“To see a friend.”

Lina crossed her arms. “A friend I don't know, huh?”

“I told you, it's nothing.”

Kira grabbed her bag and hurried out before Lina could ask another question.

Outside, she walked down the street with a smile on her face—happy in a way she couldn't quite explain, the way you're happy on your way to something before you know what it is.

---

By the time that feeling had worn off, it was buried again beneath the usual weight.

Kira Mercer was twenty, and alone.

Her parents had died the previous year. There were no grandparents, no aunts or uncles, no relatives waiting somewhere for her to call when things became difficult. Her parents had both been only children, and Kira was their only child.

She'd learned that being alone wasn't the same as being lonely.

But it was exhausting, most days, in ways she didn't say out loud.

She attended university and worked two jobs. Lately, she was also chasing something new: an internship at one of the biggest companies in the capital.

It could change everything.

So she studied harder.

And slept less.

“I'm going to die before I graduate,” she muttered one night, staring at the notes spread across her desk.

Her phone buzzed.

Lina: We're meeting tomorrow.

Kira stared at the message.

Kira: I have work.

Lina: After work.

Kira: University.

Lina: After university.

Kira: I'm tired.

Three dots appeared.

Lina: That's not an excuse.

Kira sighed.

Kira: Fine.

Another message arrived almost immediately.

Lina: And don't be late this time.

Kira smiled despite herself.

---

The following evening, Kira met up with her close-knit group of friends at a small restaurant.

Lina, Rebecca, Lia, and Julie had known each other for years. They were the kind of friends who could spend an entire evening together talking about completely unrelated things—work, university, annoying customers, embarrassing moments, or whatever else happened to cross their minds.

Kira was the quietest of them, but she was just as much a part of the group.

For once, nobody immediately brought up Kira's nonexistent love life.

Instead, they complained about university.

Rebecca spent ten minutes describing a customer at her workplace who had apparently returned the same item three times because she kept changing her mind.

Lia was struggling with an assignment.

Julie had gotten into an argument with one of her professors.

Lina complained about her manager.

By the time their food arrived, Kira had nearly forgotten how tired she was.

Then the conversation turned to work.

“Speaking of which,” Lina said, “didn't you apply somewhere?”

Kira nodded.

“One of the big companies downtown.”

Rebecca looked up. “Seriously?”

“I got shortlisted.”

The table erupted.

“Why didn't you tell us?”

“I didn't want to jinx it.”

“You're getting that internship,” Lina declared.

Kira laughed.

“I hope so.”

They spent the next several minutes discussing what she should wear, what questions she might be asked, and whether she should cut her hair.

For the first time in days, Kira felt genuinely excited about something.

Maybe things were finally beginning to change.

---

A week later, they were together again.

This time, after dinner, they were sitting around the table with drinks in front of them.

Rebecca was telling them about a man at her workplace who had apparently spent twenty minutes trying to convince her that he had been charged twice for something he had only bought once.

“He was wrong,” she finished.

“Obviously,” Lia said.

“He wouldn't accept it.”

“That sounds like your customers,” Lina said.

“Exactly.”

Kira laughed.

The conversation drifted from work to university, then to an upcoming festival in the city.

Eventually, Lina mentioned someone she had met.

Rebecca immediately started teasing her.

“You like him.”

“I do not.”

“You're smiling.”

“I'm always smiling.”

“Not like that.”

Everyone laughed.

Kira shook her head and took another sip of her drink.

“See?” Rebecca said. “Everyone has someone except Kira.”

Kira raised an eyebrow.

“I have bills.”

“That isn't a person.”

“It takes up enough of my time.”

Lina laughed.

“Fine. But seriously, when are you going to get a boyfriend?”

“I don't know.”

“Do you even have a type?”

Kira thought about it.

The answer came almost immediately.

“Black hair. Black eyes.”

The table went quiet for half a second.

Then everyone laughed.

Kira laughed too, though she couldn't explain why those words had come so easily.

Julie, however, suddenly stopped smiling.

“Actually…”

Everyone looked at her.

“I know somewhere we could go.”

Kira immediately knew that tone.

“No.”

“I haven't even told you where.”

“I know you.”

Julie grinned.

“The Temple of Souls.”

Kira blinked.

“A what?”

“The Temple of Souls.”

“I've never heard of it.”

“It's an old temple outside the city.”

Kira stared at her.

“Why are we suddenly going to an old temple?”

“Because of the Mirror of Souls.”

Kira's eyebrows drew together.

“The… what?”

Julie only smiled.

Kira looked at the others.

Lina was trying not to laugh.

Rebecca had the most suspiciously innocent expression Kira had ever seen.

Lia was already looking away.

“What are you people planning?”

“Nothing bad,” Lina assured her.

“That isn't an answer.”

“You'll see when we get there.”

Kira narrowed her eyes.

“I don't like the sound of that.”

“You're coming.”

“No, I'm not.”

“You are.”

“I'm really not.”

She should have known then that she'd already lost the argument.

---

The Temple of Souls stood far from the busiest part of the city, half-swallowed by old trees and reached by a narrow stone path.

Kira had spent the entire journey complaining.

“This is ridiculous.”

“You've said that six times,” Lina said.

“Because it's ridiculous.”

“You could have stayed home.”

“I tried.”

“And?”

“You dragged me here.”

“Yes.”

Kira looked at the four women surrounding her.

“You're all terrible friends.”

“Thank you,” Julie said cheerfully.

The temple was old.

Too old.

Its stone walls were dark with age, and the inside was colder than the air outside.

At the center of the largest room stood an enormous mirror.

It was taller than any of them.

Julie lowered her voice.

“This is the Mirror of Souls.”

Kira folded her arms.

“I already regret coming.”

Julie ignored her.

According to the legend, the mirror could reveal the person a soul had loved in a previous life.

But the purpose wasn't to reunite with that person.

It was to let go.

Sometimes, according to the story, a soul carried feelings from one life into the next. Most attachments faded naturally.

But some didn't.

And if the soul refused to let go, it could carry that attachment into another life.

“That's why you're still single,” Lina said.

Kira stared at her.

“What?”

“Maybe your soul hasn't moved on.”

Kira blinked.

“You're telling me my soul has a secret boyfriend?”

“Not exactly.”

Julie stepped closer to the mirror.

“The idea is that you loved someone deeply in another life. Your soul remembers him, even if your mind doesn't. Maybe that's why you can't fall in love with anyone now.”

Kira looked from one face to another.

“You people actually believe this?”

“Not necessarily,” Lia admitted.

“But you're making me sit in front of a haunted mirror,” Kira said.

“It's not haunted.”

“That somehow makes it worse.”

Julie laughed.

“The legend says you sit there alone and think deeply. If your past lover appears, you talk to him.”

“Tell him to let me go?”

“Not exactly.”

Julie shook her head.

“It's your soul that's holding on. He can't decide what your soul feels. Maybe talking to him will help your soul settle down. Maybe seeing him again will make it easier to accept that the life is over.”

Kira stared at the mirror.

“And if it doesn't?”

“Then you can continue being single.”

Kira sighed.

“You're all insane.”

“Probably.”

Lina grabbed her arm.

“Come on.”

“Wait—”

“Your soul needs help.”

“My soul is perfectly fine!”

The others laughed as they dragged her toward the mirror.

---

Eventually, they left her alone.

Kira sat in front of the mirror.

She stared at her reflection.

Nothing happened.

Five minutes.

Ten.

Twenty.

Nothing.

“This is stupid,” she whispered.

She closed her eyes.

At first, there was only darkness.

Then—

Grass.

Green grass beneath bare feet.

A hand holding hers.

A voice laughing somewhere beside her.

She couldn't see the person's face.

The scene shifted.

A ring slid onto her finger.

A house surrounded by flowers.

Rain against a window.

Someone singing badly.

A man's voice.

Warm.

Familiar.

“Wait for me.”

The image disappeared.

Another appeared.

Older hands.

Her hands.

A black-haired man standing beside her.

She tried to see his face.

It blurred.

No matter how hard she tried to hold onto it, she couldn't.

Then his voice came again.

“Don't leave me.”

Kira's eyes flew open.

Her heart was pounding.

For one second, she thought someone was standing behind her in the mirror.

She turned.

Nobody.

She stared at the empty room.

“What the hell…”

The door suddenly opened.

“Kira!”

She jumped.

Lina and the others rushed inside.

“What did you see?”

“Did you see him?”

“Was he handsome?”

“Did he talk to you?”

Kira stared at them.

Then, after a moment, she sighed dramatically.

“Yes.”

Their eyes widened.

“What did he say?”

“He wants a spiritual divorce.”

Silence.

“And apparently I owe him child support.”

Rebecca burst out laughing.

“You're making fun of us!”

“Of course I am.”

Kira stood.

“I saw nothing.”

“You're terrible.”

“Can we go now?”

“Why?”

“Because this place is creepy.”

They laughed as they left.

Kira glanced back at the mirror once.

She didn't tell them about the field.

Or the hand.

Or the voice.

She told herself it had been nothing.

Just imagination.

Just a story.

Just a strange dream.

---

Three days later, Kira received an email.

Congratulations.

She read it once.

Then again.

Then a third time.

She had gotten the internship.

She covered her mouth with one hand.

“Yes.”

For the first time in months, she felt like all the work might actually be worth something.

---

The company was one of the most respected enterprises in the capital.

Kira arrived early every morning.

She stayed late.

She took notes.

She learned quickly.

She tried not to make mistakes.

People began noticing her.

Then, one morning, the entire office went quiet.

The CEO's son had died.

Suddenly.

The funeral would be held that afternoon.

Kira had never spoken to him.

She barely knew anything about him.

Still, she felt that attending would be respectful—and perhaps important for someone trying to make a good impression at the company.

So she went.

The funeral was large, held in one of the city's grandest halls, with white lilies arranged around the casket and rows of mourners filling the seats.

Kira stood near the back.

Then she saw the photograph.

Black hair.

Black eyes.

A calm, faintly amused expression.

She stopped.

Something inside her twisted.

Not recognition.

Not exactly.

Something deeper.

Like a door opening somewhere in a house she didn't know she owned.

Her chest tightened.

For one dizzying second, the funeral hall disappeared.

Grass.

A hand closing around hers.

The warmth of sunlight.

Then everything snapped back.

“Kira?”

She turned.

“You alright?”

“Yeah.”

She looked at the photograph again.

“I just feel like I've seen him somewhere.”

“Probably online. His family's well known.”

“Maybe.”

She looked at the photograph one last time.

Then she left.

She carried the strange feeling home like a stone in her pocket.

---

That night, she dreamed of a market.

She woke with the taste of cinnamon on her tongue.

The next night, there was rain against a window.

Someone singing off-key.

The night after that, a child's laughter.

The dreams weren't memories.

Not really.

They were fragments.

Sensations without explanations.

Faces she couldn't place.

Places she had never seen.

A dress she'd never worn.

A song she'd never learned.

And beneath all of it was a feeling she couldn't name.

Something old.

Something she couldn't stop carrying.

Then, finally, she dreamed of a garden.

This time, the man was standing in front of her.

She could almost see his face.

She reached toward him.

He smiled.

“Alara.”

She froze.

That wasn't her name.

Not now.

She woke gasping.

---

Kira began writing the dreams down.

She told herself it was stress.

The temple had planted the idea.

The funeral had watered it.

Her imagination was doing the rest.

That had to be it.

She refused to believe anything else.

---

The next evening, she left work later than usual.

The sun had already disappeared behind the buildings.

She checked her phone while walking.

A message from Lina was waiting.

Lina: Are you still coming tomorrow?

Kira smiled.

She typed:

Kira: Yes. I promised, didn't I?

She put the phone away.

Ahead, the pedestrian light changed.

Green.

Kira stepped onto the road.

Halfway across, she heard someone shout.

She turned.

A car was coming toward the intersection far too quickly.

For one frozen second, she couldn't understand what she was seeing.

The headlights grew brighter.

Someone screamed.

Kira tried to move.

A horn blared.

The car swerved.

Then—

Impact.

Her body hit the ground.

Her phone slipped from her hand and skidded across the pavement.

For a few seconds, she couldn't feel anything.

Then pain rushed through her.

People were gathering around her.

Someone was shouting for an ambulance.

Someone knelt beside her.

“Stay awake!”

Kira tried to answer.

Her lungs refused to cooperate.

Her eyes moved toward her phone.

The screen was still lit.

Lina's last message remained there.

See you tomorrow ❤️

Kira stared at it.

Tomorrow.

She had promised.

A strange sadness settled over her.

Then, beneath the voices and the distant sirens, she heard something else.

A voice.

Soft.

Familiar.

Almost impossibly far away.

Come back.

Kira's eyes slowly closed.

And everything went still.