The Last of Beautiful

Chapter 1

I shut my textbook as the bell rang and grabbed my book bag. There was no need to check my phone, no one ever texted me. I was following my everyday schedule, my life was dull, nothing ever changed. Today was my birthday though, not that anyone cared but my mom. I guess your sixteenth birthday isn't that special anyways, just one step closer to having to move out.

I put in my handphone and shuffled down the packed hallways, getting bumped and pushed like always. I hate people. Walking out to the bus lot, I pulled my dark curly hair into a ponytail, adjusted my bra strap, and popped a minty piece of gum into my mouth. Stepping onto the over crowded bus, I took a seat next to the window. You see, I wasn't a bullied kid, or an emo kid, I was just a loner.

I liked it that way, being the lone wolf protected my feelings. I had been hurt many times to trust people.I watched the same sceney, pine trees and dirt, as the bus drove down the same road, I was so bored with my life. It was selfish to feel that way, since lots of people had it way worse than me. But I couldn't help it. When the bus came to my stop, I slid out of the blue leather seat and walked down the narrow aisle, passing all the kids I had gone to school with for years but never spoken more than a few words to.

As I was saying goodbye to the bus driver, a pounding headache slammed into the back of my brain with the force of a sledgehammer, the light and noise suddenly made me sick, and I stepped down into the grass and hovered there like a zombie. Violent bursts of pain begain to fill my head, turning all my thoughts to getting home.

I had to make it to my house, my mind was under attack from the mother of all migraines, this was by far the worst I had ever felt. Wincing with pain, and taking stumbling steps, I inched my way along the sidewalk that ran through my neighborhood. Once inside I shut the blinds, shut the door and collapsed into my bed, hoping for some relief from sleep. Then came the first dream...

I am floating, I cannot breath, there is nothing, I am floating alone. Suddenly, a dot of color appears on the horizon, it expands, until it is no longer a dot, it is a massive circle of light, eating at the emptiness until there is nothing left but color. With color comes the sun, then trees, then the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. Below me bright pink grass that seems alive when brushed lightly by the warm gusts of wind, I try to get down to touch it, feel it beneath my bare feet, but I cannot, I am locked in a hovering position above the beautiful place.

My frustration, turns to terror and my terror changes the beauty of this place to the horror of a prison. I can't move my arms or legs and panice starts to take over. My lungs are burning for air and I start to cry. Suddenly as I start to lose all hope, a unicorn, no a man, stands before me. My eyes widen, because his beauty is almost to shocking to grasp, two forms stand before me.

Somehow they are one. The first is a stark white unicorn, with eyes of coal, and a pure silver horn that shines in the sun while its silvery mane flows in the breeze . The thing is angelic and looks like its fit to stand at the left hand of God. The second form is a young man, his caramel skin seems to glow, and his silvery curls bouce like they are alive in the breeze as well, his piercing eyes and plump lips give the utter impression of sadness, as he gazes at me.

I cannot speak, or move, so all I can do is watch as the flickering forms move as one, and pierce my invisible bonds with their silver horn. When I fall, I regain my ability to move and speak, before I hit the ground, the beautiful man catches me. Dumbstruck, all I manage to get out is an awkward "thank you." The young man, while he has me in his arms, smiles at me lovingly and sets me down.

I feel the soft grass beneath my feet, and the warm touch of his hands on my cheeks. He looks into my brown eyes with his glowing irises, and seems as if he means to kiss me. All of sudden, both forms jerk their heads to a ghastly sound, being produced by a shadowy evil black figure, standing behind us at the top of a hill. The angelic forms retract their grasp on my cheeks and run, the unicorn and the man in unison, running away from me.

I jolted awake, eyes wide, and covered in sweat, I no longer had a migraine. As my eyes focused in on the red numbers shining from the alrm clock I realized that I had been asleep for hours. My mom wasn't home from work yet, but she would be soon, and I knew she would bring me home something for my birthday that we couldn't afford. I couldn't help but wonder about my strange dream, I decided it was some freaky effect of puberty and rushed to start my homework.

Later that night, my mother had brough me to tears when she brough home a diamond necklace set in sterling silver, and my favourite ice cream cake. We weren't poor, but we were barely scraping by. My mother was a nure for prison inmates at the county jail. The pay was low and the stress of working there was enormous. But mom had to pay the bills. Even if it added to her grey hairs, even if she came home exhausted, even if she had no time for me. I sat in my bed flipping channels on the little TV on a stand in front of me......my mind was somewhere else.