Lenore almost had everything she wanted.
In just a few short months, she'd graduate early from high school, start an internship at her father's new startup in San Francisco, and then head off to college in the fall on a full scholarship. Everything...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Lenore rushed forward and threw herself in front of the fog-wreathed figure. One look at his face and her throat closed up, knotted with emotion. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She wanted to blink, to force her eyes to reset in case they were playing cruel tricks, but she couldn't bring herself to take her eyes off him in case he disappeared on her... again.
It was him.
Victor.
Somehow, he had come back to her.
A sob shook out of Lenore, her eyes filling with tears. She had waited for this moment for so long. She wanted to leap at him and throw herself into his arms, but she couldn't bring herself to move. Some deep part of her held her back, as though it could sense that something was wrong with him... She looked closer, searching for any sign of what it could be, or evidence of what had hidden him away for so long.
Victor looked almost exactly the same as the last day she'd seen him. His hair was slightly more mussed, as if he'd just woken up from a fitful sleep, and, of course, he no longer wore the fateful green hoodie. There was a large stain on his white t-shirt, starting at the collar and running down the length of his torso, but it was more yellow than red. If it had been blood, it was old. And there was no sign of a wound that could've made it. From what Lenore could see, he was completely unharmed, his skin as smooth and unblemished as before.
As Lenore stood there, trying her best to make sense of what she was seeing, Victor hadn't moved at all. He was staring off into the distance, looking out at the distant silhouette of the woods hidden in the fog, as though he was under its spell. He hadn't noticed her at all.
"Victor?" Lenore called to him, trying to pull his attention. "Is that really you? What are you doing here?"
He kept staring, not blinking, towards the forest.
"Victor!" Lenore tried again, waving her hand in front of his face.
He didn't even flinch.
Lenore didn't know what else to do. What she really wanted was to reach out and touch him, but her nerves made that impossible. That same deep fear was concerned that touching him would cancel out whatever magic had brought him back to her. She worried that the second she touched him, he'd flicker out of existence or, worse, her hand would pass right through him.
Could... Could he be a ghost?
But as Victor kept standing there, his expression blank as he kept staring into the forest, he seemed very solid. Lenore was left with no choice.
She fought her instincts and reached for his wrist...
Her fingers locked around something solid. Cold, but solid.
