Age 18 - 2042
"Aiden, honey, are you okay?"
Aiden looked up from his window seat, where he'd been staring at the Manhattan skyline for the past hour. "I'm fine, Mom."
"You've been distant lately. Is something wrong?"
How could he explain it? This feeling that had been growing inside him for months—a sense that something was missing. That despite his perfect life, his loving family, his countless friends and opportunities, there was a void inside him that nothing seemed to fill.
"I don't know," he finally admitted. "I just... feel like I'm waiting for something. Or someone. But I don't know what or who."
Sophia sat beside him, concerned. "Are you unhappy?"
"No! I'm grateful for everything I have. I know how lucky I am." Aiden struggled to articulate the feeling. "It's like... being hungry but not knowing what you want to eat. Or being homesick for a place you've never been. Does that make sense?"
"Maybe you need a change. You're starting Columbia in the fall. New experiences, new people—"
"Maybe," Aiden agreed, but he didn't believe it.
Because the longing inside him wasn't for new experiences. It was for something ancient. Something his conscious mind couldn't remember but his soul recognized.
That night, he dreamed of gray eyes. Storm-gray, ancient, full of love and loss and longing.
He woke with tears on his face and couldn't explain why.