Elijah's POV:

Ringlets of loose curls framed the face of the woman sitting at the diner table, her mouth pressed into a line. She had chosen the seat facing the glass window as she always had. A part of me wondered if somewhere deep down the ghost of experience was still lurking, and she had sat there because deep down she knew that it was her seat.

A server walked up, and she smiled but shook her head before glancing to her left. Despite the distance, I could make out the crystalline gleam in her grey eyes and wished to expel the heaviness in them. Even though I hadn't seen her for days, it was as if no time had passed at all.

She was still as beautiful, as alluring, as always.

I hadn't expected her to still come, since I hadn't responded to her message. Yet there she was.

I had listened to it, countless times now. Hoping to hear her voice. Hurting each time that the message ended.

Silently, I watched as the corners of her mouth tipped down, and her eyes floated to the old antique clock that hung above the diner door as if expecting someone. Guilt tightened its grip around my chest. I wanted more than anything to be in there sitting down instead of cowering in the safety of my car.

But I didn't move.

Instead, I sat there, the slow hum of the engine drowning out my heartbeat. Her hands fiddled with the handle of a black coffee cup, a far-off expression on her features.

My fingers closed around the door handle of my car involuntarily. For a moment I let myself consider the possibility that the fact that she was willing to try to remember us, was a sign that everything would be okay. But that thought only crossed my mind for a mere second.

I withdrew my hand replacing it in its previous position in my lap, my mind reasoning with my heart.

Just because she wanted to try didn't mean that it would all work out.

I didn't know what I would do if I got my hopes up now, only to watch her fall when she couldn't remember me. I wouldn't subject her to that pain, and I knew she would feel it because she was that selfless. I saw how it killed her to know that there were people that she didn't remember before, and I didn't want her feeling of guilt she didn't deserve.

The pain of our pasts had already belittled the strong women that she was, and I would not abet its cruel touch. My hand had already stirred the pot of tournament that had brewed the strenuous life she lived, and no longer would I let it boil.

My fingers fell to the gearshift, moving it into reverse, and I checked behind me before backing out of the parking lot. I pulled forward, the applaud of a thousand wings slicing through the night, as a group of ravens startled at the bright incandescence of my car's headlights.

Not looking back, I peeled out of the parking lot and turned onto the main road. Pressing down on the gas I willed myself not to turn back around, as I fought the sting that licked at the back of my eyes, and left my heart behind me.