Alex's POV
I was sitting in the garden when she woke.
I sat on the old stone bench beneath the arch of withering ivy. Morning light hadn't yet broken fully, but I knew she'd stir soon. She always does.
And right on time, the back door creaked open.
Barefoot, quiet, she stepped out into the garden like something had pulled her there. I didn't move. Just watched. She wrapped her shawl tighter over her shoulders, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and looked around, not for me. Just... around.
She always comes out here when she can't explain the weight in her chest. Her soul passed by me, but her mind hasn't caught up. That's the curse thrown upon us. and she sat staring into nothing.
Then Mary appeared, her steps slow but purposeful. She carried a warmth that didn't belong to this life. Something deeper. Something that remembered. And she brought something in her hands, a basket and some herbs!!
Katherine turned to her. Smiled faintly. "Come in," she said.
Mary hesitated.
And I panicked.
I rushed forward. Not thinking. Not calculating.
I told her to help me, I whispered to no one and to everything. To the wind, to the trees, to her. I told her already.
Mary's eyes shifted just briefly. Not at me. Not yet. But something in her paused. Like she felt the tension in the veil.
They went inside together. And I followed.
They sat in the living room. Sunlight slanted through the curtains like fingers. Katherine poured tea. The conversation took shape, slow and quiet. Reincarnation. Memory. The things we carry without knowing why. And I said nothing. I didn't dare. I just watched
Katherine clutched Mary's hand at one point, eyes wet, voice cracking over words she didn't fully understand.
And then it happened.
Mary looked up. Over Katherine's shoulder. Right at me.
Not a flinch. Just... recognition.
Her gaze held. My throat tightened.
I stepped forward, barely able to think.
"Please," I said again, voice nearly breaking. "Help her see me. Just once. That's all I want."
Mary said nothing. But her fingers curled more tightly around Katherine's.
I stayed there long after the tea went cold.
Later, when Katherine stepped out to wash clothes, I followed. Kept my distance. Watched the way her fingers worked through linen like they were searching for something. Luna darted about, chasing invisible threads of light.
She muttered to herself once, soft and tired. A line I couldn't catch. But the sound held weight. It always does.
She cooked. She cleaned. She moved like someone carrying invisible armor.
But when the light changed, golden, low, and aching I got too close.
She stirred the pot. I stood behind her. I didn't mean to, but I let myself lean in. I held her tighter than usual i guess.
And she froze.
Not from fear. From something. Some thread pulling tight inside her. She felt it!!!
And then "Is it you?" she whispered.
God. My name almost broke out of me.
She didn't turn around. Didn't flinch. Just stood there, holding her breath like it might keep me near.
"I don't even know your name," she said.
I'm here.
I wanted to say it out loud. I wanted her to feel it, not as warmth, not as air, but as me.
Just me.
Still here.
Still hers.
But all I could give was the warmth.
And then, like always it faded.
Then she burned the herbs.
I watched the smoke climb the walls, the way her shoulders tensed but didn't turn.
And when she finished cleaning and walked to her room, I followed again. Quiet. Ghostlike. As always.
She lay down. Faced the wall.
"No dreams tonight," she whispered.
And I stood there in the dark.
She had already turned her back to the world. Her breaths came slow, steady, but I knew she wasn't asleep yet. Maybe she was waiting. Maybe she hoped that if she stayed still long enough, her thoughts would quiet. Or maybe she was just too tired to fight the weight of her own questions.
I stood at the threshold of her room, hands clenched, heart trying to beat through a chest that no longer exists. Why am I still here!!!
I wanted to reach out. To sit at the edge of her bed and say something. Anything.
I see you. I remember the way you laughed. I remember the way you burned.
But silence stretched between us like a second death. Me in the lost realm, and her in the living realm.
The night thickened. And my mind started drifting with it. I'm starting to feel like a burden day after another, i can't cross, i can't stay... i don't know what to do this time, all these centuries of suffering i just want them to end.
Shadows settled over the corners of the room like old memories. Luna stirred outside the door and then went still.
My presence isn't enough. It never has been. Not when I can't give her what she truly needs. A name. A face. A voice. The truth.
But the veil is thinner now. She's beginning to feel the thread. To feel me, it's different from the times before but still it's no enough, i need to keep pushing before it's late...
And standing still wont do me much... I can't be the only one who remember...
Because the ones who remember are cursed.
And I remember everything.