Time had stopped meaning anything.
The echo field stretched infinitely, a horizonless plain of silver mist and falling light. Rain whispered against the unseen surface beneath Aiden's feet — soft, rhythmic, like the heartbeat of a world that refused to forget.
He walked. He didn't know for how long. Hours, maybe years. Every drop of rain shimmered with memory — fragments of laughter, cries, dreams — souls that once were.
Sometimes he saw faces in the light. People he'd known. Others he hadn't. They flickered past like echoes caught in the folds of existence, then faded again into the white.
But one figure never disappeared.
Elara.
Even here, even beyond, her presence rippled through everything — a warmth that refused to die, no matter how many worlds fell apart.
He closed his eyes.And for the first time, the rain stopped.
Elara was dreaming again.
This time, she knew it wasn't a dream. The air felt real. Her skin was wet, her breath came cold, and beneath her shoes was the same mirrored surface she'd seen before.
"Where am I?" she whispered.
"You're between," came a voice — soft, distant, and achingly familiar.
She turned, and there he was.
Aiden.
The same eyes. The same faint smile that lived in her paintings and her pulse. His form was faint, the light passing through him like mist, but he was there.
"Elara…" His voice trembled with something between joy and apology. "You found your way here."
She took a shaky step toward him. "I— I don't remember how."
"You weren't supposed to." He smiled gently. "But sometimes, when love refuses to fade, it leaves a door open."
The rain began again, falling in slow, glittering sheets. It was beautiful here — not dark, not lonely. Just endless.
Elara reached out her hand.So did he.
For a moment, their fingers touched. The world rippled like glass breaking underwater.
"I thought you were gone," she said.
"I was," he whispered. "But you remembered me. And that's all it takes to exist here."
She smiled through her tears. "Then I'll never forget."
He stepped closer, and though his form shimmered, she felt warmth — real, human, alive. The echoes around them stirred, the rain began to glow brighter, and the air sang softly — as if the universe itself exhaled.
Somewhere far away, in the real world, a drop of rain fell on the painting above Elara's bed.
The man in the portrait — the one standing in the rain — seemed to move, ever so slightly. His hand, once still, now reached out toward hers.
And though she slept, Elara's lips curved into a peaceful smile.
Back in the echo field, Aiden and Elara stood side by side.
"What happens now?" she asked quietly.
"Now?" Aiden looked at the endless rain, at the light stretching forever. "Now we walk. As long as the world remembers us… we'll keep walking."
Elara took his hand. "Then let's never stop."
They walked into the rain, their reflections fading until there was nothing left but ripples — two souls, forever echoing through a world that remembered what love was.