Ella knew the way well now.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhDVZCLl8yJ
The maps Leonard had fearfully drawn, the truncated conversations, had all led her here.
The lake.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9FVyQN4Fr
In rural New York, beyond the forest that whispers even when it's silent.
She arrived just before sunset.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAfoSoEKonc
The snow was still soft at the edges of the lake, and the ice above it wasn't what it was...24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmdPSNwKq0L
It had thin cracks, as if the surface had wept at night and hadn't yet dried.
Ella stood by the water and took out a small notebook.
A notebook in which nothing had been written yet.
She sat down on a rock, cold as if she had come from the depths of winter.
She looked at the frozen surface and said, her voice barely audible:
"Sometimes a story dies because someone decides to tell the truth. Nothing more."
She opened the notebook and wrote:
"He didn't drown... He just didn't want to go back to dry land."
Everything in the place seemed to hear.
The wind didn't blow; it listened. The forest doesn't move, it holds its breath.
Ella looked deep into the ice, where nothing could be seen, and imagined that there was... Leonard.24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡanoJbUbZBd
Sitting beneath the surface, not dead, but silent...24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4rKR9ePx7y
watching the words fall like leaves into the water.
Before she left, she tore a page from the notebook,24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡulLcUJlysU
folded it,24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBxWYGmU6Ah
slid it between a small crack in a nearby tree.
Then she whispered:
"If Athan doesn't want a body... I won't give him my body. I'll just give him an unforgettable voice."
On the way back to New York, Ella thought of one thing:
Is the story over?24Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn1FGp2x9om
Or is it just beginning... with a new name, with a different shadow that he will attempt to write?
