Forgotten Life

Chapter 3

True to Behna’s word she meets up with me at lunch to babble on about nonsensical topics. I surprisingly don’t mind being in her company. It is nice to have company after all of these years other than the various sets of ‘parents’ and ‘siblings’ I’ve gone through.

After the long walk home I decide to get Behna’s number out of my bag and see what must be so vital that I need to text her about it. I shuffle around my room in search of my unused cellphone and hope that this conversation won’t last for the rest of eternity.

Hey it’s Hayvn. This is my #.

Within a couple minutes I get a reply.

Hayvn!! I didn’t think you would actually text me! Do you want to go out for coffee Saturday morning?

I stare at her message for a while contemplating whether or not I should accept her offer. I tell her I will think it over and give her an answer tomorrow. Behna texts back with an overly enthusiastic reply saying that she reeeally hopes I will join her. I assume she thinks it’s a done deal and that I have nothing better to do. However false that may be I choose to go out of my own curiosity rather than making a ‘bff’.

***

I close my eyes for a few minutes breathing in the smell of fresh coffee beans to calm myself down enough to look like a normal human being doing normal human activities. Taking a final deep breath, I open my eyes and spot Behna right away staring me down.

“Hey”, I say as casually as I can muster.

“Hayvn! I’m so glad you came. I need to talk to you.” She says. With that being said, she jumps out of her chair and heads over to order us some coffee.

The fact that she sounded so happy and cheerful at the beginning of the sentence, and faded into a serious tone seriously worries me, even though it shouldn’t.

She comes bouncing back carefully with a coffee in each of her hands and gripping onto a brown paper bag with her pinky. She hands me my coffee, and places a chocolate chip muffin in front of me. My favorite. How did she know? Maybe it was all they had left?

“So you wanted to talk to me about…?”

“Your birthmarks,” She says with a pause. “Or shall I say scars.”

She continues to stare me down. I can tell she is not planning to back down any time soon.

Clearing my throat, I begin with a harmless question. “What would you like to know?”

“How you got them. Every single one.”

I scratch the back of my neck and stare down at my coffee. I couldn’t explain them all even if I wanted to. Decades of countless scars reminding me that I will never live a normal life and my life will never end even if it does exactly that. I sneak a peek at her only to find that her eyes haven’t left my face. Sure I remember some of them, many of them actually, but how am I to explain that the majority of them came from the times that I was killed.

Clearing my throat I simply say, “I already told you, I don’t remember”.

Her eyes narrow, her stare doesn’t waver and the look on her face suggests that she is not letting this go any time soon.

“You have to tell me everything. Every single thing that seems even mildly important throughout all of your lives.” Behna demands.

“You are in no position to be making demands. What do you know about me? How can you see me? Why are you so curious about me?” I ask.

No one has ever taken such intense interest in me or my life. In fact, I’m fairly positive that the last conversation I’ve had with anyone was with Ewan. Who is the girl, and what does she know about me?

“Calm down Celeste!” She screeches and clamps her hands over her mouth.

My eyes widen and panic fills my chest. It has been centuries since I’ve heard my first name.

“How do you… know my name… my first name?” I stutter in between forced breaths.

“I said, calm down. You need to relax before I even attempt to explain anything.” She says. Before continuing she lowers head along with lowering her voice into a whisper. “Celeste. Or would you prefer Hayvn? I’ve known about you for several lives. I knew about you in my first life, near the end. I can’t go into the details in a crowded coffee shop.”

My eyes fall from hers landing on our table with coffee beans set under the glass. The last person that knew anything about me was Ewan. Oh how I miss my Ewan…

“I know stuff. I was involved in some things that left me in this crap situation and now I’m stuck just like you are. Stuck in the screwed up endless life that only has one way out.” She says.

For what seems like the first time since this dreadful conversation began, I allow my eyes to meet hers.

“It has been more than 1,200 years. Why is it that throughout all of these years there has only been one person who has been able to see me? I held him as the blood drained from his body.” I say while holding back a sob. “It was your people that did that to him. Now because you, whoever you are, got yourself into some trouble, I’m supposed to help you? Who do you think you are?”

She looks genuinely hurt by my statement. I could swear I see tears welling up in her eyes. But if I’ve learned anything throughout these long agonizing years, it is that looks can be deceiving.

“It’s not like that at all.” She says firmly. “I was not at all part of killing Ewan.” Her head falls into her hands and if my eyes aren’t mistaking, I see a tear slide down her arm.

I clear my throat. “You do know what happened to him then, correct?”

She tries to be sly, and wipe the tears from her face before she props herself back up so she’s facing me, but I see.

“Hayvn, or Celeste…”

“Hayvn.” I would prefer to keep my original name locked away. I may not remember that first life, but Ewan preferred to call me that.

“Okay, Hayvn. Yes I know what happened to Ewan. I’m sure you won’t be pleased to hear this, but Ewan is the reason me and several others are stuck in this never ending lifeless loop of time.