HALCYON [Minamoto Teru]

35

The memory had stumbled upon Nora's mind so vividly. So painful and cruel .. a bittersweet goodbye that she had so desperate tucked at the back of her mind. Everything the witch had done for the Minamoto family .. everything to keep it standing and stable after the passing of the first woman she had loved in this lifetime.

The spring tomb of the woman who blossomed so dearly like the newly awakened life after a frigid frost. Melting the heart of the witch who prayed to freeze her time.

There had been a melancholy of blues that washed over Nora, tides receding in her heart, pulling away at her emotions. "This is why .. I didn't want to come into the Red House.." Nora said softly, clutching her chest, clasping the fan Keiko left her.

"This house .. shows you what you fear most .. what you want most .. and what you wish for the most. That .. that was our combined desires. The desire to see Keiko again.." Nora waved her hands across Teru's eyes, and right before him was a clear glass coffin propped upward against the wall.

Encased was a beautiful woman who laid upon dozens of white lilies, perfecting her porcelain ivory skin. Cold to the bone, dead as one could be.

But even so, Teru didn't waver, he reached for Nora's hands and just like that, Keiko had disappeared, and the room around them spun like a cog.

Nora was what he wanted now. No one else. If anything .. the Red House showing him his mother only solidified his resolve. Keiko would give up the entirety of her humanity for the happiness of the child she saw as her first daughter.

It felt so long ago. The hands of time slowed whenever he and the witch were together. But yet as it was .. it was not slow enough to prevent the concern of Nora's curse of misfortune.

So long as he was a selfish human being retaining his human heart, Teru would not pass the opportunity to spend all of eternity with Nora, however long she has left to serve a sentence of misery, he would be by her side.

"It's time to let your guard down, Nora." he kissed the palm of her hand, only for that same hand, the only sedimentary fraction of physical touch he held with her in that moment had slipped.

Teru's eyes widened faster than his honed reflexes could react. But Nora .. she seemed to be expecting this. A smile crossed her cherry lips, and her eyes curled up to crescents as a crack opened up exactly where the witch had been standing just seconds ago.

"Take care, Teru."

It wasn't a goodbye .. just a short farewell before the crack closed itself up. Nora's fan that was in her hand fell to the ground.