After Forever Read Free Page A

He was lying on a huge
four poster bed and I was sitting next to him, his hand tucked
protectively in mine. Even in the dim light from a few candles, I
could tell that he was ill. There was a pallor to his skin that
hadn’t been there before. Dark circles framed his honey toned eyes,
and a sheen of sweat covered his face.
    “Because it’s true,” he said sadly. “If you
don’t find me soon, I’ll be lost forever.”
    I shook my head, confused. “I don’t
understand. How can I find you when we are already together?”
    He brought my hand to his lips and I could
feel the fever burning on his skin. “You have to find me in the
other place… the other world. It’s only there that we can truly be
together forever.”
    I gulped back fresh tears. “I don’t like the
other place. Bad things happen there. I’m… different… there.” I
lowered my eyes and let the tears fall freely. “You won’t love me
there.”
    “I’ll love you anywhere Rory.”
    I looked up, hopeful, “but you don’t know
what I’ve done.”
    “Yes I do, I told you – you’re a hero.”
    I shook my head. “The other you. You don’t
know what I’ve done. I’m ashamed.”
    He laughed softly. “I’ll understand – I
promise. I can help you. I can take care of you… all of you.”
    It was too good to be true so I didn’t say
anything. I didn’t want to ruin what little time we had left
together. Instead, I crawled all the way into his bed and lay down
next to him. He held me like that for what seemed like hours.
Murmuring promises into my ear and wiping the tears that continued
to fall. I was so scared to lose him, that even the fever raging
between us wasn’t enough to stop the chills that wracked through my
body.

    “Aurora… Aurora! Wake up!”
    Cold water splashed on my face and I
sputtered and flailed my arms as I struggled to sit up. Bright
light assaulted my eyes when I opened them and I squeezed them
shut. I tried to push whatever was holding on to me away, but my
whole body ached. It was like my bones had shattered and then put
themselves back together with pieces missing. I hurt… bad.
    “She’s fine, give her some space,
Mallie.”
    My eyes flew open when I heard the name and
my heart sputtered with fear. Her eyes looked into mine with malice
and I wondered briefly why I had never noticed the evil that shined
through them. I would have screamed then, but there was something
wrong with my voice. I opened my mouth and moved it to form the
words and sounds I wanted… but nothing happened.
    “I think that she is in shock,” Miss
Merriweather said.
    For a second, when she looked at me, I was
reminded of the two ladies from the bus. The warmth and goodness
had radiated from them… just as it did now… from her. How could I
have been so wrong about everything? I wanted to apologize, explain
what I now knew was truth, but I couldn’t. My voice had been taken
from me, stripped away so I couldn’t expose what I had seen.
    Things happened quickly then. I was lifted
to a wheelchair – one much like those the other residents were
trapped in. My body ached and cracked much like I would imagine an
older person’s would. Then I saw my face in the mirror and I wasn’t
even surprised by what I saw. A blank expression staring out of a
wrinkled face. My body felt old because it was old.
    “Now Aurora, how did you even get out of
your room?” Mallie asked nastily as she wheeled me into one of the
rooms that I was pretty sure had been vacant before. “I guess that
we are going to have to put everyone on lockdown again.”
    Right, I thought, so we can’t escape and
expose this place for what it really was… something out of a
nightmare. My dream came back to me and I could still feel
Phillip’s arms wrapped around me. He had tried to tell me that we
were running out of time. Had he meant this? Somehow I didn’t think
that this was all of it.
    She spread the newspaper from earlier on my
lap. “I thought you might be