Ella knew the way well now.123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlleTG353bL
The maps Leonard had fearfully drawn, the truncated conversations, had all led her here.
The lake.123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXOkHZRTPVx
In rural New York, beyond the forest that whispers even when it's silent.
She arrived just before sunset.123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnFIgeBg5AL
The snow was still soft at the edges of the lake, and the ice above it wasn't what it was...123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeyEShTKkJg
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.123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPj6mDyJusi
Sitting beneath the surface, not dead, but silent...123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPYg3DOFEGT
watching the words fall like leaves into the water.
Before she left, she tore a page from the notebook,123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg638P3bH2F
folded it,123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJkg4tM4q0T
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?123Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHT4yRqnKhf
Or is it just beginning... with a new name, with a different shadow that he will attempt to write?
