Fatebound

Chapter Twenty: Castles

"Quickly, while she's gone!" Miranda said as she grabbed Brea's hand, looked at her seriously and said, "Come with me if you want to continue living."

To which Brea couldn't help but to giggle as she allowed Brea to wisk her rapidly away down the hall.

"Miranda?! Why you!!!" They suddenly heard a snarky voice growl out as they picked up their pace.

When they had eventually made it to the castle grounds and had finally lost their pursuer, they leant on the wall of the castle as they tried to catch their breaths.

"A sword, yet another job, and you, why am I not surprised?"

"Hey!" Miranda replied feigning hurt,

"I'm a jack of many spades." She said as she tipped an imaginary hat, earning yet another breathless giggle from the woman she adored.

"Honestly though, what you did was very brave. Standing up to that guy like that. I don't know if I would have had the courage to do the same if I'd been in that situation myself."

Miranda smiled warmly.

"Somehow, I think you would have done even more." She replied earning a blush from the other.

"Cmon, I'll show yer round the gardens." She said as she once again offered Brea her hand.

As they walked along Brea couldn't help but to marvel at the view. The castle grounds where beautiful, all parted into different sections that all seamed to serve a purpose of some kind.

One of the sections in particular that Miranda had led them too, contained an abundance of rose bushes and a statue of lovers holding onto each other in what appeared to be a rather desperate manner.

When Miranda noticed Brea admiring the flowers she made sure to pick one that she thought she would like, broke off the thorns and handed it to her with a bow and a 'm'lady' to which Brea almost swooned right than and there.

She giggled as she responded with a Curtsey and ran up to the statue, Miranda running after her as she laughed.

"The Lost Lovers." Brea read the inscription of the statue aloud as she pondered what it had meant.

"Mm. The very same ones from me ghost tour." Miranda chimed in, to which Brea looked at her in surprise.

"The ones who never found each other and died in the woods?" Brea asked felling shivers go up her spine at just the thought of it.

"Exactly." Miranda replied.

"They lost each other in the woods that night and when a major storm blew in, they didn't have a chance. Back then those woods where a lot bigger than they are now, but even still they are rather large. Can you imagine, being lost out there all alone and not being able to find the one person you feel safest with?"

Miranda said seriously, revealing more of the story than she had on the tour Brea had attended.

"I don't want to imagine it. It sounds just awful."

Miranda nodded as they continued their walk past the statue and stopped to look out at the view of the sea.

"Miranda, do you think that when lovers loose each other... that they can ever find each other again? Actually... do you think that perhaps they shouldn't have lost each other in the first place and should have just taken a chance, risking everything for their love?"

Brea suddenly blurted out, already feeling her cheeks burn at the question, because really, could she have been anymore obvious? All she had to do was throw in an 'Im asking for a friend' line to make her intentions plainer.

Miranda stood in thought for a moment before she replied.

"Well, I think that it depends. If the lovers know that their love is true, that it's a once in a lifetime kind of thing, than I suppose there would be nothing wrong with risking everything for that love."

Just as Brea was thinking that this was her final conclusion, Miranda suddenly added,

"But at the same time, love doesn't always last and sometimes it's not as true as we think it is. In fact, sometimes it's better to cut things off before you can get hurt."

Brea stiffened at her second response as she tried to hide just how much it affected her.

"And... and what do you think about... about us?" Brea suddenly asked, her voice barely above a whisper, and clearly shaking from the weight of what she had said.

She certainly hadn't planned to suddenly ask such a thing, heck, she wasn't even sure why she did, knowing full well that she might have just ruined their little adventure together before they had a chance to really see it through, but now that she had said it, there was simply no way of taking it back.

Miranda stood there for quite some time, what was probably only seconds, felt like minutes to Brea as she refused to look at her and awaited her response. Finally, just as Brea was beginning to think that she wouldn't answer her at all, which it might have been better if she hadn't, Miranda replied.

"Well... what do you think Brea? What do you want from this?"

Brea caught her breath in her throat as she finally looked back up at Miranda in surprise.

"That's.... That's not fair." She managed as Miranda pushed a hand through her hair and sighed. For a moment there was silence between them.

"It's just that.... We'll I'll surely have to go home eventually. And do long distance relationships really ever work out?" Once she had started saying what she had been worrying about since they first started dating, Brea couldn't seam to stop herself from continuing.

"Your probably right anyway, maybe we should just stop before things get to the point where we'd be even more hurt than we already are."

Brea heard herself saying the words, but it felt like she was saying them on auto-pilot, saying what she thought she should say and doing what she thought she should do. The whole while doing her best to ignore the ache in the pit of her stomach and the pain buried deep in her heart at her words.

Miranda sighed.

"I... I know your right but, It doesn't make it suck any less though. Especially considering the fact that no one has ever been able to snare my heart like you have Brea. And for once, just once I was actually beginning to allow myself to...." Miranda sighed at that, despite Brea having looked up at her with baited breath, waiting to see just what is is she was about to say, what she admittedly hoped she was about to say.

But the words never came.

"Never.... never mind." She added, signaling the end of their conversation, and as Miranda turned to begin walking away from her, Brea interjected.

"Miranda wait I!" She tried, But when the woman she was falling for turned around to look at her, dismay and hurt written all over her face, Brea bit her lip as she tried to fight back her own tears.

"I just wanted to say that no matter what, I've had the best time and- you... well you make me feel like no one else ever has."

Miranda put her hands in her pockets and shrugged as she looked down at her shoes.

"Doesn't really matter though does it? Because at the end of the day, your still planning to leave?" She said, despite her feelings of trepidation, phrasing the last sentence as a question.

When Brea just stood there, not knowing what to say, Miranda nodded solemnly.

"Yeah. That's what I thought." She concluded.

"Well, I hope that you get home safe Brea." She said with a clearly forced smile as she walked away from her, leaving her feeling more of a mess than she had ever before.

Just what on earth, was she going to do? Was the last thing Brea thought before she fell to her knees and cried.