Where The End Begins
Where The End Begins
Written By Jiya
Chapter Two
When Elene saw her, memories she had long buried began to surface.
The sound of her children’s laughter echoed in her mind, tearing at her heart. The voice of a man she had once called her husband followed …. warm, gentle, achingly familiar. Even now, she could almost feel the comfort of his presence, as if that warmth had never truly left her.
But it was gone. All of it. The moment she had saved her daughter from the clutches of death had been the beginning of her ruin.
Her daughter had been torn away from her … not by force, but by fear. Cast aside as though Elene herself were a plague. Perhaps the child had seen something… something unnatural. Elene never knew for certain.
She only knew this her daughter had been terrified of her. That knowledge had seared her heart beyond healing. So she left. But she did not go far.
From a distance, she watched her daughter grow. She saw her marry a kind man. She saw children born … her blood continuing through generations that would never know her name.
Time passed. Faces changed. Lives moved forward.And Elene remained … unseen, unknown. Then the rumors began.
They were whispered in hushed voices, passed from one fearful tongue to another
A woman who appeared where desire burned strongest… and left ruin in her wake.
Elene did not want to destroy. She had only ever wanted to build. But she had lost that right the moment she destroyed her own chance at redemption. Another memory surfaced …. one she wished had stayed buried.
A jeweler had once invited her into his home. He had been a careful man, precise in both craft and conduct. But the moment he saw her, all restraint vanished. It was as if some unseen force had seized his mind. He guided her inside with trembling urgency. The room he brought her to was lined with velvet and glass, shimmering with quiet wealth.
“Sit,” he said softly, as though afraid she might disappear. “Please.” Elene sat. She watched him move about the room with reverence.
In his home, she was like a glittering goose …. something rare, something to be treasured. Then Elene heard him speak, his voice hushed with awe.
“You are fortune,” he murmured. “Do you know that? You are every door opening.” Elene folded her hands in her lap.
“I am only passing through,” she replied. He did not hear her words. Or perhaps he heard something else entirely.
Within weeks, he had sold half his stock, investing in ships that never returned. He followed her shadow from street to street, convinced that prosperity walked wherever she stepped. When she left the town, he followed the horizon. Later, people said he had gambled everything chasing a promise that never existed. And it filled Elene with a quiet, suffocating despair.
She could never be normal again. Never simply human.
Years blurred her memories, but one thing remained painfully clear….the fear in her daughter Ella’s eyes when she saw her after the fever broke.
Elene had left after that. But in truth, she had never truly gone. From a distance, she watched her daughter grow into a beautiful woman… and then into a mother.
Elene never interfered. Time passed. Fields changed hands. Children grew into adults, then into the elderly, making way for the next generation. Houses were built, repaired, and eventually torn down to make space for something new.
But Elene remained.Unchanging. She moved lightly through the seasons. Sometimes, she tested the boundaries of her curse.
Once, she stood before a soldier returning from war, his uniform torn, his eyes hollow. He looked at her as if she were sunlight after a storm.
“What do you see?” she asked.
His expression softened in a way that felt almost painful to witness. “Peace,” he said. Elene wondered what that looked like. She had not known peace for many years. And yet… she felt something unexpected.
Relief.
Her curse had given someone peace… even if only for a fleeting moment. The thought dulled her ache, if only slightly.
So she left him there. She pulled her cloak over her face again, as she always did, and walked on. After a while, she heard laughter.
Children.
The ache returned … sharper this time. Her fondness for children had never faded.
Gathering a fragile courage, she lowered her cloak just enough for them to see her… not fully, not enough to frighten them.
The children paused their play and looked at her with quiet curiosity. There was no hunger in their gaze. No longing.
Only something close to clarity. They had not yet learned what to desire.
Elene knew that would change. It always did.
But for now… she found solace in their presence. So she sat at a distance and watched them play.
And after a while, as children do, they forgot about her entirely.
Blood remembered its patterns, even when names changed.
And now, seeing the little girl, an onslaught of emotion crashed over her. Elene wanted to cry. It felt as though she were standing before her daughter again.
But she did not approach. Fear held her in place…. the fear of being rejected once more.
The girl looked at her. And then she smiled. A full, blooming smile. Elene’s breath hitched.
Had the child seen something in her to desire…? Or had that smile been meant for her? She wanted to ask.
But she remained frozen. And the moment slipped away. The girl turned and left with her mother.
By the time Elene stirred from her stupor, it was too late. Restlessness settled deep within her.
She knew… somehow … that this had been her only chance.
If she let it pass, she might never see the child again. The girl had to be her kin.
Blood called to blood.
In her mind, the face of her daughter, Ella, blurred and merged with that of the young girl. The resemblance tightened painfully around her heart.
So Elene stayed. She decided she would wait. Perhaps the child would return. Perhaps fate would be kind, just this once.
She knew nothing about the girl … not her name, not her home. And she could not risk asking.
Too many eyes. Too many desires.
She could not expose herself again.
Elene waited there for a week. The girl did not return.
Slowly, hope thinned into something fragile, something she did not dare to name. At last, she turned away, leaving behind what she believed had been her only chance.
But she did not go far. She lingered at the edges, unwilling to let go completely.
Perhaps the girl would come back.
Perhaps.
One evening, as autumn began to steal the last warmth of summer, Elene saw her.
For the first time since the river had refused her, something unfamiliar pressed against her ribs.
Not hope. She had buried that long ago. But something quieter. Something that trembled.
The girl saw her too. Surprise flickered across her face …. and then she smiled. She lifted her hand and waved.
Elene’s heart lurched. She returned the smile, hesitant… almost afraid it might break. That was all the invitation the child needed.
The girl walked toward her in slow, careful steps, stopping just before her. Curiosity shone openly in her eyes.
And somewhere, within the vast weave of blood and consequence, something shifted.
For the first time in years….. the end Elene had been waiting for began to take shape.
To Be Continued……
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