Chapter 5 The silence that follows

Weeks passed.

Blackthorn Manor stood empty once more, wrapped in quiet and memory. Mara wandered its halls like a ghost, touching things she didn't recognize, drawn to places she couldn't explain.

The mark was gone. So was the pain in her dreams. But sometimes, in the stillness, she'd feel a tug in her chest - a warmth, a flicker - like someone had just left the room.

She visited the willow tree often. She couldn't remember why it mattered, only that it did. Beneath its branches, the wind always carried something soft: a whisper, a name she almost knew.

One morning, she found a folded note tucked into her journal.

"You won't remember me, but I'll remember for both of us. If love is strong enough, it finds a way back. - A."

She pressed the paper to her heart and wept, though she didn't know why.

Years would pass. The veil would stay sealed. But sometimes, Mara would dream of eyes she'd never seen and a voice calling her through the dark.

And always, she would wake with tears - and a feeling that someone, somewhere, was still waiting for her all along

Not gone.

Just out of reach.