There are many things humans don't know about their lives. How it really begins, how it really ends, how it really works. There are many roles that need to be filled by many entities; some guide, some take, and some comfort. This is the story of a comforting place for human souls on the verge of life and death.
*.*.*.*.*.
In a void with no physical location nor a coherent look, a building existed. In this building- a cafe- the only consistency was the location of the furniture, the baristas, and the fact time does not exist. The aforementioned baristas were souls themselves having made deals with Life and Death that allowed them to be there eternally. The four souls had all tragically passed before working in this cafe but pleaded with Life to not allow them back, and with Death to not take them from this place. They all had their reasons. Whether they came here while briefly separated from their earthly body and liked it too much to leave, or if they just didn't want to go, all four of them ended up working here. All four had lost track of how long they had been in this place, but they didn't mind. They loved serving the lost, hurting, and usually confused souls and giving them a piece of mind, which more often than not included a hot drink and a bit of food.
Now was no different from any other point in the last what seemed to be a number of years.
Louis was handling the drinks with Liam, Zayn was handling the food, and Niall was on the floor talking to customers when a young soul wandered in and started looking around frantically. Souls mimicked their body's look at the age which it separated which made it easier to see their big green eyes welling up with tears and their chest heaving in panic. Niall carefully walked over to the new soul while glancing back at his "coworkers" to see if any of them had any opposition to his approach.
"Hey, it's okay. You're safe here. Let's take a breath and calm down, yeah?" Niall said calmly as a means to draw the panicking soul's attention. Niall holds out his hand for the soul to take; after accepting, he leads the new person towards a quiet room away from others' prying eyes. Niall had Louis bring a cup of cold water to help them calm down and the two gave the soul space to regulate their breathing and stop the tears from falling down their face.
"T-thank you." They said once they found their voice.
"It's what we do. We're just glad you're calm." Niall said sitting on the carpeted floor a little bit in front of the soul.
"What is this place?"
"Let's start with names first. I'm Louis and I use he/him pronouns." Louis spoke up.
"I'm Niall and I use he/they pronouns." Niall said with a smile.
"My name is Harry. My pronouns are he/him." Harry said and picked at his fingers.
"It's nice to meet you, Harry. Welcome to The Verge Cafe, a little coffee shop... well, on the verge. As in the edge of life and death. That doesn't mean you're dead, but you're not necessarily alive either. As of now, your body is alive back on earth, but your soul is here." Louis sat on the floor as well as he slowly explained the current situation. Harry's eyes widened again as the reality set in.
"Harry, what's the last thing you remember?" Niall asked and held his hand out to comfort Harry if he needed it and Louis did the same. Harry blindly reached out as he tried to breathe once again and grabbed Louis's hand, squeezing it tightly as a form of grounding himself. Louis noticed that Harry's hands were really soft but pushed that to the back of his mind for now.
"I... I was driving home from work, and the person in front of me slammed on their brakes. I didn't stop in time, and I hit the back of their car and spun into oncoming traffic. The last thing I saw was... a tractor-trailer." Harry's voice broke at the realization he might be dead. The room spun out of control and his chest tightened as well as his grip on Louis's hand. His other hand flailed a bit before gripping onto the carpet beneath him.
"Niall, I think you need to ground him." Louis said not taking his eyes nor hands off of Harry.
"Shouldn't he process this first? Remember how Liam reacted when he first came?" Niall reminded. He felt like grounding Harry so soon may prevent him from completely processing his situation.
"I know, but sometimes it's good to think about this with a clear mind and he looks like he's about to puke. Please just use your psychology powers and help the poor guy out." Louis finally looked at Niall while speaking. He wasn't trying to downplay Harry's reaction, but he had to calm down before he made himself sick or passed out. They all may be souls, but if a soul's body hasn't died, they could still experience pain and it'll most likely affect their body as well.
"Fine. But it's not a power, it's just a thing I learned talking to other souls. And souls can't vomit." Niall rolled their eyes and focused on Harry who was staring at the floor and breathing slowly but erratically. "Harry, I know you just had a huge epiphany and all, but like, are you like... legit sad?" Niall asked in a stereotypical valley girl accent to distract Harry's mind. Harry blinked a few times, and slowly looked up at the two in confusion.
"...What?" Harry asked.
"Were you crazy once? Did they lock you in a room? A rubber room?" Niall asked in quick secession. Harry blinked once again trying to figure out what Niall was talking about; he didn't realize that his eyes were no longer bulging out of his head, his breathing was no longer sporadic, and his nails weren't digging into Louis.
"Sorry to confuse you, but we needed you to calm down. Let's get you something to eat and a warm drink, yeah?" Louis cut in. Harry nodded and started trying to get up. Slowly but surely, the three made it back out to the cafe dining room.
"Thank you both for being so kind to me." Harry said gratefully.
"No problem, it's what we do." Louis started. "Now, what can we get you? We have any type of pastry or sandwich you could want." Louis asked switching back to work mode with a smile.
"I guess I'll have an egg and cress sandwich and a hot apple cider." Harry said and tried to smile at Louis. Louis smiled back and walked back to the food preparation area. Now alone for the first time since he entered the building, he finally looked around and took in the environment. The food prep area had a large case of pastries and sandwiches that all looked absolutely delicious. Harry took a deep breath and could smell the sweetness of cookies, cake, and coffee. Looking over the counter, Harry could see Louis with his back turned hard at work making his drink and two other masculine looking people. One had dark black hair and the other had short brown hair and they both were attractive.
To Harry, the inside of the cafe was decorated with neutral and earth tones, nature themes, and fairy lights all over. Harry looked out of a window and saw a landscape that looked like something out of a fairytale. Beyond the confines of the coffee scented building lie thick, luscious green foliage accented by bright pink, yellow, and purple flowers, and bright red mushrooms covered in white dots. Before Harry could take in any more detail, one of the people he hadn't met yet came over with his sandwich and drink. They were also wearing a "they/them" pin on their apron.
"Hi, I'm Zayn. Here's your cider and sandwich."
"Thank you, I'm Harry; he/him pronouns." Harry smiled politely.
"Nice to meet you. How are you taking the news?" Zayn asked gently. Harry hesitated for a moment in thought.
"I've accepted that the accident has happened, but I'm not ready to die. I don't want to stay here, no matter how nice it is." Harry said slowly trying to even somewhat understand his own feelings.
"That's valid. That's similar to how I felt when I first came here, but now I can barely remember life outside of here. I know that sounds pretty bad, but I still remember the good things like my family, friends, partners, things like that. Anybody in particular you're not ready to leave behind?" Zayn monologed with a small, nostalgic, smile. Harry thought they were attractive, but Louis was more his type.
"Mostly my mother and my sister. Even if I don't survive, I just want to say goodbye and tell them how much I love them; I owe everything to them. I didn't have any friends or a partner or anything like that, so as long as I can see my little family one more time, I could pass in peace."
"Yeah, I know how that is." Zayn sat down and looked out of the window. "Did they tell you about this place? How it works?" They asked without looking at the green eyed and curly haired lad.
"All I know is that I'm not quite dead yet. I'm here in this place that looks like a fairytale cafe with these people who are also probably dead, and I'm trying not to have another existential crisis."
"What does it look like?" Zayn asked thoughtfully.
"What?" Harry asked trying to see what Zayn was looking at but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"The cafe. Do you see the outside? Is there art on the walls? What little decor decorates the napkin holders?" They clarified.
"You don't see what's all around us? The little flowers on the walls and the gorgeous forest outside? Or all of the little fairy lights everywhere?" Harry asked in disbelief. Zayn finally turned back to Harry and shook their head.
"No. The cafe looks completely different to everyone except for soulmates. No matter the person's time period, their soulmate's cafe looks exactly like theirs so they can share it together if they happen to be here at the same time." Zayn explained and seemed to be touching nothing.
"What does it look like to you?" Harry asked. This new information intrigued him, and he wanted to know what all four of the baristas' cafes looked like to them.
"My cafe is dark academia. There's blacks, reds, and purples everywhere; there's a spiral staircase in the corner that doesn't go anywhere. It's like something out of a movie. I was a bit of a drama king, but I loved this aesthetic in life. There's a forest outside, but it's way down beyond the cliff the building faces, and there's always a light rain misting the windows and the skylights." Zayn looked up as they finished talking to presumably look at the misted over windows, but Harry's gaze didn't follow. He instead took a sip of his beverage and gently touched a few fairy lights around the napkin dispenser on the table.
"Your cafe sounds really cool." Harry complemented after a little bit, and broke Zayn's concentration.
"Thanks. I'll let you eat in peace, now. Don't be nervous to come up to the counter if you need anything, okay?" Zayn smiled and got up to leave Harry to his meal.
What seemed like a few hours later, Harry was still sitting at his little table by a window. Taking a break from his work, Louis walked over and placed a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder.
"May I eat with you?" He asked. Harry nodded and watched as Louis sat across from him and placed down his food.
"I spoke with Zayn. They were nice and told me a little about the cafe. Apparently, it looks different to everyone who comes here and theirs is dark academia themed. It made me wonder what everyone else's looked like. Do you know?" Harry asked with wonder clear in his voice.
"I think it's better if you ask them yourself. They can describe it better than I can." Louis said thoughtfully. The two were quiet until Harry finally got the courage to ask another question.
"Louis, what was your life like?" Harry asked meekly. Louis slowly chewed the food in his mouth while remembering his life before this place before he spoke.
"I don't remember a lot of it, but I remember my family and... my first boyfriend. He turned out to be a dick. I also remember my graduation, and a few lows that I'd rather not talk about. My life was a little bit difficult, but I wouldn't go back and change anything if I had the chance. But that was probably a long time ago, anyway." Louis trailed off and seemingly looked out of the window in deep thought. "What year is it?"
"It's 20xx." Harry said gently causing Louis to look back at him with an indescribable look on his face. He let out a small humorless laugh and focused his attention on his drink.
"Wow." Louis started. His remark was neither happy nor sad, just a bit monotone. "It's barely been 15 years. That may seem like a lot, but it's felt like so much longer, and so much shorter at the same time. Do you know what I mean?" Louis asked and looked up at Harry. The two stared into each other's eyes and noticed something about one another. Harry's eyes seemed to sparkle, and Louis's seemed to give off a deep yet bright glow.
"I guess that's how life is." Harry sighed.
"Yeah. Can I ask you a question now?" Louis asked and seemingly played with one of the little fairy lights on the table's napkin dispenser.
"Of course." Harry said and watched Louis's fingers play with the little white bulb as if he was seeing something similar.
"What does your cafe look like? I know it may sound cliche, but I'm hoping to find my soulmate."
"W-well, my cafe has a lot of earth tones. There are painted trees, flowers, a few animals, and other nature-y things. There're plants all over, and a lot of greens and browns decorating everything." Harry started and noticed that Louis had stopped touching the fairy light and was staring at Harry with a slightly surprised look across his face.
"Keep going. Please." Louis asked in an almost frantic matter.
"O...kay. There're big windows across the walls and an enchanted looking forest, but no animals really."
"Are there... big red mushrooms?" Louis asked wide eyed.
"...Yeah? How did you know-" Harry was cut off by Louis getting progressively excited.
"With white spots? And fairy circles made of wildflowers just near the window? Beautiful blue sky with white fluffy clouds peeking out from between the trees?" Louis said. His speech getting faster and more emotional.
"Louis," Harry said astonished. "So, you really were touching the lights..." He trailed off. Louis reached out and offered his hand; Harry, marveling at the implications of this discovery, gently placed his hand into Louis's. It was only now he realized that he could actually feel Louis's skin. His hand was somehow calloused and soft at the same time, and slightly warm to the touch. Louis had noticed that he could touch Harry far earlier, but it wasn't at the forefront of his mind until now.
"I was. Do you know what this means?" Louis asked. His voice was full of raw emotion and a hopefulness that he hadn't felt since he first started working at The Verge.
"Yeah. I-" Harry's voice seemed to trail off though his mouth continued to move. He was completely oblivious as to why Louis's smile fell off of his face as he seemed to flicker out of existence, and out of the cafe.
"No. No no no no NO! GODDAMNIT!" Louis said suddenly hit with a whole new set of emotions. Liam walked over seeing what happened and put a hand on Louis's back in a futile attempt to comfort him.
"What happened?"
"It was him, Liam. He was the one! He wasn't supposed to go back yet; I really like him! He's supposed to be my soulm-" His voice broke, unable to finish his sentence.
"How can you be so sure?" Liam asked in a small voice.
"Our cafes were the same. I could feel him. He was it, Liam."
Louis spent what felt like hours in the back room of the cafe trying to calm down after Harry was called back to his body. It was a bittersweet feeling as Harry got to continue living with his family like he wanted, but Louis wouldn't be able to have him. He had just found his soulmate and before he could do anything about it, he fades from Louis's fucking life. It was so unfair.
"Hey, you know he'll be back, right?" Zayn peaked their head in and spoke in a soft tone.
"But when?" Louis asked brokenly.
"I'm not sure, Love. But it will happen one day. You know he'll be back." Zayn comforted. They put their hand on Louis's shoulder, nothing but a cool sensation, in a failed attempt to comfort their friend.
*.*.*.*.*.
The passing time was felt but exactly how much was unknown by the four constants in The Verge. Louis was still upset about Harry, but he knew that it's what was best for him. And he knew that it wouldn't be the last that he saw of the curly haired boy. Before any of them knew it, there was a ringing of the bell on the door indicating a new soul arriving. Louis didn't look up, but he did hear someone walk up to the counter behind him. After finishing the drink he was working on, he turned around and almost dropped the cup.
"Hi." A gorgeous, green eyed, curly haired man stood there smiling widely, dimples on full display.
"Harry!"