Fated Affinity

WEDNESDAY

The air was fresh on Wednesday. The street Lakeyn lived on emitted the crisp smell of freshly cut grass and everything looked so bright. It wasn't even 8a.m yet but Lakeyn already had her phone in her hand, getting ready to ring Ellie.
After seeing what a gorgeous day it was outside, she thought it would be more than fitting to have a picnic on the beach.
Ellie - like always - was still asleep and all Lakeyn could do was wait until she finally woke up and called her back.
Patience definitely wasn't her strong suit.
She sat at her massive room window, which created the most airy feel to her room, so she loved it. She often told her mom if the window wasn't so big, she probably wouldn't sleep in that room. Admiring the view of the park across the road and counting how many white cars went by, Lakeyn was able to keep herself busy just long enough for Ellie to get out of her slumber and see the missed call.
Ellie's voice was croaky and groggy on the phone.
"Lakeyn, its early, what's going on?"
"We're going to picnic on the beach, that's what's going on!" Lakeyn's voice echoed through the phone. Ultimately, Lakeyn would end up going alone, because Ellie made it clear she wasnt getting out of bed any time soon.

As she was getting her bikini on and packing up some food, there was a sense of stress in the air. Why was she so stressed? All she was doing was getting ready to go somewhere. Somewhere fun, at that. This feeling of stress decreased not even a little.
Lakeyn hopped into her car like it was any other day. It was bold of her to assume so, but she saw no reason to assume otherwise.
With each left she took, her spirits sunk lower and lower, and on each right she felt the nausea seep through her skin. What was this dreadful series of events? She'd never felt so, completely off ever in her life. She peered through the windscreen and noticed the trees outside swaying around viciously as if they'd predicted a tornado.
"Stop this, stop it right now," Lakeyn muttered to herself. "You're freaking out over nothing, what's wrong with you?!"
People always say, if you don't trust what's around you, trust your intuition. Lakeyn's intuition was begging for her to listen, but her brain had other ideas.
She was only 3 minutes away from the beach and made the decision to not let some poor weather ruin her mood that day. 'The worst that can happen is a passing shower, and I can deal with that for a few minutes.' She thought to herself. Her body still didn't relieve her of that funny feeling. It just kept spreading. Suddenly her fingertips were all tingly.
"Oh what in the hell?" Lakeyn exclaimed.
"What is this, carpel-freakin-tunnel syndrome?"
She suddenly became awfully aware of the car she was driving. She was controlling this vehicle, her life was on the line, and with no warning her fingers were slowly becoming numb.
Her breathing was heavy and her heart thumped in her chest, as if it was pleading for a moment to slow down.

Everything happened so quickly. There was light, and then, there wasn't.
Lakeyn found herself unable to keep the steering steady and paired with the strong wind that stirred up, the car could not survive this one alone.
Before she knew it, she could see nothing. She could hear nothing. She could feel nothing.
Then, there it was again. There was light. Lakeyn felt her eyes slowly start to open and her vision began adjusting in a desperate attempt to figure out what was in front of her.
A hand reached out. Her first instinct was to grab it, she needed to be rescued. She noticed something, a familiar feeling.
Her dream, or her nightmare as she liked to call it. That was the familiar feeling. This hand that was trying to save her life, it was one of the two perfect hands she saw that night. She also noticed his bracelet. On the end of it, dangled an amethyst crystal. How could she forget it?
"Please, help!" Lakeyn whimpered, her arm stretched out. That's when she realized that she had not the slightest idea what was actually happening. She could not feel that funny feeling any longer, she could not feel the pain she presumed mandatory after a major car crash. While reaching out to this hand, she felt something so pure and intense it could boggle a human mind.

Tough, arrogant Lakeyn. Rude, Entitled Lakeyn, who felt she didn't need anything from anyone and who felt she could one up any person on earth... she was experiencing the most beautiful feeling of relief, and these emotions she's lived with, these traits she so easily acquired, were washing away as the hand got closer.
She didn't even know if this was real anymore or if it was just another story her imagination was concocting.
All she knew was that there was a person behind that hand, and she had to know who he was. She felt electrical wires sparking up between them. Fingertip to fingertip, it filled her with energy .
She pictured a red thread, starting at her heart centre and tangling along into his. There was a sure connection with this person, and the longer she struggled to hold onto his hand, the faster the feeling intensified and all she needed in that moment was to finally be close to him.
"Please!" and with one short breath, Lakeyn found herself being pulled into the arms of this man. He was a stranger. She had no idea who he actually was, but standing there, with her arms draped across his neck and feeling his hands grip onto her lower back, she was positive she had known him her whole life.
"I've been searching for you, searching for so long." The man whispered. His voice was smooth sounding, no rigid halts to it at all. Lakeyn loved that.
"How long?" she questioned. "I..." the man hesitated, "I don't know."
"I've seen you before, you know." Lakeyn continued. The two never let go of one another.
"You were in my dream. Why were you in my dream? I don't even know who you are."
"My name is Adonis."
His eyes seemed to peer into her soul.
"Adonis." echoed Lakeyn. "Like the Greek God?" Her tone was playful and curious.
Adonis chuckled, staring at Lakeyn in a way no one had ever done before.
"Yes. And you're Lakeyn."
She gasped, wondering how he actually knew her name.
Then began the story that waited so long to reach her, but, before Adonis could say anything else, Lakeyn realized something didn't feel right. She was not in the real world. Her body didn't feel like her physical body. It felt like a million balls of energy were keeping her alive. Was she even alive?
She remembered how she crashed her car and started to question everything internally.
She had a hunch, more like an inner knowing, that she wasn't dead... but she wasn't alive either.
She needed to know more. Adonis seemed all-knowing at that moment and she needed to be enlightened before she started to go insane.
Although she did not have her physical body's form, somehow, she felt her palms get sweaty.
Adonis stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, sensing she was in a bit of distress. Rightfully so, because Lakeyn knew next to nothing about what was going on, but Adonis seemed so calm and collected that it terrified her.

"Look, Adonis," she sighed. "You need to tell me exactly what's happening. What have I gotten myself into?"
"You were in an accident, right?" Adonis cut her off.
Lakeyn nodded her head slowly, and an uneasy feeling stirred up in her tummy.
"I was in one too, Lakeyn. A long time ago."
Adonis shifted his focus to the ground and raked his hands through his hair, something familiar to Lakeyn thanks to her dream.
"How long ago?" she tried to hurry him along.
"I don't exactly know..." Adonis shrugged, unsurely. "I just know it's been pretty long, and from the beginning you were all I had."
Lakeyn stared into his eyes intently, desperately needing answers that were more direct.
"I dreamt about you too, a few days before my accident. Your eyes, your beautiful hair. It's like I knew exactly who you were but I had no idea where to find you." Adonis was so sincere in his approach that she didn't doubt for a second that he was being honest.

Lakeyn was in disbelief. As we all know, she loved herself, tons, but for a second she started to question how someone like her had a chance to be led to such a deep, fated connection.

Fair enough it was through a car crash tragedy, so technically she wasn't that lucky, but lucky enough that the entire universe had conspired to bring her close to Adonis, she thought.
"I don't normally do this," she scrunched up her face while speaking. The thought of love never lingered around her mind that much. She always paid much more attention to her individual journey rather than needing to share it with someone who would only ruin her picture-perfect painting.
"I don't normally do this either, trust me," Adonis said, smirking.
Lakeyn found herself having to break eye contact. She was really attracted to Adonis, and she felt so weird about it.
"It's like I know who I am, and I know I prefer being alone," she cleared her throat. "but I can't help but think I need you."
Before Adonis could open his mouth to respond, there was a gust of gale force wind and the both of them ended up horizontal, struggling to get back up.
Clamoring all over the place and calling out to each other, arms outstretched, Lakeyn and Adonis were being pulled further and further apart.

An otherworldly force was thrusting Lakeyn back into the deep darkness, all while reminding her that her clash with death was completely and utterly not mistaken.
She was being propelled and flung around until eventually, there was silence.
Her eyes were tightly shut and she clung to herself to feel a type of safety. Slowly, she opened her eyes to find herself staring at her very own totaled car.
"What on earth..." she stumbled over to her car. Everything was smashed in. Unfixable, unworkable.
As Lakeyn reached the driver's side door, she let out a guttural shriek and fell to her knees as she realized what she was looking at. There was blood dripping from every place in sight inside the car and both airbags had been released.
Resting on an airbag, was Lakeyn. Shards of glass were pierced in her face, arms and neck.
She peered to the windscreen to see an empty space where it used to be.
Looking at her still, unconscious body, Lakeyn had no idea what to do.
She just knelt there, tears streaming down her cheeks, feeling weak and helpless.
She had to calm down, she needed to think.
She knew everything happened for a reason, but what about this?
Why did this have to happen to her?
Every horrible word that ever came out her mouth, every single sadistic thought she ever had was playing through her mind like a timelapse.
"This is what I deserve." She stood up, taking deep breaths as she fought back tears. Her hands were shaking, her whole body was, but she had to be strong.
At that second, sirens blared and she clasped her hands over her ears. It was so loud, she could hear every vibration of the sound.
An ambulance skidded to a stop, followed by two police vehicles.
She tried to scream for help, she waved, but of course, no one saw her.
She wasn't on this earth anymore, her body had been just a vessel that carried her, and now it was gone.
She watched as they made haste to put an oxygen mask on her face and lift her body onto a stretcher.
An EMT began removing the little glass shards stuck in her skin, and Lakeyn wished she could thank him in that moment for caring about her comfort, even though she could feel nothing.
She imagined herself still being attached to her body, and winced at the thought of feeling all that pain.
Tears welled up in her eyes again as they rushed away with her body to the hospital. "Mom, dad..." she wept, "and Jonah and Ellie."
Thinking of how the people closest to her would feel after discovering this scene and her body broke Lakeyn into a million little pieces.
Jonah was 12. How was he going to react to this? Jonah had never known anyone who died before, except his great, great grandparents, and even then he never actually had a relationship with them.
Losing his sister would change him forever, and Lakeyn felt more guilty than she ever had in her whole life.

She took away her brother's only sister, her mother and father's only daughter and her best friend's only best friend.
If she was dead, where was she going? She knew the place she had met Adonis in definitely wasn't heaven. At least, it didn't seem like what she depicted heaven to be.
"Oh shit." Lakeyn paused, and her eyes widened as she ascertained a hard, clear truth.
"I'm in the in-between."