I'll Come Back for You

Prologue

Present: Reignville, California 

"I'll come back for you."

Those were the words he had spoken over the phone, the one and only time he had allowed himself to answer. And those words had been enough at the time. At the time, Kaliah hadn't thought to ask herself when that day would be. The promise of those words, though vague they were, had been sufficient to get her through the days she hadn't known would turn to years.

How selfish those words seemed now. There was no definite time, no definite feeling, no definite path to guide her. So, he would come back for her? And what would happen then? Was the time he spent away from her supposed to remain frozen? Was nothing going to change? Surely, he knew as she did that one year was enough for seasons to change, for flowers to die, for leaves to change colors and fall? If the most basic things in life proved that everything could change, why couldn't he remember that and stay?

Because she knew now that no matter how tightly she had hung onto the memories of what they had shared years ago, time wasn't slowing down for her. Time wasn't being kind to her. Time wasn't taking pity on her foolish daydreaming to stay put long enough for him to return.

Time was racing, so fast, and she couldn't remain rooted in place waiting for a day that might never come. 'I'll come back for you' wasn't going to keep her from falling when the winds beat over her, tearing her from the ground, and tossed her into the air; so all she could do was wait for the crash that would surely come.

Because when it came, she couldn't say she hadn't been prepared for it. The crash that broke through the last of her desperate hopelessness, was merciful, or so they said. At least she had survived it. Kaliah laughed, ignoring the shocked expression the nurse threw her way. What good was surviving when you felt dead inside? What good was breathing when you just wanted to fall into the dark oblivion that still beckoned from the corner of your mind? What good was living when everything you had once lived for was simply gone?

Merciful, indeed. Merciful, for now she knew how cruel that promise had been. How had she managed to hold onto those words, as the world around her fell to ash? He hadn't remembered her at all, and she doubted he dwelled on the indefinite promise he'd made her. He hadn't remained the same, that she knew. He had risen to the top, left her to watch from far below as he became the star he had always dreamed of being. To believe he would return for her just because he had said so was ludicrous.

Yet, if by some twist of fate, he did come back?

"You'll come back for me, but I won't be here." Kaliah spoke the faint, disillusioned words aloud. They were harsher when spoken, harder to ignore. "I won't want to be here."

The pretty blond nurse frowned and reached out a cool hand to feel Kaliah's forehead. "Do you feel alright? Should I get you something for the pain?"

She'd nearly forgotten that she wasn't alone in her thoughts! Kaliah noticed, for the first time since she'd awaken, the bright white walls enclosing her. The hospital room was simple with only two chairs set up on the right side of her small bed, against the wall. To her left, a large window allowed some light from outside to enter through the gentle tears on the navy curtains meant to keep her away from the outside world. She was alive, and yet the nurse wanted to give her something to remove the ache that wouldn't let her go back to the unliving.

Kaliah shook her head. "There's nothing to stop it." For her pain, there was no other way to overcome it then to let her wounds bleed. By letting out the venom of false hope that had been injected into her heart with his vague words, she could learn to exist again. She could learn to move through life, like the very leaves she had watched float back and forth on the wind before touching the ground. She could be like that. She could exist as a leaf, as a leaf who changed color once the air cooled, as a leaf who glided with the seasons. She could float in a cycle like that, dying and regrowing.

The nurse sighed. "You don't have much to say since you came back from the brink of death. Isn't there someone who could come and see you? Don't you have anything you'd like to do while you regain your strength?"

"There's no one left besides me." She was certain of that now, and she could almost say it without feeling the sting of hurt that had once pierced her heart. Almost. "But I would like to see the leaves fall."

If the nurse found Kaliah's request to be a little strange, she didn't give anything away. She only inclined her head and went to pull the curtains aside so the Autumn leaves were visible to her patient. "They do make a pretty sight."

"Yes." What a beautiful sight they were, all red and orange, the colors of the same fire that burned within her now. A slow, steady fire that was refining her.

"You are certain there is no one?" the nurse asked again, a look of confusion on her young face.

Kaliah felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand on end, something that had only ever occurred when he'd been near. She tore her eyes from the window to look at the woman before her. "I am."

"Then could he have been mistaken?" the other woman wondered. "The man who barged in yesterday night, just after we had stabilized you, didn't seem like a stranger. He kept whispering to you, all throughout the night, that he had come back for you."

I'll come back for you. Only one person could have said that, only one person had ever dared. "I don't know him."

"That's strange. I'm sure everyone has at least heard of him. His name is Dimitri Hale."

Deep within the depths of Kaliah's heart, ages ago, that name had meant everything. She had spent years burying that name under layers and layers of stone, hot igneous rock molded from the flames inside her soul. She'd spent years forgetting the name, time slowly brushing it from her thoughts until he'd become a faceless memory. A fleeting ghost that had once fed her such an outright lie. And it was because of all this time and all the layers of stone surrounding her bruised heart that Kaliah did not notice the first crack upon her defensive wall.

The door to her quiet haven opened. And her heart felt a sharp pang as her eyes drank in the sight of the man who had become no more than a memory.

"I told you I'd come back for you...someday."

Thank you for reading the beginning of one of my first love stories! I attached the music that inspired the very first words to this book... I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 

Song: I'll Come Back for You by Max Schneider 

Thank you for reading!

Sincerely, VIVKELLER23 (AKA Vivienn Keller)