The wind carried whispers that night.
Sarah followed them.
She shouldn't have come, she knew that but the message had been too precise to ignore.
Meet me. 9 p.m. Old Observatory. Come alone.
No name. No number. But she knew who it was.
Alexander Reed.
The hilltop observatory stood abandoned, its dome fractured like an eye staring at the stars. Moonlight spilled across the cracked marble floor as Sarah stepped inside, every sound amplified by the emptiness.
"You're early," came a voice from the shadows.
Her pulse jumped. Alexander emerged from the dark, coat collar turned up against the wind, grey eyes glinting with the faint light of the moon.
"You picked quite the dramatic place," she said, forcing steadiness into her voice.
"I needed privacy," he replied. "And you needed answers."
Sarah folded her arms. "Then talk."
He studied her for a long, unnerving moment. "You've been dreaming again, haven't you?"
Her throat tightened. "How"
"I can see it," he said simply. "The mark of déjà vu in your eyes. People who cross time carry it."
Sarah's breath caught. "You know about… this? About me?"
"I know more than you think."
He moved closer, and the faint starlight revealed something almost human, almost not an energy beneath his skin that shimmered when he breathed.
"Ten years ago," he said quietly, "you died. But death isn't always the end. Sometimes, when a soul refuses to accept its fate, it tears a hole in time."
"You're saying I did this? That I rewound my own life?"
"Not alone."
The words chilled her. "Then who helped me?"
His gaze held hers. "Me."
Silence.
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. "That's impossible. I'd never met you before"
"In this life, no." He took another step. "But in others you have."
She shook her head. "You're insane."
He smiled faintly, the kind that didn't reach his eyes. "Maybe. But tell me, Sarah, when you saw me that first day, did your heart race because you feared me, or because you remembered me?"
She opened her mouth, but no words came. The memory of his touch, that electric jolt, the echo of his warning in the storm all of it rushed back.
"What are you?" she whispered.
"A traveler," he said. "Bound by time, not born in it."
He reached into his coat and drew out a small silver locket. Inside, a faded photograph of a woman who looked exactly like Sarah same eyes, same smile ,but dressed in clothes from a century ago.
"That's you," he said. "The first life I met you in. 1889. You saved me once. I've been trying to return the favor ever since."
The world tilted.
Her knees threatened to give out. "That can't be real."
"It is. You asked for a second chance, Sarah. The moment you died, your soul called out and I answered."
She stared at him, heart aching with confusion. "Why? Why me?"
"Because," he said softly, "you were the only thing in every timeline worth saving."
For a heartbeat, everything stopped.
Then she stepped back, shaking her head. "No. You're lying. If you really wanted to save me, why do I feel like I'm being hunted? Why did Daniel remember too?"
Alexander's expression hardened. "Because time doesn't like being rewritten. When I pulled you back, the past began fighting to correct itself. Daniel's awakening means the cracks are widening."
"Widening?"
"If he remembers too much," Alexander said grimly, "the past will consume the present. You'll die again and this time, there'll be no coming back."
Sarah's pulse hammered. "So what do we do?"
He hesitated. "You trust me."
She gave a brittle laugh. "Trust? The man who stalked me, sent cryptic messages, and somehow knows everything about my death?"
"I didn't stalk you," he said calmly. "I protected you. The night you searched my name, two others found your trail. They weren't human."
Her blood ran cold. "What do you mean, not human?"
"Time's guardians," he said quietly. "They correct broken threads by erasing the ones who snapped them. They'll come for you, Sarah. They always do."
The room seemed to shrink around her. "And you expect me to just believe that?"
He stepped close enough that she could feel the heat of his breath. "You don't have to believe me. Just remember what happens when you hear the wind whisper your name."
"What?"
"That's how they find you."
Her breath caught. "You're scaring me."
"Good," he said softly. "Fear keeps you alive."
Lightning flashed across the sky, flooding the room with white light. For a split second, the shadows behind Alexander twisted long, thin, almost claw-like. Then they were gone.
Sarah blinked, but he was already at the door.
"Wait!" she called. "If you're right, why tell me now?"
He paused. "Because you're running out of time. And because Daniel isn't what he seems either."
Her stomach flipped. "What do you mean?"
But he was already walking into the storm. "Ask him who killed you, Sarah. Then decide who you can trust."
The door slammed shut.
Rain lashed against the windows as Sarah stood there trembling, her reflection flickering in the cracked glass.
Ask him who killed you.
The words echoed in her skull until the air itself seemed to vibrate.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
A message from Daniel.
Daniel:Where are you? I had the dream again.
Daniel:Don't trust him.
Daniel:He's the reason you died.
Sarah's heart stopped.
She stared into the storm, where Alexander's silhouette had vanished into the night.
Between them, truth and lies tangled like threads of fate each pulling her toward a different destiny.