(Anastasha's POV, but everything shown through dialogue & her immediate reactions)
Miriam:[placing the cake down] "Happy sixteenth, sweetheart."
Caleb:[loud whisper, grinning] "Don't forget your wish! And no cheating, Anna."
Naomi:[snickering] "Yeah, and don't waste it on something boring. Like, 'I wish I pass my exams.' That's lame."
Me:[smiles faintly] "Wow. Thanks for the support, guys."
Daniel:[short, firm] "Go on. Blow the candle. Let's not keep everyone waiting."
Miriam:[gentle] "Take your time, Anna. Make it a good wish."
I stare at the candle, the tiny flame shaking like it knows something I don't. My chest feels tight.
Caleb: "Come onnn. We're all hungry."
Naomi:[teasing] "She's being dramatic. Watch, she's gonna make a speech first."
Me:[half-hearted laugh] "Shut up, Naomi."
I take a breath. The flame blurs. For a second, the whole room feels too bright. I blow it out. Darkness. Smoke curls upward.
Miriam:[clapping softly] "There. Perfect."
Naomi: "So? What did you wish for?"
Me:[shaking head] "I'm not telling you."
Caleb: "That means it was something silly."
Daniel:[quiet, watchful] "You don't look right. You're pale."
Miriam:[touching my hand] "Anna? You okay?"
The walls press in. A word swells up inside me like it's been waiting years to burst.
Me:[blurts out] "Iris."
Naomi:[frowning] "…What? Who's Iris?"
Caleb:[grinning] "Is that your wish? Some girl named Iris?"
Me:[shaking head quickly] "No, I—I don't know. It just—slipped."
Miriam:[concerned] "Anna, talk to me. What are you feeling?"
Me: "I… I thought I heard someone. Outside."
Daniel:[snapping slightly] "Outside? At this hour?"
Me: "He… he called me Iris. He knew the name."
Naomi:[trying to joke but uneasy] "Okay, creepy. That's not funny, Anna."
Caleb:[nervous laugh] "Maybe you've been watching too much anime again."
Me:[voice shaking] "I'm serious. I heard him."
Miriam:[rising slightly] "Do you want me to make tea? Something warm?"
Me: "No, I— I need to go. I have to find out who it was."
Daniel:[stern, cutting] "Absolutely not. You're not running off into the dark because of some voice in your head."
Me:[pleading] "It wasn't in my head! He was there. I know he was."
Naomi:[quieter now] "Anna, this is… weird. You're scaring me."
Me:[to her, softer] "I'm scaring myself."
Caleb:[trying to lighten the mood] "Okay, okay. If it's real, maybe it's a ghost. Or—"
Daniel:[sharp] "Enough." [to me] "You're staying here."
Me: "No. I have to go. If I don't— I'll regret it. Please, just… let me."
Miriam:[desperate] "Anna—"
Me:[louder than I mean] "If you stop me, I'll just go later. Alone."
The silence after is heavy. Naomi looks at Daniel. Miriam presses her lips tight, tears trembling in her eyes.
Kelvin:[steady voice, finally speaking up] "Then I'll come with you."
Me:[turning sharply] "No. It won't work if I'm not alone."
Daniel:[firm] "You are not walking into those woods without someone."
Me:[voice cracking] "He called me. By name. Not Anna. Not Anastasha. Iris. Don't you understand? He knows me. Somehow, he knows me."
Naomi:[hesitant] "And if it's just some creep messing with you?"
Me:[shaking head] "It's not. I felt it. I… remembered."
Miriam:[softly] "Remembered what?"
Me:[almost whispering] "A life that isn't mine."
The words hang in the air like smoke. No one knows what to say. I push my chair back. The legs scrape the floor. My body is already moving before my mind can ask permission.
Daniel:[angry now] "Anna! Sit back down."
Me:[pausing at the door, looking back at them] "I can't."
Their faces blur together: Miriam's fear, Daniel's fury, Naomi's confusion, Caleb's wide-eyed awe. None of them can follow me into what waits outside. None of them are meant to. I grip the doorknob and whisper, almost to myself:
Me: "I'll be back."
I close the door before they can argue. The night swallows me whole.
he woods are alive. Every step cracks a branch, every shadow breathes. I hug myself against the cold, but it doesn't help. Then—his voice again, soft, sharp, undeniable.
Jason: "Iris."
My heart stumbles. I spin toward the sound. He steps out of the dark — taller than I remember from the fragments in my head, his eyes storm-colored, his presence heavier than the night itself.
Me:[whispering] "…Jason?"
Jason:[quiet smile] "You remember."
Me:[shaking head] "No. I don't. I—I don't know what this is. I don't know who you are."
Jason: "Then why did you come?"
Me: "Because you called me. And because I can't stop hearing that name."
Jason:[steps closer] "Iris."
Me:[flinching] "Stop—stop saying it. That's not my name."
Jason:[tilts his head] "Then why does your heart answer every time I do?"
I freeze. My pulse hammers like it's trying to escape my chest.
Me: "Because I'm… confused. Because I'm scared. Because I don't understand what's happening to me."
Jason:[softer] "You're not confused. You're remembering."
Me:[shaking voice] "No. I'm Anastasha. I live in that house down the road. I go to school. I… I have a family."
Jason:[watching me closely] "Temporary. Borrowed. Shadows on the wall."
Me: "Don't call them that!" [voice cracks] "They're real. They love me."
Jason:[sighs, gaze heavy] "Love can be real and still not last. You, of all people, should know that."
My throat burns. Shards of memory cut at the edges of my mind: laughter by a fire, hands reaching, then loss. Too much loss.
Me:[voice breaking] "Why me? Why now?"
Jason: "Because Time never forgets its debts. You've carried lives before. You were never meant to remember them all at once. But the seam is unraveling."
Me:[swallowing hard] "I don't want this. I didn't ask for this."
Jason:[steps close, his voice lower] "None of us did."
The silence stretches. I can see the scar on his jaw, the tiredness around his eyes. He looks both like a stranger and like someone I've loved all my life.
Me: "What happens to me now?"
Jason: "You survive. That's what we do. We survive the years, the memories, the grief. Until Time decides the loan is up."
Me:[angry now] "That's not an answer!"
Jason:[steady] "It's the only one I can give."
I want to scream. Instead, I whisper.
Me: "If I'm really Iris… then who were you?"
Jason:[pauses, his eyes softening just slightly] "The boy who loved her. The boy who lost her."
The words crush me. My chest aches like I've been stabbed with something old and familiar. I don't know what to say. My throat is locked. He reaches out, brushes something invisible from my cheek — a gesture that feels too practiced, too intimate.
Jason: "You'll remember more, piece by piece. It will hurt. But you'll see."
Me:[barely audible] "And if I don't want to remember?"
Jason:[steps back, voice almost a whisper] "Then Time will remind you anyway. It always does."
The woods close in. The stars above blink awake. I stand frozen, shaking, my heart pounding with a truth I don't want but can't escape. Jason's eyes linger a moment longer, then he melts back into the shadows, leaving me trembling with a name that doesn't belong to me — and yet does.