Life, Death, and Strange Encounters

I opened my eyes the next morning, feeling strangely uneasy. Had it all been a dream? Was it possible that Isaac had really confessed his love for me? It felt surreal, yet the joy in my heart said it was true. His kisses had felt so warm and real... Well, I had only one way to find out for sure - I had to see Isaac.

Hearing my stomach grumble, I contemplated getting some breakfast before beginning my search for the man of my dreams, but I understood almost instantly that I was far too nervous to keep any food down. So without wanting to wait any longer, I decided to go and look for Isaac.

As if on cue, when I walked out of the room, I bumped into no other than the man I had been dreaming about. Isaac steadied me in his arms and smiled.

"What are you so happy about?" I inquired.

"I am happy because you can't stop me from doing this." And then, ladies and gentlemen, he kissed me. That cleared up all previous doubts. It felt like we were hovering high above the ground, on a soft and sweet cloud of bliss. When we finally broke the kiss, he kept his hand in mine, squeezing it softly.

“Breakfast?“ he asked and I nodded in approval.

In the kitchen, it took Natalie only a few seconds to figure things out. She came running towards us and hugged the both of us with tears of happiness in her eyes. "I'm so glad you kids finally got together! I knew it would happen eventually!"

I giggled and Isaac chuckled, trying to pry her hands off. "Natalie, you're kind of suffocating us."

"I apologize, Prince!" Her eyes then widened and her hands flew to her mouth. I suppose she didn't think that I knew the truth by now and was scared because she had let the name slip.

I smiled at her reassuringly. "Relax, Natalie. I know all about Avalon now."

She sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, I thought Isaac would have my head if..."

Isaac smirked. "You know I wouldn't do anything like that, Natalie. You're the best cook there is. Besides, it’s not the Middle Ages anymore." We all burst out laughing.

After calming down, Natalie started to make us pancakes. While mixing the batter, she wanted to hear all about our plans for the future. "So, will Isaac take you to Avalon sometime?" she asked me.

I shrugged. "I have no idea. You should ask the Prince himself."

Isaac chuckled. "Actually, thank you for bringing this topic up, Natalie. I was just thinking about asking Johanna to come to Avalon with me. Would you like to, sweetheart?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "I would love to see your world! When?"

"Today?"

Staring at Isaac with wide eyes, I gulped. "Already?"

"Well, it would take only a moment to put some definite plans together, so why not?"

"All right. I must say I am a bit nervous. Are Lucy and Damien coming?"

"Of course. We'll go talk to them after we finish our pancakes. And don't be nervous, darling. Everything is going to be fine. I will be with you at all times. I want to introduce you to my parents and also my grandfather, if he has time to come." He pecked me on the lips.

After we were done with our breakfast, we thanked Natalie and made our way back to the living quarters, in order to find Damien and Lucy. Obviously, those two were still sleeping soundly in Lucy's room. We barged in and jumped on the bed, waking the two lovebirds.

"What's wrong with you crazy people?!" Lucy yelled at us, trying to sound anrgy, but then bursting out laughing.

"You needed a wake-up call. We're going to Avalon today," I told her.

That woke her up alright. "WE ARE? OH MY GOD, I HAVE TO PACK!"

Isaac chuckled along with Damien. "Relax girls, you don't need to pack anything. Everything is taken care of."

***

The same night, Isaac made us all go outside into the freezing air. We weren't wearing any coats, because he said we wouldn't need them and that the journey would only take a moment.

When we had walked a short distance from the mansion, he stopped at a big flat rock. Although snow was falling, the rock felt warm to my touch and no snow had fallen on it. We all stepped onto the rock and Isaac closed his eyes. Lifting his hands before him, palms towards the rock, he said something in a strange language.

Suddenly, the rock glowed in an otherworldly golden light. The light grew so bright I had to close my eyes. I felt a tingle in my stomach and when the light dimmed and I opened my eyes, I saw a portal before me. Isaac grabbed my hand and we walked straight through it.

On the other side was a land I’d never even dared to dream of. We walked into warm summer air and bright daylight. I looked up and almost had a heart attack. Up in the sky I could see two suns, one similar to ours, but dimmer, and the other gave off a light purple glow. When their mixed light reached the ground, it was slightly whiter than our warm yellow light. It was beautiful!

When I stopped staring at the bizarre sight of two suns and properly looked around me, I could see we were standing before an enormous castle. How in the world didn’t I notice it before?! The castle was located on a high cliff and on the foot of the mountain down below, I could see a big city, buzzing and humming with motion and life.

I looked at Isaac, who was holding my hand reassuringly, staring at me with worry, probably trying to determine my reaction to what I was experiencing. “This is where you’re from?” He nodded.

“It’s beautiful.” He nodded again, but this time with a smile.

At that moment, we were greeted by a very tall pale man in a black suit. I assumed that he was a butler of sorts. What I didn’t expect was to see him hug Isaac tightly and exclaim with joy, “Prince Isaac! You’re back! So good to see you!”

Isaac chuckled and tried to free himself from the death grip. “Joseph, it’s good to see you too. Please, go tell my parents that I have arrived and that there is someone I’d like for them to meet.”

At that, Joseph’s eyes fell on me. They went wide with astonishment. “A human?” I saw him mouth to Isaac, who nodded in response. The lanky butler then grabbed me and lifted me up in the air. “I’ve always wanted to meet a human! You’re very interesting!”

When he had finally stopped spinning me round and gone back inside to inform everybody of our arrival, my friends burst out laughing when they saw my expression. I was pouting and massaging my shoulders where Joseph had squeezed me. Isaac took my hand and gave me an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that. Usually, only the higher class has the privilege of teleporting through worlds, so many people haven’t seen a human before. Not many humans come back to our world…”

I sighed and nodded. “I understand, I’m just not used to being regarded as something special.”

“You’ve always been special to me,” he said and winked.

I started laughing. “Cheesy much?”

“Only with you.”

“Let’s just go inside.”

***

Isaac led me to what he called his room in the royal quarters. Of course, his “room” was more like an apartment, complete with a huge bedroom, an almost equally gigantic bathroom, a kitchen area and a lounge or studio area. My eyes went completely wide when I walked into the lounge, trying to grasp all that luxury. Isaac just laughed at my reaction.

But then we had more important matters to discuss than contemplate the unbelievable wealth of the royals of Avalon. Isaac gave me a serious, but gentle look. “I want you to meet my parents in a little while. Joseph has probably already told them that we arrived and soon enough my mother is going to go crazy with excitement. It’s easier to prevent it and just go to them.”

I nodded, although my stomach was doing flips. I started walking around the room, trying to process all of this new information. Meeting his parents was a big deal, especially when they were king and queen of a parallel universe… I gulped and forced myself to stop shaking. Everything would be fine! And in the end, all that mattered was Isaac and I.

I walked over to his bedroom door and peeked inside. “Where am I going to sleep?” I inquired when I saw there was only one king-sized bed.

“Well, with me, of course,” Isaac replied while flipping through some of his old drawings in one of the big albums he had lying around on the lounge table.

I looked at him with wide eyes. “You do realize we haven’t really slept in the same bed as a couple before?”

“I know, might as well start. I would love to sleep next to you every night for the rest of my life, actually.”

First I sucked in a breath and gulped, then I felt myself blush. For the rest of his life? That was going to be a long time… His words actually made me think about the certain non-aging gene he possessed and I didn’t. From his words I gathered that I would also stop aging if I married him, but who said he even wanted to marry me? And these kinds of thoughts shouldn’t have come to my head if we had only been official for like a day… What was wrong with me?

I shook my head to clear it. “Fine!” I told Isaac. “But what about all my stuff? You said everything would be taken care of.”

He chuckled as he appeared in the doorway. “Everything has indeed been taken care of. If you look to you right, you will see a walk-in closet. It’s filled with my clothes, but also with women’s clothes that were picked out specially for you. You will also find shoes there. All hygiene products and make-up is waiting for you in the bathroom.”

I stared at him. “What the hell? Who did all this?”

He shrugged. “That’s how the castle treats its guests.”

Speechless, all I could do was stutter. “But… But… I don’t need-“

“I know you don’t. But enjoy it, sweetheart.”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up, you’re too sweet.”

Laughing, he disappeared into the bathroom and emerged again after a moment, throwing a towel at me. “I am sure you need to freshen up after our trip and so much excitement. As you know, there is more to come. Go take a shower, we are going to go meet my parents soon. And be quick, I have to take a shower, too.”

I grabbed the towel and ran into the bathroom. After “being quick”, I wrapped the towel around me and came face to face with the fact that I had no clean clothes. Rolling my eyes, I made my way into the bedroom, only covered with the towel.

Isaac was lying on his bed, shirtless. Looking at that Adonis was making it hard for me to breathe properly, but somehow I managed to keep my cool and just say “I’ll go find some clothes,” before fleeing to the walk-in closet to escape all kinds of thoughts concerning me, him and a bed…

I picked out a black flowy dress that reached just below my knees and some black ballet flats to go with it. Clothes in hand, I made my way back to the bedroom to go and change into the newly found clothes. Isaac was still on the bed, but now he was staring at me. I froze. It was safe to say that his eyes were not concentrated on my face at that particular moment. I saw him lick his lips, the little movement making my knees go weak.

Fearing I’d lose control and rip all his clothes off right then and there, I coughed nervously and fidgeted with the hem of my towel. “I’ll go change in the bathroom…”

“No! Come here!” Isaac jumped up from the bed and took my hand, pulling me flush against him.

“Um… we are in a hurry, you said before…”

He shushed me with a hard kiss that seemed to go on for hours. When we pulled away, we were both gasping for air and the temperature in the room seemed to have risen to boiling.

“Do you have any idea how hot you look in this towel? I just had to kiss you.” Isaac’s soft hands caressed my shoulders.

I held back a moan and tried to calm my fluttering heart. “My wet hair is dripping all over your floor, darling. You better let me get dried and changed.”

He rolled his eyes playfully. “Fine. But we’ll finish this later.”

Laughing, I winked at him and ran to the bathroom. The stay in the castle would certainly turn out interesting...