The day he turned 18 she came, at the spot where he had waited for her every night for the past 3 years.
He felt her before he saw her. One moment, he was alone, as he had been all his life, and the next, he felt her move from behind him.
"Welcome home, Light."
He knew he should say those words, had practiced them over and over in his head for years, not knowing the true value of what they meant, but knowing they were the correct things to say all the same.
A voice in the darkness. "I'm still watching your rear. After all these years, after all this time. But no longer. We are partners, Hope. I should stand by your side now. You no longer have to take point."
It is the new world. A place of new beginnings. But his soul is old, in spite of his 18 years. He had known, since before he was even born, that this day would come. He had been preparing for it since he could remember.
And now the time had come.
Carefully, slowly, Hope Estheim steps off his salt-slick rock. The sea crashes in waves beneath his lookout point, and with deliberate slowness, he looks up at her. She has come.
As the years have ticked by, Hope has become less and less sure of what her appearance should be like. With each passing birthday, more features would slip from his memory, but the last vestiges he still retains are identical in sight as they are in mind: rose-colored hair, long legs, alabaster skin, dewy smile.
"You sure took your time to find me." Hope self-consciously wipes his fingerless gloves on the back of his khakis. "I've waited for you for a long time."
"I wanted to make sure that you had a good childhood before I found you. Since today is your birthday, I came the on the day I thought most appropriate to re-introduce myself." The haunting woman from Hope's dreams steps forward, more into the streetlight, hair glowing from the halo above them.
"Lightning. That was your name once. Yes, I remember." Hope thinks hard, squeezing his eyes. "So much is lost."
A look of...concern washes over Claire's face for a moment as she looks off into the distance. "Yes, it's good that a lot of that time has disappeared from your memories. A lot of that time, for you especially, wasn't pleasant. It's my burden to remember everything. Nothing has lost any value for me. Since you're 18 now, I can go over what happened in more detail for you if you ask me. That's a decision you have to make, though, on whether you want to remember the past more accurately or not." Claire smiles at Hope as he opens his eyes once more, and takes his hand in both of hers. "But that's for later. We have...time, now. It's your birthday. It's a time for celebration...and meeting with old friends. First, though, I'd like to see your parents. It's been...a long time since I've spoken with your father. And I'd like to meet your mother, Nora."
"How...did you know my parents' names? I mean, I know that I'd meet you, Claire, by the sea..."
"...please, call me Light." The older woman smiles, a mischievous glint in her eyes that Hope doesn't quite understand. "It would...please me if you'd call me that. No one in this new place knows my old name. It's a little secret that only a few people know. But you, Hope," she states, lifting his chin so that he looks up at her face, "you are different. Please call me Light. It was my old name."
"Old name?" The boy looks back and forth across the woman's face, at the same time so familiar and yet so alien. "Okay...Light. I only remember bits and pieces. It's so fuzzy. I know that I'm older than 18 years old. I know that I was born in another world. I know that there are a few people living in this place here with me that can help me with my memories, because they came from the same place that I come from." He turns toward the night, and the sea. Light's arm slips comfortably across his broad set of shoulders, and together, they stare out into the waters.
"My parents are from the old world with me, I know. I know that they have been my parents longer than I've been alive. They won't tell me everything, though. When I ask, they tell me that I have to wait until I get older to truly understand everything that happened in our past. It's driven me crazy, sometimes I thought I'd go mad with the knowledge that I was...different...from the other kids, y'know? I haven't had the best time growing up. My mom and dad were always keeping things from me, only telling me bits and pieces...and I knew that the seashore was a special place. I kept having this dream...you were in it." Flushed, embarrassed, the young man turns to Light.
"I knew that if I kept waiting by the sea, that a woman would show up and help explain things to me. That my life would be better...if I just waited until she came to set things right. That woman...is you, Light." The boy looks up past silver locks to the woman by his side. "I don't know who you are, except that you are an old friend. I have this...feeling...around you like I've known you for years. It's so weird. But I didn't know when you'd come." Obviously distraught, the young man wrings his hands and paces back and forth under the streetlight, turning on his heel in cirlces. "Here you are. The dream I had of you is the only thing that has kept me sane all these years. My parents...they knew, and they held it back from me. You are the key. If I hadn't had my dreams, if I hadn't known to meet you, if you hadn't showed up..."
"Hey, Hope." Claire, or Light, or whoever this mysterious older woman is, leans in to place her hands on the young man's shoulders once more, physically halting his worried pacing. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry your life has been so strange. I believe you. It was hard growing up around the other kids, knowing you didn't belong, knowing you were...different...somehow. No one explained anything to you, or helped you. You felt older, smarter, stronger than others your own age. I'm sorry your parents, who should have been there to help you through this, especially since they could relate to the feelings you were experiencing, weren't there to ease you through your stress. I'm sorry that I didn't show up until now. There are...reasons." The woman releases Hope, straightening. The boy follows her stance, looking up at her porcelain face once more. She is very beautiful.
"All I can tell you is that your dreams weren't wrong. I'm here, at the right place...and, believe me, the right time. I will explain everything, if you want. I have the answers. And I am now at the right place to give you my undivided attention, which you deserve. But, like I said earlier, it's a celebration, and I have a surprise for you, for your birthday."
"Hey...by the way, how did you know it was my birthday?" Hope asks, tossing a lock out of his face. "Lucky guess...but, it's strange."
"We were friends, once, a long time ago. We told each other our deepest secrets, and I know it's going to take a lot of time to regain that here. You are right that you are older than your 18 years would lead you to believe. Your soul is much older than that. You come from another world, along with me, and a few other friends I'd like you to meet, if you're up to it. Perhaps it will help jog your memory, if you'd like to meet up. I have them waiting for you. We've all been waiting for you to come of age, so you could join us."
"Us?" Hope looks up. "You mean, there's more than you, and me, and my parents?"
Light smiles. "A lot more. Everyone that came from our old world is now on this one, plus more. There are good people, and the bad. That has already led to some confrontations, which fortunately, you have been left out of. But now you are old enough to join the fight, and to get your memories back, if you want. I can provide you with everything you want and more, if that's what you want. But you are special, Hope. Unique."
"How?" The boy asks, leaning in, but hesitantly. Light sighs, shaking the hair from her eyes. Why is she the one to explain things? Talking was never her strong point, not on this world, not on the old one. It is so cruel that her old vices would continue to plague her, thousands of years later and on another planet, no less. This isn't going to be easy, the old warrior-woman in a young woman's body realizes. He's still as much a child now as he was then. But he deserves the truth, and the very best out of me. I can deliver on nothing less.
"You are the only one out of all of us to be born to the same parents on this world as you had on the last one. That's why your parents remember what happened before, as do you. So you have the advantage of growing up from an infant into, now, an adult, here. I never had a childhood on this planet. I came here as I am now. Me, and the others. We haven't waited as you have. We haven't had experiences from this world to draw from for 18 years like you have. So we don't have all this time of confusion that you are experiencing. We have just arrived."
"We?" Hope asks again, rubbing his arms. The sea air is cold. He shivers.
"That's the surprise I was talking about earlier. Like I said, you have more friends than you can imagine. But you have a choice. I can leave now, forever, if that's what you want. You don't have to meet the others, and you don't have to ever see me again, if that's what you want."
Light looks sad as she crosses her arms over her chest. "That's what makes you special. You have a choice, as we did not. That's why your parents have kept as much from you as they could. They wanted to spare you the knowledge, the burden we all carry. You can choose to abandon the old world, and after time, more memories that you can remember now will fade. You will eventually remember only the memories you cultivate yourself on this new world, if you want. Your parents wanted you to be able to have that life, if that's what you wanted to choose. That's why we waited, your parents and me, and all the others, until you turned 18 to give you the choice. You're an adult on this world now, Hope. In this timeline. You can pick up where you left off a long time ago, or you can choose to abandon everything you knew then, and I will go away, never to return. You don't have to meet people from your old life. Your parents will respect your decision to treat you as if you have had only one lifetime. We can't forget, Hope. That's our curse, and our blessing. We carry two lifetimes on our back. We appeared here long after you did, in the bodies we belong to now. That's why I couldn't have come sooner." She smiles. "But I'm glad you waited for me. Very glad. If nothing else, if you choose to abandon the Hope you once were, I at least will get to say goodbye."
Hope cries out, throwing his head back and grabbing his arms, a single tear trickling down his cheek. "This is too much! None of this is making sense! More memories keep disappearing every day!"
"Do you want to remember?" Light asks him, almost shouting. Angry, she places her hands on her hips.
Sniffling, the boy looks up at the woman, the picture of teenage rebelliousness. "Do you want me to?"
Light exhales, turning. "It doesn't matter what I want." She turns her back to the boy, shoulders slumping. For some reason, seeing the dejected look on Light's body hurts Hope to witness.
"Hey, why don't I meet these 'old friends' you were talking about?" The boy replies, quieter, after a moment. "Then...maybe I can take some time to figure out what I want."
Light smiles, her back to the child still. He isn't throwing me...us...away. There's still Hope. "I was hoping you wouldn't say no to your own birthday party. After all, we've been waiting a long time, and all we needed was for the guest of honor to show up." She turns, holding out a hand to the young man. "Coming?"
Feeling for the first time in his new life that this was where he belonged, the boy grins lopsidedly and accepts the outstretched hand, clasping it in his. The touch feels good, he feels...right.
"Just one more thing, Light. Was...I Hope, back on the old world that we came from?"The boy asks hesitantly, as they walk toward a motorbike that is glinting just out of the spill of light pouring from the streetlamp.
Light chuckles, throwing a glance over a shoulder as their boots crunch crunch gently on the beach sand. "You have always been Hope, on this world, and the last one."