weird?" I asked myself, doubt creeping in. What if he really was the one and I was just being picky? Could you really be too picky about love?

If you knew the right guy, the perfect guy for you, was out there, wouldn't you do anything to find him? That's what I'm trying to do. Granted, it was a lonely journey, that's why I tried so hard to make it work with someone else, but anytime it got serious, I got scared. Scared I was wasting my time. Scared to be stuck in a situation with someone who wasn't the one. Honestly, I shouldn't even be worried about this. I should be determined to be single and enjoy life. But why does life feel so lonely? Why is there a gapping hole in my life that I keep trying to fill, but with something it doesn't need?

"Why are you so weird?" a voice said, coming from behind me. It was a deep voice, something that sent shivers down my spine and warning signs off in my mind. Putting on a brave face, I turned, but no one was there. "Why are you so weird?" The voice came from behind me once again. Confused, I turned once again, my bare feet rubbing against the concrete of the bridge, but no one was behind me. "Why are you so weird?" The voice seemed to be coming from every direction now, clouds covering the moon on a clear night and smoke filling the empty bridge. "Why are you so weird?" The voice turned evil and I felt something, everything at once. I felt the betrayal and anger that Kevin, the guy I denied only hours ago, felt. I saw the tears fall down an older woman's face as she said goodbye to the love of her life. I felt the joy of a woman marrying the love of her life and I felt the joy of children on Christmas. Then I felt the loss of those children when the war came and stole their dads, brothers, mothers and sisters from them. I saw parts of my own childhood that made no sense and, finally, I saw him. His blond hair whipped against his face as he spoke words that were so close to heart that I could taste the emotions they gave me.

'Who is this man?'

"What—" I asked, dizzy, but my throat suddenly tightened as the voice was ripped from it.

"What—" my voice said, but my mouth hadn't moved, and my vocal-cords never vibrated. It was a strange sensation, to hear your own voice, but separated from your body.

Then I saw it. That's all I could describe it as, an it. It seemed to have no feet, wispy black smoke glided from the base of his black robes, its face was melted, something from nightmares. An eye was seen by its mouth- at least it seemed like a mouth- and its nose was closer to its forehead. The one eyes that seemed to be in the right place glared at me. Its mouth opened slightly, but that was the only inclination that I had received that it was the one speaking to me.

"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah," the voice spoke. Its familiarity hurt my head and make my heart racing in a longing I had never felt before.

"What do you want?" I yelled, hoping my voice would show the bravery I definitely wasn't feeling in that moment, but my voice shook in rebellion.

"Everything I've done, I've done for you, Sarah," It seemed to be reading from a script, its words making no sense, and yet my mouth moved and spoke words that I had never heard before.

"I move the stars for no one." The wind hit my face as my eyes shut and my feet gave in to the ground. I never felt the pressure of the ground hit my face though. The next thing I felt was the comfort of my pillow and it all felt like a dream.

Why did everything always feel like a dream?

It felt like it was days later that I finally woke up. "Sarah?" My stepmother called from downstairs.

"Yeah?" I called back with a voice that sounded different. Everything felt so different now. I could still feel the way my throat tightened as my voice was ripped from my own body. "What a strange dream." I said, my fingertips touched my throat with care, as though it were damaged in some way.

"Could you come downstairs and help me with dinner?"

Sarah Williams was many things, but she was no cook. "Be right down!"

This was going to be fun.

Months later, I found that my feet had taken me back to my childhood park. I used to read here and reenact plays that my mother had done, but I could never remember the names for them. I heard a shift and glanced up at the tree branch to see a beautiful barn owl. This was no ordinary barn owl, though, because the precious bird seemed to look at me with such despair.

"Look at me. Almost graduating from a university, turned down a marriage proposal only months after my second relationship ever and now staring at birds like they have all of the answers. My poor brain is going. Such a pity." I sighed as I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. I blew the deadly smoke into my lungs, just to breath it out once more. It was a never-ending process and I prayed it would kill me one day. I heard a thunderous clap come from the sky and decided to find the gazebo to spend some more time in my favorite spot. "Come on, feet." I said as I walked towards the trash cans and used the ash tray on top to dispose of my cigarette.

It felt like I had walked for a lot longer than I actually had before I came to a halt. My gazebo. It was the part of this small town that made visiting home worth it. Well, besides seeing Toby and the rest of the family for winter's break. I would be turning twenty-four in three days. It would be an interesting time for me. I would be just one more semester away from graduation with my master's degree in psychology, a degree I worked my butt off for.

I should be happy with where I'm at, shouldn't I? Then why did I feel so empty? It felt—lonely.

"Ugh, why am I so weird?" I asked myself, doubt creeping in. What if he really was the one and I was just being picky? Could you really be too picky about love? But I was scared. Scared to be stuck in a situation with someone who wasn't the one. Honestly, I shouldn't even be worried about this. I should be determined to be single and enjoy life. But why does life feel so lonely? Why is there a gaping hole in my life that I keep trying to fill, but with something it doesn't need?

"Why are you so weird?" That voice echoed in my mind. A mere dream, a fantasy of sorts. I gasped at the feeling of being watched and turned around to see a shadow shift in the distance.

"Hello?" I asked nothing. "I'm going crazy..."

"Sarah..." "Sarah..."

"Hello?" I shouted at nothing as the smoke got closer to my feet. Darkness surrouned everything. My vision blurred as tears feel from my eyes. It was pitch black. Every sense was gone. I couldn't feel. I couldn't hear. I couldn't think. So, I did the one thing I could think of as my hands began to tingle in a way that I had felt only once before.

I screamed.

It was mere hours later that I woke up with a pounding headache, wondering where I might be. I found myself in my old bedroom that I was staying in over winter's break. It was my first winter—no, first visit in general here. After I left, if felt like everything was sucked from me. My head had constantly hurt for the entirety of my first semester. It's everything jet lag wasn't. I was worried I was getting sick, but I knew that I had taken every vaccine I needed to stay in England.

I hardly called my parents, except to talk to Toby. It was so strange, but I felt such a strong connection with him that sometimes it felt I would die for him. No, I would die for him if the chance ever came up, I just knew it. I felt it. It was almost as strong as the empty feeling I get when I focus too hard on my past, or when I sit down in my room. My poor, lonely room that will forever need to be remodeled, but that I will never have the heart to take down.

I glanced over at my window and saw an owl perched up on the branch by the side of it, staring at me like I held a treasure it wanted. Like I was the treasure. I suddenly felt the desire to go toward the owl. To hold it, and to caress it.

"I'm losing it." I said, but something, a memory tugged at me. Something that begged to be touched, but something I couldn't. You see, I was in a terrible car accident in London when I went to tour the school in Cambridge and lost most of my memories. It was a tragic even that I barely survived. Took me a year to be able to travel again, but I decided to stay in London and continue to pursue my education.

Here we are, five years later, back in the room I wish I could touch to feel within my head. Back where I felt it all started, but I didn't know what.

Looking at the barn owl, a name entered my head. Zevenious, Prince of Dreams.

I smiled as I came up with the story of a prince that just wanted to fly but couldn't. He oversaw the dreams of humans and wished to dream himself. If he could, he would dream of the wind between his feathers and the floor no longer beneath him. The prince wanted to fly so badly, that he begged the gods to allow him to transform. The gods granted his one wish, but they did not allow him the precious gift of becoming a bird. Instead, he became a jaguar and roams the grounds in search of food for his people.

His sister, however, was gifted flight in the form of a raven. He envied her so much that he plotted to kill her. End the end, though, the gods took away his ability to shapeshift and banished him to the dark side of the faelands. They then deemed him Unseelie.

"And that was the story of how Zevenious came to be." I said to the children before me. I had volunteered to read my story to the kids for a fun day at the library the day after I had finished editing my story. The library agreed, but only because it was my birthday the very next day.

"Wonderful story, Sarah. Can we give Sarah a round of applause?" The head librarian said, but my attention was no longer on her. It was on mismatched eyes that stared at me with everything. It was that lonely feeling that was finally gone when I looked at him. "Thank you, Sarah."

I smiled at the children before me and stood up. "Thank you." I said with a smile and my hand reached out for Toby. I glanced back up to look for the man with mismatched eyes, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Sarah, is Zevenious related to the Goblin King?" I stopped at that. Goblin King?

"Who is the Goblin King?" I asked Toby, confused. My mind seemed to scream at me when those words left my mouth. It's like it was right on the tip of my tongue.

"He was your favorite story to tell me when I was a kid." My seven-year-old baby brother said, but I didn't remember telling him any stories of a Goblin King.

"Toby, you're still a kid." I smiled at him, hoping to change the subject.

"Am not!" He said posing with his arms raised slightly and bent at the elbow to show me his growing muscles. His small fists were the cutest things I had ever seen. My laughter was drowned out by the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. His voice as melodic and charming. It was like angels singing in my ear for the first time. My heart seemed to stop, and my mind screamed at me to remember. "Who are you?" Toby asked the man behind me, his voice lower and seemingly dangerous. I then prayed to see mismatched eyes, the ones that, oddly, made me feel safe, not some random stranger laughing at my brother.

"I'm sorry," his English accent threw me off. "I just wanted to tell your sister what a wonderful job she did on her story."

"How did you know—" I stopped when I looked at him. His hair was the blondest I had ever seen in seemingly natural hair. His mismatched eyes were so beautiful up close and his smile… God, his smile. He looked at me like I was the only girl in the room and with the way he looked, I hoped I was.

"How did I know what?"

"How did you know I was his sister? Most people confuse me to be his mother." It was odd because Toby's hair was almost as blonde as the man before me and my hair was such a dark brown that people often confused it for black.

"I apologize. You two merely seemed like brother and sister."

"Thank you for not assuming I'm old enough to have a seven-year-old." I laughed a bit, but he didn't laugh with me. Instead he looked at me with all the sadness of the world. "Are you—"

"Oh, I never introduced myself. I'm Jared. Jared Davidson."

"Has anyone ever told you that name doesn't fit you?"

"No. Someone special gave it to me, so I've kept it ever since."

"Your mother?" I said sarcastically, then covered my mouth. "I'm so—"

"Don't worry about it. It was nice to meet you, Sarah." The way he said my name sent shivers down my spine. "Perhaps we will see each other again?"

"I would like that." I smiled at him and then turned to grab my baby brother's hand and head home.

Hello, everyone! I would like to apologise for leaving you all hanging like that! I got married recently. Very recently. I'll tell you, people call it a new chapter of life, but it feels like book 2 of my series. I can only imagine what it's going to feel like when kids pop into the picture.

Anyway, I now am getting a schedule together to where I can finally write in peace while getting my wifely cleaning done in time for my husband to get home. I'm so excited to see what you guys think of my story. Please comment and review and like the story to your heart's content! It encourages me to write more and faster.

Thanks for sticking with me!

-ShaiLovesBooks