Lost in Your Echo

Lost in Your Echo

Ethan never believed in fate. He believed in logic, in things he could explain. Love, to him, was a series of choices, not some grand, cosmic force pulling two people together. But then he met Claire.

It happened on a rainy afternoon in meru City. Ethan had ducked into a small bookstore to escape the downpour, shaking water from his jacket when he heard a voice soft, melodic, like a song he had forgotten he knew.

"That one will break your heart."

He turned to see a woman with deep brown eyes, holding a worn copy of The Great Gatsby. She smiled, tapping the book’s spine.

"Mark doesn’t believe in happy endings," she added.

Ethan smirked. "Maybe he just didn’t find the right one."

She tilted her head, considering him for a moment. "You can always hope."

That was how it began.

Claire was different from anyone Ethan had ever met. She believed in love stories, in fate, in the idea that some souls were meant to find each other across lifetimes. Ethan laughed at her theories, but deep down, he envied her certainty.

They spent days wandering the city, talking about books, dreams, and the kind of love that lived between the pages of novels. Claire had a way of making the world feel softer, of turning ordinary moments into poetry.

But fate wasn’t always kind.

One evening, beneath the golden glow of a streetlamp, Ethan found her staring at the sky, her eyes filled with something he couldn’t name.

"Claire?" He touched her hand, but she flinched.

She swallowed hard before whispering, "I have to leave soon."

His heart clenched. "Leave? Why?"

She hesitated, as if searching for the right words. "Sometimes… people are only meant to stay in your life for a little while. To teach you something. To change you."

"No," Ethan said, his voice firm. "You're not just 'someone' to me. You’re everything."

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

The next morning, she was gone.

No note. No explanation. Just an empty space where she had been.

Ethan searched for her everywhere—at the bookstore, in the coffee shops they loved, along the quiet streets they had walked hand in hand. But Claire had vanished, like a dream slipping through his fingers.

Months passed. Seasons changed. But Ethan couldn’t let her go.

Then, one autumn afternoon, he found himself in the same bookstore, running his fingers along the spines of old novels. His heart ached as he picked up a familiar book—The Great Gatsby.

And that’s when he saw it.

Tucked between the pages was a note, written in Claire’s elegant handwriting.

"Some stories don’t need an ending to be beautiful. Some love stays, even when the person is gone. And maybe, just maybe… we’ll find each other again in another chapter."

Ethan closed his eyes, pressing the note to his chest.

Maybe Claire was right. Maybe love wasn’t about logic.

Maybe it was about echoes—ones that never truly faded.