CHAPTER THREE: The First Conversation

Elianah

Group work. The two words she dreaded most. It wasn't that she hated people — she just preferred the quiet safety of her own thoughts. So when their literature teacher clapped her hands and said, "Pick a partner," Elianah pretended to flip through her notebook, hoping someone would pick someone else.

Then came the words that changed everything.

> "Elianah... you'll pair with Isaiah."

Her eyes snapped up.

The name again. That name.

Isaiah.

Like the boy in her dreams.

Like the boy at the fountain.

She looked across the room, and there he was — taller now, broader shoulders, but still with the same quiet intensity in his gaze. His pencil was twirling in his fingers. He wasn't looking at her. Yet.

When he finally did, their eyes met.

Again, the silence.

Again, the world paused.

She swallowed hard and nodded once.

> "Okay."

---

Isaiah

He remembered her eyes before he remembered her name. They were like dusk — not bright, but glowing.

He hadn't noticed her in this class until now. Or maybe he had, but not like this.

When the teacher said "Elianah," something in his chest stirred. A soft thump, like an old heartbeat echoing through the walls of a new body.

> Elianah.

He repeated it in his mind. Slowly. Carefully. As if it were sacred.

When their names were paired, he expected awkwardness. Instead, when he looked up and met her gaze, it felt… calm. As if they'd done this before. As if this wasn't the first time he'd had to reach for her across timelines.

---

Their Table

They sat beside each other in the library after school, books scattered between them. At first, they didn't speak. She chewed the end of her pen. He sketched absently in the margins of his notebook.

Finally, she broke the silence.

> "Have we met before?"

He paused. Looked up.

> "I was just about to ask you that."

She smiled, small but real.

And that was how it began.

Not with fireworks.

Not with declarations.

Just a question, and a shared stillness.

---

Narrator

Somewhere, the universe exhaled.

The souls who had once died reaching for each other had finally spoken again. Not in desperation this time — but in peace.

Yet peace has never been a promise.

Only a moment.

And in the shadows beyond their meeting, the first winds of something darker were beginning to stir.