Im With You Link

"Well, Elias, you look like you’re searching for something that isn't on this bench."

"I don't know why you're here, Clara," he whispered, staring at his hands. "I’m a sinking ship. Eventually, I’m just going to pull you down with me." Im With You

Decades later, Elias stood in the same park where they had met. The bench was new now, made of polished wood instead of rusted iron. He was older, his hair a shock of white, but he still preferred the rain. "Well, Elias, you look like you’re searching for

The voice was light, cutting through the rhythmic drumming of the rain. Elias looked up. A girl stood there, holding a transparent umbrella that looked like a glowing jellyfish under the streetlamps. She wore a bright yellow raincoat that defied the gray evening. The bench was new now, made of polished

He felt a hand slide into his—smaller now, more fragile, but just as steady. Clara, in a yellow raincoat that had seen better days, smiled up at him. "Still a bit damp," she remarked.

Elias sat on the edge of a rusted park bench, his collar turned up against the chill. He wasn’t waiting for a bus or a person—he was waiting for the feeling of being untethered to finally pull him under. At twenty-four, he felt like a ghost in his own life, moving through a sequence of shifts at a quiet bookstore and long walks through a city that seemed to have forgotten him. "It’s a bit damp for a sit-down, isn’t it?"

The rain continued to fall, but for the first time in a long time, the world didn't feel blurred at all.