anwhile...
"Ugh..." Lola grunted, her neck stiff and her mind buzzing. Her brows crinkled as she reached for her nape. The mont her hand touched her neck, her brows rose, and her eyes cracked open.
Am I not bound? — was the first thought that ca to her mind.
Her vision adjusted slowly, growing clearer after a few blinks. The second it did, deep lines appeared between her brows.
"Where..." she trailed off, trying to make sense of the place she had woken up in.
High walls. Intricate carvings on the ceiling. The place was dim, lit only by sconces mounted on pillars and rows of candles burning quietly.
It was only then that Lola realized she was lying on a marble floor and that... while she might not be bound, she couldn’t feel her legs at all.
Lola pushed herself up into a sitting position, only to notice soone several ters away from her. Her brows tightened.
The person was kneeling with his back facing her. He wore a large white robe and didn’t move an inch, not even a slight tremble.
Lifting her gaze, she caught sight of the massive altar before him. She might not be particularly religious, but she was certain this was the biggest and most srizing sight she had ever seen inside a chapel.
A chapel.
She blinked as realization dawned on her. Her gaze dropped to the person kneeling in prayer.
"You—" she stopped when a soft hush ca from the man clad in white.
So she repeated, incredulous, "Shh?"
Lola let out a dry snicker, almost as if she couldn’t believe she was being hushed — and expected to obey. "Where in hell am I?"
But as expected, she received no answer. The man continued praying, silent and undisturbed.
"Hey!" This ti, Lola’s voice echoed loudly. "Where’s Kiara? And the boy? Where are they?"
Though not panicked, she scanned the area for anyone else. But aside from the vast emptiness and the statues standing gloriously at each corner, there were only two of them.
"Hello!" she shouted again, deliberately irritating the man who dared to hush her. "Sobody! Kiara! Can you hear ?!"
Her voice echoed back to her, but she didn’t stop. She kept calling and shouting, only pausing mid-yell whenever she was reminded of her legs.
When she finally stopped and looked down, she squeezed her thighs, searching for any sensation.
Nothing.
Lola clenched her teeth. This was the first ti she had ever felt like this. There wasn’t even a hint of weakness. Her upper body felt completely normal, but from the waist down? Paralyzed.
"What did you do to ?" she demanded, whipping her head toward the man who hadn’t budged from his position. "Hey! I’m talking to you! What did you do to ?! What do you want?!"
Even as she panted from shouting, the man remained silent. All she could do was stare at his back.
Then his voice finally echoed through the chapel.
"Lola, I apologize that we have to et this way," he said, his voice surprisingly soothing and calm — the kind that could lull soone to sleep. He glanced over his shoulder. "I was hopeful it wouldn’t co to this, but... I had no choice."
Lola furrowed her brows.
"No choice? Don’t make laugh," she scoffed. "People nowadays love using that excuse to make themselves feel better. You people have a choice. And you chose this."
The man did not respond, letting her words fade into the vast space of the chapel. He kept his eyes on the altar, unmoved by her retort.
Very slowly, his lips parted.
"Lola... do you believe in rebirth?"
Lola’s breath hitched. Her pupils constricted at his next words.
"Of course. This is not your first life, after all," he humd quietly, as if what he had just said was perfectly normal. "Do you also believe in ti loops?"
"What in the world are you talking about?" Lola muttered under her breath. "I am not following—"
"What if I told you this is not your first — or rather, not your second life?" he cut in, his voice still calm and gentle — almost kind. "Not even the third one. Would you believe ?"
Her brows tightened once more as she stared at his back, utterly confused about where he was leading with this.
"This is actually your — our fourth life," he confessed.
"Fourth?" she repeated. "Do you seriously expect to believe this bullshit?"
"In our first life, I married you and Atlas Zorken," he continued, unfazed by her disbelief. "Both of you were such a lovely couple. Though compared to this ti, you married a little later in life back then."
"In the second one... you t much earlier. Even so, you were still blessed with the twins... and another child, I believe," he added.
Lola held her breath. The only word she could force out was—
"What?"
"Then, in the third one..." he paused, a subtle smile tugging at his lips. "I believe you rember your previous life. That was the third. And in that one, you never t him. He never had those children with you. And the Zorken family fell alongside Zoren Pierson."
"I was very close," he whispered, sighing heavily as he recalled that life — the one everyone rembered.
For them, that was their first life, and this tiline was the second.
But they were wrong.
This tiline was already the fourth.
"I don’t understand," Lola blurted out, eyes fixed on him. She shook her head, trying to piece everything together. "Four tilines... how?"
"It’s the sa question I ask every single ti, Lola," the man said. He finally lowered his hands to the floor and pushed himself upright. "How could this happen? Why does this keep happening to ?"
Slowly, he rose to his feet and turned to face her.
"It haunts every night — even in my waking monts."
"What else should I do to stop this madness?" he added quietly, staring straight into her eyes. "When will this end? I ask myself that question every single day of my life in these fourth tilines."
"And every ti, I arrive at the sa answer." His gaze darkened. "This will only end if I put things back in their rightful place."
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