She wakes up in her bed, her pillow damp with tears. Wads of tissues litter her bed, bunched up to cover globs of snot. Her cat Jessie lies beside her, purring.

“Baby,” she cooed, stroking his soft fur. “You won’t believe what happened to me. I had the strangest dream. There were goddesses and demons. I had magical powers! And there was this boy …”

She trails off, trying to remember his name. “There was this boy … Well I guess it’d be weird to call him a boy. He was my age and he had the prettiest eyes, one gold like the sun and the other brown like the earth. He was … he is a kind lord who owns this big house. I wasn’t supposed to be there, but he let me stay and even made me a lady. God, why can’t I remember his name?”

Jessie meows, nagging her for more attention. She scratches behind his ears, smiling fondly at him. But that smile slips away once he begins coughing.

“Poor baby,” she said. It wasn’t fair that he had lung cancer. His previous owners were abusive, constantly smoking and neglecting him. It didn’t matter that she had heaped piles of love onto him. Jessie was still sick after years of breathing in secondhand smoke.

She strokes his fur, her hands lingering on his soft body. She didn't want to grab his pills. If only she could take away his illness and ease his suffering forever.

Something tapped at her window. She gets up from her bed, bothered by the noise. From the other side of the glass, she sees a blue butterfly trying to get in. That’s when it hits her that maybe her dream wasn’t just a dream.

She lets the butterfly in, watching it fly toward her cat. Jessie continued to cough, his illness shaking his body. The butterfly landed on the cat, melting into its fur. For a moment, Jessie glowed blue. Then, he stops coughing, snuggling at her side again.

Over the next few days, she would see Jessie get better. He moved more, pouncing like a young kitten. His eyes and his fur were shinier, brimming with new life. Somewhere in the back of her head, the word ‘Miracle Giver’ surfaced. Maybe the man with the yellow eyes knew something about her powers that she didn’t. But the only way to see him again was to take another trip to the Underworld. Sadly, she didn’t have the ability to do that. She tried summoning another butterfly, but none came. It was as if there were no more worthy miracles to grant.

Her mind kept wandering back to the Charis Realm, to the Lord and his butler, and to the maids inside the manor. She thinks back to Lillian and how she must have taken over control of the dimension and how happy she must have been to be the Mother again. She hopes that Alice was ok, despite all the torture and death she wreaked at her hands. She wondered how they were doing, if they had noticed she was gone. It still irked her that she couldn’t remember the Lord’s name.

Months pass by. She settles back into her old life again, enjoying how blissfully ordinary it was. She falls back into the pattern of school and custody visits to her dad. The details of her time in the other dimension began to feel blurrier, further away from her grasp. She tried writing everything she remembered down, but the details never seemed quite right.

She visits the library more often, haunted by the thought of the Lord. She reads as many Dickens books as she could just to feel close to him. One day, when she can’t sleep, she remembers the promise he made to her before they parted.

“I’ll find a way to reach you,” he had said.

She still believes in that promise, even as the leaves changed and the seasons passed. She still has the bracelet Lillian gave her, even though it can’t shift into anything else. In her dreams, she imagines that bracelet shattering to create a portal into the Charis Realm. She imagines the Lord walking through that portal and embracing her, finally reunited with him.

When she wakes up and realizes the moment isn’t real, she cries.

She doesn’t know why she holds onto the memory of him so fiercely. She even wore flowy dresses in place of her blue jeans to pretend that she never left the Charis Realm. She did that during the summer, finally not caring how her body looked, only remembering how beautiful he said she was.

One day, on her many trips to the library, she sees the book Great Expectations on the shelf. She hadn’t read Dicken in a while, not since her return back to her dimension. But on that day, she missed the Lord more than usual. Her chest physically ached at the thought of him, so much so she had to reach for the book.

Her fingers brush with someone else’s, skin touching skin as she touches the book’s spine.

“Sorry,” she said. “Did you want the book?” She only said this to be polite, knowing full well that she was going to be the one taking the book home.

“You can have it,” a deep voice said. She meets the boy’s eyes and her heart stops.

It was him, only his eyes were different. Both of them were brown, without a single trace of demon in them. Her first thought was that he had kept his promise and somehow made it to her dimension. Without thinking, she reaches out and embraces him, holding him tightly.

“I’ve missed you so much,” she said, pulling away.

“Do I know you?” His eyes were empty, gazing at her as if she were a stranger.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You just reminded me of someone that matters very much to me.” Tears leak from the corner of her eyes.

Dammit, don’t cry! Not in front of this strange boy who doesn’t know you.

“It’s ok,” he said. “I’m Cedric.” He holds his hand out to her.

Her heart clenched. They even had the same name. “Nicole,” she said, introducing herself. “Sorry I hugged you out of nowhere.”

“Hey,” he said. “Maybe we knew each other in another life. Don’t sweat this.”

That only made her cry more.

Later that day, Cedric took her out for ice cream. They sat in an outdoor cafe area under a large umbrella, watching the pigeons on the sidewalk peck at crumbs.

“You didn’t have to buy me ice cream,” she said, licking her caramel cone.

“I wanted to,” he said. “I don’t like making people cry.” He spoons some of his mango sorbet into his mouth.

They chatted for a bit about books while eating their ice creams. The more she talked with him, the more he seemed like her Cedric, with his fondness for Dickens and his ambitions for himself. They talked for so long that the sun was setting by the time they finished.

“Let me walk you home,” he said, holding her bag for her.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah,” he said. “My house is on the way. It won’t be that much of a walk.”

They arrive at her doorway. He hands her the bag of books. Just as he was about to go, he stops, turning around to her.

“I do remember you from somewhere,” he confessed. “But I’m not sure where. This is going to sound silly, but I’m pretty sure I saw you in a dream.”

“No,” she said. “That doesn’t sound silly at all. I’ve dreamt about you too.”

They stare at each other for a good minute before he walks up to her. “Let me get your number.”

They exchange contacts, entering their numbers into each other’s phones.

“See you tomorrow,” he said, waving at her.

“See ya,” she said, her heart thumping in her chest. So he kept his promise to her. After many months, they had finally found each other.