Lark walked along the cold winter sidewalk. It was late November and winter had arrived in full force. Snow fell heavily landing on his beanie and the jacket he wore over his hoodie as he walked. He passed shops but did not stop to look into them. His gloved hands were thrust deep into his pockets and he was hardly recognizable from all the clothes he wore.
He crossed the entrance to an alley and stopped. He listened and then heard it again.
“Help,” came a woman’s soft cry. “Help me. Someone, please.”
Lark turned and glanced into the alley.
“Help, please,” he heard again. He hesitated, looked around quickly and then, seeing no-one else, he stepped into the alley.
“Help me please,” the woman begged again. He could not see her but he was sure she could see him. He advanced slowly into the alley looking behind him occasionally to be sure that no-one was creeping up on him from behind.
As he advanced slowly into the alley, he spotted the woman on the snow-covered ground. She lay against the wall looking at him. When he spotted her, he stepped forward quicker but then stopped. He felt a familiar itching on his skin as his transformation began.
A million questions and thoughts crashed through his mind.
How was it possible? Across so many miles? After so many years?
The thoughts crashed through his mind in a second. He had no time to ponder them now. He spurred himself to action and moved forward quickly as he felt his transformation complete itself. He was well covered and he doubted that the woman would see his transformation but he waited until he knelt beside the woman before he uttered the words that activated the spell that hid what he had just become.
The young woman had stopped asking for help and she seemed to have passed out. Lark checked the woman and found a bloodstain on her blouse by her side. Without hesitating, he scooped the woman up as gently as he could and moved back to the street. He managed to stop a cab and climbed in still holding the woman.
“Get me to the nearest hospital as quick as you can,” Lark said.
The driver saw the woman Lark was holding was bleeding and accelerated as fast as he dared on the icy roads. They made it to the hospital in good time and Lark climbed out of the cab and rushed into the emergency ward calling for help.
A nurse approached him and instructed him to lie the girl down on a stretcher. The nurse made a quick assessment and then called out to her colleagues. They arrived quickly and moved the girl into the emergency ward.
The nurse returned and asked Lark to help complete some forms.
“Please complete these forms,” she said handing him a clipboard with a bunch of forms attached.
“What are these?” Lark asked. He had never seen the inside of a hospital let alone a doctor’s room. His curse ensured he would live forever and, as a result, he was always healthy.
“Admission forms, sir. We need information about the girl you brought in.”
“But I don’t know her. She was crying for help in an alley as I passed by. I’ve never seen her before tonight.”
“Well, can you give us your information please?” the nurse asked.
“What for?” Lark asked.
“So we have a record of who admitted her at least,” the nurse replied.
Lark hesitated. He stayed away from forms as far as possible. He did not like leaving a record of himself anywhere. Every record could be traced and had to be covered up at some point. Because he lived so long, he had to change his identity so he would never show up as having lived for longer that could reasonably be expected of any normal person.
He sighed and scribbled his name on the form reluctantly. He added his address and his contact details.
“Will she be okay?” he asked.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” the nurse said. “She most likely has internal injuries and we’re moving her to the operating theater right now. She should be okay though.”
Lark remembered what had happened in the alley and he relented. “If she doesn’t have any other family, call me. I’ll come and pay her bill.”
“That’s most kind of you Mr…,” the nurse paused as she looked at the form.
“…Cursor,” Lark finished for her.
“Mr. Cursor,” the nurse said thinking his name was strange. But then she came across many strange names in the world of the sick and had long ago learned not to say anything as some people could be sensitive about it.
Lark bid the nurse farewell and left the hospital.
He hoped the girl would be okay. He took a cab home and sat lost in his thoughts in the back of the cab as he looked out the window not seeing the snowstorm outside.
How was it possible, he wondered? Across all the years, and miles. He had sought to distance himself from Emma as he had last known her and he lived comfortably enough without her but it seemed the universe disagreed. It seemed the universe did not believe in avoiding curses but rather in facing them head-on. How was it that this girl he had chosen to avoid had found him after how many lives, how many miles, how many years, and out of eight billion people? It could be no coincidence. It seemed that a curse became one’s destiny. It could not be avoided. At least not forever.
The ties that bind, he thought to himself. He tried to shrug off the thoughts and ideas that raced through his mind.
Was this another chance? Would the universe go any easier on the curse this time, if it could at all? Was it even a possibility that the universe could be trying to help? Had the girl been brought to him because, in this life of hers, the opportunity to beat the curse was greater? Did the universe even care? Why would it? He couldn’t tell. He wished he could but despite his study of magic over the centuries he was no closer to understanding the will of the universe.
He decided he would stay away if he could. He remembered the young woman’s face. She was beautiful but she did not resemble Emma at all. He recalled how Emma had looked exactly like Erin. Emma had been Erin’s first reincarnation and had looked the same then but, he thought, as time had gone on her appearance might have begun to deviate from Erin’s with time. Maybe the universe forgot things over time as well. It was all he could think. After all, Erin’s father, Eugene, had not looked the same when he had been reincarnated as Justin.
Speaking of Erin’s father, whoever he was in this life, Lark believed he would not be far away from his daughter. Lark knew he would be waiting in the shadows ready to be the obstacle to Lark’s attraction to his daughter as he had been twice before.
No, Lark decided, it was best to stay away if he could. He had seen the way this ended before and he did not see himself repeating history again.
What he didn’t realize was that it wasn’t only his choice to make…