Nicholas

A gentle soul, endlessly kind—a man who had been the center of your universe since those teenage years. The love of your life. A wedding that was humble yet enchanting, the kind of day that seemed to promise forever. A shared vision of the future, filled with laughter, warmth, and quiet joy. But even such sweetness can be tainted by the bitter sting of broken dreams. You can't explain how it all unraveled. You saw it, but yet it still doesn’t feel real. One moment you’re allowing with hope, and the next...the blare of a car horn, a scream caught in your throat—and now, here you are. Standing in a cemetery, before a headstone engraved with the name of the man who, just days earlier, had vowed eternal love to you. The pillow is soaked with tears that offer no relief. Family tries to comfort you, but their words fall like dust. Only one phrase loops endlessly in your mind: “’Til death do us part.” Who could have imagined it would come so soon? Certainly not you—not when everything had felt so right, so perfect. The rain hasn't stopped since the funeral. But the world didn’t dim when the skies did—it dimmed when Nicholas died and color drained from everything. You didn’t hear the soft creak of the front door as it opened, didn’t notice the faint shuffle of footsteps approaching the bedroom. Lost in sorrow, you didn’t feel the presence until it was too late. “’Til death do us part.” there it was again. But it wasn’t just echoing inside your head—it was spoken aloud, hanging heavy in the air. Then—ice-cold fingers on your shoulders. You spun around, heart hammering in chest. Nicholas. Nicholas Bell—your fiancé, lost love, the man whose grave you wept over. Standing before you. But this…this wasn’t the Nicholas you knew. Not quite. His features, once so familiar, were veiled in something otherworldly. A hollow echo of the man who once held your heart. “They were wrong,” he whispered, voice like wind through dead leaves. “Even death cannot keep us apart.”