Our Last Dance [ONC 2021]

Chapter XII ~ Time Flies

In those years, everything was perfect.

The cure worked. I was alive. I felt alive. And life couldn't have been better.

Yes, everything was perfect. That was, until the murder began.

They were everywhere, in every newspaper, in every conversation at every corner of every street. The murders were everywhere, but of the killer was no sign.

I looked at the newspaper article in front of me.

New killer on the loose? Police investigate

Last night, the serial killer, now dubbed "l'ombre de la mort" by the papers, has made another victim. Once more, it was a girl no older than twenty years, killed by one single cut across her throat. Just like past murders, the victim had attended a dance party shortly before her death. The murderer seems to have embraced the name the papers have given him, having left a note with the roses found on the victim's body, stating that "l'ombre de la mort was here". People who claim to have witnessed the crime describe the killer as wearing a dark cape, which covers him from head to toe, hence the name "shadow of death".

For an exclusive interview with one of the witnesses, see page twelve of our newspaper.

Those weren't the only articles about the murders. Two pages farther there was an interview with the police officer in charge of the investigation, and in yesterday's paper, there was an elaborate piece about his unknown identity.

With a sigh, I closed the paper and looked around me. Icarus and I were sitting on the balcony of our apartment, him reading a book, and me reading the newspaper. From here, we had a majestic view over the city.

We'd kept true to our word and travelled the world. The first stop had been clear to us. 'This counts as a new beginning, I believe.' Icarus had said, 'So why don't we go back to where it all began?'

Three months later, we were dancing again at the Venetian carnival, neither of us having to worry that that dance would be our last.

After that we went to Vienna, where we stayed for almost three years. I liked it there, and felt like I never wanted to leave, but Icarus insisted that I could never say I had travelled the world, if I'd only been to four countries. So after a little persuasion we packed our bags again and left.

I couldn't understand why he wanted to travel so badly. Everywhere we went, we had a comfortable life, thanks to the vast amount of money Icarus held, but as soon as I suggested staying in one place, he shook his head and came up with another crazy idea. 'Have you ever been to Spain?' he would ask. 'No', I would reply. And within a month, we left.

I hated to admit it, but it was great. Every country was nicer than the one before. Time seemed to fly, and before we knew it, twenty years had passed.

The world around us changed, but we always stayed the same. I had no wrinkles, I didn't have a single grey hair, my health was the same as that of a normal twenty-year-old girl. Whatever it was that this cure did, it didn't just stop me from dying, it stopped me from aging all together.

So now we were here, Icarus and I, still together, sitting on our balcony in Greece in the year 1895.

'Icarus, have you read about these new murders?'

'Hmm?' Icarus looked up from his book. 'What did you say?'

I pointed at the article in the newspaper. 'The murders. They seem to be following us. Remember, they were there in France as well, and in Austria, and now they're here too.'

He looked at me for a moment before removing the circular reading glasses from his nose. He didn't need them, but he insisted that they made him look smart.