Riley’s POV
All the mories Mom and Dad took from you," she added.
That made freeze completely."What?"
She nodded like it was sothing simple.
"They didn’t want you to rember ," she continued. "Or anything connected to ."
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t.
Because now everything was starting to connect in a way I didn’t like.
The missing pieces. The empty gaps. The feeling that sothing was always off but I couldn’t explain it.
"You’ll get it all back," she said again. "Every single mory."
I shook my head slightly, trying to process everything.
"This is insane," I said quietly.
"It’s the truth," she replied.
I looked at her again, trying to find any sign that she was lying or ssing with , but there was nothing.
She was serious. And that made this even worse.
She stepped closer and took my hands again.
"Co with ," she said.
I didn’t resist.
At this point, I needed answers, and she was the only one who could give them.
She started walking, and I followed her, staying close as we moved through the place.
After a while, sothing appeared in front of us.
A house.
I slowed down when I saw it.
"You live there?" I asked.
She nodded."Yes."
I looked at it for a mont, then back at her.
"How long?" I asked.
"For years now," she replied.
That didn’t sit well with .
"What do you an years?" I asked.
"I can’t cross over," she said. "And I can’t co back to the living either."
I stared at her."So you’re stuck here?" I asked.
She nodded slightly."Yes."
We reached the house, and before I could say anything else, she suddenly turned to again and pulled into another hug.
This one was stronger. Tighter. It caught off guard completely.
Her arms wrapped around firmly, and I felt the pressure imdiately, like she didn’t want to let go.
I inhaled sharply because it almost knocked the breath out of , but I didn’t push her away.
I just stood there, letting her hold .
Because now I understood sothing.
This wasn’t just a random mont for her.
This ant sothing.
She had been here for years.
Alone.
Stuck.
And now I was finally here.
After a few seconds, she pulled back slowly and looked at properly.
Her expression changed slightly, and for the first ti since I saw her, she looked emotional.
"I missed you," she said.
And that hit harder than anything else she had said so far.
Because I didn’t know how to respond to that.
I didn’t even rember her properly.
But sohow...I felt the sincerity in her tone.
I was still trying to steady myself after everything she had said and everything I had just seen in my head when Carian gently held my hand again and guided further into the house.
And this ti I followed her without hesitation because at this point I needed answers more than anything else and she was the only one who could give them to .
The inside of the house looked lived in, not abandoned or empty like I expected, and that alone made feel strange because she had just told she had been stuck here for years, yet everything around looked like soone had been taking care of it, arranging things, living normally, like ti hadn’t completely stopped for her.
She led to a seat and motioned for to sit down, and I did, slowly lowering myself while keeping my eyes on her because I still didn’t trust anything fully, not even my own reactions, and she didn’t sit imdiately, she just stood in front of and stared.
At first, I thought she was just looking at normally, but then it kept going, and going, and going, and it started to feel different, not uncomfortable exactly, but intense, like she was trying to morize every part of my face, like she was making sure I was actually real and not sothing she imagined.
I shifted slightly, frowning a little. "What?" I asked her, because I didn’t understand why she was looking at like that.
She didn’t answer imdiately, and that was when I noticed the change in her eyes, the way they softened, the way sothing emotional started to show through, and before I could even ask again, I saw tears forming.
That caught off guard completely.
I straightened where I sat, confused. "Why are you crying?" I asked, because I genuinely didn’t understand how we went from talking normally to this.
She didn’t try to hide it, and that made it feel more real.
"It’s been years," she said quietly, her voice not as steady as before, and I could hear the emotion clearly now. "Years without seeing you."
I didn’t respond imdiately because I didn’t know how to respond to that, especially when I didn’t even rember her properly, and yet the way she said it made it feel like I should.
"I missed you so much," she added, and this ti it hit differently.
I looked at her again, properly, trying to understand what I was feeling because sothing inside reacted to her words even if my mind was still catching up, and I hated that I couldn’t explain it.
It wasn’t just sympathy.
It wasn’t just confusion.
It felt deeper than that, like sothing in recognized her even if I didn’t consciously rember her, and that made everything harder to ignore.
She wiped her tears after a mont and took a small breath like she was trying to calm herself down, and then she straightened up again and stepped closer to .
Before I could ask what she was doing, she reached out and gently placed her hand on my hair, smoothing it slowly, carefully, like she had done it many tis before, and I froze slightly at the contact because it felt too familiar.
"You never liked sitting still," she said softly, her fingers moving through my hair as she spoke. "Every ti I tried to fix your hair, you would complain and move around like it was the worst thing in the world."
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