The Time It Takes To Fall

A Time Unknown

USA, 2019 A.D.

Bright yellows flowers held Kai's gaze— they were different in shape and size than the ones he was thinking of. They weren't the wish flowers that had been in that valley in Scotland; they were delicate yellow daisies. But all he could see was the vibrant color, and all he could smell was that scent of wild, and his mind dragged him back to that time when he had held her in that valley of yellow flowers

His hands started to shake and he closed his eyes, trying to ward off the tears and memories. Breathing suddenly became a chore and he had to think about each breath as he allowed for oxygen to enter his lungs. He pressed his hands against his chest and felt the rapid kick of his pulse beneath his fingers. He reminded himself that he wasn't in Scotland and the year wasn't 1872.

Kai exhaled slowly, squeezing his eyes one last time before he opened them again. The flowers were no longer dandelions but daisies, and he was in twenty-first century America. Everything within the world had righted itself once more into reality.

But those moments of forgetting plagued him more and more frequently as the years went on. Seeing something so simple as a bundle of flowers or the soft flicker of flames or even a prison cell could send him back to a more sinister day within his past. The reminders of his long and miserable life were everywhere, and they tortured him with increasing cruelty as the years passed by.

"Are you okay?"

Kai shifted his attention up toward a woman with a kind smile. She wore a red apron that read Benoit Farms and Flowers in a near-cursive script. The bright red clashed violently with her flaming hair. He gave her his best attempt at a smile and curtly nodded his head. She blinked away the concern in her eyes and turned her attention back to a rose bouquet she had been working on.

Eyes scanning the rest of the flower stand's selection, Kai picked a bouquet of white and pink peonies— a sort of tribute to the one family member Cinder held dear to her heart.

He paid for the flowers and thanked the woman even as she stared at him with slight concern. He didn't have time to get worked up over a memory of something that had taken place literal lifetimes ago. He was no longer in the same century— he no longer lived on that same continent. Everything had changed.

Now he was going to meet Cinder, who cared for him deeply and held no fear of him. He had finally won the battle against life and death and would once again be with the woman he loved so dearly.

After the night before filled with kissing and talking and the holding of one another, Kai felt assured that he had finally succeeded— that the whole thing had not been in vain; he wouldn't be forced to spend the rest of his eternity damned and as a servant of death herself.

But even as he celebrated the victory of winning the love of his dear Selene once more, he couldn't help the feeling that something awful was about to happen, just as it always had. Whether it be imprisonment, or a raid, or a freak drowning accident, Selene always seemed to slip from his grasp the moment they finally committed to one another. It had been that way from their very first life together, as Kai had held her in that secret garden and asked the servant girl to be his for forever and watched her die slowly the very next day.

It was almost as if they were cursed to find each other again and again only to lose one another. Kai's destiny was not the happy ending, but the long and miserable journey it took to get to it. All his life he had had to live with a half-finished fairytale, ending before the prince and the princess got their happily ever after.

Kai shook his head as if to clear his mess of thoughts from it. Nothing good ever came from worrying about what could happen— especially when it wouldn't happen. He was going to spend a lovely evening with Cinder, and that in and of itself was enough to melt all the worry away from his heart.