A silence had spread over the town. A quiet it had rarely witnessed in the duration of rain. One would even say it was a cruel prank by the gods. Or perhaps, a curse was placed. However, the quiet did not feel uncertain. It smelled of the green leaves, fresh from their bath. Of the mud which played on Earth, reminiscing its lost friend, the tears of sky. It spoke of the sunrise through birds that chirped.
The people in town felt a wave of joy wash over them in this fresh environment.
And in the row of houses, each door opened or closed to greet the new day's air. To depart its members for the night's return. Along that chain, a particular house remained sealed. The door stood firm and locked. The windows concealed any light in or any air out. Some people halted, gazed over the house. A smile would spread over the lips that had spoken to the girl here and then they would resume their day.
Last day in the town. Maya was leaving, and they knew how connected she had become with everyone. A month of time brings not only people together but complements them with emotions. Maya had become family to a few over that tenure.
So seeing the door locked at the time it should have been open wasn't odd. It was expected; the girl must be composing herself to leave.
And yet, behind the shut door was anything but composure. The hall, the kitchen, and the entire house had been plunged into darkness. A ghost of life, a memory of presence. The air was fusty. It dared any person to pass the room and reach the bedroom.
The only room with lights shimmering all over. As if that place was a haven from the haunting outside. As if a prison to secure something, not to cage one thing.
"Leo..." Maya's eyes glistened with the waters as pure as the rain's tears. And yet they held no such melancholy, offered no despair. What they held was an unadulterated joy, a genuine declaration of longing.
Hunched over her was the shadow of her despair, her wonder, her life, her love, and her everything she had discovered just a few hours ago. The bed creaked whenever Leo moved.
He moved, he sobbed, he trembled at her every voice. He felt alive. So alive, after dying over a million times. After tasting the coldness of existence, the regression into its numbness, her taste was life's essence he had missed.
"You are alive..." She said, adding to the hundredth time she had spoken the same. The words felt unreal on her tongue. A dream of every life now felt like reality. And he made it even more real whenever he pressed her stomach.
"Maya,.." Leo added his own prayer. An etching of reality onto their souls. Reality of their lives now, reality of their love now. Vaan and Saya had begun their journey, so he wished and hoped that this end would be last. As Maya and Leo.
"Again..." She pleaded.
"Maya..." He responded.
What was this curse? Who had placed it? Why them?
The memory of their first life was hazy, almost incomprehensible. Except for the fact that they were humans even then, nothing else clicked into the puzzle. Leo's eyes would trail to the window.
'What if...' and he would be pulled back into her embrace, his lips being blessed. "Don't look," she would say.
"You don't need the rain anymore," she would thread her hand through his hair. "I need you. You have needed me forever," she would let him compete with her tongue. "I can love you now," and he would forget the rain had ever been a notification of his death. Because the heat she brought was melting him into a disarray of senses, building him into a dedication to her.
Leo's hand brushed past her hips and held her thighs firmly. He would squeeze, let her feel his presence. His other hand threaded through her hair too, feeling the pulse of her heart resonating in the back of her head.
At some moment, they were nothing but two heartbeats merging. And one of the heartbeats would push into another, releasing its beat. The other would resonate with equal push.
"More,...love me." Whenever she asked, he would eat her words with a kiss and let his body follow her orders. She would squirm under him when their bodies shivered together. The rain had left a cold breeze behind.
"I want this to be our life..." Maya pushed Leo onto the bed, putting him on his back. Her face appeared above his; the light had no need to highlight her beauty. He would find her even in the darkest parts of the world.
But Leo didn't answer. Hadn't answered twice before.
Yes, he had survived.
'I can't answer that...' he would think, and wish for the opposite. Leo hoped so dearly that this would be their life. The end of their cascading fate. The halt to their merciless mockery of love. That the universe would finally, surely have let them be.
"It'll be..." He spoke with restraint in his voice. Tears held back not of doubt but of fear. Fear that he would have to make her whole again in another approaching life. The waver in his voice did not miss Maya.
She lowered on him, her lips finding his cheeks, teetering to his ear. Her voice rippled in his mind, "Even if it isn't, you are alive. I can love you. You can love me. We can be." The tears in her eyes had halted, exhausted with the rain. Whatever amount remained came in like hiccups. But the way she choked while speaking made her heart wither despite his mind thinking with caution.
"We can..." his hands rounded around her waist, pulled her in.
The day was bright outside, the room alive inside.
It was past noon. Sofia had texted Maya to ask when she would be leaving. She had replied with the guise that some school work made her wait another day.
"I love you," Leo mumbled as he slept beside her. His hand remained steady under her head even when he moved around. "I love you," he mumbled again. There was a slight glimpse of tears around his eyes, and Maya kissed the corner of them. The tears wet her lips, the cold spreading on them as she smiled.
His hand remained tight around her as if to hold her in his space. She let him pull her, let him put his head near her shoulder. She put her hands on his hand resting on her stomach. The fear of perhaps waking up and realising this as a dream was creeping into her mind. But her sore hips and the burning marks on her chest, neck, and cheek made sure to let it not haunt her.
A million lives had come to an end. An end where her partner didn't close his eyes to open them in another life. Didn't call her name to forget it again. Didn't hold her hand to depart.
She closed her eyes, a smile tracing her lips that matched his, knowing that this might or might not be their only life. But it was theirs for sure, and she would cherish it with the last of her soul. A soul that had given no such chance.
The rain that would arrive again would also welcome the warmth. Would also bless Leo. It would also carry the weight of millions of its failures. And it would fall over them again, like a prayer to love itself.
A love forged in the heat of that rain.