I tossed Avery's car keys onto my desk and plopped down onto my bed, letting out a deep sigh. Avery's car was parked on my driveway and she would take my motorcycle after class.

My mom was off at brunch, or maybe shopping for the newest collection of purses with her friends. And of course, my dad was at work. My brother... well, I didn't know where he was. The house was quiet — thankfully as it was our maid's day off.

Being in my room had always comforted me. It was my own space, where no one could be in here without my permission. I had chosen shades of beige and brown for the walls and furniture, and there was a walk in closet on one end of my room and a desk on the next.

My desk had always been a ruckus. My sheet music scattered over the surface of the desk, there were pencil shavings and eraser bits littered all around. The desk was my mom's bane of existence. My cello sat next to it.

I peeled myself off the bed, sitting straight up. There had to be a logical explanation as to how I could remember so much from two centuries ago, and I needed to know what it was.

Part of me wanted to ask Avery what she thought about all of this, but she would just believe that I was bluffing. I knew I would think that.

Maybe the best thing to do was just to forget about it. Maybe the man from school was just a person who looked exactly like Noah, and sounded exactly like Noah.

Except, he also knew who I was.

I shook off all the thoughts in my head. Yeah, if I didn't think about it, then it didn't exist. Perfect.

Out of habit I picked up my cello from next to the desk. No one was home, which meant my brother wouldn't be complaining about the music.

I let my fingers take it away as they played the notes and curled around the bow that strummed the chords. I played the first piece that came to mind, and the next, and the next, until my fingertips turned red.

I sprung up, turning around when a loud, high-pitched honk sounded from outside my window. I took a quick glance at the clock by my bedside to see that it was already noon. The honk sounded again, this time longer and more aggressive.

"Calm down, I'm coming," I muttered under my breath as I took a few quick strides to the window to see Avery on the driveway, leaning next to my motorcycle. Her classes must've ended already.

A light smile spread over my lips. My motorcycle was my pride and joy. It was a copper sport touring motorcycle that I spent hours picking out at the dealership — while I ignored my mom's snide comments about how unladylike it was to be riding on one.

I rummaged around my desk for Avery's keys but they must have been buried somewhere under the mounds of my sheet music. Finally, my hands closed around something metal. The keys. A wave of relief swept over me. I thought I'd lost them.

"You took too long so I came in," Avery walked into my room and fell onto my bed.

"It was like a minute," I rolled my eyes, sitting next to her. "You're so lucky, your classes actually end at twelve?"

"No, my professor didn't show up to my last class," she said absentmindedly as she scrolled through Instagram on her phone. She groaned, "No cute guys in my classes."

"I swear, you're only in school to meet guys," I rolled my eyes and she giggled, shrugging. "Anyways, thanks for bringing my motorcycle back."

"You should've just ridden it home," Avery replied, rolling her eyes.

"Well no, what if Hunter gets mad again?" I reasoned, I laying down next to her, eyeing the random photos of her followers.

"Oh gosh, just dump him, he's an ass," Avery groaned. I kept my mouth shut, knowing that there was no way I could convince Avery that Hunter wasn't as bad as he seemed to her.

Even then, I frowned. A small part of me was beginning to wonder why he felt the need to control the littlest things I did. Such as the way I got to school.

She continued to scroll down her newsfeed and I gasped when a picture caught my eye.

"Hold up," I sat straight up, grabbing Avery's phone from her hand.

"What?" she sat up with me, a blank expression on her face. She was unfazed by my reaction.

"Who's this guy?" I pointed at the photo of Noah. My nose crinkled in disgust when I saw the contents of the photo. He was at the beach, with a surfboard next to him — but that was besides the point. He had mooned the camera, with his bare buttocks staring right back at me from the screen.

It was Noah alright. The same dark eyes and dark hair that I remembered so well. I did all I could to refrain from staring at his backside.

"Eww, who posts a picture like that?" I tossed the phone back to Avery, who took a look at it.

She exploded in a giggle, "That's funny... oh and also kinda hot. His profile says his name is Liam, ooh and he goes to the same school as us."

Yeah, I had the pleasure of meeting him this morning.

"That's some good cake," Avery continued to stare at her phone.

"Stop looking at it," I grabbed the phone from her hand and shut it off. "I'll never erase that image from my brain."

"Why is that a bad thing?" she wriggled her eyebrows at me and I rolled my eyes.

_________________________

It was dark out when Avery finally left and I waved to her from the window as she drove off in her car. My mom and dad had come home ages ago and made a point to have the chef cook Avery's portion of dinner too. My family and I rarely saw each other since we were all busy with our own work — or for my mom, lack thereof, but dinner was the one time in the day we spent together to catch up.

The full moon was especially bright tonight and it lit up the sky. I never cared much about the moon, but this time it felt like some type of déjà vu from two hundred years ago.

F A L L: 1 8 5 3

I had waited until all the lights had shut off before I left the manor. Mother and Father were already fast asleep, as were all the maids and servants. I felt like a little girl, breaking the rules.

It had felt like forever until I could leave the house. Mother and Father sat with me in the living room until late before they retired to their rooms. It was not as if we talked as we all completed our own tasks silently. It was the company of one another we enjoyed.

I switched my heels into a sturdier pair of boots, which I was thankful for as I trudged through the dirt path behind my house. The wind whipped against my face and I was glad that I had chosen to wear a warm dress coat overtop of my gown. I made sure to wear the barrette Noah had gifted me as well.

It was not a long walk to where Noah had told me to meet him, just a little ways from my house. At least it was secluded, away from the prying eyes of villagers and those nearby.

I ducked under low-hanging branches, skipped over large tree roots until I reached a clearing. The full moon was particularly bright tonight, upon a clear and starry night and it lit up the sky in a silvery tint. Right below it was Noah.

He turned around as I approached him. Like me, he was dressed in a navy dress coat today, matching pants and tie. A smile spread over my lips immediately from the sight of him. Even though we had met a few months ago, I still felt the same wave of giddiness with him.

"Good night in't," Noah greeted.

"It is not a good night, my lips are chapped from all the wind," I licked my lips. "Is there something wrong?"

Noah had sent me a telegram in the afternoon to meet up, and it also made sure to mention that I could not let Mother and Father know. It was odd since we had always let our parents know ahead of time to request a meeting.

Noah took my hand in his — another reason why meeting in a secluded area was a brilliant idea. My thoughts became muddled from his touch as I met his dark eyes.

"Nothing is the matter," he replied. Two red dots appeared on the apples of his cheeks. "I just wanted to talk to you about something ahead of time."

"Ahead of time?" I raised an eyebrow, tilting my head quizzically.

"I will be talking to your father about this of course," he began, staring intently at our joint hands. "But I wanted to ask you how you felt about it first."

"Felt about...?"

"How you would feel about spending the rest of your life with me," Noah said in one breath. My eyes widened at his words, and I opened my mouth but nothing came out. "If it is too soon, we can wait and spend more time with each other—"

"No!" I finally found my voice, a wide smile spreading over my face. I had never expected those words to come from Noah tonight, but now that I had heard them, I knew that I wanted nothing more. "I do want to. I do want to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Thank the Lord," Noah breathed a sigh of relief, chuckling. I stared into his eyes, and like the hundreds of times before, I could see the stars in them. Warmth enveloped me just from the sight of them. "I prepared a ring, but I can only bestow it to you after I've talked to your father."

I nodded, "He will without a doubt agree to it."

And it was true, Mother and Father had been beyond excited over the fact that Noah and I were getting closer. A part of me also felt that my parents and Noah's had intentionally planned it.

"Good," was all he said as he wrapped his arms around me. It took a lot of me not to jump in joy and instead, I wrapped my own arms around his waist, resting my head on his chest.

Even though the wind was relentless, I could barely feel it in his arms. I could only feel warmth, the same kind that I always felt with Noah. There was no one else I'd rather be wedded with other than him.

"Ophelia?" Noah's voice rang through the silence of the woods.

"Hmm?" my voice was muffled on his coat.

"I promise that life after life, it will only ever be you," his voice was soft, full of emotion. "I will always take care of you."

I wrapped my arms around him tighter, "I promise that too."

I glanced up at the moon, taking in the golden-white light that emanated from it. The stars complemented it, promising light in the darkness and warmth in the cold.

F A L L: 2021

I blinked, tearing my eyes away from the moon. It was a rare sight to see it so clearly in Los Angelos, at least where my home was anyways. Usually the other houses and apartments blocked it from view.

I had gotten engaged with Noah, and it was the happiest I ever saw Mother and Father. It was the happiest I ever felt too. I just wished that it hadn't been so short lived.

It seemed like more than anything that our promise we made that night rang true. If Liam was really Noah, we would be spending another life together.

I gritted my teeth just from the thought as it was the last thing I wanted to do. He had ruined everything that I loved, I just needed to remind myself of that.

One thing was for certain. I would find an explanation to whatever this was — whatever glitch in the matrix had me remembering random events from two centuries ago. There was either a reasonable explanation, or I had gone off the rails and lost my mind. I needed to do research, and worse yet, talk to Liam.

★★★

𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠! 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝐼 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑜𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟, 𝑑𝑜 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒 -- 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒.

𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑖𝑎𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘?? (𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑜𝑡, 𝐿𝑖𝑎𝑚 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑁𝑜𝑎ℎ).