*EVEN DEATH CANT DO US APART*

Inside, the curtains breathed. Though the windows were sealed.
The air bent strangely, shadows pooling in corners too thick to be natural.
And then-
"I told you," a voice murmured. Low. Close.
Intimate in a way that made her chest tighten.
"I'd come back." Noelani didn't turn. Didn't gasp.
Because fear had no place here.
Only recognition. "You died," she said softly.
The shadows shifted.
Drew closer. "That's what they called it."
Something moved behind her.
Not footsteps.
Not quite presence.
But arrival.
She felt it before anything else-
that same invisible thread, now pulled taut, humming beneath her skin.
The temperature dropped. The mist thickened.
And suddenly, it wasn't around her anymore-
It was on her.
Wrapping. Pressing. Familiar.
Like arms without form.
Noelani's breath faltered, her fingers curling into empty space that didn't feel empty at all.
"This isn't real," she whispered. But her voice lacked conviction.
Because she could feel him. Not as flesh.
Not as something living.
But as something that refused to stop.
"You knew I wouldn't stay gone," he murmured.
His voice wasn't sound anymore.
It was sensation. A presence that moved through her rather than around her.
"You felt it when they buried me."
Her eyes closed slowly.
Yes. She had.
From the very first shovelful of earth.
From the moment the ground tried-and failed-to take him.
"Even death..." she began.
The room darkened further.
The shadows stretching, deepening, swallowing the edges of everything.
"Can't do us apart," he finished.
The words settled into her like something final.
Something absolute.