Chapter 6

My legs had lost feeling from being curled up too long. The slightest movement nearly sent me tumbling off the bed.

In the moonlight, the school uniform on his body felt both intimately familiar and utterly foreign.

I tugged at the collar, stunned for a long while, struggling to accept the impossible truth that I seemed to have truly returned to the past.

"Amelia..."

The calling voice faded in and out.

I closed my eyes, steadied myself, and slowly moved to the window.

The man below, separated by just an hour in my time but now ten years younger, suddenly appeared, momentarily disorienting me.

The dormitory was on the second floor.

Seeing me appear, Connor looked up and waved.

"You begged me to come, remember?

"How is it? Scared of being all alone in there?"

He wore that cocky smile, his tone distinctly more arrogant than I remembered.

Under the streetlight, his eyes looked sincere and bright, like freshly polished glass.

I stared down at him, my breathing unconsciously quickening.

My fingertips silently traced where the ring had been, but there was no mark, no indentation from years of wear.

Everything was brand new.

"The teachers are all in a meeting. I specifically skipped class to come keep you company.

"If you hadn't kept calling, I wouldn't have bothered coming.

"Want to hear a song?"

*****

Too many years had passed. I'd almost forgotten.

So many things I thought were gifts had actually been things I'd begged for from the start.

Connor had a naturally good voice. After graduation, he signed with a company smoothly. During countless nights when I couldn't see him, I fell asleep listening to his songs.

Now, they sounded more like an enchanting curse.

After so long, complex emotions tangled in my chest, leaving me utterly speechless.

Perhaps thinking I was entranced, Connor sang with increasing enthusiasm.

The streetlight hit him like a spotlight, creating a stage seemingly just for me.

Then my phone rang unexpectedly.

I snapped back to reality. On the other end was an anxious male voice accompanied by hurried footsteps.

"I'm almost there, Amelia. Just wait for me. The dorm building lost power for maintenance. How did you get locked in?"

I pulled the phone away to check the caller ID: Class President Logan Blake.

I had no memory of him appearing during this night the first time around.

The call fell silent for a long moment.

Finally, breathing heavily, Logan asked, "Amelia, are you afraid of the dark?"

Connor's singing continued below.

I stepped away from the window, turned the faucet on full blast, watched the basin slowly fill under the moonlight, and asked softly, "Logan, are you afraid of ghosts?"

"What?"

I chuckled softly, suddenly threw open the window, lifted that basin of freezing water, and mercilessly dumped it down.

The singing below abruptly drowned in spluttering silence.

I looked down, my slightly trembling fingers bracing the windowsill, and sneered at the drenched figure below, "Shut up! Your singing is awful."