Whispers Through the Veil

Chapter 6 – The Things Time Tries to Forget

The air shimmered around them.

Elianna and Leonardo ran, their footsteps soft against the earth, like ghosts moving through a world that wasn't quite theirs. The trees were the same—but different. The stars overhead blinked slower, brighter. The sounds of celebration in the Navarro estate faded behind them, swallowed by the hush of the coming storm.

They didn’t speak.

They didn’t need to.

Elianna could feel it—the threads pulling tighter. Time wasn’t just bending now. It was bleeding. Her modern memories flickered like candlelight in a strong wind. She still remembered her name, her life… but it felt far away. Like a chapter she had already finished reading.

Leonardo stopped by the riverbank, chest heaving.

“I don’t understand,” he said, eyes still locked on her. “You… you’re her. But not. You speak like no woman I’ve ever met. You knew where the letter was.”

Elianna swallowed, unsure of how to explain the impossible. “I’m not Celestina. But I remember her. I remember you. I found your letters in the future. I think—I think your soul remembered me.”

He blinked slowly. “Then you’ve come back. For me.”

“I didn’t plan it,” she said. “But I couldn’t leave it the way it ended.”

Leonardo stared at the stars for a long moment. “Then this—” he looked around—“it’s not a dream.”

“No.” Elianna took his hand, warm and trembling. “It’s a second chance.”

But even as she said it, the wind howled louder.

Like time was listening.

And growing angry.

They made camp beneath the trees near the old chapel ruins—stones covered in vines, forgotten by both history and war.

Elianna lit a small flame. She didn’t know how she remembered to do it without a lighter, but her hands moved like muscle memory, guided by something deeper than logic.

Leonardo watched her. “Celestina once said that stars remember stories we’ve forgotten.”

“I believe her,” Elianna said softly.

A long pause.

Then—“If you aren’t her… what happens if I fall in love with you again?”

Elianna met his eyes. “Then maybe… it means love doesn’t belong to time. It belongs to the soul.”

They sat in silence, watching the fire crackle.

But far beyond the trees, unseen and patient, something moved.

Something that had watched this story repeat too many times.

And this time, it would not let them rewrite the ending.