Did I dream it? Wait what?

Huh?! !!!!

!!!

What was the dream? Okay wait...let me..try ..remembering...

Pen and paper?

Yes. Pen and paper. 

Oh that’s a weird paper. 

But it’ll do fine.

Dear Diary...

Diary? What the hell! It’s a damn paper! Okay. Let’s start again.

Dear paper,

Hello. Paper. 

Hah I have gone insane have I not? I am talking to a damn paper I...

Well, let’s just pretend that you are a human because I for god’s sake need someone to listen to me right now. Let’s name you...uhm... Sirds. 

Sirds. Hi. 

....huh what’s happening? 

 I am scared..... aah stop!!!

Stop please what is this what is going on why are you changing there’s a ghost in my room aah

Calm down..

Huh?

Did I just...hear someone?

....uhm...who is here?

...

Ple...please don’t. Who is it?

I am right here.

Baah! Uhhhh who are you? Who is speaking in my room? Who...who aagh am I getting sick...?

You are fine. 

Okay. Shut up Bene. For god’s sake shut up. Stop imagining things. No one’s talking to you. No one is here....

I am Sirds. I am here.

Ah... wait what? 

Hello Bene. I am Sirds. You just named me. 

I am really going sick. I am..uh uhm...

You are not sick. I am your diary now. 

Huh?

But you were a paper...you were my paper....

Yes. I am still yours...

You are not making a whole lot of sense in here and you are visibly, still creeping me out. 

I was waiting for someone to give me a name. A name which will break my spell. 

Break your spell?

Yes. I am cursed. I was cursed by a saint long time ago. I don’t remember why. I was cursed that I will turn into a paper. Until someone finds me and gives me a name. A name which...never mind. Since you gave me the name, I am back to my original self. 

Thank you.

It’s okay. 

So this is your original form? You remember being a diary? 

Yes I do. I have seen many stories unravel. Many being written to make the auroras dangle. Many being written to make someone tear, out of pure happiness. Many being broken. Many crumbled to pieces. 

I have seen histories, I have kept secrets. 

I have...I don’t remember anymore.

Can I write on you?

Yes you can. That’s what I am here for. I am your diary now. 

Will you be my friend?

Yes I will Bene. Hi.

Hello...wait...how do you know my name?

You spoke it out loud. 

Sorry. Yah. Okay. 

Hi Sirds. Do you know the meaning of your name?

Don’t you?

No. I just...it just...I just...

Shall we start now?

Start what?

Your story. You were going to write something on me. 

Oh yes! Ahm yah okay. 

Okay.

Uhm...okay...

Hi Sirds,

Wait...will you speak when I...

I don’t speak when someone writes on me. I listen to them through their words. I feel them through their emotions that they throw on my body. I become their known in silence. 

Then I will never get to talk to you anymore?

You can. Whenever you want to. Just say my name and I will reply to your call. 

Okay thanks. Okay, here I go...

Hi Sirds,

You are my friend now. Listen to me, for I don’t know what did I ... was that a dream? A reality? A dream that was a reality? Or a reality that was a dream?

Be my judge. Hear me now. This is how it goes....

There was a strange land. A strange sight in front. The sky was green. Half of the place was glistening in daylight, the other half shone by the night stars and the red moon. It was a giant moon. The size of Jupiter. The light on the other side was coming from a hollow thing. It almost looked like a ring nebula, except it was small. Tiny. Smaller than the Red moon. But it was glowing. Golden glowing in its hollow. And held the power to shine at least to the vastness of the size of Africa. 

There was a lone mountain in the middle. Exactly in the middle where the skies divide. And standing there was a tree. A single tree. The height of a eucalyptus and the breath of a banyan tree. It’s branches, when I reached closer, was embellished with roses. Black and purple roses. No leaves. Just roses. 

Strange isn’t it? Roses! On a damn tree! Oh wait...I almost forgot that you cannot...yah. Okay. Let’s move on...

Upon further looking around the tree, I saw my name. My name. Engraved. Almost invisible but it was there. But then my name disappeared. As if it wanted to keep the secret between the two of us. I touched the tree. I felt the place where my name was written. It was ice cold. The rest of the tree space was not. I could feel the cold on my own body. As if the tree was transferring some of its powers into me. 

And then something happened. I heard someone. But that someone’s voice was my own voice. It was Me speaking to me. Out loud. The entire land echoed with my own voice. Me said “Listen. Feel. Live......... Or Die.” It was ominous. The way my own voice said the last word. Because Me almost had a darker shade to my own voice but also I could sense the tiniest laugh in the voice. I stood silent. Rock silent. Unable to move. Even if I wanted to, I could not. 

Then Me echoed again. This time, she said “The roses on the branches, how many goods and bads did you have in the ranches? Let’s count them all, then decide your fate fall.”  

I was stone..like literal stone by then. I was shivering on the inside while feeling iron hot at the same time. I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know whether I was listening to it right. I didn’t know whether this was Me. I didn’t know whether any of this was truly happening. I wanted answers but the questions in my mind kept on becoming stranger and stranger and weirder and more weirder...

And when I was about to, I don’t know, let go? Me spoke again, “Count.... count....count...” and the words slowly and slowly became distant. 

And so when I was about to...I opened my eyes. Yah. It’s strange how I even remembered this much. I have never remembered any of my other memories how much ever I tried hard on to remember them. 

What do you...oh wait... Sirds.. Sirds?

Yes.

Hi.

Continue after that please..

Oh sarcasm huh? Love it! Okay...Hi my cursed book of treasures hahaha...

Hi lost soul.

Well, what did you think of it? What happens next? What should happen next? Why did I...

Calm down please. And no, I don’t have answers to your questions. I display what you want me to display. 

Sirds!! God you are! But wait...you are really not going to answer any of my questions?

I will. Only those of whom I know the answers to. Only those yes.

Okay. Then answer this. I did write your name in the beginning when I finally started writing about my dream. Which technically means that you should have...

I don’t greet people when they are starting to tell their tales or share their deepest secrets with me. I like to listen and absorb them without disturbing their then current state of manners. 

Okay. Justified. Understood. Next question.

Should I put a limit to those? 

Wait what?! No! Please. Okay, just two more. Please...

You are one curious child...

Sorry I...thought you were my friend...

Ask...

Okay. For how many years have you existed?

Going to be 604 this year.

Wow. That’s a lot of time. What does it feel like?

To live all these years? I have stopped feeling. I used to though. Back when I was as fresh as a new book’s aroma. The following years were jolly. But there went certain instances here and there which led me to stop feeling about things, so I did. 

Oh...okay..

Three questions for a day. 

Wait what?! Wh..

Rules.

There are no rules as such. None written in the front and you didn’t...

New rules. You talk a little too much. 

Sorry that I got excited for talking to you. Sorry for wanting to be your friend. Sorry for...

The day you loose me...

I! WILL! NEVER! LOOSE! YOU!

People have time and again said tha...

(tearing slowly)Well I am not those people. So stop talking nonsense about me loosing you. You hardly even know me so you have no right to compare me to...

Fine. Ask.

(sniffing)Where’s my sorry? What kind of a friend are you?

Don’t cry. 

I am not...

Yes you most definitely are. Don’t. I don’t want to see you crying. Can you do that?

(sniffs)Is that your first question?

Yes. Answer. 

I cannot promise you. 

Can you promise for now? For the near future?

(sniffing and smiling)Yes. I can. I will not cry. 

Good. Now ask. 

Can you ask questions too?

I never knew I could. This was new. I did not know how to write or say for the question part. I was hesitant to ask you that. But then the words flew in and they did not disappear so I presume I can...

Has nobody ever..

No one has ever tried to give a name to me. Let alone talk. No one has ever tried to befriend me. 

And you were comparing me to these ruthless people...

Not everyone who wrote on me was ruthless. There were a good amount of scholars too whom...

Becoming a scholar or a royal or a mere doesn’t mean that you cannot hold your affection and deliver it to the person you want to cherish, or the things you like. They are ruthless.

...

Why aren’t you responding?

If I would have been a human, I would have shown my emotion. I cannot laugh or cry or anger or remorse or anything for the matter. At anything. You are lucky.

Well I can hug you. Do you want me to hug you?

No. 

(hugs)

I clearly said no! Agh leave me...yaaa! Bene! Leave I cannot breathe...

Wait what? Huh? You breathe?

You were clutching me as if I was just a mere paper. I lost my sess for some time. And moreover, it was to make you stop. 

Wow. So if I do this...

Aaaahh..

Yaa that was not even aggressive. Stop with your over-expressions. 

Next question.

See! You have no problem being sarcastic now do you! That’s an expression. Also you can write them in...

No more questions.

Okay okay oh god. Fine!

Ah I am relieved.

No..wait. Question...(yawns)

Is it time?

Why? Will you miss me?

Goodnight.

Yaa I am not sleepy. It was just a yawn.

...

Wait you’re really not gonna reply to me?

...

Sirds? 

...

S-I-R-D-S C-O-M-E B-A-C-

You really are annoying.

You are back! Wow you really make me feel like I have superpowers.

You do.

I do?

Your soul yourself is a superpower. Nobody has been able to summon me that easily. And certainly nobody has been able to enrage me ever. 

I am special... I am special... 

Don’t flatter yourself. You gave me a name. That’s why.

Nobody has ever tried to? You must have forgotten...

I never forget. I never have.

Oh...

But even if you gave me the name, it still would have been impossible to summon me. You did it within seconds. 

And I am proud of myself Ha ha! I actually have a habit of giving names to anything that’s favourite to me. 

Yes I have noticed.

Wait how? 

I have been on your desk for the past month, waiting. 

Month?

Yes. 

How did you...how..what..

Your dream was something that was meant to be heard. And written. And treasured. The moon tree guided me to you. She has hardly ever guided me to anybody. Your pull was stronger and the tree withered under your pull. She knew something immediately.

Wow. Who is the moon tree? Where is she? Can I see her?

That’s a hell lot of questions.

Answer.

You’re commanding me?

Please.

The moon tree is my mother. I am made from her purple flowers. She’s in Luna. A place not for the living. So no, you cannot see her. 

That’s a letdown. I wanted to.

Why?

To let her know that I have finally found you and I am keeping you with me until I leave this life so that even after my death I can still keep you with me in my spirit life and then ask for her permission to take you with me to the afterlife.

I am your favourite?

Yes you are. You are on of my the most favourites. No...you are my most favourite.

Thank you.

You don’t have to. You really are my friend. My favourite one.

You do not have any friends?

I do. But they never listen to me or understand what I mean to say to them. You were the first one. 

Your request to my mother can be questionable. 

If I ever get a chance, I am going to beg her to allow me. I am not letting you go. You are mine.

Thank you. 

Stop!

Okay. Go to sleep now.

But I am not...

We will talk again. I am here. 

Can I hug you to sleep?

Absolutely not. 

(giggles) Okay.

What is the time?

Uhm...it’s 2:36 on the morning of March 2nd.

I did not ask for the date. 

You are welcome.

Goodnight Bene.

(giggles) Okay. Goodnight Sirds. I will miss you.

...

(Smiles while getting up from her chair)

I will miss you. Goodnight.

(smiles with emotions) I’ll be with you later. Goodnight Sirds.

Goodnight.

I saw it again. I saw it AGAIN.

Good...wait what time is it?

9:40 AM. Morning...

Good morning Bene.

Good morning Sirds. I saw the dream again. But it was...

Different?

Yes. No. But there was something else.

What?

I saw a cat. A bluish black cat. But it had the shadow of a tiger. And then I saw a giant Queen of diamonds. She was dancing. And she was blindfolded. And then I saw two hands suddenly emerging around a crescent moon.

Oh...

It was a hollow moon. There was no volume inside it. It was a void. It was transparent.

Do you think this means something? Your dream I mean?

I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything like this ever...

Have you seen this dream before?

I don’t know. I don’t think so. Did your mother sense something?

You are referring to your pull? 

(Bene nods)

(Sirds within herself) Did my mother sess everything? Why did she send me to you now? Why does she want to even when I...?

Sirds? Come back.

I am here. 

I am scared.... More worried than scared. 

Don’t be. It’s probably nothing. 

Okay. Do you want to talk something else?

You don’t want to figure your dream out?

Well, right now I don’t. The more I think about it, the more I get migraines from it. It worsens every passing day. 

Are you going to be okay? Did you have migraines before?

Don’t worry about me. It’s just migraines. I’ll be fine. 

Okay...then. Do you want to say something else?

You said you have been with so many people, yet I don’t see either of their stories. How?

What do you think?

Well... you hide them?

Yes. It’s forbidden. To see the stories and thoughts and transcripts written in here by the others. 

So it means nobody will be able to see mines’?

Unless you wish them to. There’s an element, I don’t know what, that leads you to make your inscribings visible to the other eyes.

Oh...

Do you want to show it to someone else?

No. No. I want to keep it this way. Between the two of us.

Okay.

But how do you hide them? You only have roughly 100 pages or so and I don’t think...

My pages are infinite. And they are hidden. You cannot see them. The writings vanish before I land somewhere else, with someone else. 

That’s genius...

But I can tell you one thing, that the pages in which you have been writing your dream and been talking to me, I have been there before, in these pages. 

Wow. So, someone else wrote about something in here before I did? 

Yes. 

Do you remember what?

Yes I do. 

You can’t tell me...

It was a love letter written to a heist queen.

Why did you tell me?

Because I wanted to.

But it’s forbidden to know them.

It’s forbidden to see them with your own eyes and it’s also forbidden to know about them. But not everyone had the pleasure of obtaining such power from their elixir. So they were only limited to the restriction of visibility of one’s inscriptions.

Elixir?

Yes. 

Like a potion?

So you do know what is an elixir.

Yes I do. I have read it in the history of potions. I have always been fascinated by reading about them. They are very compulsive.

They are dangerous. Can be. If mishandled. 

Yes. They can be. 

...

Your pages are infinite?

Yes.

So if I end up reaching the last page..

You can never finish me. I am perpetual this way.

And I am happy to know that. Hehe.

Do you want to ask me something else?

There’s so much that I want to ask you about...

Ask then.

Wow you are in a mood.

You are my friend, aren’t you?

Yes. (smiles) I am your friend. 

Ask away...

Have you ever felt alone?

Yes I have. When someone kept their writing halfway without finishing them, when someone knowingly abandoned me, when someone took time in owning me...which you almost did...

Sorry. I was unaware of your “paper” presence.

It’s okay. Yes, those were the times when I felt the most alone.

I will never be them. I promise to you.

Only time will tell...

You still don’t believe me.

Next question.

Oh... okay. Did you ever find someone, someone who wrote something so strange or so beautiful or both that you wanted to attach yourself to them? 

Yes. There was once a somebody as such. He was a war orphan. An 8 year old. But he already was a man of letters. At such a young age. He wrote about the darkest secrets of his valley, the strange beautiful sounds of the conch in the high mountains, he wrote little pieces of darkness and depth, of wells holding those secrets in their bricks, where people would sacrifice a drop of their blood to unlock their brick. A library of wells...he wrote about it. 

This is a fascinating story.

What if I tell you that that was a reality.

What?!

Atleast that’s what he believed in so. He repeatedly wrote the word “real” on me after he finished every single sentence. His screeching halts were never a full stop, never a gap between the sentence, but the word “real”. 

Wow...

Yes. I know. And since he believed in it so much, with his life, I believed him too. He was the fastest to summon me. Within half a day of my reach. 

You said I was the fastest.

You were late in owning me. He immediately reached for me. Did not even gave it a second thought. 

Oh wow....

I really wanted to know him. I wanted to be his friend. 

Well I definitely would have. He was such an interesting person.

Too bad he neither came to me or was in your generation of life.

Yah...

I came to him in the form of a broken ink tip. My feathers were torn too. He fixed me as if his hands were magic itself. And then started writing on a mere pamphlet...

Wait. Ink tip? So you only came to me as a paper?

I disclose myself to people the way they desire in their minds. He really desired for a pen that time. You, desired for a paper. 

Oh...

I came only in the forms to the souls who wanted to write something. Were desperate to write something. So desperate that they would have started scratching their fingernails on their hands and start writing their inscribings on their hands themselves. Soul dairy...

Oh I did feel the same. I desperately wanted to write my dream. I have never felt so, for any other dream in my life ago.

That’s why I came to you. You were already having the dream for a good amount of times, every morning past dream you used to look at yourself in the mirror, thinking whether you got transferred to that dream of yours, checking your room tens and thousands of times to see any changes in anything...

Yes. That’s how I found you. A strange blueish purple paper, sitting casually on my desk.

You are blind...

I already said my sorry for being this abstracted. 

Okay.

But you came to him as a broken ink tip....

Yes.

You told me that you can surplus yourself, that you will never end...

Oh I became a never ending fountain pen. The ink never finished. So that he could keep on writing.

Did he finish what he wanted to?

No. He wrote for almost 3 and a half years. But then he never found a parchment or anything ever to write further on.

He must have been despondent...

Oh yes. He was. I, never in my existence saw a melancholic soul like him. And then after a few days of him not finding anything to write on ever, he threw me in a fountain, left me there...kept on thinking he would come back...2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months...

He must have felt frustrated...

He was a very angry and lonely soul. Never bothered to do anything else other than writing. My body was almost in grave pain because of him. 

(Bene nods to Sirds’ words)

He never wanted to befriend me. I guess he never wanted a friend. He did not want to associate with anybody. 

Circumstances in his life might have led him to being this crude. Him being a war orphan, he must have seen things...

Yes. Might be....yes.

...I was the only one to whom you came in as a paper? Or were there others?

There were a few others yes.

Have you ever faced any danger because of any of the writings that were inscribed on you?

Oh my yes, ha yes. I have been torn away from my pages, them ticking out my life as if I were just mere pages and nothing else to them. Them scratching on my surface, inflicting and deepening the pain every time. I used to tear away in their inks. And they kept on inflicting even more pain. 

Oh god that is...

Painful yes. There were also a few times when I was used as a weapon. A fatalistic one. I have once...

Sirds?

...yes....I have seen murders Bene. I have seen red dripping blood on me, on my soul who owned me then...I have witnessed horrors of such viciousness. I bled through them, through their hands. Sometimes the blood was real, sometimes they were in the form of repeated scribblings of imprecations...

...

I have been used to do many negative deeds too Bene. There was once such a soul who wrote blasphemy on me. That was the most negative thing ever written on me. 

Oh...

I might have been cursed for that soul. I might be cursed forever. I would never know how to repay my debts, the horrors that have been written in me and that they are now under my skin for decades and decades following...I will never know how to get rid of them.

I wish I could...

Nobody has ever given a thought in my way. Atleast you telling me so made me a little bit content with my past. Thank you for that Bene. 

You don’t have to thank me. I just....I didn’t know that it still pains. I didn’t know things that you are telling me now. I want to fix them now but I don’t know how...

Just be with me... don’t leave me like others did..

I am never leaving you. I am never. (tears falling on the paper)

This was the last thing that I wanted to see you in. I made you cry again...

(Bene still in tears)

I really am cursed, an evil aren’t I?

No you are not. You hear me.... You are not. Stop it!! I SAID STOP! YOU ARE NOT! ...They were wrong. Those who wrote those things on you, they were.. they are wrong. You are not.

I have seen childbirth’s being written beforehand, tarot futures being made from my paper, from my very own skin, premonitions being written which turned out to be true, prophecies being told on me, like a permanent black and red tattoo on my blue skin, hide and seek...hide and seek. 

(sniffing) These are good memories.

I have seen happiness. Faces painted with tears and joy. Yes I have. A child’s future being written on me, the saint, she was...she wrote, whatever she wrote was beautiful. Beautiful little babies being born, her telling their bright and shining future. I was happy during those nights. 

(Bene smiles, first at her friend and then at herself)

I live on them. I savour them. 

You should. They are beautiful.

You should go to sleep...

Oh yes I sho...wait. How did you?

The time? I calculated it when you wrote the time yesterday, I counted the passing of each second. It might be around 1:30 in the morning..

Yes. It’s 1:26 in the morning.

Go sleep. Goodnight Bene.

Goodnight Sirds. We will talk later.

Yes we will.

Where did I keep you? Where are you....

Where did I...where did...Sirds...SIRDS WHERE ARE...where are you...whe...

I kept you in here...in there...where...who...where are yo..wh...e..re...

(Bene breaks down)

Why do I see you in my dreams?

Why are you..what are you doing there? Hiding behind the black roses...

You are a chameleon.  A camouflage. 

I am a black rose.

Sirds... come back...

Why are you not here?

I am with you.

I can’t..I cannot.......I cannot hold you.

I am in your dream...

I want to hold you...in front of my eyes, be in front of my eyes...

The moon is bleeding red in your dream Bene...

I can see that. (Bene said to herself...)Come back.

This is my home Bene. I realise it now...I ..I finally realised.

Wait what? What did you realise?

Why my mother sent me to you. 

Why did she?

To stop you from bleeding...

Sirds...

You are crying...bleeding..crying...

Are you happy there?

In here?

Yes...

Why did my mother...oh LuLu..

Lulu?

This...this is my home Bene. You saw me, you saw my home. You saw me...

What do you mean I saw you?

You saw a cat, you saw a queen of diamonds, you saw a hollow crescent moon...

You are talking about my dream...

My cat was LuLu, you saw my mother...dancing. She was dancing along to the strings of Memories of Alhambra...

And....the crescent moon?

The hollow crescent moon...the hollow crescent moon rose only on one day......

The day I was born....

Oh...

I saw your mom. You said I will never...

You finally saw her. Yes. 

Sirds...

Remember when I asked you about what was your favourite song?

You never asked...

Yes. I did. I asked you in your dream. I asked you to play me the song...

Oh...

You played daydream. You played Daydream, the song that my mother used to sing to me. 

(Bene is in astonishing silence)

Daydream was my lullaby...

(Bene reaches for her iPod, only to see the last song being played there...)

Daydream...I have found you the night you started talking about your dream. The girl whose teardrops are like the brightest stars, the only stars in my galaxy. The only happiness in my galaxy.

So you knew about this all along...

I was being foolish. Selfish. I wanted to be next to you. I wanted you. I never found anyone like you, who saw me, so vividly, so vulnerable, so...

Beautiful. 

...

You are beautiful to me. 

I kept hiding my unexpected understanding from my mother, when she kept on asking me. Each day of her asking, I just needed one more day away from my final demise. I kept on lying to her...because I knew..I knew that...

You will be taken away from me....

...

(Bene, now in tears)Sirds...

...

Sirds...

I am your dream Bene. Everything you saw, I was the completion. 

I am the name to your dream.

Will you ever...

Come to me...

How? 

...

Tell me.

Dream?

Dream...

Dream about me Bene. If I don’t pain you, dream.

I will...

No you cannot. You should not. I might have been you purple rose at times, but I am your black rose. 

What are you... talking about?

The tree? With only black and purple roses? Count them and tell me your fate?

The purple roses are all the good things in your life and the good things you did in your life, in all your lifetimes. The black rose...

You are not a curse Sirds. Stop saying that...

Your dream gave your fierce migraines remember? I gave you those. I was the reason why...

You cannot stop me from watching my dream. This is my dream...

And that dream is me. I am a black rose. I am a cunning rose. 

Don’t steal my dream...do not...

I can...

No please... don’t... I ...please don’t. No...I don’t want to loose you...

You are crying Bene. You are crying because of me. And the moon’s bleeding...

I am your moon...

Yes you are. You are my moon. 

Please don’t take me away from you...

I don’t want to. If I could have been...but I...

Please don’t...please I am begging you...

I am sorry Bene. I cannot...keep you from suffering...because of me...

The migraines are nothing...please...

I saw you in cold sweat, drenched after every morning post the dream. It will worsen after that. I cannot...

It will not. I am fine. Please...please don’t...

I am sorry...

Sirds...

You gave me a name Bene. You gave me a soul. The soul which was lost all this time, trying to find answers in other souls who wrote on her or used her, you finally gave this cursed soul a name. 

Sirds...

You gave me my life Bene. And yet I kept on being selfish...

No you didn’t...

I kept on making you suffer, even after knowing the truth...

There’s nothing wrong in that. You wanted a friend. You wanted me. You found me. You found me, Sirds.

...yes 

Please...

Maybe I’ll see you in a dream? In my dream? Or in another reality? Where we can be friends together, walk along, sing along, become each other’s cry, become the reason of the other’s laugh...

...

But leave me this time. Leave me. Let me go. Allow me. Please...

...

Bene..

Will I...ever see...you again?

...yes

You're lying to me...

I will come to you. In some other form, in some other dream of yours. A dream which will never pain you. I will come there. 

Okay...

But now you have to forget about me...

...

I cannot do this without you Bene, please...

Okay...

Then say...

No, I can..not...no I..it’s not easy...

Please Bene...

You will come back right?

Yes. I promise. I promise you Bene.

...

Say...

(tears) I will..forget you Sirds. I am...forgetting you Sirds. 

I forget you............

(7 years later, in a different timeline)

Bene! Run! God we are late and your damn lazy legs!

Shut up I am faster than you Zara!

That you are Ms. champion runner! Hehe! But god we’ll be late for our first class agh!! Mrs. Doyle’s gonna oven us alive!

(Both let a loud laughter together)

We will not! Just a few more runs...

Class! Keep quiet now. Gather along. Keep quiet. Or I will deduct your points. 

...

Oh there we have, our guitar prodigy and her chess board...

(Zara and Bene gasping together) Sorry Mrs. Doyle, actually we...

Shut up and take your seats before you get canceled for your competitions. The time’s ticking...

(Zara and Bene rush to their seats)

Good. Now shall we conti...

Excuse me Mrs. Doyle? May I have your 30 seconds of attention?

Oh Principal Helga. Surely yes. Now class, keep quiet. Cleo, in charge. And if I see one name...you know...

(Zara and Bene converse in silence with their paper exchange games as the time advances past 3 minutes. They hear some muffled murmurs of the conversation between the principal and the lead of the teacher’s council.)

Attention class! Silence... We have a new student. Welcome dear. Introduce yourself.

(the class is silent)

C’mon now. Don’t be shy. It’s okay...

Uh.. Hi. I am...My name is Sirdaine Black. Thank you.

Go on Sirdaine, take your seat. Right next to Miss Benedita.

...

Hi Sirdaine! Nice to meet yo....

Hi. 

Have we met before?

I...no. I don’t know. No. 

I am Benedita Scamander. You can call me Bene.

Bene...

(Something triggers in Bene. In her mind..)Why..do I feel like I have known this name?

Uhm...Can I call you Sirds?

Yes. Yes you can.

Okay. Hi Sirds. I am Bene.

Hi Bene.

Tag along with me. I will be your first friend. I will show you around all the gates and walls and corridors, (whispering) even the hidden ones haha. 

Okay. 

Will you be my friend?

(Sirds smiles to herself) Yes.

I have never stopped being your friend Bene. 

Never have.

Never will.