Ella knew the way well now.29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc8uIvdvo3P
The maps Leonard had fearfully drawn, the truncated conversations, had all led her here.
The lake.29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1gb0J49qrJ
In rural New York, beyond the forest that whispers even when it's silent.
She arrived just before sunset.29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdO0q1TMbDi
The snow was still soft at the edges of the lake, and the ice above it wasn't what it was...29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPXe1pZc81Y
It had thin cracks, as if the surface had wept at night and hadn't yet dried.
Ella stood by the water and took out a small notebook.
A notebook in which nothing had been written yet.
She sat down on a rock, cold as if she had come from the depths of winter.
She looked at the frozen surface and said, her voice barely audible:
"Sometimes a story dies because someone decides to tell the truth. Nothing more."
She opened the notebook and wrote:
"He didn't drown... He just didn't want to go back to dry land."
Everything in the place seemed to hear.
The wind didn't blow; it listened. The forest doesn't move, it holds its breath.
Ella looked deep into the ice, where nothing could be seen, and imagined that there was... Leonard.29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPk0QMAHvQ4
Sitting beneath the surface, not dead, but silent...29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp97eJC5BHf
watching the words fall like leaves into the water.
Before she left, she tore a page from the notebook,29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0mTSZm2Ych
folded it,29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLMN5PX1d6J
slid it between a small crack in a nearby tree.
Then she whispered:
"If Athan doesn't want a body... I won't give him my body. I'll just give him an unforgettable voice."
On the way back to New York, Ella thought of one thing:
Is the story over?29Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡor5RvzAwx2
Or is it just beginning... with a new name, with a different shadow that he will attempt to write?
