CHAPTER EIGHT:When The Past Breathes Too Soon

Elianah

She barely heard a word Mr. Dane said in class.

His voice was calm, low, almost soothing — but underneath it, Elianah felt something stir. Like the way a forest grows still before a storm.

Something about his presence made her bones remember things her mind could not.

As he spoke about ancient civilizations and souls who lived many lives under different names, her heart beat unevenly.

She didn't take notes. She didn't blink much either.

When the bell rang, she waited until the class emptied out, then walked slowly past his desk, her bag clutched tightly.

> "You believe in reincarnation, don't you?" she asked, her voice quiet but not unsure.

Mr. Dane didn't look surprised.

He simply folded his hands and smiled, as if he'd been waiting for her to ask that exact question.

> "I believe memory is a stubborn thing," he said. "Even when the body forgets, the soul keeps score."

She left without another word.

But her hands were trembling.

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Isaiah

Cassia had a way of showing up before you knew you needed or feared her.

She didn't walk — she moved like a decision already made.

Now she sat across from Isaiah at the art garden, legs crossed, fingers playing with a worn silver ring on her thumb.

> "You dream in color or black and white?" she asked him out of nowhere.

He looked at her, then back at his sketchbook.

> "Color," he said. "Mostly. Why?"

> "Just wondering if you see what I see."

He wasn't sure if she meant the same strange dreams that haunted him — faces he didn't know but loved anyway, cities that felt familiar, voices that called his name in languages he didn't speak.

Cassia pulled out a necklace from under her shirt — a small glass vial filled with what looked like ashes.

She didn't explain it. She didn't need to.

Something about her was deeply wrong, and deeply right.

---

Narrator

There are people who come into your life like mirrors — showing you what you've been avoiding.

Then there are others who arrive like keys, unlocking doors you never knew existed.

Cassia and Mr. Dane were both.

One held fire behind her smile.

The other held time behind his eyes.

And Elianah and Isaiah —

They were about to remember more than they were ready to.