"Victor Ephram Agnello... I love you." Silvia's warm voice filled his mind like honey, putting any and every trouble he felt down with those three words. The three words he never thought he'd hear in his lifetime. As her hands embraced his face like a mother holding her child, their eyes met for the longest time, unbroken silence ensued. She looked into his warm eyes, they reminded her of melting chocolate in a pool of coffee.

  They had finally bought their first house together, settling down for the first time in both their lives. Life couldn't be any better. The blissful days they spent together were like Heaven on Earth, everyday filled with the company of one another. For Victor, that was enough. His whole life had been spent on the run from others, trying to disappear into the background of the world. It was only when he met Silvia that he decided to bring himself to the forefront of his own life. No more running, no more hiding.

  "You love me, huh? Oh my gosh... do you have a crush on me?" Victor playfully asked, smiling at his wife with a smile he never thought he'd show another person. Every moment he spent with her was surreal, he just couldn't help but smile every second he was near her.

  "Oh eww... no way! You have cooties, get away from me!" She spoke amidst her laughter, running away from her husband with astounding speed. At this, Victor chased after her through the house. Running through doorway after doorway, the two of them began a game of hide and seek, only to lead to Victor alone in the living room.

  He crept past the small floral pattern couch, the wooden floorboards creaking under every step. The sunlight creeping in from the half-opened window shone brilliantly, its golden light causing the entire house to take on an amber hue. The house itself was small but clean, smelling of sweet scented candles. Vanilla and Pecan were Silvia's favorite, the aroma was quite often present. They weren't able to afford anything larger than their current home at the moment, but it's not like they'd want to in the first place, this was all they needed. Both of them had stable jobs, a cozy little house, and enough love between the two of them to power a country.

  As Victor noticed one of the long window curtains move unnaturally, he smiled to himself. They were nearly see-through, the white curtains causing the golden light of the setting sun to fade to a calming soft yellow.

  "I love you too, Silvia." He said, pulling the curtains over to the side, revealing his grinning wife. Her hair reflected the sunlight like the ocean kissing the sun, her silver strands of hair moving softly with the warm breeze of the open window. Their eyes locked onto one another, their souls becoming one and the same for the briefest of moments. Her light blue eyes reminded him of the glaciers in the arctic as they stared into his own.

  The two of them kissed in their love-drunk stupor, holding one another as if they never wished to let go. As their lips parted ways and their eyes met once again, Victor grasped his wife's hand, leading her up the creaky wooden stairs and into their bedroom.

  "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow, remember? We're meeting your dad out in Centerfield for breakfast, so we both need to get plenty of rest. I'd rather not spend the only day we have off work together catching up on sleep we missed the night before, yeah?" He said softly, pointing towards the master bathroom door.

  "You get the shower first, but please don't use up all the hot water, m'kay?"

  "No promises!" Silvia shouted, hurriedly collecting her brightly colored pink and white pajamas as she rushed into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

  Victor chuckled to himself under his breath, wondering how life could possibly be this good. As he laid down upon the silky white sheets of their queen-sized bed, he looked out the window. Large pine trees towered over the horizon, with the setting sun peeking out from behind them like it wanted to be part of their game of hide and seek. He listened to the shower run as he watched the sun slowly melt away into the ground, disappearing for good until the morning came. The shadows of the trees faded away with the darkness of the sky, covering their home in the slumbering night.

  As he closed his eyes happily, he thought he felt a small tear begin to form underneath his eyelids, and began laughing at himself for being so silly. Ever since Victor was a little boy, he was shown nothing but hate and sorrow from the mouths of his fellow man. For as long as he could remember, he tried to gain the approval of these beasts in human skin, but to no avail. Everything he did was only met with acid rain spewing from the souls of his peers, parental figures, and even his close friends. Wandering alone through life, he'd decided to slink into the background to watch the world turn without him. It was only until Silvia had entered his life that he realized, not everyone was out to get him. Some people truly did care about others, however, they were in short supply. But the love of a single person was enough to bring him out of his foggy daze he called living. Without her, he was truly nothing.

  It was hard to believe he had already made it to his 28th birthday, celebrating it just last week with his wife and her father. He knew deep within his heart that every single day, not just his birthday, was just as special as the day he met her. She gave him the purpose to live.

  Victor opened his eyes once more, swinging his legs off the bed and standing up with pride. Pride in himself, something that used to be foreign. As he made his way over to the large wooden dresser near the window, he looked at the pictures lining the surface. They were mostly of the two of them, and a few of Silvia and her father. One stood out to him the most, however, with its perfect depiction of the love he and Silvia shared. It was the two of them standing next to each other the day they had bought the house, its bright yellow exterior shining like the sun behind them. She wore a long black dress along with the white scarf Victor had given her for her birthday. He smiled as he looked at the two of them, happy to recall one of the most important memories he held.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  As he heard the shower suddenly shut off and the curtain draw back, he quickly opened the pocket watch his wife had given to him just last week to hide the picture inside. He could always print more copies, so taking this one was no big deal. Hurriedly taking the small photograph out of its frame and tucking it neatly into the watch, he noticed some odd lettering sprawled across the back of the picture.

  1213 Crownpoint Ave. Oregon

  Our Home :)

  The words Silvia had shakily scribbled out in black ink had brought a tear out of Victor's eye, rolling down his cheek as he stared down at the words. Placing the photo in the watch and clasping it shut, he placed it back upon the dresser. It was only when he turned around to head towards the bathroom when he noticed something was wrong.

  His hands began to tremble, and his legs shook like a rickety wooden stool about to break. Victor tried to call out for help, but was met with nothing but a pathetic croak escaping his throat. He looked down at his hands in shock, and collapsed to the ground with a horrible thud. His heart beat faster and faster now, like a train speeding down the railroad. The only feelings passing through him were fear and uncertainty, his mind racing with any possible explanation as to what could be happening to him.

  As Victor reached out towards the bathroom, straining his outstretched hand into the light coming from underneath the door, his eyes began to close. Everything was beginning to go blurry, his vision had begun to fail him. The only thing he could clearly see now was the door to the bathroom, horrified at the thought he may never see his wife again before he passed out.

  The door swung open with astounding force, and out ran Silvia dressed in her colorful pajamas. As she rushed to her husband's side and kneeled down next to him, tears flowed from her face like a broken dam. Crying out for Victor to get up, she shook him violently to snap him out of his affliction.

  "Victor!" She cried, her voice carrying throughout the entire house as his vision finally faded with the darkness of the night.

                                ...

  "E!" A deep booming voice shot through the mind of Ephram, causing him to shoot upright into a sitting position. He couldn't tell where he was, everything seemed so blurry and wrong. The sunlight pouring in from the glass windows surrounding the office space stung his face, as if it were a thousand little bugs biting at his skin.

  "Where... am I?" He managed, holding his head in his hands as he tried to remember what had happened.

  The last thing he could recall was speaking with the crass businessman, Ryan. At least he thought that was the man's name, it had begun to fade from his mind like the ghost of a past he didn't recognize. He was in a large office, its simple decor staring Ephram down like a wolf hunting its prey. A big metal desk with an oversized black chair sat near the large windows, and a glass coffee table surrounded by two black futons had come into view near where he sat. The floor was hard and cold, the enormous circular rug providing no heat or comfort whatsoever.

  "Are you alright? You suddenly collapsed and your... well... your heart... stopped." The voice said from behind Ephram, and he turned to look at it.

  Aberlain. He remembered now. He had come to this place with the Rootlord to prove he wasn't lying about losing his memories.

  What memories could he possibly have? He was a demon, born in the Garden of Hell amidst a sea of hellfire roses. This fact jumped into his mind like an unwanted passing thought. He felt as if he had seen something else, however, perhaps a dream? He didn't remember collapsing, but knew he had felt something important. For whatever the reason, he just simply could not remember. As he scanned the room with confusion, he noticed the businessman had disappeared.

  "What... happened to me? Where is Ryan?" He asked groggily as he tried to stand up, until a powerful hand was brought down upon his shoulder, forcing him to stay seated.

  "I'm not sure, I've never seen a demon collapse like that. You seem to have had some sort of heart attack... but... that's unheard of. Demons don't have heart attacks." Aberlain began, trying his best to console him, "as for Ryan, he left quite a while ago after I'd taken his demon sight away. You've been out for at least half a day."

  "What? That... can't be." Ephram said, looking up at Aberlain. He felt as if he had only been unconscious for a few moments, there was no way time had passed that quickly.

  He couldn't find any plausible explanation for this. Confusion settled into his bones, overwhelming Ephram to the point of madness. Nothing made sense anymore, or had it ever? As long as he could remember, he had been dunked into a vat of boiling hot confusion and ignorance of the world around him. Ever since waking up in the Garden, it was problem after problem. He was sick and tired of dealing with the way this world worked, its petty fights thrust upon him like he was nothing more than a tool for the world to use in its sick game. He'd done nothing wrong, nothing at all. So then, why does life have to be this way? The constant fog surrounding his mind clouding his own memory, the weakness he felt at every sight of conflict, and the disgusting feeling created within him from being saved like a damsel in distress. May, Silo, and now Aberlain had saved him from himself. For once, Ephram wanted to be the one doing the saving.

  His thoughts had begun to crash into themselves like rolling clouds thundering against one another. He tried desperately to calm himself, but the only thing he could think of was how weak and useless he was.

  That is, until the golden pocket watch had finally come back into view. Its slow ticking had interrupted his thoughts, breaking through the doorway of his mind. The white face of the watch stared up at him from the ground, its black hands moving gently with every second to remind him that this time will pass, and once again everything will be alright. Ephram could feel a calm breeze move slowly through his body, warming him up like freshly baked bread. He felt the air around him become sweeter, as the smell of Vanilla filled the space of the office.

  "Did seeing this have something to do with why you collapsed?" Aberlain suddenly interjected, disrupting Ephram's sense of peace as he held out a small photograph.

  As he grabbed the photo and looked down upon it, he suddenly remembered exactly what happened the moments before he passed out. The photo had triggered something within him, but whatever it had been was now long gone.

  "I remember feeling something odd when I looked at this before, but... I can't remember why that is. I don't think I've ever seen these people, but something about them just feels familiar to me." He said, uncertain as to why he felt this way. Something about the woman in the photo spoke to his very soul, as if she were reaching out of the picture to hold him in her arms.