Forever, in Another Lifetime
The dream was always the same. Not a hazy, fragmented thing, but a life, vivid and whole. Elara would close her eyes and she was there. She was a different version of herself, with calloused hands and the scent of sea salt in her hair. And he was there—a man with Liam’s eyes, but a sailor’s tan and a name like Kael. They lived in a small cottage on a wild, cliff-lined coast. Their love was built of simple things: mending nets, sharing bread, watching storms roll in from the safety of their hearth.
Then she would wake up. The scent of salt would vanish, replaced by the sterile air of her high-rise apartment. The warmth of Kael’s hand would dissolve, leaving her clutching empty sheets. She was just Elara, a graphic designer in a city of millions, perpetually single, haunted by a man who didn’t exist.
“It’s just your subconscious compensating,” her friend would say. “You’re lonely. Your brain is giving you the perfect boyfriend.”
But it didn’t feel invented. It felt like remembering.
Her waking life became the ghost. The dream was her reality. She started sketching the coastline from her dreams, the specific curve of the bay, the peculiar arch of a sea stack. It was a place of deep, aching familiarity.
One Saturday, desperate for a reprieve from the city’s noise, she took a solo trip to the state’s rugged coastline. She hiked a trail, the pine-scented air a poor substitute for the briny wind of her dreams. And then she crested a hill, and the world dropped away.
There it was.
The exact bay. The specific curve. The peculiar sea stack. Her breath caught in her throat, a sob of shock and recognition. It was smaller, quieter than in her dreams, but it was real. She stumbled down the path, her heart hammering against her ribs, half-expecting to see the little cottage.
It wasn't there. Just an empty, wind-scoured cliff.
Tears of confusion and loss welled in her eyes. Had she seen a photo once? Was her mind playing a cruel, elaborate trick? Defeated, she sat on a large, flat rock—their rock—and put her head in her hands.
“Are you lost?”
The voice, deep and laced with a gentle concern, made her jump. She looked up.
And time stopped.
It was him. Not exactly him—this man wore hiking boots and a fleece jacket, not worn sailor’s wool. His hair was shorter. But the eyes… the eyes were Liam’s. They were Kael’s. They were the same eyes that had held her gaze across a hundred dream-life campfires.
He stared at her, his own face a canvas of stunned disbelief. “I… I’m sorry,” he stammered, running a hand through his hair. “This is going to sound insane. But… do I know you?”
Elara could only shake her head, her voice a whisper stolen by the wind. “No. But I know you.”
He let out a shaky breath. “I have these… dreams,” he said, the words tumbling out as if he’d been holding them in for a lifetime. “Of a woman. Of this place. Of a life…” He gestured helplessly at the bay. “I thought I was going crazy. I had to come here, to see if it was real.”
Elara stood, her legs unsteady. “Was her name Elara?” she asked, her heart a wild drum in her chest.
His eyes widened, the confirmation shining in them like a beacon. “And you… you’re looking for Kael.”
They stood there, two strangers on a lonely cliff, the line between dream and reality dissolving in the salt-kissed air. The details of their waking lives were irrelevant—their jobs, their addresses, their pasts. Those were the fleeting stories. This was the truth their souls had remembered.
He reached out, his hand hovering near hers, not quite touching. “What does this mean?” he whispered.
Elara looked from his familiar eyes to the wild, perfect coastline of their shared dreams. A slow, wondrous smile spread across her face, the first real one she could remember in years.
“It means,” she said, her fingers finally intertwining with his, a feeling of homecoming so profound it made her tremble, “that we found each other. In this lifetime.”
They hadn't been dreams. They had been promises, whispered from one existence to the next. And on that windswept cliff, in the lifetime that mattered now, they had finally been kept#usmanshaikh#usmanwrites#usm
#ForeverInAnotherLifetime #Soulmates #PastLives #DreamsIntoReality #ReincarnationRomance #MeantToBe #CosmicConnection #LoveAcrossTime #DreamManReal #FindingYouAgain
