The door stood open in the orchard, its frame glowing with an otherworldly light.
Almond and Glory stood side by side, hands entwined, as the soft breeze played with their hair. The map in her mind—now more a part of her than anything else—told them everything they needed to know.
They had crossed so many lines, followed so many threads, that this moment felt inevitable. Every dream, every whisper, every time they had found each other before—it had all led them here.
Almond glanced at Glory, her heart racing like it had the very first time they had spoken.
“Are you ready?” she asked, her voice barely above a breath.
He smiled at her—gentle, tender, as if he knew exactly how this would unfold. “I’ve been ready for lifetimes.”
Without another word, they stepped through the door.
The world around them shifted like they were no longer bound by time or space. The stars above grew brighter, their glow swirling like galaxies spinning in a dance. And beneath their feet, the ground turned soft—like stepping into a dream they had lived a thousand times.
They walked together, moving effortlessly, hand in hand. The air was thick with the scent of roses and the taste of rain, like it was a place that belonged only to them—where no one else could follow.
Almond looked up at the sky, feeling a calm, an ache, all at once.
“What is this place?” she asked, her voice full of awe.
“It’s the place where all versions of us meet,” Glory said softly. “Where every time we’ve loved, every time we’ve lost… they come together here.”
She looked at him, her chest full of something that felt like coming home.
“Why do I feel like I’ve known you forever?”
He stopped, pulling her gently toward him. “Because you have. You just had to remember.”
And then he kissed her. Softly. Deeply. A kiss that wasn’t just in the present, but in every moment they had ever shared. Every dream. Every lifetime. Every fleeting touch.
It was the kind of kiss that made the world stand still.
The kiss that was never just one kiss.
It was all of them. All the times their souls had met, across endless spaces and lifetimes.
And Almond felt it, all of it—every memory, every feeling, every word she had never spoken. Every promise they had made to each other, wrapped into this single moment.
When they pulled away, her forehead rested against his, breath mingling in the quiet of the dream world.
“I think I understand now,” Almond whispered.
“Understand what?” Glory murmured, his voice thick with emotion.
She smiled, her heart fluttering, her fingers tracing the lines of his face as if she’d memorized them from the very first time she’d dreamed of him.
“This,” she said softly. “This is what love is. Not just two hearts finding each other—but souls coming together through time, remembering, returning. Over and over.”
Glory’s smile was the softest thing she had ever seen, filled with a depth she could never fully explain. “I thought you already knew. I thought you always knew.”
She shook her head, her fingers brushing against his lips. “I didn’t. But I do now.”
The sky above them began to shimmer. The stars began to move in sync with their heartbeat.
And then, the world opened wide.
Not a door anymore. Not just a dream.
But a promise.
“This isn’t just the end,” Glory whispered, his voice full of wonder. “This is just the beginning.”
And with that, they stood in the light of the stars, knowing that no matter how many times they would meet, no matter how many lifetimes they would live—they would always find each other.
Always.
Forever.
The End.
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