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The station felt familiar as soon as Eurydice crossed its threshold. It shouldn't have been familiar— nothing outside or on her way there had been— but she had long since learned her memory was not a reliable thing.
The nagging feeling was enough to stop her feet in the doorway despite the cold of the wind still biting the exposed skin at the back her neck. It was dread and excitement all in one.
Something amazing had happened to her here; something horrible had happened to her here.
Or were those thing yet to happen? Eurydice felt unsure.
"Girl, c'mon in from the cold!"
Eurydice jumped at the sound of the man's voice. The timber was unfamiliar and yet she was once again so sure she knew it.
He sure spoke like he knew her. And when she entered he greeted her with the smile of someone seeing an old friend— still his face was knew to her eyes.
She chose to blame it on nostalgia for the warm bed she was almost certain she'd once had. She did her best to shake the thought from her head as she weaved through the crowd for a seat. Memory was a fickle thing anyway.
The boy was the most familiar part of the station. Her heart screamed 'I know him!' as soon as he uttered his first words.
"Come home with me."
Had it been anyone else she would have laughed in his face and turned her back. Maybe she had done the first part— but she hadn't turned from him.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"The man who's gonna marry you."
That earned him an eye roll.
"I'm Orpheus," he continued.
Ah, that's right. That's him. Her mind supplied.
It was nonsensical— she had never heard that before, never seen this face. And yet she could have sworn she had a thousand times before.
"Is he always like this?" she asked the old man who'd greeted her, doing her best to sound skeptical of his antics.
The man— Hermes, she remembered— just smiled softly and gave the answer she already knew, "Yes."
Something in Eurydice fought against falling for Orpheus despite how very right it felt. Something deeper than the obvious. Of course a girl who had struggled her entire life shouldn't fall for the poor boy who could never provide for her. But there was another reason she shouldn't fall for him as well…she just couldn't remember it.
However, she doesn't think she could have stopped herself from falling no matter how hard she tried. Hermes had been right, he did make her feel alive. He made her feel as if whatever she had been doing before hadn't been living at all. That she had not come alive until the very moment she met him.
She loved him enough that she could forget about the dread loving him brought.
The dread always came back. No matter how wonderful he was he could never push away the feeling that this love would cause the end of her.
The feeling came it's strongest one summer night. She awoke in a cold sweat. The dream that had tormented her already fading away. A nightmare she could have sworn featured his grinning face turning to look at her.
Her panic had awoken Orpheus as well.
"What's wrong?" he asked, innocent as ever.
Eurydice wished she had the words to explain it. If it were Orpheus who felt this way he'd write it into a song and the entire world would feel his pain. Eurydice had never had such a way with words.
She just shook her head. "Don't worry about it, my love."
"I'll always worry about you."
Eurydice nodded, unsure of how to respond to that. "Can you make me a promise?" she asked instead.
"Anything."
"Say that you'll hold me forever."
"I want nothing more."
"Say that the winds won't change on us."
"I won't let them."
"Say that we'll stay with each other and it will always be like this."
Orpheus wrapped himself around her back pulling her close. "I promise," he whispered, pressing a soft kiss to her shoulder.
For a second, Eurydice let herself believe that he had the power to stop whatever was coming for her.
Summer ended eventually. Orpheus' song may have brought Persephone back to them, but nothing could ever make her stay.
The air was not slow to grow cold. There was no chance to adjust. And Orpheus was convince he would fix it all again— if he could only finish his song.
Eurydice trusted him more than she had trusted anyone, she knew him better than herself. He could do it, she knew he could. And yet that now familiar dread and doubt crept in— that thing deep inside her warning for against something she should know.
She pushed it away again. She would find the food and firewood; he would write his song. They would get back to the bliss of summer, it would simply take some time.
Eurydice knew a storm was coming. She'd spent enough time on the run and between warm beds to know the warning signs. But this winter was not like the others. It came harsh and fast and the time she thought she still had slipped from her fingers in an instant.
She fought the brutal winds as best she could but she was hungry, she was weak, and fate had other plans.
Everyday in Hadestown was the same. Monotonous and void of the songs her love had once sung for her. Her memory was going again, she could feel it slipping away. She knew the face of the boy who sang those songs but his name was out of reach.
Not that it mattered she would never see him again. She given up life.
At least she'd never suffer hunger again.
Orpheus came back for her. She had a feeling he always would. For her he'd walked to the underworld. For her he finished his song. And now he could take her home.
It all made sense now. She could remember it all. They had been here before. They always ended up here. Her behind him on that endless walk.
Maybe this time he wouldn't turn around.
The station felt familiar as soon as Eurydice crossed its threshold.