Ella knew the way well now.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Zs4fouvfa
The maps Leonard had fearfully drawn, the truncated conversations, had all led her here.
The lake.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV6NkyPudJr
In rural New York, beyond the forest that whispers even when it's silent.
She arrived just before sunset.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPYLK5J5fe1
The snow was still soft at the edges of the lake, and the ice above it wasn't what it was...111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH49BXktWKi
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.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡovWrgfXTAA
Sitting beneath the surface, not dead, but silent...111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHOmM2thDpI
watching the words fall like leaves into the water.
Before she left, she tore a page from the notebook,111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqK7lS9pQ6T
folded it,111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4uI252SbI0
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?111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgVgb810pdV
Or is it just beginning... with a new name, with a different shadow that he will attempt to write?
