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{ "the girl chained by time." }
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' s h e
w h o
r e m e m b e r s. '
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HER LIFE WAS A CYCLE. Not metaphorically. It was a cycle that started with the accursed number of twenty three and ended with the same. It was a never ending cycle that was as inescapable as it was hurtful. It kills her every time only to be reborn the next moment.
Her features remain the same; eyes of chartreuse and chocolate brown locks. She does not become an infant in the next life. The woman was twenty three years old and forever would be.
This cycle was inescapable. She's stopped trying to escape it too.
And soon, she would meet him. The man who she would fall in love with.
The man who would treasure her, and hold her in his arms like she was the last drop of water in the desert. His face changed every time they met, but there was one thing that remained constant.
She couldn't stop loving him. She was the Orpheus to his Eurydice. They were a Greek Tragedy.
The sky bled different colors: red, orange and purple. The last color made her bite her lower lip. It was the color of his eyes in their past life. The purple. She'd think it were amythest gems in her mind and stroke his hair as dark as midnight, watch his smile as brilliant as the sun on daylight.
In a few minutes, darkness would spread over the land. The stars would be at their brightest for the moon would disappear. He would appear to her with a perpetual smile on his face, and perhaps the most appalling of appearances.
He would be naked.
She would see him bathing in the lake, his body akin to a marble sculpture- symmetrical angles and perfectly detailed curves and lines: perfection.
First time she saw it she remembered closing her eyes and the scream that threatened to escape her lips. Heat had emanated from her cheeks coloring it with the most palpable shade of red. Then it happened the next. And the next, and so on and so forth that she's so damn tired. She had seen it everytime that she didn't even care about the way his flesh looked like it had been carved from marble, how his eyes looked similar to gems and his hair so soft that she would be so stupid as to run her fingers through it.
The sun was gone.
She closed her eyes and the wind howls. It made some of the branches of trees scratch against each other leaving rustling sounds I'm their wake. It made some of the dying leaves fall. It did many things for the night, but she knew for a fact that the wind was not the one causing the ripples in the nearest lake. It was him.
She looked up and she saw the night sky void of the moon. It was a peculiar sight, but it was common for her. The stars twinkle and she fought the urge to run away. She had done it before; she tried to change the cycle. It was the seventh time, if she remembered correctly. It was vague, soiled by time but she remembered turning her back from the lake and running away before she met him. She had bumped into someone. That was him. She thought it wasn't him. She thought the man who would be the death of her was in the lake, bathing.
She followed the person she bumped into. Stupid and careless. She had fallen in love with him in the span of three months. It was moronic. She thought that the cycle had finally changed. That this man would make her happy. That they would finally have what they deserved. A way to end this curse. It lasted for years. Their love. And then doom, the end.
Her thoughts are muddy, the flow of time escaping within the gaps in her fingertips and she tries to walk forward, tries to steady her trembling legs, because by all the holy beings in this dreadful planet, she knew that escape was futile. She knew that escape was as impossible as those cold stars above caring.
The woman didn't know what instance it was, but she had been led by her clumsy legs and instead of fulfilling the necessities of the cycle, she fled and she met this man, who was beatiful and she foolishly thought that this was it, but then she noticed all the similarities, that everything was still the same. How their first shared kiss was still under the moonlight, how he danced with her under the falling stars. How she didn't age. It was too late when she tried to stay away. He had died. Right in front of her. And it was one of the worst times in the cycle, because...
It was her who killed him. Her dainty hands had moved on their own. And if someone had seen it, they would tell her that she hadn't killed him. They would tell her that she slaughtered him. She bathed in his blood with a smile that she knew wasn't hers. She died the minute after; he had stabbed her with the very knife she used to end his life.
And so they lied in each other's arms that night. Lifeless.
She didn't learn a lesson because for the eighth time the cycle repeated. She still ran away. She made it a point to avoid any man she encountered, but the curse is as witty as it is cruel. It still led her to him. She was out of the forest, away from that lake, in a quaint village where wizard guilds blossomed, she curled up in an alleyway and only rats to keep her company. A sack had been placed over her head and the next thing she know, she was being sold off to a man. That was him. The smile on his face was so wicked that she couldn't believe it was him. She tried to become as repugnant as she could, but they still fell in love with each other.
It still ended with their deaths. His heart ripped from his body in front of her.
And so she learned her lesson.
The cycle repeated. Over and over again.
It was a never ending cycle.
What's more is the fact that every time they are reborn, he doesn't remember anything. New memories lay in his head, a new identity. And it is horrible, because she is the only one who remembers. All the damned things. All the heartbreak, all those dying kisses and embraces that tear her from the inside.
She parted the chartreuse wildberry bush separating the two of them and there he stands, eyes closed as water ran down his body. She didn't make a sound, she is a wraith in this forest and so her presence has become one's.
She assessed the sight calmly. He looked so different from her past lover.
She didn't make her presence known yet, but he discovers her anyway. He opens his eyes and startled, he dresses quickly and scampers away from her. Surprise paints her face. He is not different. He is not the first one to stay away, but there's something in his eyes. Those beautiful eyes.
"Please don't make this harder for me," she whispered as she tried to go near him. Legs dipped in lakewater and the cold startled her, but she was as frigid as the water, so her face muscles don't twitch. He placed his hands in front of his body as if he's scared of her. And really, she didn't blame him. She was afraid of herself too. Of the two of them. But it is hopeless and she was like clockwork. The cogs inside her continue to turn and even without purpose she continued because this is what she is intended to do.
"Please," he says and his voice is deep, reminds her of sitting in the porch stirring dark chocolate on mugs and the fresh cream that makes everything a little sweeter. It makes her skin tingle, makes her toes curl at the edge. Feels like falling in love for the first time all over again. "Please don't go near me. I will hurt you."
Her eyes widened at the prospect, hope is thrumming in her veins. No no no no no.
"Could it be that you...?"
You remember, my love?
The lake water has paused. Its wild ripples calmed. It is so tranquil that it manages to reflect the stars in the sky. Iridiscent.
"It's okay," she said. Not because it will calm him. Not because it means something to both of them, but because it is the only thing that escapes her mouth.
"No, no, no, no," he says and he looked afraid. More afraid than her. "You don't understand."
There is a feeling bubbling in her chest and she knows that this is not good. She's hoping. Hoping that he remembers.
"I understand," she said, smiling but he merely shakes his head. He pauses. then blackness starts to emanate from him. She freezes.
"It's coming!" he yells and then he places his hands on the side of his head as if trying to stop it from breaking into pieces.
"R-Run!"
The woman would never ever run away from him again.
The once vibrant leaves begun to wither, the barks slowly turning to dust. The birds that fly past all pause and drop dead. This is...
"R-Run!"
The squirrels that reside in the now dying trees tries to but he pauses and the blackness swallows it too. The leaves continue to disappear and the grass that lay on their feet bows down and just disappears.
Everything is too fast and her feet move on its own. She tore his hand from his head and he looks at her, bewilders. His eyes are the color of the darkest obsidians and his jaw is apart.
"You..." he trembles as her hands grips his.
"Who are you?" he manages to splutter and she let go of his hands.
"I am Esen Rietvield and you will fall in love with me."
-
e n d.
[ thank you for reading chained flowers. ]
c o m i n g:
01 | "the deathless."
• this was written before plastic flowers (my bnha book) and around the same time as supermarket flowers (my haikyuu!! one) so the writing style is still sorta simple. hope you still like it regardless :)