Fated To Kill My Mate

CHAPTER ONECharlotte.Life is really funny. One moment you're finally stepping out of your shell and letting your friends cajole you into attending your first party after spending four years in college, and the next, you're in a doctor's office being told you have pancreatic cancer and that you are not expected to live beyond the next twelve months. I thought it was a really funny joke life was playing on me, how it waited for me to pass through the exhaustingly rigorous process of acquiring my Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering before deciding to tell me it was all for nothing. As the doctor tried to let me down as gently as he could, I only felt slightly irritated that death had decided to come at such an inconvenient time. It had been three months since I got my degree and I had just been accepted to a scholarship program to further pursue my education and get a Master's, and now this. What now?When I finally walked out of the kind doctor's office holding an ice pack to

CHAPTER THREECharlotte.Two days had passed since the diagnosis, two days I had spent lying in bed wondering what the point of life was. It felt a little bit funny to me that I had never really pondered over life and its meaning or meaninglessness until now. I mean I was familiar with nihilism, absurdism and similar concepts, but now I was faced with my rapidly approaching end, I was experiencing an awful, stomach-churning existential crisis. I found myself avoiding thinking of the concept of time and how it was always in motion; I even avoided looking at any clocks at all. Online, I read a post that said "time isn't passing, we are" and almost hurled my phone against the wall. Every second that passed was a reminder of how little the time I had left was. A part of me thought I could finally do away with plans and societal expectations of what I should be doing with my time and just live to the fullest, but this sense of existential dread was so crippling, it felt like I could not do

CHAPTER FIVECharlotte.There was something about this strange man that seemed particularly intruiging, but also absolutely unsettling... like, terrifying might be the better word, but I could not deny the allure he had, and I wondered why it was working on me. It had not even been a week since I broke up with my long time boyfriend, Lucas, and to be fair, I was not yet able to say whether or not I was over it... I mean it made me sad, but I was not particularly heartbroken... I suppose the reason for the break up in the first place was still my primary preoccupation."You play?" I asked in response to him saying "let's play"."Would I be saying let's play if I didn't know how to?"I rolled my eyes. "What's with all the sassy men these days..."He chuckled and licked his lips in a very... elaborate way? A way that reminded me of hungry predators in the wild that I saw on nature documentaries. This, oddly enough, was not off-putting to me... just an interesting observation.I was the o

CHAPTER SEVEN Charlotte.I really said I was going to marry this weird stranger. I was going to die soon anyway, what did I have to lose by embarking on one last great adventure? To be fair, this would actually be my first great adventure as I had spent most of my life just trying to survive, trying to build a future it turns out I was not even going to be a part of. Ha!"One year. I can't give you two years, I can give you one." I told him, being at least halfway honest with that.His eyes seem to light up but the rest of his face was as blank and bland as ever."So, you're going to marry me?" He asked, his voice alternating between nonchalance and excitement in a not so graceful manner."Do I have to spell it out for you?" I turned and started walking again without him, and for some seconds, I didn't hear his footsteps, so I figured he wasn't following me, but just like he did before, he was suddenly beside me."To which address do I send the paperwork?" He asked."Oh you really

CHAPTER NINE CharlotteI spent the rest of the ride with crossed arms and pouted lips while Noah simply relaxed into his seat and crossed one leg over the other until we finally got to some sophisticated looking part of town that I was not sure I knew existed prior to this. The car pulled up outside a building designed like a cottage, but you could just tell that it was cottage-like in looks and looks alone, nothing more than the architect's artistic choice. There was a large windmill outside it which clearly served only aesthetic purposes. I sat still, arms folded, half expecting Noah to get the door for me and half expecting him to drag me out of his own door, but he too remained in his relaxed state. The driver finally came around and it was Noah's door that he held open while offering a hand of assistance that Noah did not take. I stared, a little flabbergasted as he shut the door behind his boss and came to get my door, offering the same hand that Noah rejected. I grunted "I'm f