Clotho

As they did every evening, they sat on the bench under the old willow tree in the garden of the mansion, enjoying the warm, soft air and the golden light of the fading sun, snuggling closely against each other. As usual, he smoked his cigar, while she made garlands out of the many daisies that grew in the garden.

She held one of them up, inspected it critically, before nodding to herself and smiling with pleasure. She turned to him and once again, he had to admire her beauty. "This is what I want for the bridesmaids. Something simple." She paused to have another look at the garland. "I want daisies and roses and...what about lilies of the valley? They smell good. Oh, Logan, it's going to be so pretty. Me and the other girls will all have flowers in our hair, and they'll wear those beautiful dresses I picked, and I'll have that great...oh, you're not supposed to know that, right? And then I'll walk down the aisle with the professor, right here under the willow tree, and then..."

He smiled softly, softer than he'd ever have thought he could. He listened to her joyful chattering about white silk and flowers and wedding cake and was astonished at how happy a man could be. And all his happiness revolved around her. She was the sunshine and the light of his every day, the brightest star in his night, the center of his every thought, the love of his life. Marie.

He pulled her close and pressed a kiss to her head. She looked up and he met her eyes, shining with devotion and passion. For him. After three years of being her lover he still couldn't believe this miracle. "I love you, Logan."

"I love you too, Marie. More than you could ever know. And whatever happens, I want you to remember that."

She became serious. "I know that, Logan. I do. But nothing's gonna happen. We're gonna get married in a week, and we'll live happily ever after, right?"

At her fearful tone, he smiled soothingly, and kissed the tip of her nose. "Yes baby. We will. I just...I just wanted to say that again. To make sure."

She embraced him tightly, as if to exclude the hostility of the world. "We've had enough pain for more than a lifetime," she whispered. "We deserve some happiness."
 

Unfortunately, happiness was not their fate.

"But Logan! It's six days to our wedding. What if you don't get back in time?"

He stopped packing his bags and looked at her. He saw that her lips trembled and tears were welling up in her eyes, but this was important. "I'll be back in time, baby. No way I'm gonna miss our wedding, don't you worry." He smiled and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "But you know how important this is to me."

She sobbed. "But the last times you went to search for your past you didn't find anything, Logan! Why should this be any different?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. But I have to try. If I don't, I'll always feel like I missed something."

"Can't you wait until we're married? The professor shouldn't have told you about that new trace in the first place. I…"

"Marie!" He stepped close to her and took her hands. He caressed her fingers, touching the silver engagement ring he would exchange for a golden band only a few days later. "Don't worry. I'll be back in time. Nothing's gonna happen. We're going to get married and live happily ever after, remember?"

She let out another sob, but nodded. "Be careful." She pulled him close and squeezed him. "I have a feeling that something bad is waiting for you."

He couldn't help the shiver running down his spine, but he shrugged it off.
 

If only he hadn't.

Lachesis

Three days later, he returned. Having seen his arrival, she ran out to greet him, wanting to pull him close and never let go, but when he got out of the car, she stopped dead in her tracks. His face was grey and dead like ashes. She knew then that her feeling hadn't betrayed her.

She wanted to step nearer, but felt glued to the spot where she was standing. A lump rose in her throat, threatening to choke her, making it hard to breathe. She wanted to scream, shout his name, cry, but she couldn't. Time had stopped.

He looked at her for a few endless seconds, then his eyes filled with tears. As one of them fell to the ground, time started running again, and Marie collapsed to her knees. She had never seen him cry. That was her death warrant.

Slowly, he stepped close to her, and looking up at his face, she realized that they had never been further apart than at that moment.
He reached out for her hand to pull her up, and as she took it, she noticed that it was cold as ice. In spite of the warm sunlight beaming down on them, she shivered.

"We have to talk." His voice was a shadow of what it had been, broken and hoarse. The lump expanded and filled her throat to bursting. She nodded and led him to their bench under the willow tree.

They sat down, and for the first time in their relationship, neither knew what to say. Finally she started. "Tell me."

He made as though to put his arm around her shoulders, but suddenly stopped and the arm fell down to his lap, as if it had become useless. He didn't look at her and she didn't dare to look at him, afraid of the story his eyes might tell.

"I always thought that whatever life might throw at us, we could deal with it. Together." His voice sounded so strange, as though she had never heard it before.

"Yes. We can. Can't we?" She desperately wanted to believe it, but knew it wasn't true. Nothing was true any more.

"We can't get married."

A sob built up in her throat next to the lump and almost suffocated her. She knew, but she didn't want to believe. Again, a shiver ran down her spine, making her body tremble. She put her arms around her chest and rocked herself, back and forth, back and forth…"No, no, no…"

Suddenly, he woke up from his frozen self and looked at her. The desperation in his eyes almost killed her, so she squeezed her eyes shut. A tear rolled down her cheek.

"Marie!" A hoarse whisper. "We can't get married!" He was begging her to understand so he didn't have to say it again, say the words that killed him.

Her eyes snapped open and through the tears, her gaze was clear. "Why?"

He sighed. "Do you really wanna know? Don't you just want to stop thinking about that? I'll leave and you can forget?"

She looked at him, her eyes filled with hurt. "You should know me better than that, Logan."

He winced at the simple statement. "I want to protect you, Marie."

She laughed bitterly. "You can't. One way or another, you can't. But I want to know *why*."

He took a deep, shaky breath, and without further comment began to talk. Fast, to get it over with. "I found my past."

Nodding.

"I had a family."

Nodding.

"I had a wife."

A sob.

"And a kid."

Another sob.
"And now you've found them?"

"Yes." He looked into her eyes for a second, all his pain visible in his, then they glazed over, and she knew the worst was still to come. "What do you know about your father, Marie?"

She looked confused. "Not much, my mom just told me that he left us right after I…" As the realization hit her, she broke off. "No," she whispered. "No, no, no!"

He looked away, his pain choking him, and guilt for a deed he hadn't known he had committed. He took all the strength that was left in him and said the words that would shatter his world to pieces. "You're my daughter, Marie."

And then, she screamed. She screamed loud enough for everyone in the mansion to hear and stop all the birds in their singing, even stop the world from spinning around. She screamed so everyone would know she was dying, her life ripped away once more by a twist of genetics.
 

But no one came to help her.

Atropos

Days, weeks and months passed. But time doesn't heal all wounds. Although they had moved away from each other, taken back every commitment that had been made, the mortal remains that had been them haunted the mansion at night, their ghosts wandering through the dark house, meeting somewhere and, at the sight of the other, fleeing back to their rooms to weep until the morning rose.

But one night, they met.
Still driven by the same needs and longings, one night, they both found their way to the willow. She sat there first, looking out into nowhere, thinking of nothing, when he sat down next to her. He didn't know where he got the strength or courage from, simply that he yearned to be close to her once more.

And she felt the same.
Looking up, she met his eyes, and saw that they still revealed love and devotion and passion, and she knew that she couldn't hide her feelings, either.And for the first time in months, he spoke.

"Do you still remember what I told you that day when we were sitting here? While you were making the garlands?"

And for the first time in months, she answered. "Yes."

He cupped her face, and couldn't resist caressing her cheek. Her eyes fell shut. "I just want you to know that it's still true."

She opened her eyes again and he saw that she was crying. "I know. I do. And I feel the same."She sobbed quietly. "Oh, Logan," a desperate moan, "what shall we do?"

He shook his head. "I don't know."

She sobbed again. "I wish you'd never, never found out. And we'd have lived happily ever after."

He couldn't keep himself from pulling her close. "Really?"

She nodded, then shook her head. "I don't know." She leaned in closer. "I just can't forget what we had…I can't, Logan! I would rather die than rip that memory out of my heart. And yet it would be the best. Oh, if we had just never loved."

He growled and shook her. "Don't say that. Don't say that, Marie."

She looked at him, her face distorted with agony. "But it hurts so badly. I would rather never have loved than to have loved lost. I wish we hadn't…"

With a desperate groan, he crushed his lips to hers, and after a few seconds felt her kiss him back with the same desperation and pain and need. He knew he had to stop, but he couldn't. His hand in her hair, he held her pressed closely against his body, for what seemed like an eternity. She wrapped her arms around his neck and for a few precious seconds, it was like it had been before. But time caught up with them fast.

They broke apart, panting, and realizing what they had just done, had wanted to do, they ran. Away from each other and the bench under the willows.

The day after that, he was gone.

From time to time, she received envelopes. They were full of money, and while she didn't really need it - all the possessions in the world couldn't compensate for what she had lost, and even though she never received a letter from him - she knew the meaning behind it. Her *daddy*, as she forced herself to call him, was alive and cared for her.

And as long as she knew that, she lived, too. For what she didn't know, just that it wasn't for love. She broke many hearts in order to repair her own, but she never succeeded. Her heart was gone, had been buried under the willow tree.

And then the envelopes stopped coming. She hadn't received one for a month, two months, half a year, a year when she couldn't stand it any more and asked the professor. He told her that Logan was dead. Killed in a fight that he would never have lost if he hadn't wanted to. She didn't cry. She didn't complain. There was no strength left for that. But she achieved her goal to bring his body back to the mansion. Home.

She sat by the fresh grave and listened to his voice that still rang in her head. She remembered what he had said, almost an eternity ago, and she knew it was true. Even now, it was still true. And suddenly she realized that if they couldn't be together in life, they could be united in death.

She was buried in her unused wedding dress.
Their bodies lay in the ground close to each other, under the willow tree where they had wanted to get married in another life. The skies wept for them and the wind whispered incessantly of their impossible love.