Alex's POV
I've been roaming in the kitchen for a while now, watching Luna. She kept looking straight at me eyes wide, tail flicking, tense like she saw something she couldn't quite make sense of.
She could see me. I swear she could.
I knelt down, holding out a hand she wouldn't feel. "Hey, girl. Come lets play, huh?" I smiled gently.
Luna blinked at me, head tilted, then spun and bolted, claws clacking across the floor. I laughed softly, helpless. I love that damn cat. I love petting her. In another life, I think she loved it too.
Then it happened.
"Lumine, Lumine... Remember me."
Katherine's voice sliced through the air like a blade through fog.
My breath caught. The words didn't just echo they detonated in the silence. I knew that name better than I knew my own. And the way she said it gentle, broken, like she was begging the stars themselves, ripped something open in me.
I staggered back against the corner, like the weight of her voice had knocked the wind out of me. My knees almost gave out. I hadn't heard that name from her lips in… God, how many centuries? How many lifetimes had I waited to hear that name on her lips again?
The kitchen spun for a second. I swore I could see the flicker of firelight from a past long gone. Hear the whisper of her laugh in the same garden where we used to meet beneath the moon.Her hair had been longer then. Her smile unburdened. She wore dark blue and smelled like lavender and soil.
I blinked. It was gone. Just the soft chorus of crickets outside, and Luna's claws clicking against the floor as she ran.
And she said it. She actually said it. She heard me calling her out to remember after all the struggles.
I stumbled forward from the shadows, heart if I still had one pounding with something familiar. Her back was turned, but I could see the way her shoulders stiffened, like she felt something too.
"Katherine," I choked out.
She didn't move.
She didn't flinch.
"Say it again," I begged, stepping closer. "Please, say it again."
She didn't even look up. Nor twitch.
I reached out, my hand hovering inches from her shoulder too afraid to move, afraid to break whatever fragile thread had connected us for those brief seconds.
She just stood there Her fingers pressed against the edge of the table. eyes distant, like the words had meant something, but not enough to crack through the damn veil between us.
I pressed my hand to hers, and it passed through like smoke. Yet I stared at it like if I focused hard enough, I could bring the past back into the present."You said Lumine. You remember something, don't you? Please look at me."
Nothing.
Not a blink. Not a sound. Just her standing there,
I think that broke me more than anything else.
So I sank back, breathless, hollow. Close yet invisible.
She gathered herself and walked to the sink, started cleaning the dishes, with an angelic voice she was catching some melody, I've heard it few times at the village during festivals.
she had always enjoyed them and the food mostly, ever since she was a child she used to run barefoot to steal sweets hair wild with flowers, her mother running after her, she's twenty now but still with the same childlike spirit when the festivals came around, like part of her never aged.
I sat down enjoying her singing, playing every possible scenario in my head, stunned, letting the song wash over me like rain over ash. My fingers trembled with memory I couldn't share.
She then left the kitchen, quiet and slow like the weight of something had settled into her bones.
I followed. Quietly.
Every step I took felt heavier. Not because of the floor because of her. That damn pull again. Like a thread was tying me to her, in every reincarnation, in every lifetime.
I heard it right? She said " Lumine... Remember me." I wasn't dreaming or going insane?
She went to the garden, grabbed some herbs then walked into her room following the dim light. Still singing.
I joined her, just like always. Still feels wrong. Still feels weird to me. Still feels like I'm not supposed to be here, for I'm not supposed to be.
I died centuries ago, buried by history, I witnessed the rise and fall of kingdoms,I've seen stars born and stars collapse. Time no longer passes for me it stands still, And through it all, only one thing stayed unchanged.
Her.
She undressed quietly, as if shedding not just her clothes but the weight of the day. Then she slipped into that lovely pink nightgown of hers, as beautiful as ever.
She layed down while i sat on the edge of the bed next to her.
She looked distant, thinking, staring into the void.
"Katherine…" My voice came out like a breath. "Please. Say it again. Don't stop."
"Do you remember who you are." I whispered.
She gaze still up at the ceiling, slowly, her eyes red-rimmed. I leaned in, hoping just hoping she'd look at me. See me. Something.
But nothing.
She looked right through me.
God, that hurts more than death ever did.
I stood up, swallowing whatever that ache was, and looked down at her. "Your memories are coming back and you will remember."
The light flickered. Just for a second.
And then, like she'd heard me from somewhere far, far away… she said it.
"...Lumine!?"
" who is Lumine?"
I froze again.
The silence shattered inside me like glass.
That name. Her name.
So close.
I almost smiled. Almost.
"It's your name." I said "it's you. You are Lumine."
I stood there like an idiot who still believes in miracles. "I know there'd come a day when you'd remember us. When you'd remember our promises, maybe not in this life again, but i will still follow you in the other, and the other until you remember me."
I paused looking at her face one more time, but she had already drifted off.
" May you see me again in your dreams Lumine. Like every night."
I leaned down and kissed her forehead a phantom kiss, one she couldn't feel.
But I hoped... maybe somewhere, deep down, her soul still could...I layed beside her, watching the rise and fall of her chest. Listening to the silence like it might whisper her back to me. Hoping.
And loving her through every silence.