Lost in Time, Lost in Love

That city was once theirs; every corner, every dusky café, every park bench held whispers of their names in utter silence. But time is a great eraser of footprints, a gradual fading of echoes, till even the loudest laughter begot only a distant hum.

Once upon a time, Elias and Seraphine had been inseparable. Under the glow of lamplights, they had promised each other eternity, convinced that love could defy time and fate. But promises, like autumn leaves, are frail, and as the seasons did change, so did they.

It slowly began: missed calls. Noncommittal replies. Then came long silences neither would dare to break. Their once obviously-constructed life began to crumble under an onslaught of unanswered questions and spoken regrets. Somewhere in time, they lost the map back to each other.On an ill-fated night of the rains, they met for the last time. It was not planned; it was a coincidence—if coincidences ever did exist. The bookstore they cherished for years had switched off its lights for the night, and they stood there for shelter from the downpour—neither inside nor out.

Seraphine looked at him; her heart twisted. He seemed so familiar yet so distant: the boy she once knew was now a stranger wrapped in memories she could hardly recognize.

"I don't know when we stopped trying," she murmured.

Elias swallowed hard. "Maybe when we started believing that love alone was enough."

They contemplated the moment more doomed than any that preceded it, the last moment before oblivion took them away from one another. No farewell hug, no sentimental goodbyes, just an unspoken understanding that some people are never meant to come back.

When Seraphine turned away, Elias did not stop her. As Elias walked away, Seraphine did not turn around.

The city had once been theirs. Now, it was a place where two strangers had once loved.