Disclaimer for the entire story: I own nothing.
Dedicated to ambinlovewlove who won that little contest I had going in my Christmas story. She gave me the plot and an idea of what she was looking for it and now I'm taking all of that and going with it. :-)
A/N: Yeah, so I have a full story load without adding this story, but I'm adding it anyway. Inspiration for the others as been lacking and this one has been pressing on my mind a lot lately. But rest assured, if you read any of my other stories: LP, LN, Backbone or TYS, I have not given up on any of them. They all will be updated as soon as I find the inspiration and motivation to write for them. Still hoping to finish Backbone up really soon, if possible. But enough about that. This story is going to be a little different from all of the others. Ambinlovewlove has an interest in Greek/Roman mythology and this story is basically a Ryan/Kelsi version of the myth of Eros and Psyche. This is one of those stories where you just gotta go along with it. I'm treating this like a Ryelsi fairytale and things should get interesting. I'll go into a little more detail about the mythology side of this in the next chapter (not yet written), but for now I wanted to focus on our heroine. This is a really short chapter for me, but it felt like the right place to end it. Hopefully leaving you wanting more. ;-) Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this! Let me know what ya think.
Life sucks and then you die.
It was a phrase that Kelsi Nielson had heard several times throughout her life. Life sucks and then you die. It had never been a phrase she'd ever really agreed with. After all, her life had been good once upon a time. She'd had wonderful parents who'd loved her and her two older sisters with everything they had. They hadn't been the richest family around, not by a long shot, but what they'd lacked in financial resources, they'd made up for with love. Kelsi couldn't have asked for greater parents. Her father, Henry, had been a high school English teacher. He'd been a quiet and gentle man with a love for reading and teaching and had been one of the most popular teachers at the high school where he worked. But as wonderful a teacher as he'd been, he'd been an even more wonderful husband and father. Family had been the most important thing to Henry Nielson and he'd never let a day go by without making sure that all of his girls, as he'd called them, knew how much he loved them. Kelsi had simply adored her father, believing him to be the best man she'd ever known.
Of course if you'd ever said something along those lines to Henry, he'd laugh and say that behind every great man was an even greater woman. He'd consistently credited his wife, Carolyn, with making him the man that he was – of course, if you'd ask her her opinion on the subject, she'd insist that he'd been a perfectly fine man to begin with. Kelsi's parents had had a kind of love that seemed so rare these days, one that was honest and true and seemingly unconditional. The love they'd had for each other was the kind of love that Kelsi had always dreamed she'd find her herself someday. It was what she'd wished for the most growing up and it was also her mother's prayer for her and each of her sisters.
A sad smile spread across Kelsi's face at the thought of her mother, who had easily been the best woman she'd ever known. Carolyn Nielson had been a piano teacher with an incredible love for music. She'd listened to pretty much every type of music there was, or at least it'd always seemed that way. She'd had an infectious laugh and had made the most wonderful chocolate chip cookies that'd always win first place at the county fair. A naturally gifted baker, the Nielson home had always been filled with the mouth-watering smells of whatever she'd been baking that day, whether it be her award winning cookies or one of her famous pies or cakes. She'd been a generous woman, a loving woman who cared more about other people than herself. Carolyn Nielson had been the most selfless person Kelsi had ever known, and the most beautiful. She'd truly been the center of their family and so they'd all been horrified when she'd been diagnosed with leukemia when Kelsi was a sophomore in high school. The doctors had treated the cancer aggressively, but it had continued to spread and spread fast. Carolyn Nielson had died exactly one year after her diagnosis.
It had been four years since her mother had passed away and there wasn't a day that went by without Kelsi missing her so much that it she could barely stand it. Sometimes the pain would only last for a little while and other times it would last all day. Carolyn's death had been a huge blow to the family, one that Kelsi didn't think they'd ever recover from. Her two sisters, Lauren and Melissa, had separated themselves from Kelsi and Henry after Carolyn had died for reasons that Kelsi and Henry couldn't figure out. At first, Kelsi had missed talking to her sisters and had spent a lot of time wondering what could have possessed them to turn their backs on the rest of their family. Of course, that initial hurt she'd felt had soon melted away and been replaced with anger. Anger because their separation had caused their father to not only have to deal with the loss of his wife, but the loss of two of his daughters. Kelsi had devoted herself to taking care of her father, knowing it's what her mother would have wanted.
For the past three years, Kelsi and her father had been a team. He'd encouraged her to fulfill her dream to attend the Julliard School in New York City to study music and she'd in turn urged him to move to the city as well, leaving behind everything they'd both known in their hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She'd thought it'd be good for him to make a fresh start in a new place and he'd agreed, moving to an apartment building on the outer edge of the city. For a while it had seemed as if life had slowly been getting back to normal, but that hadn't lasted too long. Her father had been killed by a drunk driver just under a year ago. He'd been on his way to Kelsi's apartment for dinner when the car ran the red light and plowed directly into the cab he'd been riding in.
Kelsi had lived in a fog for months after her father had been killed, just going through the motions. She'd lost the two most important people in her life before she'd turned twenty-one years old. She was legally an adult who was now old enough to drink, but she may as well have been six considering how she felt. She was an orphan, pure and simple, and had lost the only two people who'd ever really loved her. As angry as she'd been with her sisters after the death of their mother, she'd been hoping that they would all pull together after the death of their father, but that hadn't been the case. Neither Lauren nor Melissa seemed to have much concern for their baby sister. Sure, they'd come out for their father's funeral, but neither one of them had bothered to ask how Kelsi was doing.
Kelsi supposed that she shouldn't have been so surprised. She'd never been all that close to her sisters, though she could never figure out why that was. Maybe it was because she'd been so much closer to their parents than either one of them had been or maybe it was because Kelsi had inherited their mother's talent for playing the piano while neither of her sisters had. Or maybe it wasn't Kelsi's talent they were jealous of, but her beauty. Whereas Lauren and Melissa were pretty average looking, Kelsi was downright beautiful. A naturally tenderhearted person like her mother had been, Kelsi was beautiful on both the inside and out. A fact that had resulted in Kelsi being pursued by members of the opposite sex ever since she was about fifteen years old which had been a constant source of irritation for both her sisters and herself. Kelsi had learned early on that the guys that chased her only seemed to be interested in her for her beauty, not caring about whom she was as a person. She would've traded all the attention in the world for one guy who would like her for her.
Kelsi scowled as she flopped onto her couch, her mind going from thoughts of her parents and sisters to her original thought upon returning to her apartment for the evening. Life sucks and then you die. Yeah, up until her mother died, Kelsi'd had no reason to find any truth in that saying. Her childhood had been wonderful, after all. She'd begun to find truth in that expression after her mother had passed away, but it had never rung more true for her than it did right now. In fact, the saying ran so close to home at the moment that if she had to pick any one quote to sum up her thoughts on life, it would be that one.
She was twenty-one years old and both her parents were dead. She had two sisters who couldn't care less about her. She tended to be a pretty shy and quiet person – much like how her father had been – so her friends were few and far between. And as much as she dreamed about finding a love that was honest and true like her parents had had, it didn't seem like a dream that was going to be coming true anytime soon. She'd thought she was getting close in the past couple of months while she'd been dating a guy named Jeremy Sullivan. He'd seemed sweet and kind and Kelsi had really thought that he'd cared about her. But as she'd just found out about an hour ago, she'd been wrong. She'd been on her way home from work and was about to call Jeremy when she got a text message from him. She'd chuckled when she saw his name popped up, amused that they'd been thinking about each other at the same time, though her amusement had quickly turned to shock when she realized that he'd messaged her not to say hi but to end their relationship.
She'd just been dumped and he hadn't even had the courtesy to do it in person. Hadn't been bothered to pick up the phone and call her for that matter, choosing instead to be a coward and send her a text message. A text message! Kelsi had just been dumped via a text message. It was a fact that she hadn't quite been able to wrap her mind around. She'd called him back and been annoyed when it'd gone straight to voicemail. One angry voicemail later and she'd hung up, calling him on his apartment phone two minutes later. Of course, that had proved to be a mistake, she'd soon realized as she'd been delivered the second blow of the night, the first obviously being Jeremy breaking up with her. She'd almost expected him not to pick up and he hadn't…but another woman had.
Life sucks and then you die.
Kelsi swiped a hand at her wet cheeks angrily, furious with herself for beginning to break down and knowing that there wasn't anything she could do about it. Nothing, that is, except give in to the tears that were quickly building in strength and speed. Her life was pathetic and getting worse all the time. Kelsi grabbed a pillow and hugged it to her chest as facts about her life rushed through her mind over and over again, as if they were stuck on repeat. She was an orphan at twenty-one with sisters who didn't care about her and a now ex-boyfriend who'd just broken up with her through a text message. She had a job she absolutely hated and no friends she could think of to call that'd be willing to listen to her crying and carrying on.
Life sucks and then you die.
Yes, that statement had never been truer for Kelsi Nielson than it was at that very moment. She lay down on the couch and curled into a ball, still clutching the pillow as she continued to cry. Her world as she'd known it was crumbling all around her and seemed to be getting sadder and darker with each second that past. As she wept, she couldn't help but wonder why she didn't just throw in the towel and give up already. What was the point in living a life that was so full of sorrow and pain? Kelsi gripped the pillow tighter as her tears began falling even faster, crying not only for the end of her relationship but also in mourning for her parents, who she was suddenly missing so much that it physically hurt. She could practically feel pieces of her heart ripping away and shattering into a million pieces as everything she was feeling came to a head and boiled over, making her feel as if the pain and tears would never stop flowing.
But thankfully for Kelsi, the tears did eventually stop pouring down her face and she slowly wore herself out. It took a lot of energy to cry what seemed like a small river of tears, after all, and with every minute that passed she became more and more exhausted until she had cried herself to sleep. As she slept she began to dream of a place that she'd dreamt about a few times before. It was a place that she'd only ever seen in her dreams, a place that felt worlds away from her home in New York City, and a place that seemed like it came directly out of a fairytale. She dreamed of a castle nestled on the edge of a lusciously green field that was peppered with beautiful flowers of all colors. A bubbling brook ran alongside the castle with trees positioned sporadically on either side of it. Kelsi's dream began like so many of the others had with her standing on the edge of the brook and letting the cool water flow over her bare feet. She took a deep breath, taking a moment to appreciate how crisp and clean the air was. Crisp and clean and scented with the gentle fragrance of the nearby flowers.
She had no idea where this place was supposed to be, but there was something about it that made her feel alive. It was as if she had dreamed her way into a wonderful land of magic and possibilities. She turned away from the brook and headed towards the castle, startled as she always was in her dreams by the entrance doors opening up for her, almost as if on their own accord. She stepped inside and was engulfed by a feeling of love and safety, a feeling that she had only ever felt in the happy days of her childhood. The smile came to her face naturally as she reveled in the fact that this charming castle in this magical dreamland was apparently her home. She let out a soft gasp as she felt something slide onto the ring finger of her left hand. Her eyes widened as she glanced down and saw the beautiful diamond ring on her finger, a ring that felt strangely like it belonged there.
A whooshing sound coming from somewhere behind her caught her attention and she spun around to find, of all things, an arrow resting on the floor by her feet. Curious, she bent down to pick it up, wincing when she accidentally pricked her finger in the process. The pain was minor and short-lived and she was astonished to find that the wondrous feeling of love and safety she'd experienced upon entering the castle suddenly seemed to have increased tenfold. A faint smile appeared on Kelsi's face as she slept, knowing that in her dream she was safe and desperately in love with a man who she hadn't yet seen, but somehow knew that he loved her just as much as she loved him. Kelsi cuddled her pillow a little closer as she let herself get lost in the dream that she'd dreamt who knew how many times before. A dream she'd had even while she was a little girl, a dream that had turned into her wish and her mother's prayer for her as she grew up.
If she had been awake, this may have been the point where her faint smile dissolved into a scowl. It was a beautiful dream, but at the end of the day it was just a dream. Just a dream about a magical place that only existed in her imagination, a dream about a love she longed for but didn't believe that she'd ever find in the real world. In so many ways this dream, this wonderful and glorious dream was also one of the cruelest because there was no way that it would ever come true. Kelsi would never live in a gorgeous castle on the edge of a beautiful field and she would never experience that intoxicating feeling of love and safety that she felt in her dream. She could dream all she wanted, but her dream would never become reality because the things she dreamed about were the things of fairytales. And if there was one thing she'd learned in her life so far it was this: fairytales never come true.
Or did they?
For Kelsi, the obvious answer to that question would be an emphatic 'no'. Her life certainly seemed to be enough proof of that as far as she was concerned. Fairytales were nothing more than made up stories about magical faraway places designed to entertain or teach children important lessons. They were pure and absolute fiction with no basis whatsoever in reality…or at least that's what people were led to believe.
But what Kelsi and the rest of the mortal world didn't know was that the world in which they lived was not the only world that existed. There was another one, a world that few mortals ever got a chance to see. A world where fairytales were more than stories or legends, a world full of magic and wonder and a beauty beyond anything anyone in the mortal world could comprehend. A world where the creatures and beings of so-called mortal myths were real. What Kelsi didn't know, and what she would soon find out, was that the world in which she lived and that other world were about to collide. And once that happened, life as she knew it would never be the same.