LOVE ME IN ANOTHER LIFE

Months later, Elara was yet to hear from Andrian. Instead all she could hear from the sitting room was the sound of the clock.

Tick.

Tock.

Still here. Still waiting.

Elara sat curled on the sofa, knees drawn to her chest, a blanket wrapped loosely around her. The TV flickered in the background — muted news reports about storms, missing flights, and search efforts that had long gone cold. She wasn’t watching. Her gaze was distant, fixed somewhere between memory and the hollow ache of now.

Max stirred at her feet, his soft whine breaking the silence.

She reached down absently, fingers running through his fur. “You miss him too, don’t you?” she whispered.

The dog lifted his head, as if listening for something.

Elara frowned. “What is it?”

Then she heard it — faint at first, like the sound of someone humming. A low, soothing hum, the same melody Adrian used to make when he painted beside her. It drifted through the studio like a half-remembered lullaby.

Her breath caught.

“Adrian?” she called softly.

The humming stopped.

She stood, her expectation went higher. " Who could that be.?" She asked herself. Max walked with her around.

Her hands were clean. The brush is still dry. Yet the paint was fresh — glistening faintly under the light.

A chill rippled through her. She turned in a slow circle, her eyes darting to every shadowed corner. “Adrian?” she whispered again, her voice barely audible.

Only silence answered. But the air smelled faintly — unmistakably — of cedarwood.

That scent again.

His scent.

She stumbled back, gripping the side of the easel as her breath came shallow. “This isn’t real,” she whispered. “You’re not here.”

The record player in the corner crackled to life — not the same song as before, but another they’d danced to once: “Beyond the Sea.”

Her eyes widened. She hadn’t touched it. It hadn’t worked for weeks.

Tears filled her eyes as the familiar voice of Bobby Darin filled the air.

“Somewhere beyond the sea, someone’s waiting for me…”

Her heart twisted. She sank to her knees, pressing a trembling hand to her chest. “If this is you,” she murmured, “if you’re really here… please, give me something. Say something.”

But only the song replied.

Then the doorbell rang.

Elara blinked, startled.

No one visited this early.

She opened the door and froze.

A man stood there — tall, dark-haired, his eyes a striking gray that caught the morning light in a way that made her breath falter. He wore a charcoal coat, rain-speckled, and held an envelope in his hand. For one impossible second, her heart stopped.

He looked just like Adrian.

“Miss Bennett?” he said softly. His voice was calm, polite — but the timbre, the tone… it was his.

She gripped the doorframe. “Who… who are you?”

He hesitated, studying her face with quiet intensity. “My name is Daniel. Daniel Cole.”

Her heart lurched. “Cole?”

Her lips parted. “That’s Adrian’s surname.”

"How on earth did you get here.?" She asked him with surprise on her face.

Daniel walked around her beauty picture.

She stepped back, voice shaking. “What is this? Some kind of joke?"" Who are you.?" She expects her dog to come back. Instead the dog walks around Daniel like the way it does to Andrian.

" Max, come here. " She shouted at Max, still can't come forward.

“I’m sorry,” Daniel said quickly. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I was told I might find you here. I—” He exhaled, visibly struggling for words. “I’ve been looking for him too.”

Elara’s pulse raced. “You… you know him?” " Andrian never told me he has a twin brother."

" What do you mean by that.?" Daniel asked him.

" Do you know him.?" She asked him the second time.

He nodded. “Yes. In a way. I think we may be… connected.” He handed her the envelope. “This was found among his things.”

She took it with trembling hands. The handwriting on the front was unmistakable — Adrian’s slanted script. For Elara.

Her knees nearly gave way.

“Where was this found?” she asked weakly.

Daniel’s eyes softened. “They recovered some of the wreckage. I was asked to help identify certain items. That’s how I… came across this.”

Elara swallowed hard. “But how do you look—”

“Like him?” he finished quietly.

She nodded.

He smiled faintly, almost sadly. “I don’t know. I wish I did.”

Daniel glanced around the room with a kind of reverence. His gaze lingered on the paintings, on the locket resting by the window, on the photograph of her and Adrian smiling by the sea.

“You painted these?” he asked.

She nodded. “They were… ours.”

He nodded slowly. “He spoke of you, didn’t he?”

She blinked. “How do you—”

But he didn’t answer. Instead, his gaze fixed on the half-finished canvas by the easel — the one she swore had changed on its own. For a long moment, he said nothing.

Then, quietly, he murmured, “I’ve seen this before.”

Elara stared. “What do you mean?”

“In my dreams,” he said. “Every night since I woke up in the hospital. That same image — a man reaching toward the light.” He turned to her, gray eyes clouded with confusion. “And I don’t know why.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. The room spun.

“How could you… know that?” she whispered.

He met her gaze, something unreadable in his expression — sorrow, wonder, maybe even fear. “I don’t know. But every time I close my eyes, I feel like he’s there — like he’s trying to tell me something.”

Elara’s eyes filled again, tears slipping silently down her cheeks.

The wind outside rose suddenly, rattling the windows.

And for just a second — only a second — the faint scent of cedarwood swept through the room again.

Daniel’s eyes widened. “Do you smell that?”

Elara nodded, her voice breaking. “Yes.”

They stood there — two strangers bound by one ghost, one love, one impossible connection, she had watched stronger.

Inside, the photograph trembled slightly, as if touched by an unseen hand.

Then comes a report from the police.

" Did you find him.?" She asked.

" They both nodded their heads."

" Isn't that Andrian, twin. ?" One of the police said to her.

" No, I am Daniel."

Andrian appeared before Daniel.

" Do not tell them you are gone. " Andrian warned Daniel.

" Young man, who are you staring at over there.?" The police asked him

" Goodbye." Andrian said immediately he looked at Elara who wasn't seeing him, non heard her.