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Her curse has been broken, yet she still visits our bookstore.
“Good afternoon, miss!”
Her cheery voice echoes through the wooden bookshelves. She has taken a liking to it. A quiet place, away from all the noise of Ocean City.
“Good afternoon, Selene.”
I greet her back. It was as if I was looking at a mirror, I could sense my own self within her. She seeks answers, it seems. But it was not as dire as it was… a thousand years ago. Or perhaps, now?
I remember walking through that door myself, saying the very same thing as Selene. I was also the one sitting here, as Aurora. I ask sometimes where the old Aurora had gone, as I have become her. Given that she has learned immortality herself, I’m sure she’s still out there, somewhere. Or perhaps she’s given it up for me. Or maybe I truly have become her. It’s hard to tell.
“I want to look for a book again,” she said to me. Pleading. It’s quite charming to see Fuguang like this. She was someone to look up to in the past. Now she looks up to me. It’s a funny feeling. I nod with a smile, my lips hidden behind my mask. She will find what she is looking for, as she always does.
I could have moved out with Phoenix and Bell from this city, but I have taken quite the liking to it here. It’s big enough that we don’t interrupt Selene’s daily life, and the day-to-day convenience of a modern living is something that I’ve missed for some time. Once immortal, one would perceive a passage of time rather differently. A thousand years isn’t such a painful wait in the grand perspective.
“Thank you. I will take my leave now!”
She hands me some money for the book she’s cradling in her hands. A self improvement book…? She doesn’t seem like the type to read such things. She left as quickly as the wind.
“She needs not to visit here again.”
Phoenix emerged from behind the shelves, pondering. “Yet she still does. When she gazes at thy, her eyes longed for something.”
I stretch my back. Long hours simply sitting and lounging in the counter has left some soreness in me. “Maybe. I’d like some fresh air.”
Admittedly, the air in Ocean City is not as nice as I was used to. But it clears the mind to let the sun shine on your skin.
“I shall take care of the store.”
Phoenix nods, and takes my place.
Every time I see Selene, I feel a longing for my old life, when I was her. It’s fair to say that I was robbed out of my life, in a way. I was simply going to be a college student, with some feelings for a woman in my workplace. All of that had to be thrown away when I peered into that mirror under the light of the full moon. I couldn’t go back, and my only choice was to wait a thousand years.
I wondered what everyone thought about me, when I vanished in their eyes. Perhaps it was cruel of me to simply vanish… there was no way for myself to know what would happen. The old Phoenix sent out the farewell messages I wrote. I can only imagine how Megan and Cassidy could have felt.
Ah… Megan, Cassidy. It’s been such a long time since I’ve heard your names. It’s not to say that the people I met in my millenia hadn’t been good to me. Jianghe, and Phoenix, and Bell, they kept me strong throughout all those years. But nobody is ever ready to have their lives changed in that manner. I wasn’t ready, if I were to be truthful. But I made the choice. And Selene, Fuguang… they will no longer need to make such a choice ever again.
I find my footsteps leading me to a cafe. The same one my old self used to frequent. There’s a row of people, so I waited in line.
“I’ll have a cappuccino. Double shot. And one cup of latte with extra sugar.”
A familiar voice in front of me hushed at one of the baristas. It was more like she was giving them an order, instead of ordering a drink, if that makes sense. “Okay. And your name is?”
“Victoria.”
“Take-away or dine-in?”
“I’ll- we’ll have it here.”
“One double shot cappuccino, one latte with extra sugar.”
The barista repeats to her coworkers behind her.
She leaves the front row and takes a seat. Her eyes did not wander, a laser-focus towards where she wanted to be and will be. It’s the very same Victoria I knew a thousand years ago, but also different.
“May I take your order?”
The barista greeted me, taking me out of my trance. “Yes. I’ll have a long-white.”
“Take-away or dine-in?”
I considered it. Had I taken it here, I would have to spend more time in the presence of her than I would need to.
“I will have it take-”
Before I was able to finish, someone called out to me.
“Aurora?”
It is Selene, standing behind me. “It’s nice to see you here. Are you having coffee too?”
I nod. “I will not be here long.”
“I didn’t know you were the coffee type… I thought you’d prefer tea.”
Tea had been the only thing I drank for almost a thousand years. Selene’s eyes wander, and then meets with Victoria’s, already seated. Victoria’s second order must have been for the two of them, and she daintily waves at Selene from her seat.
And there, our eyes meet for a moment.
Victoria…
How many lives have you lived since the first time I met you?
She looks so familiar, yet so different. Her gaze into my eyes was one of familiarity, of resonance. The one I fell in love with, all those years ago, she cannot be the same one that I am seeing right now. But why does it feel like she longs for me? Do such emotions come from another life, one that is both the past and present?
“Do you know Victoria?”
She asks, curious. I never let her know much about me, for her own sake. I wonder if that makes her more interested in my own matters.
“Ma’am, is it a dine-in or take-away?”
The barista repeated the question. I do not want to interrupt Selene's date. “Nevermind the order,” I said to the barista, and I left the line.
“I have to go, Selene. Enjoy your afternoon.”
I try to smile through my mask. I wonder what I looked like to her and to Victoria, but I do not intend to stick around for too long, and I leave the cafe as quickly as the wind can take me.
I am not to be with her anymore.