Red Blood Century

75 Echoes of the Past

"I... I didn't know you would be here," she whispered, her voice barely a breath against the silence of the room. Her heart ached with a longing she couldn't name, a yearning for something lost to the sands of time.

Victor's expression softened, a ghost of a smile playing at the corners of his lips. "Nor did I," he admitted, his voice a gentle caress against the stillness of the night. "But fate has a way of bringing the past back to us, whether we are ready for it or not."

Equinox felt a shiver run down her spine at his words, a sense of deja vu washing over her like waves crashing against the shore. Her pulse quickened as she turned to flee, her footsteps echoing in the silence of the room. But before she could take another step, Victor held her hand, stopping her dead in her tracks.

"Don't go," He pleaded, his voice raw with emotion, the mask of stoicism crumbling before her eyes. "Please, don't leave me again."

The desperation in his voice struck a chord deep within Equinox's soul, stirring feelings she had long buried beneath layers of pain and regret.

Victor's eyes bore into hers, haunted and pleading, his hands trembling at his sides as if reaching out for something just beyond his grasp. "I can't lose you again," he whispered, his voice barely above a whisper, heavy with the weight of a thousand years of longing.

Tears welled in Equinox's eyes, the floodgates of her heart threatening to burst open with the intensity of her emotions. She reached out a trembling hand toward him, fingers outstretched as if to touch the fragile threads that bound them together across time and space.

They were so lost in themselves that they didn't noticed someone else was in room too.

As Equinox and Victor stood locked in their emotional exchange, the heavy silence of the room was suddenly pierced by the soft sound of Cassandra's footsteps.

As she watched them together, Her eyes welled with tears, a silent testament to the shattered pieces of her own heart, replaced by a bittersweet ache that threatened to consume her whole.

Seeing the man who she had unrequited love for years with his lover should have sparked a fire of jealousy, a pang of longing for a love she could never have. But instead, as she watched the tenderness in his gaze, the raw emotion etched on his face, she felt a strange sense of peace wash over her.

She wasn't jealous. No, she realized with a start, she was happy for him. Happy that he had found his way back to the one who held his heart, even if it meant that hers would remain forever out of reach.

Who said when you love someone you should get them? She knew that some stories were meant to be lived, even if they weren't her own.
She turned around to leave because she wanted them to have their moment. Her problems can wait. With heavy heart and smile on face she disappeared into the shadows.

***

Anastasia lay on her bed, staring at the bandaged wound on her leg. She blushed as she remembered how Ezen had gently wrapped it, like he felt her pain too. She thought maybe she was falling for him, but she was too proud to admit it. She wanted him to make the first move.

Suddenly, a bird flew in through the window, carrying a letter. It said someone wanted to talk to her in the garden secretly. Anastasia's heart raced when she saw Ezen's name at the bottom. She wondered why he didn't just come back like he said he would.