Chapter 59 Chapter 0059

Chapter 59 Chapter 0059
•SEBASTIAN•

\[THREE THOUSAND YEARS AGO\]

The sun spread warm light across the hills, covering the flowers and stones in soft gold. The air was calm, and everything felt peaceful.

I didn't trust that kind of peace. I had learned early in life that good things never lasted.

When you grow up as the son of someone who belongs to others, you understand that nothing is truly yours. Kindness can be taken away at any moment.

But Neira made me forget that. She always did.

She was running ahead of me along the hill, her dark hair flying in the wind. Her laughter filled the air, as she had never been afraid of anything.

"Vesper!" she called. "You are falling behind again!"

"I am walking properly," I replied. "There is a difference."

She stopped and turned to face me, putting her hands on her hips. She tried to look serious, but she couldn't hide her smile.

"Properly?" she scoffed. "You mean slowly?"

I reached her and stayed quiet. I just looked at her, and smiled, admiring how beautiful she looked, even without trying.

She reminded me of the time I was carrying water past her father’s home when she leaned over the fence and asked me if I thought the stars had names.

I told her I didn't know, and she smiled, saying she would find out for both of us.

That was six years ago.

"Sit with me," I muttered.

She looked curious but sat beside me on a flat stone. For a while, we said nothing.

Inside me, something heavy grew. I had been holding it in for weeks, waiting for the right moment. I wasn't sure if any moment would ever feel right.

"You are quiet," she murmured.

"I have something for you," I replied.

She turned to me, her eyes focused now. I reached into my pouch and took out the locket.

It was small and old. The metal was dark, marked with a pattern my mother used to trace on my hand every night.

She told me it came from her mother, and her mother before that. It was passed down through generations of people who had nothing else to share.

It was the only thing I had. The only thing no one had taken from me.

Neira’s breath caught when she saw it. "Vesper..."

"I know what your father thinks of me," I sighed. "I know what people say. They see all the reasons we shouldn't be together. My birth, my name, my life."

Her eyes filled with tears, but she didn't look away.

"I have nothing the world values," I continued. "But I swear to you, I will love you without end. Not because of who you are in the eyes of others, but because you are my entire sky and stars."

A tear fell down her cheek.

"This locket carries my family’s past," I added, placing it in her hand. "I want you to have it. I want you to wear it and remember that you are loved. Always."

She looked at it, her hands shaking. "If my father finds out..." she whispered.

"Let him," I answered.

She let out a soft laugh through her tears. "You are either very brave, or very foolish."

"Probably both," I answered.

She pulled me closer and kissed me. It felt like everything I had ever wanted.

When she pulled away, she opened the locket and placed it around her neck.

"There," she murmured, touching it gently. "Eternity."

After spending a few more minutes by the riverbank, having sex and talking about the foolish and funny things we wanted to tell each other, we got up and returned to the small town.

We had stopped by the small garden on our way back, and she walked into the tall grass to pick small blue flowers she liked.

I turned and ran to her when I heard her gasp.

The snake was already gone, and two small marks showed on her ankle.

"It is nothing," she gasped. "Don't worry, Vesper. I will be fine." But she staggered backward, and her eyelids grew heavy.

I lifted her and carried her, running as fast as I could. I shouted her name again and again, hoping it would keep her alive.

But when we reached her father’s gate, her body was cold.

He stood there, outside the front porch. His face changed in a way I would never forget and he frowned.

He looked at her, then at the locket around her neck. "You," he sneered. "What did you do?"

"It was a snake," I answered. "Please, she needs help."

"A snake?" he repeated. "What did you do when the creature bit her?"

"I loved her..."

He struck me before I could say more. "You know nothing love, boy. You are going to pay for her death."

•••

They kept me in the dungeons for three days. When they brought me out, her father stood before a crowd.

"You led my daughter away," he announced. "You let her die."

"I loved her," I answered. "I wouldn't have watched her die and do nothing."

"You don’t get to say that," he replied. "Men like you don't love."

A witch stood nearby. I saw her looking at the locket still on Neira’s body. She whispered something to Neira’s father, but I did not understand it then.

When they were done, they threw Neira into the sea, still wearing the locket.

I screamed until my voice broke.

•••

Dying should have been quick, but it was not. Each time I felt myself slipping away, I returned with the same pain, and the same grief.

By the fourth morning, something had changed.

My body felt different. My senses grew sharp. My wounds healed too fast, and something moved inside me, something not human.

I was no longer just a man, I was something else.

I tried to die many times, but I couldn't

Years passed, then centuries. And the world forgot her. Then it forgot me, and my story changed each time it was told.

After one hundred years, I became a rumor. After two hundred, I became a warning, and after three hundred, I became a myth.