Chapter 5
778 Words
"Jayden, will you stay with me in the next life too?"
"One lifetime isn't nearly enough, Rivka. I want the next one, and every life after that!"
The memory struck without warning, her own laughter and Jayden's warm voice echoing painfully in her mind.
Then Willow and Jayden started laughing together inside the room, and the sound turned her stomach.
Rivka could not stand there another second. She went upstairs, shut herself inside her room, and finally let the tears come.
*****
The next morning, Rivka woke in a haze when her phone suddenly began to ring.
She glanced at the screen and saw a reminder marked with a heart that she had saved months ago.
"Happy anniversary to us. Don't forget to go back to the chapel and keep our promise."
The words pulled her back half a year.
After they returned from a mountain retreat upstate, she and Jayden had promised to return to the chapel on their anniversary and renew the vow they had made beside the fountain in the prayer garden.
She had been afraid she might forget, so she wrote it down.
Now, listening to the noise of wedding preparations echoing up from the courtyard below, she felt nothing but restless irritation.
In the end, Rivka decided to go to the chapel alone.
She was not going there to fulfill a vow. She was going there to sever every remaining tie between herself and Jayden before the procedure.
Half an hour later, she arrived at the mountaintop chapel.
Rivka stood at the top of the hill and listened to the bells ring through the morning air. Their sound was low and clear, and for a moment, it seemed capable of quieting every troubled thought.
After a long while, she made her way to the fountain in the prayer garden. The water was so clear she could see straight to the bottom. A few coins rested there, each one cast with someone's private wish.
Rivka looked down at the water, and too many emotions rose at once.
A year ago, she and Jayden had stood in that exact spot with their fingers laced together, promising each other a lifetime.
"Together for life," he had said. "No matter what!"
She could still hear the words. Only now, they meant nothing.
Rivka turned to leave, but before she could take more than a few steps, a priest approached her.
"It's you," he said with a smile. "It's been a long time."
"It has, Father," Rivka replied with a small smile.
The priest glanced behind her. "You came alone today. You must have something heavy on your mind."
Rivka forced a faint smile. "He's... busy with work."
Then she said goodbye and kept walking.
At last, she stopped beneath the wish tree in the chapel garden, its branches covered in ribbons left by couples and visitors. It took only one glance to find the ribbon she and Jayden had tied there together.
She reached up and took it down. The words written across it were still perfectly clear. "Jayden wants to stay with Rivka forever, in every lifetime."
"Are you sure you won't regret being stuck with me life after life?"
"Are you kidding? I'd cling to you forever if I could. How could I ever regret it?"
The memory returned so vividly that her chest tightened all over again.
Rivka folded the ribbon once, held it over the flame of the candle bowl beside the tree, and watched it catch fire. After that, she pulled a coin from her bag, wrapped it tightly in her palm, and made one final wish in silence.
"Please let me forget Jayden completely."
Then she threw the coin into the fountain and watched it skip once before sinking beneath the water.
Rivka drew in a slow breath.
For the first time in months, she felt as though a small part of the bitterness inside her had finally loosened its hold.
She stayed there a little longer before finally turning to head back down the hill.
She had barely taken two steps when she saw a familiar figure in the distance walking straight into the chapel.
It was Jayden!
Had he really remembered their anniversary after all?
Rivka was suddenly afraid she had imagined him, so she hurried after him and followed him to the chapel entrance.
She stopped outside, wanting to see why he had come.
Jayden stood before the cross and lit a votive candle. Then he bowed his head and folded his hands in prayer.
"Please let Willow and me be together soon. Free her from pain, and let her live the rest of her life in peace!"
- Writer
