A Thousand Cranes Ch. 02

"I love you."

Her eyes widened. Her head started to shake. "No, that's not fair! You can't - you don't even - "

"Stop it! Listen to me, Lena. I need to say this."

"No, no, no, no."

He nearly shook her but the tightening grip on her arms was enough as she winced in pain. William loosened by refused to let go.

"When you first left, I was more than devastated. I was broken. I wanted to end my life, but your presence was everywhere. Little things that you left behind that I didn't know if you meant to torture me with or give me hope."

"That wasn't me," she cried. "It wasn't."

"No, Lena. Listen. Think carefully. How did you come to this manor? Isn't it very much different from your world?"

She stopped struggling. "What?"

"You told me once, when I was younger, that you were from a different time. Two thousand and five, I believe is what you said."

Lena's eyes widened as she processed what he was saying. She had kept quiet about her secret, believing strongly that she would've been thrown into an asylum if she had spoken up. She had read up about old English asylums - they were terrifying places that didn't guarantee any sanity, especially for women. She swallowed as William continued to unravel his tale.

"I simply thought I had fallen in love with an escaped lunatic who held her sanity long enough to be my maid. I thought those loving eyes were just a product of mental illness." He held her tightly as if he was never ready to let go. "But my god, I put those eyes there. I'm the one who made you love me and I drove you crazy."

"William..."

He started choking up. "And if the stories you told me are true. If those stories were about us - you're going to leave me aren't you? You're going to leave me again!"

He was shaking so badly that Lena had to wring herself free from his hold and cradled him to her breast.

"I won't leave you, William. I won't."

It took him a while to calm down before he spoke again.

"No, you don't understand. You have to leave me. If you don't, I won't fall in love with you, and if I don't fall in love with you, then you won't love me in return. Do you understand, Lena?"

He stared into her eyes, trying to convey exactly how much he loved. He loved her so much he was willing to lose her again in order to secure their love for one another. Lena felt the tears spill from her eyes as she briefly wondered if he was insane.

"You called it a... a causality loop." He said, not understanding his own words. "That you were destined to come back or be here."

Parts of it had been true - she was from the future and had stumbled upon an old book in the New York Public Library about spells. She had started mumbling parts of it aloud when she suddenly fainted. When she woke, she was on William's door step. The way he looked at her when he entered the room took her breath away. No one had ever looked at her like she was the most precious thing in the world.

If it were true...

Lena could never know. And besides, if it were true, the woman he loved was not her. Not yet anyway. As far as she was concerned, they were two different people. But the way William looked at her, as if he had finally solved the final puzzle piece of his life through her, crushed any resolve to reject him.

"Well then," she muttered, bringing her lips close to his, "we best make use of our time before I go."

And they made love over and over.

---

Four years later...

Lena's lips began to hurt, but she kept on whistling, knowing it was the only thing that soothed William when she was out of his sight. She whistled a tune unfamiliar to these times as she leaned against the door way, watching William played with their son. Their beautiful son. Her heart ached as she continued whistling for both loves of her life to hear. For them to know she was there.

It had taken him five months before William was willing to let her off the herbal teas so that they could have a child. His greatest fear was that she would suddenly disappear, child and all, but she reassured him that if she had disappeared, she surely would've brought him back when she was 25.

And besides, she whispered, when I leave, I don't want you to be alone.

Those were the words that convinced him, and now with his one year old son running and stumbling in the dirt. William couldn't imagine his life without them. So as much as Lena begged, he refused to risk a second pregnancy. He watched her gulp the herbal tea, her eyes blazing in anger every night she did so, and every night he would ease their pain by making love to her as passionately as he could. When they finished, William would tie their wrists together with a leather collar, secretly hoping that this would bind them together.

And every night, he apologized for the bastard his younger self was, or in her case, would be, hoping his loving words would ease her future pain.

But deep in the corner of his mind... he knew time was running out...

"Da!"

His smile broke as his golden haired son ran towards him, a handful of broken flowers in his fist. "Albion," he chuckled deeply as he picked up his son and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Come, let's go find your mother."

Suddenly fear gripped his heart as he realized that he could not hear Lena whistling.

"Lena!"

No answer.

"LENA!"

He held his son tightly as he screamed for his wife. No reply. William ran into the house, calling her name until his throat grew hoarse. It wasn't until Sarah, the now matured maid from before, came running down the stairs to cradle his crying son.

"My lord, what happened?"

He looked up, a man defeated by fate. "She's gone."

"Lena?" Sarah, the one maids privy to their secret, searched the garden. Her face fell as he nodded. "Oh my lord, I'm sure she will come back. She'll find a way back."

William could only hear the pounding of his own heart in his ears.

---

"Tell me one of your famous story then," he snarled at the strange but alluring maid who knelt at his feet. She had popped on their doorstep a few weeks ago and immediately offered her services, to him specifically.

He was not sure what it was about her either. She seemed to know how everything in the house ran, and more than ever, she knew how to calm his nerves, especially after a losing duel with the Duke's grandson.

"There's a tale, my lord, that reaches far across the ocean. All the way to Asia, where once upon a time, a poison filled the land, terrorizing all the children. The poison had a curse that prevented the children from growing up, in fact, it killed them before their fifteenth birthday. But legend had it that if two children were in love and willing to spend the rest of their lives together, then they should fold a thousand cranes before their fifteenth birthday. If they could do so, the poison would spare their lives and allow them to grow old together, forever..."

---

Lena waited at the steps of the MOMA, counting down the minutes so that she could find the book. It had taken her years to wait for this book to come back from its world travels. She wasn't sure how she was going to get her hands on it, but she prayed that the book was opened to the right page. It had been three long years, and she was ready to go back to her William. His voice still rang clearly in her head.

I'm so sorry how I've treated you. Just remember that from the moment I saw you, I thought you were beautiful and made just for me. I know your intensity will scare me, but don't hold back. Show me what it means to be in love, Lena. Show me just like I've shown you.

She wiped the edge of her finger against her newly bought sundress and breathed deeply as she stood in front of the ancient book that would bring her back to the love of her life. Her heart thumped as she read the words aloud.

END