***(DISCLAIMER: PLEASE DON'T START THE SONG NOW. I'LL TELL YOU WHEN TO.)***

"I have been scrupulously looking for you everywhere. Where were you?" Ava of eighteen-seventy said. "I almost believed you had left me and went away. You perturbed me." Desperation reflected in her vocal.

Ah, that voice. Nathan could wed that voice.

The amount of light in the corridor permitted him to only view lower half of Ava's torso. He could see her mauve-coloured apparel shimmering in the darkness as he heard her Victorian gown slither against the floor making a soft, almost hissing sound. As she strolled towards him, she transformed from a skinny silhouette to a humanly figure. She appeared to be somewhere around sixteen. He didn't know if he was actually seeing her or if this was just a fragment of his lonely, insipid of an imagination. "Did I imagine Ava all along? Is Earth that poisonous of a place she can't exist in?" he thought.

Nathan was flabbergasted to recollect the memories of their first date after some thousandth breakup, for it was so inane of him to remember that now:

FLASHBACK:

1970, THURINGIA, GERMANY

Nathan was wearing a T-shirt and black jeans. He paired them with his worn-off jacket for the sake of the others believing that he too was feeling the same freezing temperature they were. (Though a single layer of jacket wasn't ideally supporting the make-believe.)

Ava, on the other hand, was wearing a long brown-coloured skirt and a white-coloured top with two cute puppies, having a thought-bubble beside each, saying: 'YOU FIRST' (Nathan had adored that top.) She coated it with a heavy black duvet jacket. Her short hair was precisely straight.

"You know, this place is ridiculously exorbitant," Ava had said ostentatiously as though imitating some girly television character.

After seeing Nathan give a chuckle, she added, in her original manner, "Unless that's your proposition--to create an impression."

They both knew they were acting like imbeciles. They'd been together for a century and were now being formal to show god knows who that this was their first date.

"Your apparel rendered me the proposal of—"

"Fine. Continue no more. I tried but we can't act like ordinary people. And we aren't having a tryst for the first time so let us drop this idea which I already am detesting."

"It is now called 'dating'," corrected Nathan with a snicker. 

"Christ, that's even preposterous!" 

They were really high on their so-called first date and getting wasted. Ava was a light drinker (complete opposite of Nathan), which meant this would soon turn into a therapy session.

 A drunk therapist patient. A drunker therapist. Perfect pair.

Ava didn't want either of them to stop laughing. Not now, not ever.

REALITY:

Nathan opened his eyes and reality poured in. Ava who was later going to like the past Nathan was standing in front of him; for the Ava who loved the present Nathan was in await of him to come to her sleeping palace and wake her up to life. (He never said that Ava "belonged" to him. It just made the air of freedom around her get lessened.)

"You're not Peter," she mumbled abruptly as she heard the elongated silence. "My apologies, Sir, I misconstrued you to be someone else with whom I came here." Her whispers were striking each inch of his heart with an arrow, puncturing it and draining it of blood.

He pictured those soft eyes to be somewhere close, which now could barely see him, and even in that glimpse, viewed him as an alien.

Nathan raised one eyebrow involuntarily.

"I ask for your forgiveness. I didn't mean it like that." She couldn't see him raising his eyebrow but could feel how bizarre and displeasing that sentence sounded. Letting some time pass, she said, "Um, I am called Ava and you, if I may ask?"

He fathomed his pulse rate shooting up. A heart that had died centuries ago. A heart which had forgotten to beat; one which might never know what it was like to beat again.

"I'm sorry but I'm needed somewhere else to be," he replied shakily, shook his head slowly and turned his back towards her.

She remained there, puzzled, and couldn't do anything but doubt herself if the words uttered by her weren't the words that were supposed to be. Soon the receding steps of Nathan sounded like loud echoing rings of bells. Soaked in despair but with a vial of optimism, she decided to trust her intuition of following Nathan although he was long gone.

(Play the song: "Glass in the Park" by Alex Turner)

The aching thought of Ava still being a witch, so beautifully vulnerable, warm and human and then the fact that she had no idea who he was--it was just too much for Nathan to take. Ava had converted into a Terminal for him. He didn't know if this--their short and illicit meeting--could make any difference in things in the present. He remembered how it was when she was mortal. The innocence, the fragility, the ageless tenderness and above all the incessant and perpetual fear of her turning into dust and ashes anytime—all this contained a peculiar allure and entice. What ached the most was the fact that this Ava, who was calling for him, was the one who he had left when she needed him the most. The fact that she had done unspeakably ferocious atrocities because he wasn't there to help her, to remind her that there was someone beside her who guaranteed that the sickness and madness you felt in the initial months after converting into a Terminal (Ava wasn't part of a Terminal family and therefore had to go through special processes to get converted) would lose over to imminence, was too powerful; the fact that she had to go to literal Hell and back carrying the question of the necessity of his to make a false promise that he would be there every step of the way when he wasn't, teared him apart. 

He shoved all the thoughts to the deepest abyss of his mind where they always belonged. He knew no one could do magic inside the church's parameter. He also knew he shouldn't have left her in the middle of darkness but he knew that years ago also someone would have come to her or she'd gotten the way out herself. Had she not been of sixteen years, she'd have challenged all the darkness and shadows and fought her way through. 

Now he had come a little far from her and walked until he heard something—ambiguous words: Monstrous blackness-boy-walked away-familiar-coldness-help-monstrous blackness again.

He swallowed and closed his eyes. He could read Ava's mind. Nathan could hear some more terrified phrases which, when joined, said, "Are you still here? Don't go, please."

Her words started to echo inside Nathan's mind. Those words....ah, that melodious voice!

His heart was trembling as his mind resisted every attempt to get back to her. But he couldn't just walk away and shove this inside his mind anymore. He bit his lower lip and pushed every resistance created by his mind aside and rushed towards Ava. He traced his steps and followed the frightened voices. He threw all the darkness in his path away and like gravity ran towards her. 

Ava looked up with teary eyes. Hearing the retrieving footsteps and she cried, "Is it the former soul? Have you come here one time more?"

Hearing a continuous lapse of silence, she spoke: "If it is whosoever had come before, I show you my sincere gratitude."

Nathan desired to just look into those humanly eyes of hers which had become now eerie and eldritch.

"Don't ask any questions because I honestly don't think I can answer any. Just follow me, please," he said trying to make his vocal sound as firm as he could, though the flair of softness couldn't bid farewell. 

He hardly ever begged anyone but, when he did, he meant it.

***

Thank you so much for reading till here. It really means a lot to me.

Question: I don't know what exactly to ask today 'cause this chapter's more on Nathan's feelings. But here's one anyway: Which phrase or dialogue did you admire the most in this chapter? I'd really love to know your answers in the comment section!

Did you like the song? It is honestly one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. 

Song name: "Glass in the Park" by Alex Turner.

All Rights of the song go to Alex Turner and Domino Recording Co Ltd.

 Infringement of copyright not intended.

Date for next upload (for me today is 19/05/21): 22/05/21

Have a gorgeous day!

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Please DO NOT promote plagiarism AT ALL. It is a punishable offence. If you do, serious action may be taken against you.

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