A week late, but here is the first installment of this month’s prompt challenge. I didn’t want to stop writing this one and considered making it a 2 part story. I decided to just get it in one go and maybe I will revisit the story idea another day. I hope that you enjoy it!

My name is Cora and life is just unfair. I know, it’s not meant to be fair. I get it, I am just tired of it. My parents passed away when I was ten years old. My sister, Clara, was fifteen years older than me, making her 25 when they passed. She had just finished college and was working a great job considering her only experience under her belt was the internship she worked the last year of college.

Clara lived back home until she could get her own place. I remember her leaving the house almost every day to look at a new house. She said that she was waiting for the perfect home. “I will just know when it’s right.” She used to tell me as she rushed out the door again. I loved my sister and wanted to be just like her.

When my parents died, Clara gave up looking for a home. Our parents’ house had been paid off and it just made sense under the circumstances to stay. She moved all our parents’ stuff into the garage and took their room, giving me her room, turning my room into an office. It was necessary for her job. Many nights I sat in the office with her, doing homework while she plucked away at the computer doing something that always seemed complicated. When Clara wasn’t working, she was doing everything for me, hiding the fact that she cried herself to sleep every night. I thought it was because her dreams were put on hold to raise me, and I gave her hell when I became a teenager.

I was convinced she hated me. She seemed happy enough, and stayed with her college boyfriend who moved in with us after a few years. Drew was amazing, I loved him. He did all the heavy lifting around the house, even fixed a few issues that had popped up since mom and dad died. Things were great, life was almost normal. The first part of my teenage years was awful, I was awful. One night I overheard Clara and Drew talking.

“She hates me.” Clara cried.

“She has been through a lot, Clara.” Drew soothed her. “Do you remember what you were like as a teenager?” He laughed. “I bet your parents thought you hated them too.”

“True.” Clara laughed. “I am trying so hard to make her life comfortable. I know I am just her sister, but I am all she has. She is all I have.”

“I will try not to be offended by that.” Drew laughed.

“You know what I mean.” Clara whispered

I walked away before hearing more of the conversation. I felt awful. We had no other family. No grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins. Both mom and dad were only children, and my grandparents passed away when I was just a baby. If Clara had not wanted me, I would be in the system.

After that day I tried to be better, nicer, to my sister. I owed her a lot for raising me where my parents couldn’t. Clara married Drew when I was eighteen. She married him the summer before I went to college. Two years later my sister was pregnant. Her family was growing, and I was so excited. She was my best friend, and I was going to be the best aunt there ever was. Tragedy struck again. Clara, nor her baby boy made it through birth. A year later, Drew joined them in the afterlife. Losing his wife and child in one go was too much for him and he had a heart attack. They said it was broken heart syndrome. Who knew that was a real thing?

The life insurance from my parents, my sister, and her husband helped keep me afloat while I finished college. My parents had a college fund for me, which I used to finish school. I was set. I graduated from college and already had a home. I had no family. They were all gone and I was alone. Because of all the tragedies in my life I stayed distant from everyone, until Evander found me.

I worked a lot, always at work. Home was suffocating with all the memories. I wanted to sale it with everything in it, but I also didn’t want to lose everything. So, I just stayed at work as much as possible, sleeping in my office some nights. I had moved up fast in my company and made good money that sat in an account doing nothing. Work was all I could focus on, until Evander started working with me.

Evander was beautiful. He had dark hair and piercing blue eyes. He was always smiling, showing off his perfect white teeth. His jawline was chiseled by the gods themselves. His shoulders were broad, and his arms were thick with muscles. Some nights I would catch myself staring at him, thinking he could be a fallen angel, or a demon sent to drag me willingly to hell. Believe me, I would go anywhere with him.

“Evening, Cora.” He said, catching me staring at him. I could feel my face turn red with embarrassment. He always called me out when I was staring at him. I always made the excuse that I was deep in thought. Not a lie, I was just deep in thoughts of him.

“Evander.” I nodded. “You are staying late again tonight?” He had been staying late with me since the night he found me asleep at my desk. I walked out with him every night, sometimes waiting until I see his car leave before going back into my office. No one needs to know that I sleep in my office.

“I am. I thought you might want some Chinese food.” He said, holding up a menu. “I was about to order delivery.”

“Let me pay this time.” I smile.

“Nope, I got it.” He laughs when I huff at him.

“I don’t want anything.” I cross my arms.

“Well, too late. I already ordered. You order the same thing every time. It’s always sesame seed chicken, white rice, and two eggrolls.” He put his hand on his hip. “I also knew you would fight me on who pays.”

“I have money, you know.” I grumble.

“Yes, you remind me every time I pay for your food. I have money too and I feel like someone should spoil the hardest working woman in this company.”

“Shut up.” I roll my eyes at him and turn away. “Let me know when the food gets here, I will take a break then.” I start typing on my computer, ignoring the fact that he has yet to walk away.”

“I think your break should start now.” Evander turns my chair around to face him. He holds out his hand and waits. “I think you need a break from this awful life.”

“What do you know about my life?” I ask, suspicious. I don’t tell people about my life. It’s none of their business and I don’t need people being nice to me because they think my life is bad.

“I know everything.” He says, still holding out his hand to me. I stare at it deciding to take it at the last second. “I know about your parents, your sister, her baby, and her husband. I know that you are alone and you live in a quiet home filled to the brim with memories that suck away your life. It’s why you sit in this office all the time. It’s why you sleep here. It’s why you don’t let anyone get to know you.” Evander pulls me from my seat as music fills the once quiet room. “I have been watching you for a long time, waiting for the right moment to steal you away from this life. I have been as patient as any King can be. I sat in the shadows for so long and felt how your heart broke many times over. I watched the life fade from your eyes.”

“That’s creepy.” I say, unable to form thoughts or speak more than that.

“You knew me before. Did you not feel the connection, the tickle at the back of your brain? There is a memory that was hidden there, a memory that you hid away. It was a small moment of happiness in your childhood, when things were right in the world. Your parents and your sister were okay. You could be happy. You were happy with me.”

“Huh?” I ask. Thoughts flood in of a dark haired child, the same age as me. He was knocking on my front door, or throwing pebbles at my window. His blue eyes staring at me with a wide beautiful grin stretching across his face. “Andy.” I gasp. My best friend that my parents were sure I had made up. They never saw him. “You were real.” I say, staring into the eyes of my childhood best friend. The friend that disappeared from my life and my mind. “How could I forget about you?” My hand still in his, he pulls me closer. “Am I having a mental break down and you are just in my head?” I ask, trying to remember if I had seen anyone else talking to him. Everyone talked about Evander. He was so kind and thoughtful. He made his rounds every morning. He was real.

“I have always been real.” He laughs. “You knew me when I was just a prince.” He wraps his arm around me, resting his hand on the lower part of my back. His other hand still in mine as we begin to sway to the music. “I had escaped my guards to come play with you. I could feel the bad luck that surrounded you and wanted to save you. I was unable to help your parents and I was too late to help your sister. But you, you I could save.” He said. “Your family has been cursed by my own kingdom, because your grandmother was promised to my grandfather. She ran away with a human man before my grandfather could marry her. He was so mad that he tracked her down and cursed her and her children. I have known you my whole life. I couldn’t do anything until my grandfather passed away and the curse was handed down to me. I broke the curse, I freed you.”

“Thank you.” I say. What else was I supposed to say? He could be lying. He could be some random stranger. I could be dying or going crazy and making up insane stories to help cope with my mental destruction. I wanted to believe him. I wanted there to be a reason my family had suffered so much loss. This made more sense to me then anything in my life ever had and I was going to hang on to it. I was going to accept it and if I wake up in a mental hospital, well, it was a fun ride.

“Will you come with me? Back to my kingdom. Become my Queen.” He says.

“I don’t know.” I snort. “What are you, a fairy King?” I asks. He nods with a grimace. “That is a lot to take in.” I laugh. “I don’t even know what is real anymore.”

“Dance with me and pretend the world doesn’t exist.” He pleaded. And after that there was no going back. The room faded away and became a thick forest where the trees glittered and butterflies sang like birds. My shoes were pulled away by something unknown, but the grass was softer than any carpet I had ever stepped on.

I accepted the new reality. I accept the new life Evander has given me. To my surprise, it was real and happily ever after was now mine for the taking. I had been given the chance to live the life my parents, nor my sister was allowed to live. I would live for them.

And that is what I did.