7 rings

Prologue

I was there. I saw it. And no one will convince me to stop looking.

After our first date, she disappeared. Stopped responding to calls or messages. I went knocking on the door of the house we passed by, the house she claimed to be hers. A lovely elderly couple lived there, but a couple of sweet and kind old people wasn't exactly what I was looking for. She had never even been there. Neither has she ever been to her school or work. There wasn't even trace of Katherine Norman having ever existed on the Internet. Four years have passed since. I soon moved on. I thought I would forget, and I did until my next date vanished in the same way.  Then my next five dates. All lovely, all vanished. All wearing the same ring.

But there, Katherine Norman herself was standing in front of me and I knew that the other six were behind me. She almost hadn't changed. The same reddish-brown hair, even almost the same clothes. She was looking me right in the eyes. I was staring at her finger, on the trigger. I had to eventually agree and go away. But I was there. I saw it. And no one will ever convince me to stop looking. 

Mark looked around his room. How could everything be the same, after what he had just discovered?

How stupid did I have to be to decide to break out of my routine that evening? It was already four years ago. I thought he was going to forget. Until  Vanessa met him. The same with Scarlet, Lucy, Amanda, Agatha and Violet.  Like something made each one of us choose, with no intention, exactly him, only understanding it when it was too late already. But now, we can't change it. He was there. He saw it. And I know he will continue to look for us. I don't know what's there about him. He seems just like all of the other people we see every day, that walk around us. But he walks amongst us, not around. And that's a bigger difference than any of us could've ever imagined.

Dominica turned round, to be sure he wasn't following her. People were still the same, indistinguishable from one another, in this never-ending cycle of movement. It was like nothing had changed, even when she felt like all her life was turned upside down.

Because, deep down, nothing had changed. It had always been an on-going game, that she knew would become just a little more official one day.