Page 32 of Fade With Me

I barely heard him through the wind howling through the forest, branches creaking under the strain of darkness. The trees twisted, their limbs contorting like skeletal hands, trying to ensnare us. Dead leaves swirled around our feet, sharp and biting. The forestwhispered around us, speaking a language even the wind had forgotten.

I couldn’t make his face out in the depths of night, but his eyes, flickering like dying embers, shone with a steady light that cut through the shadows.

“How do you know?” I demanded, desperation curling in my throat. “How do you know they won’t hurt me?”

His voice deepened, like the forest was breathing through him. “You’re the key to everything, Bryn,” he said, with unearthly certainty. “You holdallthe power. The very fabric of our fate lies in your hands.”

His words struck me like lightning, the force too immense to fully grasp. I parted my lips, searching for something—anything—to say, but sound had abandoned me. The wind stilled. The trees’ whispers fell silent. Even time seemed to pause.

Then, without warning, my mind was pulled into eerie stillness. The world fractured, bleeding into another reality. The sky was dull, gray, as if the heavens themselves were suspended in anxious silence. Thunder rumbled in sync with my heart, an ominous premonition.

The storm was coming.

A shiver of unease crawled through me, like the echo of something forgotten. This dream felt different, a harbinger, a warning, but I couldn’t pinpoint why. It was like trying to hold moonlight, only to watch it slip through my fingers.

The familiar figure appeared once more, but he seemed…off. His presence flickered, half-formed, as if born from the deepest recesses of my subconscious. He looked almost unreal now, like a ghost, a being untethered from the world and slipping further away.

“Where are you, Bryn?” he asked, his voice hoarse, filled with a restless longing, now haunted by something darker.

“I’m right here. I’ve always been,” I said, steady with certainty.

The same question, over and over. Yet every time I answered, the desperation in his eyes stayed the same.

He stared around, his gaze faltering, as if hunting for a thread of recognition. “I don’t know this place,” he said, panic creeping into his words. “You’ve never brought me here before.”

My eyes swept across the desolate landscape, struggling to make sense of it. The land stretched endlessly, a barren expanse untouched by time. The air felt thick with emptiness, slowly suffocating us.

“I’m just as confused as you,” I admitted. “I’ve never imagined a place like this, and to be honest, I don’t like it here.”

He glanced up at the sky, where clouds twisted ominously. A storm was forming, but a strange chill crept through the wind—unnatural, devoid of rain.

He became frantic, his movements sharp and erratic as he surveyed the empty landscape. His eyes darted,searching for something, but there was nothing: only the hollow void.

“It’s all slipping away,” he said, his voice strained, as though each word took him closer to losing everything. “I’m running out of time.”

I rushed to him, a tight, gnawing need driving me forward, and seized his hands. But they felt like smoke, there one moment, gone the next.

“What’s happening?” I shook, my voice unsteady, my mind clouded with confusion. “Why do I feel like I’m losing you?”

He looked down at me, his eyes shimmering with emotion, as though he were on the verge of breaking. His hand gently tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear, a gesture so tender it nearly broke my heart.

“You will never lose me,” he whispered, his voice thick with regret. He pulled away from my grasp, his eyes filled with painful understanding, as if he’d accepted something he couldn’t change. “But I have to leave now.”

A crushing pressure settled over me, the distance between us stretching impossibly far, as if the world itself was unraveling.

“NO!” I cried out. Closing the gap, I grabbed his hands, my fingers trembling, my chest tightening as a heavy ache spread through me. “Take me with you,” I pleaded, but I saw it in his eyes. The answer was already there, even before he spoke.

He raised my palms, cupping them against his face, and leaned down until his forehead rested gently against mine. The heat of his skin was like a quiet defiance against the cold emptiness closing in around us.

“I wish I could,” he breathed, shaking his head. “But…it’s not possible right now.”

I closed my eyes, inhaling the scent of him, feeling the steady rhythm of his pulse beneath it and the solid weight of his body pressing against mine. I needed to hold on, though I couldn’t quite understand why. I didn’t even know him—not really, not even his name—but the thought of him leaving felt like it would tear my soul in two.

“Why does this goodbye feel like a lifetime?” I whispered, my voice breaking as tears began to stream down my face.

His thumb gently wiped away the wetness from my cheek. “It’s never goodbye for us, Bryn. It’s always until next time.”

His lips brushed mine in a kiss that felt like an ethereal memory, leaving behind the ghost of its touch.

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