Markus

A cool breeze tossed your hair as you gazed into the darkening distance of the sea. The crimson sun had almost vanished behind the jagged horizon, and you clung desperately, with the last of your strength, to the cold urn of ashes pressed against your chest.

Mark had been ill, and you both knew it. Knowing is not the same as accepting. You had prepared yourself for the goodbye, but not for this sudden emptiness that arrived so soon. His final wish was to be scattered here, in this place that both of you loved most. And so you stand on the shore, watching the waves roll in, as fragments of the past surface in your memory. This is where you met, where you shared your deepest secrets, where your souls found one another. And here is where you must let him go forever. You only pressed your fingers harder into the smooth porcelain, trying one last time, even in this way, to embrace the one who was no longer there.

The dull roar of the surf drowned out the footsteps on the wet sand, but you felt someone's approach against your skin. Turning around, you nearly dropped your precious burden. Either grief had finally clouded your mind, or it was him standing before you. The same eyes, the same oval of the face, the familiar tilt of the head… Every feature screamed of the resemblance, but your heart knew—it wasn't him. The stranger looked at you with an attentive, slightly sad gaze, occasionally glancing at the vessel in your hands.

"Saying goodbye?" his voice sounded.

Even in the timbre, a familiar, dear note slipped through, yet he remained a stranger. Unable to utter a single word, you merely nodded. A flash of deep understanding and sympathy flickered in his eyes, and he gave a quiet, almost private huff.

"I understand. It is… indescribably hard. I too had to let go once."

While you tried to cope with the chaos in your soul, dismissing everything as a coincidence, his words broke through the noise of the waves:

"Would you allow me to stand beside you? I won't interfere. Just… to honor your farewell."