The house, where Wendy had lived for two years was incredibly long and narrow; perhaps only about twelve feet wide at the front, but it stretched some thirty feet back like a giant shoe box. It was two stories high and had a one story extension at the rear, though Mark was not sure what the huge space was for. The curtains were shielding the inside of the room, as if it kept a secret of hers. Mark walked slowly, following the footsteps of the petite girl. Before the massive brown door, a small rose garden had been planted in front along the pave way, and although it had obviously once been carefully planned and loved, it was now riddled with filthy weeds. He carefully scanned the wilted roses, wondering if there was a healthy one. But no, all of them were dead, and if they had eyes Mark would have seen them crying blood.

“Welcome to my home,” Wendy said, pulling the doorknob as she turned around to face Mark. “It’s very nice.” He did say the truth, though he may have lied about the roses. They had been talking in low voices, but as the heavy door swung closed behind Mark an ominous silence fell.

“Make yourself comfortable. Would you like some coffee?” she said, a small smile formed on her lips. Mark glanced at his watch; it was 15 minutes to two o'clock. Since he was not in need to sleep just yet, he just nodded and told her his preferences. “Black and two cube of sugars, please.”

“Okay.” Mark watched her back and not long after she was gone from his sight. He was not sure if she really went to the kitchen, as his view was blocked by a huge cupboard full of books. He then walked around, and he was awestruck by the interior of the house. There was an L-shaped cream sofa facing towards a huge telly, and there were also photographs hanging on the wall. The walls were painted cream and black, and a chandelier was hanging from the ceiling. The house looked fancy, but Wendy had chose to keep it simple, as the house were not crowded with furniture. It was spacious, and everything was neatly arranged.

After a few minutes wandering around the huge space, he found himself walking towards the black wooden door to the room he had seen from outside earlier. It was kept shut, and Mark almost felt like pulling the doorknob. Curiosity grew in him, and he slowly reached his hand out. But he did not. He let out a sigh slightly and stood still for a moment. He was lost in thoughts until a soft voice emerged through his ear. She was calling out for him.

“Mark?”

Mark turned around, and he gulped anxiously. He silently prayed that Wendy did not see him trying to open that door. But his anxiety soon slowly disappeared as he saw that angel who was standing right before him. Mark felt like his heart was going to explode as they were so close to each other. Her hair was let loose and it passed her shoulders. She had a fresh-face on and her rosy cheeks were glowing. Mark glanced at her body, she had a loose white blouse on and a pair of black pants wrapped her legs perfectly.

Mark thought that she looked even much more stunning in casual clothes, with no makeup on. She was beautiful.

Silence came in, and Mark saw Wendy’s right eyebrow lifted up and her eyes were looking at him confusedly. “Mark? Are you okay?”

“Oh- ah yes, I’m fine,” he responded to her, and his face turned red. He knew he was being too obvious, and he could not escape.

“What were you doing?” She wiggled her eyebrows and naturally folded her arms. Not that she was curious, or angry, it was neither of them. She was actually cold. She suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to turn on the heater.

“What? What I was doing? Uh- nothing, really,” he laughed awkwardly.

“You were trying to open that door.” Wendy furrowed her eyebrows. Her face fell into a small frown, but her facial expression was hard to read.

“I- I’m sorry.” , she saw me.

“Hold on, let me get the coffee.” She turned her back against Mark and walked away.

A minute later, she came back, with two cups of coffee in her hand. “Would you mind?” She said as she handed over the coffees to Mark, signaling him to hold them for her.

She then grabbed the knob to the black door and twisted it. Mark realized that she was actually helping him escaping from his whats and whys.

“This…was my treasure.”

***

He saw a white room before him, it was spacious and there were musical instruments lying around. The floors were made of dark brown wooden tiles arranged in cubical patterns, and some of the walls were made of glass. They were covered by red curtains but as Mark pushed the curtains aside a little to peek through, the windows revealed additional views of the dead garden and the mountains to the east. At the corner of the room, a polished stone pedestals held silver statues portraying dancing men and women. Everything in the room was rich and lavish; Mark found himself awed, and his mouth formed a small ‘o’ because he never had seen a music room so luxuriously beautiful. He was a rich man, he had a large mansion on the other side of the town but he did not own a music room like she did.

He shifted his eyes onto the large white piano in the center of the room. The piano was clean and polished; though Mark sensed that it was not played for a long time. He thought that maybe Wendy had not touched it for other purposes than cleaning. His eyes wandered around the room, musical instruments were placed neatly here and there. Besides the piano, there were two guitars; one of them was the one she played when he had seen her for the first time. There was also a full set of drums and a flute. His eyes then fell onto the girl again, and she gave him a sweet; small smile.

“You can play all of these?” Mark asked as he unconsciously raised one of his eyebrows.

“Not all.  But I can play almost all of them. The only one I can’t play is the drums. I’ve tried to before but I was not born to be good in drumming I guess,” she said, as she took a seat on the stool before the piano.

“Yet you still chose to keep it?” He was puzzled for a second that was until Wendy spoke.

“He used to play it, for me. He was a resident of this house after all,” she gave him a faint smile, and it was not as sweet as it was before. Her lips curved upwards but it looked too sad that Mark felt like he needed to unseen it. It broke his heart whenever that girl smiled sadly; it always hit him that she owned a torn heart that she had been holding on to. It was a pain to see. The smile reminded him of her last smile, when she was in his arms, her hand reaching out for him as her tears streamed down her face. He remembered when she wanted to speak, but her last breath cut her off.

The tragic scene made its way into his mind again, and he felt like he was being stabbed continuously. He tried to hide the pain, but he knew it was a little too late. He collapsed to his knees as he cupped his face, trying to hide his expression. Wendy was shocked by his actions, but she naturally sat down in front of him.

“Mark? Are you okay?” she asked, with a worried face on. “Is something bothering you?”

“I- I am okay, Wendy. It’s fine,” he responded her, but his voice was rough and shaky. He was still traumatized by that awful event, in which God took her away from him.

He always said to himself that he got away with it. He always did. He reminded himself that it’d only be a pain to remember, and that he should wash it away. He never succeeded though, images from the past kept flashing into his mind. And every time they did, he felt pain it almost drove him crazy.

The grief always surged with every expelled breath, always reaching higher peaks, never sufficiently soothed by his long intakes of the damp air. Every time his mind forced him to remember her, tears began to spill from his helpless eyes.

However, in that moment, he acknowledged that life would go on without her, that time would not stop for him and that he would not be able to change anything. His realization managed to soothe his pain, and so he chose not to cry. He lifted his head up, and he saw the worried face of the beautiful girl before him. She was looking at him with a concerned expression on, her eyebrows furrowed together. Mark stared at the girl for a few seconds until his voice echoed through the thin air in that huge space.

“I am going to tell you the truth,” Mark said in a low voice.

***

They both sank into the armchairs in that huge room; relieved to feel soft fabric and no more weight on their feet. Mark let his head lolled back and eyes pulled to a close. In only minutes he felt like the fabric was warm, homely. He then raised his head up again and looked into Wendy’s sparkling eyes.

“She wasn’t just a dance partner,” Mark said, referring to the girl he had always danced with, including the girl in the video Wendy saw.

Wendy knew the girl was an important puzzle of his life, and so instead of interrupting or responding to whatever Mark was going to say, she decided to keep quiet and listened to him.

“We met when we were young; both of us were 18 back then. She was a beautiful dancer but I wasn’t. I was watching her delicate moves on the stage, it was a mesmerizing performance. Unlike her, my legs kept failing me and I almost gave up. That was until when she held my hand, telling me to not give up. Since then, I became her dance partner. She helped me through a lot. We knew each other better as day passed by, and eventually we became close friends. Time flew and we got much closer, we spent almost each day together. We never got bored of each other as we always had something new to talk about or something new and fun to do. People around us had always said that we were soul mates. The funny thing was, we both knew that we loved each other, more than friends, but eventually we never got together,” Mark said weakly, his lips formed into a sad smile.

Silence.

“I hope I am not talking too much.” He scratched his head nervously, constantly worrying over how boring his story is. He could talk a lot at times, but he had always chosen to let the other person do the talk.

“No- no, carry on,” Wendy spoke up as she rested her hand of Mark’s for a few seconds. “Tell me what happened.”

“We lived together for three years, yet we were still friends. We always talked and acted like normal friends, and I respected her decision. After a while, I decided to…to make her my partner. Life partner. But, it was just too late.”

“She left me too soon. I came home on one day, only finding her covered in blood. She was dying, and she was calling out my name. After further investigation, it turned out that she was stabbed by her own brother. Her brother had always come to her asking her for money but that time she had none. Her brother told me that he used the kitchen’s knife to threaten her, and…she died. He told me it was an accident, but how could he? She was his sister, why would he do that?” Mark continued. Wendy saw fear and madness in his eyes; they could not accept what had happened.

“I’m sorry Wendy, you should not be listening to this in the first place,” he said softly.

“Don’t say sorry, Mark. Even if you were a superhuman, you always need to have someone by your side to listen to your pains.”

Mark nodded slowly and he stared at the coffee aimlessly. He did not dare to speak a word anymore as he was so tired of feeling sorrow. He almost got lost into his small world, where she was there but that was until he was interrupted by a soft voice that reached to his ears.

“You danced, right...That was obviously not a question,” Wendy smiled. She stood up, and Mark watched her walking towards the LP player. Soon, music filled the air without effort, like the waves filling holes in beach sand; the sound rushing in and around them in the room. 

“May I have this dance?” she giggled.

“A girl is asking me to dance?” Mark furrowed, and his lips formed into a huge smile, flashing his white teeth.

“Well, the guy isn’t asking so…”

Mark looked at her twinkling eyes, this time they were not dim and instead they were lit up as if they were in a wonderful fantasy. They looked happy.

“Alright let’s do a proper one,” he said, smiling.

“May I have this dance?”

***

The music soared through the thin air like an eagle on an up-draft, it was a soft one but it managed to touch the hearts of the two dancing souls. The music brought Mark and Wendy to a magical flight to the heavens and they felt as if they were floating. They harmonized their footsteps with the breathtaking melody of orchestral excitement. It was a shared journey that held them spellbound over the beauty of the music.

When Mark had first heard the music it was like liquid adrenaline being injected right into his blood stream - not so strong that he would not be able to take it, but just enough to make his heart tingle and start to move his body. His body moved with the rhythm of the song, along with the woman he was dancing with. He remembered how he had always loved dancing, and now he was dancing again, not with her but with the girl he fell in love with the first time they met at the cafe.

The music too flowed through Wendy’s veins and swirled in her head. Her arms locked Mark’s neck and she felt a strong yet soft grasp on her waist - it was Mark who was holding her tightly, not so tight that it would make her gasp for air, but tight enough to make her feel safe. They were staring into each other’s eyes, and they moved slowly to the music. As Wendy looked into his eyes she could feel him searching deep into her soul. She was too, finding a story behind those eyes of the handsome man.

The music stopped and they both broke their almost hugging position. The dance was pleasant and Wendy loved it. They both went to the living room and Wendy instructed Mark to take a seat on the couch - her favorite couch while she went upstairs for a while; Mark was not sure why. His question was answered when Wendy came back, with a blanket in her hand. She then sat beside Mark; she was so close Mark could feel the coldness of her skin as their sides touched. They both warmed themselves with the huge blanket Wendy brought over. Mark glanced at his watch, it was almost three.

“You must have loved her a lot and I am pretty sure you still do,” she said softly.

“I did and I won’t lie, I still do. But I believe my pain is slowly fading.” His lips naturally curved into a small smile, it was a sincere one.

“Why do you think so?” she asked in a curious tone.

“I just think so.”

Silence came in and they both almost fell into a deep slumber. But cold at Wendy’s face and crept under her thin clothes, spreading across her skin like the lacy tide on a frigid winter beach. Her muscles began to ache and grind like the cogs in old machine. She glanced at Mark who was only a few inches away from her, and she noticed that he was staring into that huge empty space.

Mark who almost went into his dreamland suddenly felt like warmth is building up in his body. He then realized that Wendy naturally linked her hand with Mark’s as she interlocked their fingers together. Mark responded to her fingers’ movements and did the same. They both let out no words between them; just the sound of their breath accompanied the silence.

When he felt some weight on his shoulder, he knew that Wendy was asleep. Mark watched the girl sleep for a while, and when his eyes felt heavy he decided to close his eyes too. Just before he did, he leaned closer towards Wendy, and his lips almost touched her ear. He whispered those famous three words in a low voice.

“I love you.”