Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 313: Her passing.

Leilani.

A couple of days later and I finally got discharged from the hospital; but I didn’t go home straight. I went to Chalice.

And... I know, stupid idea!

But I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help worrying about her or the child whose father had simply disappeared without a trace. I couldn’t help but fear for her sake especially after what Gavin told me about her ailing health.

I wrapped my arms around my body as I stepped into the cold dark room that reeked of the foul stench of antiseptic and death, and in the middle of it all, laid Chalice looking like a shadow of the glamor queen she used to be.

Her eyes were sunken and gleaming with tears as she stared unblinking at the ceiling. Her skin was pale too, as pale as that of the vampires in the twilight movie. But unlike them, she wasn’t sexily hot. If anything, she was as cold as a corpse and so stiff that for the first few seconds after I stepped into the room, I feared that she had passed on.

Gone was her beautiful auburn hair; and in its place was nothing. I mean... nothing. She didn’t have even a strand of hair left on her head. Even her signature smug smile was gone, and in its place was a permanent painful wince— one that she couldn’t even try to hide.

"What happened to you?" I couldn’t help but ask as my heart broke at the sight.

I know that I may have harboured ill feelings towards her for the longest time. For a while, all I wanted to do was bring her to book. To hurt her like she had hurt me. To see her suffer like I had suffered...

But not like this.

This was torture. This was anguish.

Tears burned at the corners of my eyes before I knew what was happening and I was only snapped back to the present when she cocked an eyebrow at me and snorted;

"Leilani?"

I lifted my head slowly. "Yes, Chalice."

"You’re crying for me? You’re not happy that I am in this state? You’re not deriving any pleasure in my suffering?"

I watched her closely like this was my first time seeing her and then I shook my head. "No."

And as soon as I said that, the laugh that ripped through her mouth had me freezing in shock. It was humourless and dark and had my blood curdling in my veins.

A weird kind of heat crept up my face when she wouldn’t stop staring at me like I had sprouted a second head and I whispered; "W-what w-what is it?"

"No wonder everyone chose you above me..." she drawled, staring so straight at me, I feared she could see into my soul. "No wonder everyone says that you’re better than me... and that’s because I am nothing like you."

I frowned.

At first, I thought that she was insulting me until she continued, her voice not more than a whisper as she said coldly; "You, Leilani, are indeed BETTER than me because I would’ve been so happy if the roles were reversed. If you were the one on your deathbed, not me."

Something about her words made me stand still. A feeling akin to annoyance with a tinge of pity clawed its way up my spine but shaking it off, I glared at her and hissed; "You shouldn’t be saying things like this now."

"I think I should be telling the truth because I now know that I will die soon. I do not wish to go to the afterlife with a lot of baggage! I mean, look at me... I do not have the strength to carry them."

I hissed at her words but I could not help but smile.

This was typical Chalice.

The one who feared no repercussions.

The one who would whisper insults to me when no one was watching and hurt me, only to act like the victim when people showed up. The only difference is that this one would still say whatever she deemed fit, even though someone else was watching.

And someone else was.

Zevran was by the door.

While we talked, I felt his eyes on me, drilling holes into the back of my dress. He didn’t say a word while Chalice and I spoke to each other but only snorted at her last statement.

I smiled. "You’re not going to die."

But even after saying that, I knew that it was false. That I was lying just to make her feel better.

Why?

I had no idea.

She rolled her eyes at me, letting her wrinkled lips turn downward. "That’s as false as the stupid hopes that witchy Miranda girl gave me." She snapped, then with her voice a little higher, added; "You know... she told me she could perform a soul swap on us. That you would die in pain in my stead and that I would get to live your life without my baby... with your hair and eyes... and with all the love and attention you have which I do not have."

I froze. My words died so fast in my throat you would think they had been pewed pewed.

I sighed. "Well, that was..."

"That would have been my beginning." She snapped, interrupting me, "But I guess it is my end now."

She then turned away from me to look at the closed windows, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she tried to reach for it.

"It’s kinda stuffy in here. Isn’t it?" She asked suddenly, pulling me out of my trance; and before she could ask again, I found myself rushing to pull the curtains away and letting some rays of sunlight plus soft breeze rush into the room.

She smiled, like the first genuine smile I’ve ever seen on her and shook her head, murmuring under her breath; "I’m in so much pain. I’ve been in too much pain for too long."

"Then you need to stop talking. You should stop moving too and help the doctors so that they can help you."

"You know it is strange that I envied you a lot. I hated you too for most of my life... but for some stupid reason known only to the goddess, you’re the last person I would see before I take my last breath..." She drawled then shook her head. "That’s unfair."

I was about to ask her what she meant by those words when suddenly, I noticed that she was staring up at the ceiling unblinkingly.

I inched forward cautiously, still very untrusting of her and asked; "Are you alright? Is there something you want?"

But she didn’t respond.

She never moved or blinked again.

My heart began to race in my chest.

"Zevran, Chalice isn’t moving...!" I nearly screamed, "I do not know if she’s being for real or if this is a trap to get me to move closer!" I cried, and at the sound of my panicked voice, he rushed into the room and began to check her pulse.

A moment passed and then two... still nothing.

He shook his head and turned away, his eyes downcast; But he didn’t need to speak for me to know what that meant. No one needed to.

—And I of all people know how stupid this may sound to you, dearest friends; But when I found her like that, staring at nothing, her eyes open in death, her battered body revealing just how much trauma she had gone through these past few days, something in me broke.

I crashed to the floor, holding my chest and let out the loudest scream I have ever heard in my entire life.