Music Recommendation: Days Passing by- Noomi Meerbach
Vincent and Eve arrived at the almost abandoned town of Brokengroves, stepping out of their carriage.
"Looks almost haunted, doesn't it?" Vincent remarked as his eyes skimmed through the place.
With the snow that had stopped with Winter leaving them behind, the path was clear, and Eve said,
"The place without snow feels like I am back in time. The last time my mother and I spent our days in this town and home... it was during the time of Winter. It has been so long," her voice was quiet as she was lost in her thoughts.
Vincent replied, "You ever wonder how things would have been if you and your mother returned home safely? If me, my mother, or Marceline were not abducted, if we would have met."
"I didn't know I left such a lasting memory with a silver haired boy," Eve turned to look at Vincent, offering him a teasing smile.
"You did. No one has ever bitten me like you did. Now that I think about it, your bite did prick more than any human's bite would. I wonder if the cute little siren teeth had already made their mark," Vincent said in a thoughtful tone. "Do you want to fix the walls in here?" He asked her when they stepped inside the ruined house that Eve and her mother once lived in.
"That's what I thought I would do," Eve murmured, and she touched the walls as memory began to flood her mind.
Not all memories were happy ones, as there were memories of her mother where she could feel the suffocation and being trapped in her life.
"Did you change your mind?" Vincent took a seat at the edge of the broken window. He crossed his legs, watching the love of his life staring at the objects in the small house.
"We can have the place preserved if you want, have it shielded in such a way that no rain or snow or anything else will come to disrupt its peace."
Eve's fingers paused from moving further on the wall, and she said, "Do you think it is time for me to move on... from the memories of the past?"
"Is that what you want to do?" Vincent asked her, where silence surrounded them.
"I don't think so..." Eve's voice drawled before she replied, "This place... I can feel my mother's tears, her anguish of losing my father and the pain... which she didn't allow me to see, as she cried when I wasn't awake. There's happiness, but overwhelming sadness, everything is as vivid as the hour we spent at Meadow a while ago. I wonder if it would be healthy to cling to the past."
Vincent pushed himself from where he was sitting and walked to where Eve stood. Placing his hands on the top of her shoulders, he said,
"I know it is harsh, but your mother is not alive, Eve. She has been dead for a very long time, and what you feel now, is not what she feels. You can either choose to accept the truth or ignore it, and then move forward," he took a deep breath before continuing, "Nothing is ever healthy. Let me tell you something, when my mother passed away, the things she had used for several days were left as they were. It was cleaned up only after Annalise married into the family. You don't have to decide now, as there's no hurry."
"There is something I wanted to check... but to do it when you are by my side... so that I don't get lost," Eve stated, and it had Vincent look at her in curiosity.
"Anything you want, milady," Vincent replied to her.
Eve said to him, "You know how I touched the tomb of King Gauntlet and his family members, where we went into their memories. There is a deeper layer than that, but I don't know if it will go through or not."
"I have your back, my darling. Let us take a seat, shall we?" Vincent looked around, and they sat on the dusty ground facing each other. Holding their hands, Eve closed her eyes and concentrated.
As seconds started to tick away, Eve felt the warmth around her starting to leave and change as if she was experiencing several kinds of weather within every passing second before cold settled on her skin.
When Eve opened her eyes, Vincent wasn't sitting in front of her, nor was she sitting in a ruined house. Instead, the house was back the way she remembered it. The walls had no cracks, nor were the windows broken.
"Did it work?" Eve asked herself, pushing herself to get up, and she looked at the bed that was made, and the bathtub was clean with no dried twigs or leaves or stones in there.
Hearing the carriage wheels move outside the house, Eve quickly approached the door and opened it. She was greeted with snow falling from the sky and noticed people walking up and down the street.
Eve made her way down the street, and when she reached the centre place, she noticed people filled the centre of the town, and it wasn't as deserted as it was in the past. She was looking around when she felt a small whirlwind brush past her.
"Mama!" a small girl's voice chimed in happiness.
Eve's eyes fell on the golden blonde hair of the little girl, and she ran until she reached her mother. Her mother. Rebecca Barlow, who picked up her younger self in her arms.
"What are you doing outside the house in this cold weather, hm?" Eve heard her mother ask her younger self, who had put her hands around her mother's neck.
"I didn't know when you would come... and thought to come see you myself, mama!"
Rebecca picked up one of small Eve's hands and blew warm air at it. She said, "Your hands are frozen. It seems like you have been waiting for me for a long time now."
"I was," little Eve nodded in affirmation.
While Rebecca spoke to her daughter about something, the small girl's eyes fell on her older self, who stared at them. Little Eve said, "Mama, same hair!"
Eve quickly bent down as if to fix her shoe while having her back against them. Rebecca turned in the direction little Eve pointed, but not finding what her daughter was showing her, she returned her attention and said,
"What do you want to eat? We can go buy something from the nearby inn."
"Anything?" Little Eve's eyes lit up. A little shy, she asked, "Then... mama... I can ask for hot, sweet potatoes?"
"Hm, sweet potatoes?" Rebecca asked, and the little girl nodded before the woman let her daughter down so that they both could walk. "Alright then. Let us go to the vegetable shop and see if they have any of them left."
In the meantime, Eve followed the mother-daughter while maintaining a distance. She heard the warm interaction, and even though Eve didn't remember it until now, she would keep this close to her heart.
Rebecca said to little Eve, "Stay here and don't wander around. I will be back with the sweet potatoes," she kissed the little nose of her daughter before standing straight and walking to the shop. But when the woman reached the shop, the vendor shunned her.
"Haven't I told you that you aren't welcome here? Go find someone else, as I don't want any business from you."
Rebecca bowed her head deeply and pleaded, "Please, Mr. Oakley. The other shops aren't offering anything to me, and if I need to buy them, I will need to travel to another town. Please show mercy on me."
The vendor began to ignore Rebecca, and the sight broke Eve's heart.
When another woman appeared at the shop, the vendor assisted her. After two minutes, Rebecca turned away from the shop with a dejected look and made her way back to her daughter. Not knowing what else to do, Eve tied her golden blonde hair into a tight bun at the back while pinning her fringes so that she didn't resemble her younger self.
Eve then made her way to the shop and demanded from the vendor,
"I would like to have ten sweet potatoes and three other vegetables."
The vendor noticed Eve's expensive dress, and he quickly heeded her demands by bringing everything she asked for before asking her, "Is there anything you would like, milady?"
"A life full of kindness to offer to the unfortunate," Eve responded, and the vendor blinked.
"Milady?"
"I suppose you don't have it," Eve replied, and then said, "Here are two gold coins, but I will give it to you, if you promise to send the vegetables and fruits to Lady Rebecca Barlow."
"Milady, do you know who she is? She--" The vendor began only to be shut down by Eve, who said,
"She is an outstanding woman, who tries hard to keep her head high even though you men and women like to look down on her. Why? Because she's trying to support her and her daughter?" Eve asked the man, who blinked at her. "I will give you two more gold coins, if you will not turn her away and instead treat her like any other person in this town. With respect. If not, I will have my husband come and put some sense in you," she lightly threatened.
The vendor nodded because it would take him weeks or months to earn a gold coin.
Eve knew it wouldn't be genuine respect from the vendor, but at least her mother would be shunned by one less person.
She returned to the house, where she could hear her mother talking to her little self. She couldn't alter anything from the past, as it would affect the past. Raising her hand, she knocked on the door.
Rebecca reached the door, and when she opened it, she saw no one standing there and wondered who had knocked on the door. But before she closed the door, her eyes fell on a bag of vegetables.
"Who is, mama?" Little Eve asked, following her mother and stepping out of the house while her mother looked left and right. "Sweet potatoes!" She picked up the vegetables in her small hands.
Noticing a note in there, Rebecca picked it up and read it-- Forgive me for my behaviour, but please take this as my apology. I would like you to come by the shop if you need any vegetables or fruit.
Rebecca stared hard at it before she looked relieved, as if she could breathe a little. She turned to her little daughter and said, "I guess it is time to boil the sweet potatoes." She looked outside the house one more time before closing the door.
