The Reunion.

Whoever said there was a thin line between love and hate must have known that line may have been called "Stupid" or "Confused". How else could one explain the note she found through her letterbox that morning that read,

" Even though I once wanted you dead, I have fallen in love

with what's in your head; your power, your drive

and how you won't give up and die instead.

I know the truth now. Please, let me make things up to you.

With all my heart,

William"

Stunned beyond words leaving her with no more than a blank facial expression, Alice stared at the note until her breakfast alarm jolted her back to the present.

She walked back to her kitchen and sat at the counter, pouring herself another cup of peppermint tea, still holding the note in her left hand.

Her small studio apartment needed some spring cleaning, and that was how she had planned to spend her day today.

This note threw her off her centre and took her back four years into 2019 when it would have meant something to her. But now, as she sipped her tea and stared at the walls, feeling nothing.

It was almost 10 am when she decided to get up and start cleaning, starting with the kitchen where she wiped the windows and surfaces, pulled out the plates, pots and cutlery from all the cupboards and gave it all a deep clean. Then she mopped the floor and went on to her bed and living area to steam clean the carpet and remove all the cobwebs. She concluded with the bathroom and toilet and finally, exhausted from all that work, dropped into a clean bath full of deliciously fairly hot soapy water to relax and ease some of the work tension off her muscles. It was already 3:23 pm.

As she relaxed in the delight of the strawberry and vanilla aroma of her foamy bathwater, she allowed her mind to travel back to the note William sent that morning, wondering how he had found out where she lived in the first place. As she travelled in her mind, she fell asleep.

William knew that it would take more than a note after four years of intentionally hunting and hurting Alice to convince her to trust him again. Not a day went by that he didn't replay the words and moments they had shared in the beginning when they first met. Everyone wondered where she had come from and was baffled at her precarious situation, especially as she oozed of a scarce kind of innocence. He was highly interested in her, but his mother disapproved. After all, nobody was sure she was telling the truth. But the only truth he could see was that she was alone.

There was a man twice her age she was running away from who she had lived with. Her being with him in the first place gave everyone the impression that she was either a prostitute or had daddy issues. As the years went by, his many observations proved that neither was the case.

The brotherhood had fed him so many lies about her that made him hate her and, they also took away the memories of the times she helped to save him. And, ever since he left The Brotherhood a year ago, he has not stopped trying to win her back and still used the powers learned from the time he spent with them.

At first, he sent the ravens to follow her everywhere she went; she didn’t like it so, he had to pull them back leaving just one instead that daily observed her from afar. The cord that connected them from the beginning never quite severed because no matter how much she tried to convince herself to forget him, his apparition remained in her mind and her dreams.

Her mind, ever so clever and her spirit so razor-sharp with a strong will of its own somehow withstood the spells he sent her way to make her call or take a step in his direction over the years. If anything was stronger than her spirit man, it was the rejection he had dished out to her all this time. Was it now too late to apologize?

Even though he had resolved many times not to use his crystal ball again, he peered through it at her sleeping form in the bath. He had watched her clean her apartment as he watched her many nights before and even knew when she had deleted his phone number from her contact list a year ago. That upset him to the core. She was ready to move on, but he wouldn’t let her and one way he made sure of this was to turn away the hearts of every man that fell for her the moment they were ready to take things to the next level. If he could not conquer her mind, at least he could control the minds of anyone that came around her. This was his plan, and it worked. To a great degree, she remained isolated. But instead of feeling proud of his achievement, he was ashamed.

Growing sick of these feelings eating him up alive every day, he was determined to bring the case to a close tonight and face up to her to prove he was not the coward she had called him the night that their fight began.

He wondered how to confess the lies he told about her to his family and friends and imagined it would be so much easier if she blindly forgave him and let him in again. Maybe he wouldn't have to confess anything; Maybe they could just run away together and disappear to start their lives over.

He knew her so well; He knew he still stood a chance of winning her back. Anytime she wanted to think, she would focus on a task for hours just like she did with the cleaning. Another thing he observed about her was that she talked to her mum about almost anything and that usually implied she had made up her mind about whatever that topic was. But she had not called her mum yet to tell her about the note he left her; could this be a good sign?

Feeling the need to be close to her, he filled his bathtub with plain tepid water. Then lay in it and allowed himself to be submerged fully. In a matter of minutes, he stepped outside of his body and travelled to see Alice.

He arrived at her bathroom in a blink of an eye and stood beside the bath she lay watching her sleep.

Alice woke up with a start when she felt a slight nudge on her left arm resting on one side of the tub. She looked at the clock across from her on the wall over the window. To her shock, it was 6:43 pm. The water had gone cold, and its foam was very flat. She considered stepping out of it to have a shower and made a move only to be pressed back into the water. Afraid and confused, she struggled with the invisible hand that tried to force her down the water and eventually, after what felt like forever but was, in fact, less than a minute she, was fully submerged.

She struggled with her unseen assailant, who had now started choking her; the hands squeezing her throat with all intent to break it if they could. Suddenly, out of nowhere, she felt a release and, she bounced out of the bathtub screaming, splattering water everywhere, crying and shaking like a leaf.

When William woke up, he rose out of the water calmly when in fact, his mind was a battlefield. He was surprised at himself for what he had done. The truth was that in those few moments, he gave in to the fear that she would never take him back so resolved that if he couldn’t have her to himself, nobody would. At the last minute, it occurred to him that frightening her enough would incline her to let him in if he knocked on her door later that night. He smiled. He had it all figured out.

He sent his raven out to watch her through her bedroom window while he got ready putting on the aftershave he had specially prepared with a fresh spell from last night’s watch. He dressed formally wearing a blue check shirt and smart grey pants that showed off his toned body sported with earth brown polished leather shoes.

At 8:13 pm he set out, stepping into his sky blue BMW Z3 and stopped on the way to pick her a gigantic bouquet from Amy’s florist at the Leeds city centre. Since Yellow was still her favourite colour, he selected the Designer’s choice yellow bouquet.

At 9:03 pm he knocked on her door. Silence. After a few moments, he knocked again and heard her ask in a volume above a whisper,

“Who is it?”

He hesitated. A few seconds passed, and then Alice asked again.

“It’s me,” he replied, matching her volume.

A minute passed, then two. Then the door opened.

She looked even more beautiful than he remembered. Might it have been because she was crying? She wore a check shirt that hugged her small frame tightly and a pair of ocean blue jeans. She had cut her hair and styled it into pretty little curls, he imagined she might be growing into an afro like he remembered she used to have until cancer made her lose it all. Her dark skin glowed. She smelt of delicious vanilla and strawberry from the bath earlier. They stood there staring into each other’s eyes until eventually, she stepped aside, leaving the door open and softly said

"Come in".