The door creaked open softly, as if the apartment itself exhaled at his arrival.
Liam crossed the threshold with a mix of anticipation and anxiety.
"What if she doesn't feel the same? What if all of this is just an illusion?" he thought, his chest tightening with each step.
It wasn't just a visit—it was the possibility that something impossible might become real, that this enigmatic woman might mean more than his rational mind could ever explain.
Alessia stood there in the half-light, her eyes fixed on him as though she could read every corner of his soul.
They were brown, but flickered with stormy undertones, shifting like trapped lightning under glass. Her expression was calm yet charged, steeped in something between nostalgia and anticipation—as though this night marked the beginning of something she had been waiting for centuries.
She wore a black linen blouse that traced her form with quiet grace and a long flowing skirt that brushed her ankles at every subtle movement. Her smile was faint, concealing more than it revealed, yet her gaze shimmered with a hidden fire that seemed to burn only for him.
"You came," she said softly, her voice carrying echoes of another era.
With one smooth, deliberate gesture, she drew back a curtain that covered a large antique mirror. She did it without looking directly at it—as if that reflection hid a truth too sacred, or too dangerous, to face.
Liam didn't notice. His eyes wandered around the apartment, drinking in the space with the awe of someone entering unknown territory—even if he'd been there before.
There was something disorienting about the atmosphere—a mix of warmth and strangeness. The room was almost in darkness; only scattered candles cast pools of golden light. The shadows seemed intentional, choreographed, part of a secret ritual she alone understood.
"You always keep it this dark?" he asked with a half-smile, trying to pierce the weight of the room.
Alessia shrugged gracefully and stepped toward a distant window, opening it just enough for the dying sunset to slip through—a soft sigh of gold and violet spreading across the room.
"The dark calms me," she murmured. "I find… comfort in it."
They looked at each other again.
Then she turned on a small amber lamp beside the sofa, the light bathing her features and revealing shades the twilight had hidden.
They sat across from one another.
"Something in me needed to see you," he confessed. "I couldn't let another day pass without knowing if this… is real."
She didn't answer right away.
Instead, she smiled—softly, with a sweetness rare for her—and brushed her hand along his cheek.
Her skin was cold as marble, but her gesture held unexpected tenderness, a hint of vulnerability that clashed with her usual composure.
The silence wasn't awkward. It was alive—thick with unspoken things.
Liam felt he could lose himself in her endless gaze, while Alessia looked at him as though about to surrender to a beautiful madness that could alter the fate of them both.
Then she stood, moving with effortless elegance.
"Give me a minute… it's almost nightfall. I want us to go out—or do something a little more… fun."
Liam smiled, amused, watching her disappear down the hall.
As he waited, his eyes lingered on the small details of her home—the carefully stacked books, the ancient rug whispering silent stories, the dark figurines lined neatly on the shelves.
There was beauty in every corner, but also a gentle melancholy, as if the place carried memories too fragile to name aloud.
Behind the half-closed door, Alessia stood before a covered mirror.
With a sigh, she lifted the curtain for a moment.
There was no reflection—only the empty frame.
Still, she smiled.
She let her hair fall freely, a cascade of dark silk over her shoulders.
"Am I doing the right thing?" she thought, twirling a strand between her fingers. "It's not wise, not logical… but it's been so long since I've felt this flutter inside me—this almost human anticipation."
She chose a light wine-colored dress, airy and ethereal, that floated with each movement.
As she slipped it over her skin, her mind wandered back to the way Liam had looked at her—with that blend of desire and tenderness no one had stirred in her for centuries.
"I'm getting too close, and I know it. But tonight… tonight I want to feel."
She painted her lips with a barely-there red, the color of a whispered temptation, slipped on a pair of simple but elegant shoes, and stepped out—ready to lose herself in the night with him.
…
Night descended slowly, warm and serene.
They left together, walking in silence until they reached a row of city bikes, took two, and began to ride through the streets.
Storefront lights flickered on one by one like urban fireflies, and their laughter mingled with the distant hum of the city—turning the ordinary into something almost magical.
Alessia rode with rare freedom, each turn of the pedals shedding centuries of shadow.
The wind caressed her face like a long-forgotten touch; her skirt flared behind her like a crimson flame cutting through the night.
For a fleeting instant, she felt human again—a girl escaping invisible walls just to taste life.
Liam followed, memorizing her every gesture, laugh, and glance—capturing fragments of a moment he already knew he would never forget.
"I shouldn't be seen like this with a human," she thought. "But for him… for this… I no longer care."
They stopped at a quiet park, where trees swayed softly under the nocturnal breeze.
The grass smelled of rain and earth, and the sky stretched above them, deep purple, pricked with newborn stars.
Liam reached out, brushing a strand of hair from her face.
He looked at her as if she were everything the world had to offer.
"How did you find your way to me, human? Why do you make me want to live what I was forbidden to feel?"
He said nothing, but his eyes spoke—honest, unguarded.
"I want to marry her. I want a life with this woman," his heart whispered.
They embraced.
Not like those who seek refuge, but like those who have finally found home.
Their bodies fit naturally, as if destiny had carved them to meet.
The world seemed to still.
Time stretched, suspended between their breaths.
Their faces drew closer—
The moment was perfect, poised on the edge of eternity.
Alessia felt a tremor course through her body, like an ancient memory reawakening beneath her skin. Her chest tightened, not with fear but with the unbearable rush of emotion.
"How can something so simple feel so eternal?" she wondered as his warmth collided with the cold echo of her immortality.
Liam held his breath.
Alessia tilted her head slightly—
And then she stopped.
A flicker of fear crossed her eyes.
If she kissed him, she knew something irreversible could be set in motion—a bond that would pierce beyond soul and flesh.
Liam didn't push.
He only smiled and took her hand gently.
She didn't let go.
For a moment, they simply stood there, joined by something invisible yet unbreakable.
"Now I know the bond has begun," she thought. "Only one step remains… and there will be no turning back."
Around them, the city whispered, unaware that a story had just begun—
and that the fate of two souls had already entwined with every immortal heartbeat.