"Beauty?" An unfamiliar voice of a female called out to me. Her voice was soft and sounded pleasent to her listeners.

"Beauty? Wake up, son."

Son?

I suddenly woke up with a start gasping for air, my hand going to the wound and clutched nothing but my clothes. In front of me was a woman's face magnified as she stared at me in deep concern and affection.

"Who are you?" I cracked out.

I pushed myself up as she sat back and looked around me.It was a dreamy landscape. The trees and the grass were biwitchingly green, while the sky was a beautiful blue, but the stars that could only be seen at night were shining here brightly.

"Where am I?" I asked her as my eyes laid on a lake next to me that was calm without a ripple, reflecting the bizzare sky like a mirror.

"Somewhere. Nowhere." She said with a smile as she looked at me with a hint of melancholy and curiosity.

"Who are you?" I repeated.

Stranger to me as she was, she gave no feeling of danger. Rather she reminded him of comfort.

"Your mother." She replied as she softly touched my face.

"Mother?" I looked at her in bewildment.

Her touch although as light as a feather had me flinching away as I lightly pushed away her hand. She took back her hand and looked at her fingers sadly.

"Yes. I am your mother." She replied.

"She is dead." I told her.

"And you are at your deathbed." She said.

Suddenly pain flared from the place where I had been injured as if my body was remembering the agony it had been through.

"Then..." I looked at her in question.

"No. This is not afterlife." She replied as she looked around.

"Just a void in space. Somewhere dead and living can meet."

"Why?" I asked her as she stood up. I scrambled on to my feet immediately.

Looking closely I could she myself in her. The eyes. The hair. There were so many things that pointed to the fact that she was someone related.

"Why now?" I looked at her a bit lost.

"As I said. You are gravely injured and in a fragile position. That's how I could meet you." She said as she took a walk.

Falling in line I looked at her. There was so much I wanted to ask but nothing went past my lips.We stood at the lake's edge and she turned to look at me. Her hands twitched like she wanted to touch me again but she let them rest.

"I am sorry." She started as she stared at the horizon. "I know that after my passing, life hasn't been good for you."

I looked at the distance, where the land and the sky met in a strange haze and I suddenly asked:

"Why did you name me 'Beauty'?"

She laughed at the question. The light tinkling laughter made him smile along.

"Because you were so beautiful." She said with a fond sigh.

"So beautiful, so perfect. There was no other name that would have suited you better. Even the nurse was astonished at your appearance. And you're father! He was so overjoyed that he bursted into tears right then!"

At the mention of him, my smile dropped in displeasure.

He had cried at me birth? What a joke. Looking at my expression, her gaze turned sad once again.

"Beauty. I don't know where to start but he always wasn't like that. He was a really nice man who loved his wife and son with utmost love and sincerity."

"Then why don't I see the same man?" I looked at her coldly.

"He loved you, darling. And truely in his heart he still does. But one thing he lacked always was courage. When he married her, he did it for your own good but as time passed he realised the mistake he had done. He could have ended the marriage then but what the society would say was what he feared. Also, he didn't think he could do such a horrible thing to her either. To throw her and her daughters out after just few months of marriage."

I snorted at contempt at that.

"So then he tried to isolate you from them and tried to ignore you so that there would be no jealousy born and they wouldn't hurt you. But thinks did work out as planned. As you reached your birthday, she had grown tired and was planning on poisoning you when he left again on his next trip. That's why he abandoned you. So that you could escape and live your own life..."

I looked at her with no change in my face as she looked at me in desperation.

"I know it's a lot to ask. But please. Forgive him? He isn't the best but he tried to save you in his own way." She pleaded with me.

"Was this why you brought me here?" I asked her, my gaze cold.

"No..." She slowly shook her head.

"Since you already know that it's too much to ask, you shouldn't have. I can't forgive him right now. I don't know if I even can." I told her.

She gradually nodded her head in acceptance but grief. Silence reigned between us as time passed. I stared down at the lake's surface. Too many things had happened and too many years had passed. Even though she was my mother, what I always had said still stood true. She was a stranger to me. Her acquaintance to me was briefly.

"Where do I go now?"

She looked at me.

"Back. Someone is waiting for you." She smiled in affection.

Adam. And suddenly I couldn't wait anymore.

"But, how?" I asked.

"That rose. You proved that you loved him more that anyone. You willing protected him, even though it meant giving up your life. You broke the curse, my darling."

My eyes went wide. Love. Even though I knew it, it just made me feel much more.

"Close your eyes dear." She said.

I obeyed and suddenly I was enveloped in a warm embrace.

"Good bye, my Beauty. I will always love you and I am forever with you."

She said as she kissed my forehead and something warm fell on my cheek and I was pulled back.