Heartbeat Away

e p i l o g u e

April 27, 2014.

Everything happens for a reason. And all of it happens fast. When I came back, dad was here. He's crying.

"Dad, why are you here? And where is everybody?" I noticed that the Residence had been eerily quiet. "Where's Lola?"

"Danielle!" he hugged me while still crying. "Your Lola's gone, she passed away yesterday."

What? I was dumbfounded. Gone? As in, dead? Why so soon? Why didn't I saw this coming?

"Why?" I asked, my voice almost breaks.

"Heart attack, come on, let's go to where they are..."

After that, I didn't know what's happening anymore.

Why does she have to leave us so early? With no warnings or precautions. I didn't even knew it, I was the last one to know.

For a moment, I really feel like fate is playing with us. Why does it have to be so unfair?

For the last time, I visited the attic only to discover that the diary and the watch are missing.

Where did it go? That's the last memoirs Lola left for me. I didn't even finished reading her entries!

I'm so lonely the other day and the day after it until I found myself crying while Lola is sending 6 feet below the ground. She really is gone. I'll miss you Lola, and I love you. Always remember that.

I think I'm a living zombie until someone caught my attention. It brought me back to my senses.

It was a man same built and same features as Cris! He was intently looking at me like he was solving a puzzle. Then he walked away.

No! I followed him. But he was so fast I have to run just to catch up to him. Until we're on the Memoire Lane. Very nostalgic.

"Why are you following me?" The man said. He has a tough façade unlike Cris'. They can't be the same person. And for pete's sake, Cris is long, long gone!

"You... you look like someone I know." I honestly said, that releases his curiosity.

"Who?" he asked me.

"Someone. . . May I know your name?" He hesitated for a minute but then spilled it.

"I'm Iñigo. Iñigo Sandoval."

Iñigo? That's Cris' second name. And he's a Sandoval too. How are they related?

"Well, I'm Elle Morrison," I introduced. "What is your relation with Crisostomo Sandoval?"

"He's my grandfather." His grandfather? I remembered what Lola had told me.

"He already died, the day that his grandson was born."

Iñigo is his grandson. That explains it.

He was still examining my face. More like my entire being. Oh, I felt conscious again.

"Is there a problem?" I asked.

"Nothing. It's just like, I. . . also have seen you somewhere before."

Huh? He did?

"Where?" Now it's my time to examine his face.

He really looks like Cris. But with different personality and aura. He don't have dimples; because he didn't even smiled.

He seemed hesitant again.

"I. . . I've been having this dream. I was chasing after a girl. . . And when I come close, she will fade. But I can clearly see her face. She looks just like. . . you."

You know the feeling that the world had stopped turning? Everything pauses for a second? The whole world is in your favor?

That's what I feel like.

 

"Because what went before is yet to come."

 

"But what I have for you, time can't take."

He came from the past.

He willingly gave his heart to someone who didn't take care of it.

They didn't end up together.

Because from the very start, he was not hers and she was not his.

Soulmates exist. Your fate are already decided even before you were born.

And in this moment. . . I knew what was mine.

 
Forever do exist.

If the moon always stayed at the night sky every night, so as forever do.

"What's meant to be will always find its way."

 
And in that moment, we both knew the connection that has been set for us a long time ago. That connection may become blurry, but it will never fade.

If you are for each other, you will end up together.