Glasses of cold juice stood motionlessly before each of them. The food had long been cleared and each had eyes locked to each other. Eddie was waiting and Jane, while she was ready to speak, the fact that he was sitting there with her thrilled her so much that she could hardly put a word to her feeling. She remembered when she first met him.
She had just arrived from a trip to one of the kingdoms under Woodland and was rushing to the train station to freshen up before going to class. Before she left the spaceship station, she bumped into a young man who upon seeing her, was petrified with mouth wide open.
"Is there a problem?" She asked, a confused look taking a grip of her delicate face.
"Cough! Cough! Ah... No. You just almost killed me." Eddie replied scratching his head sheepishly.
"What do you mean by that?" Her look became disdainful, wondering where the idiot had come from.
"Before those eyes make a hole on my head, may I at least know your name?" The sheepish smile never left his average face.
It was not the first time a man was approaching her with a wooing intention. In fact, considering her beauty, she had lost count of them who had tried their lack. However, it was her first time seeing one fidget before her.
"I never share my name with dimwits like you." She left behind those words as she walked to the train station. As she left, she could remember hearing him gulp a mouthful of saliva, one thing that she had found pesky but funny. When she almost disappeared, she took a quick turn of the head to at least steal a glance. Her eyes met a man who had long fallen into a trance, looking like a fool in the middle of the busy station. This really annoyed her. She had to quickly make herself scarce, lest he followed her.
"Why are you laughing?"
Her journey to her deep memories had unknowingly brought a laugh to her beautiful face. Eddie' question reminded her of where they were. She said it was a funny memory she did not want to share. She could not tell him she had met a dimwit, only to realize later that inside that dimwit was a gem that no woman had yet seen. She seized it and this time, she was here to own it till the end of time.
"I have somewhere else I would want to go to, remember."
"Sorry, Eddie." She laughed stupidly before wearing a serous face, "Eddie, once again, I am sorry for what I did. At that time, I was left with no choice and for the sake of both of us, I had to quit."
"What squeezed your choices that much, Jane? We were so happy together, weren't we?"
"We were, Eddie." Tears were already rolling down her cheeks. She left them flow, to show Eddie that she had been in pain just as much as he had. He did see beyond her tearful face and saw what her true soul reflected.
He was a sprit painter and while other people with magic could not see the reflection of one's soul, he could sometimes see them for what they were. After his recent breakthrough, he could peer into one's soul with much clarity. While he could not actually see what secrets she was harboring nor could he clearly understand the meaning of what he was seeing, he was sure he was staring right into the suffering she had gone through, for him.
"Canya," he did not hear her and she had to repeat, "Canya. She told me that if I did not give you up, she would kill me…"
"What? And you believed her?"
"Eddie, you are probably the only person who doesn't know Canya for what she really is. Canya is known to do everything she can to get what she wants."
"But I willingly gave my heart to her." Eddie stated in incomprehension.
"That is according to you, Eddie, not according to her." She smiled.
"What do you mean?"
"My dear, love is one thing that can drive people crazy, especially when it possesses someone like Canya. Can you remember how, although she was your friend, you hardly wanted anything to do with her as far as what was between us was concerned. She knew that much. To have you, she had to erase me from your memory. Asking me to do what I did was her trying to preserve my life and being cautious. Who knew, if I died, your heart would be broken so much that you wouldn't need someone in your life.
"If I did not do as she asked, she would have killed me. After all, after you healed, you would still be there, wanting someone to occupy your heart, despite the odds. I am a love girl; I know how the magic works. I decided to do just as she told me. At least, when alive, there was hope of having you back."
"That cannot be true, Jane." Eddie shook his head, "It was a mutual agreement between the two of us. And, she would never do such things. I know Canya…"
"From what she tells you about herself, not what you observe." Jane reminded, lifting her right index finger in the air.
He breathed a heavy breath. He wanted to protest but when he thought it through, he realized Jane was telling the truth. Through his powers as a spirit painter, he could feel that she was not lying. This made him wonder what a monster he had been calling his girlfriend.
"Please tell me you stopped loving me, Eddie." Seeing him tongue-tied, she looked into his eyes and pleaded.
"You know I cannot say that." After a long silence, he sighed heavily.
"True love is hard to break, Eddie. While she had used magic to bond you to her, she could not break the bond of love that was between you and I. That is what kept me hoping that one day you would come back to me. The warning message I sent the other day was not the first. You had never received the previous ones because you were somehow still bonded strongly to her. When I saw you in that hall yesterday, I knew you had received my message, a sign that you had started freeing yourself from the spell that was tying you to her. While someone was in control of me, the little part of me that was awake was extremely happy to see you…"
"Oh, Jane." He broke into tears when he saw her stop to cry. He took her hands into his and squeezed them tightly, as if afraid someone would take her from him.
"I am really sorry, Jane. I really am. However, if you are being honest, I still have feelings for her. I cannot just ignore those feelings." She had stopped and was wiping her tears off with a towel he had just given her.
"I understand." Eddie could feel how with a heavy heart she now spoke, "Until the spell is completely broken, that is how you will feel about her. However, when you are completely free, no one is going to take you away from me again."