The sound of men laughing awoke her.

Opening her eyes, she blew out a breath of confusion. She was in a white room with small, double-hung windows. Smoothing her hands over the cool, cotton sheets surrounding her, they were also white.

She rubbed her eyes, stretching her mind. Had it happened again? Had she lost consciousness?

Her mind was a mess of rampant dreams; it felt like she had lived a hundred lives in just one night. Antebellum fantasies, life on the lamb, historical fiction, futuristic time travel; her waking mind raced to make sense of the images her sleeping brain had conjured.

Sitting up, she caught sight of herself in a mirrored dresser across the room, and stifled a strangled gasp, gripping the sheets tightly to her body.

Naked. Shit.

Was she really naked?

She peeked under the sheets, thankful to see her underclothes exactly where they ought to be.

"You're awake."

A shrill moan escaped her as she snapped the sheets back over her chest.

Kane.

"Where am I?" she could barely conceal her panic. "What happened to me?" she whispered.

He leaned against the doorframe, arms knotted across his chest.

"You're in my house," he jutted his chin towards her, "in my bed."

"Oh my, God," she closed her eyes, embarrassment flooding the skin of her chest and snaking its way up her neck and onto her face.

Snickering, Kane pushed off the doorframe and approached her, stopping momentarily to pick up a set of folded clothes, which he tossed on the edge of the bed.

"You... fell? In the water," he pointed to the clothes, "I dried your clothes, but you might want to shower."

She fell in the water... the memory came rushing back. She had been running to someone?

The girl with her own eyes.

"Why am I in your house?" She shook her head in disbelief. "Isn't mine closer to the water? You could have left me there?"

Kane slipped his hands into his pockets. "I'll meet you downstairs when you're done." With nothing more, he turned to leave.

"Who is she?"

He froze.

"Who was the girl?"

Kane's shoulders rose and fell, but still, he didn't respond.

"Did you see her, too?"

After a moment, Kane shook his head.

No.

A dissonant sob, hardly audible, escaped her lips; some distant part of her had hoped Kane had seen her, too. Then this madness wouldn't be hers to bear alone. As quietly as she tried to pull herself together, suddenly embarrassed and ashamed for not only her current condition, but that this man had gained a hint of what was happening to her, she knew Kane could hear her.

He turned and surveyed her sorry state, consuming every morsel of her bewilderment.

"The girl," Evelynn whispered, "she looked just like me."

Flicking his eyes to meet hers, Kane stared down at her, sitting like a little bird in his bed, wrapped in his sheets.

"I stood beside her, looked right into her eyes," Evelynn gestured with two fingers at her own eyes and then at Kane. "It was like looking at myself." She dropped her hand. "A hazy, fake, old-fashioned version of myself."

"Ava."

Evelynn narrowed her eyes.

Sighing, "I only saw you." Kane watched as her beautiful green eyes cut through him. "But you remind me of someone I used to know. Her name was Ava."

Jaw ticking, Evelynn continued to stare at him.

"When you called her name, she stopped," Evelynn quipped, feigning affability. Pulling the sheet to untuck it from the mattress, she wrapped it tightly around herself and rose to where Kane stood.

Stopping mere inches from him, she looked up into his face. She had never been this close to him in daylight, and his elegance was distracting.

"I was standing beside her. She stopped, and told me to be quiet. You called out, and she looked right at you." Head canted, Kane's eyes perused the column of her neck, her jaw, her lips.

Her eyes. Their ominous correlation to Ava's.

He peered down at her.

"Get dressed," he backed away from her, slowly, before turning and descending the stairs.

Squaring her shoulders, Evelynn huffed.

He was a terrible liar. But maybe he wasn't trying to lie?

Slipping into her clothes, she smoothed the blankets over the bed and plodded down the stairs. Met with a small hallway, she turned through the only open door and shrank back.

There, sitting opposite Kane in a matching green velvet chair, was the man from last night.

Milo?

Was that the name Ava had pleaded?

"Who's this?" he drawled and Kane rolled his eyes.

Trying not to gasp, Evelynn pressed her fingers to her temples. The motion did not go unnoticed and as a menacing grin spread across the man's face, Kane raked his eyes first over Evelynn's reaction and then his companion.

"Milo," Kane introduced, "That's Evelynn. Evelynn, this is my brother, Milo."

She regarded Milo's modern clothes, his neatly cropped hair.

His opacity.

"You can see him?" she blurted, looking to Kane.

Milo snorted.

"Evelynn? Nice to meet you." Milo's voice was disturbing in it's sickly sweetness. "Maybe you had a little too much to drink last night?" She shirked the insinuation as he stood and patted his chest with two hands, "Because I'm definitely visible."

Kane shot her a questioning grimace as she gaped between them.

"You were there..." Evelynn jabbed the air like she was wielding a knife and pointed towards the river, "you... you..." she stammered.

Both men eyed her suspiciously. Milo waited for the truth to spill out of her, while Kane silently assembled the pieces of the puzzle, eyeing her quizzically, hands in his pockets.

Feeling the influx of graceless imperilment, Evelynn shook her head, making for the back door.

"The front door is over there," Milo pointed across the room, "though I didn't see another car out front?" He cocked his head towards Kane.

"I..." she bumbled over an excuse, "live just over there..." Sidling out the kitchen door, she bolted down the porch steps and out of sight.

Holding back the curtain, Milo observed her retreat through the window until she ran out of sight, "You need to get out more if that's the kind of girl you're bringing home." He swirled his finger around his ear implying Evelynn was crazy. Really, he was stalling, daring Kane to divulge what they, now, both knew. "I didn't know anyone lived in the studio?" His mocking tone aimed at provocation.

Kane placed a capsule in the espresso machine on the sideboard. "She just moved in."

Milo let the curtain fall back into place. "And you're already banging her?" His eyebrows rose with incredulity.

His back to his brother, Kane denied him, "So crass. That's not what happened."

Having approached, Milo stood directly behind Kane and leveled his voice, "Then tell me what happened." He widened his stance and crossed his arms.

Kane looked him up and down, "Are you trying to intimidate me? In my own house?"

"Do I need to?"

"You don't answer to me," Kane scoffed and Milo smiled.

"You're right," his voice deepened, "I don't." Glancing back to the window, "How long has she been there?" he demanded.

Standing to his full height, Kane looked down on Milo, "I have no idea. I just got home a couple of days ago and she was already there."

Becoming more restless as the conversation continued, Milo stalked to the back door, stepping out onto the porch. Surveying the yard and the river, he fixed his gaze on the studio - now Evelynn's home.

Kane had followed, and Milo pivoted to address him. "You didn't think to tell us this?"

"Us? And what does it matter?"

"She's back?" Milo hissed. "And you wonder why it matters?" He stepped to the edge of the porch and thrust his hand in the direction of Evelynn's house, "Look at her! She's a fully grown woman!"

Mustering his best simulation of disinterest, Kane knew he could never delude his brother, not right to his face, but shrugged anyhow, as though Evelynn's age was irrelevant. Realistically, they both knew the implications of such a fact: twelve years ago, she hadn't died.

"Her eyes are identical," Milo spat with anger, "fucking identical!" Mere inches from Kane's face, he sneered, "Was it you?"

Silence had become a common answer where Kane was concerned.

"I said," Milo roared, "was it you?" He emphasized each syllable.

Kane only stared.

"You're incapable of lying to me, I can read you like a tragic novel." Milo grinned. "It was you." He paced around Kane's stoic form. "That night... you told me you'd found her and I didn't believe you." He stopped at Kane's back, "You saved her," he pressed his finger into Kane's back, mocking the barrel of a gun, "You'll have us all killed."

* * *

The man she had just seen in that room, whom Kane had introduced as his brother, was the same man she had seen chasing Ava.

Chasing Ava? He had killed her.

Chest heaving in fear, Evelynn gulped in breath after breath of salty air. Pressing her back to the side of the house, she slid to the ground. Afraid to close her eyes, she ground her fingertips into her temples, trying to will away her confusion.

The door to the porch slammed against the wall; Kane and Milo were arguing. She couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but the tone was unmistakable.

Despite his claim to the contrary, Kane had known the girl was there, Evelynn was sure of it. Even in his reluctance to provide her with answers, Evelynn could feel his pain. He tried to mask it, but it was there. She had meant something to him.

"Look at her!" Milo's voice suddenly rose, and Evelynn could see movement as he stepped towards the edge of the porch. "She's a fully grown woman!"

Her heart stilled.

They were talking about her.

She could see Milo pointing towards her house from where he stood, perched on the edge of the porch.

"Her eyes are identical, fucking identical!"

A ringing had begun in her ears, growing louder by the second.

She could hear nothing else, cared to see nothing else.

Her eyes are identical?

She had observed that herself, had she not? She had looked into those eyes, Ava's eyes. She had seen the fear and observant foreboding in their green depths.

The whack of another door closing made her jump, for a moment there was only silence and the toll of the buoy.

Then, footsteps. Calm, calculated footsteps crossing the house as tires spit gravel in the driveway and peeled down the road towards the causeway. Pausing somewhere near the backdoor, the footsteps seeped through the creaky screen door and onto the porch.

Neck craned, Evelynn could see Kane, hands predictably in his pockets, chin raised as he observed the backyard.

"He's gone."

Evelynn slowly rose from her hiding spot, brushing the dirt and leaves from her clothes before standing erect and walking into the open.

Kane met her movements with his own, grasping her arm when he reached her and turning her towards home. His voice was low and he spoke quickly; she had to skip a step here and there to keep pace with his long strides.

"You need to go home and stay home."

"What?" she tried to look at him, but their position was too awkward and they were walking too fast.

Pulling her around to face him, he held both of her arms and looked her squarely in the eyes, "He knows you were with Edward and now he knows you aren't dead."

Her eyes flew wide at the mention of Edward.

She had recognized him from the night Edward died, standing outside as Valarie carried her to the car.

Was he helping her? Or tricking her, just like someone had betrayed Edward?

He slid his hands up her arms to cup her face, "Hide in plain sight. Please."

He was begging.

"I don't understand," his hands were warm and though his eyes were those of a madman, she felt intrinsically secure.

"My brother just left, he's going to tell Jerimoth they didn't find your body because you're not dead," he dropped his hands, slipping them back into his pockets. "And Jerimoth can't take the risk that you know who he is," Kane paused, "You do know who he is?"

Evelynn slowly nodded in affirmation, forming, in that very moment, a notion of what was going on, however irrational it seemed to be. There was no other answer, no matter what effort she put towards forming any picture other than the one clearly before her.

After Edward and Valarie died, Evelynn spent years obsessively scouring the history of their lives for a hint, anything, to lead her to an explanation of why they were killed. She had amassed a wealth of information indicating Edward had worked for a criminal organization, though all leads quickly went dead, the more nearly they arched towards the top. Valarie had been collateral damage.

Evelynn had never been able to identify the lynch pin.

Eric had provided that information.

But Eric's information was based largely on the documents Edward had forwarded to him the day he died.

Which he had obtained from a briefcase he found in his bedroom.

Her briefcase.

Filled with information amassed in the years succeeding Edward's death.

Eric had proven this when he revealed it was her handwriting on the back of one of the photographs.

But who was Ava?

Kane shook her forcefully, ratcheting her from her thoughts, "Please, make sure you're not alone. Call a friend. Whatever. But they'll watch you, and the moment you're alone, they'll strike."

Backing away, he jogged reluctantly back to his house, leaving Evelynn standing in the middle of the lawn, hot sun beating down on her. Looking back when he reached the door of his house, Kane turned and pointed at her, he moved his finger to point at her house, mouthing, "Go home."

Though she was beginning to guess what was going on here, she had no reason to trust anyone. And yet, she was wholly accepting of Kane. She jogged back to her house, leaning her forehead on her front door after swinging it shut.

This time, she flicked the lock and rounded the house, doing the same for every door and window.

Pulling her phone from her purse, she dialed Molly's number.

Nothing.

She dialed again.

Nothing but her chirpy voicemail.

Evelynn hung up.

Kane's warning echoed in her mind, but she had no one else to call.

Returning the phone to her purse, she sat down on the couch and closed her eyes, willing her mind to conjure any memory of last night.

She recalled that she had been sleeping, awoken to the banging on her door.

Milo. Kane's brother.

Kane claimed only to have seen her, and he had said only that Ava had "died" long ago.

But Evelynn had watched Ava's death at the hand of Kane's own brother.

Did Kane know that? Did he know that his brother had immersed a blade into Ava's chest? Pushed her into the river, glory on this face as he watched her body float away?

The easy banter she had overheard from his bedroom as he spoke with his brother, laughing over breakfast - there was no way he knew what Milo had done.

But why had Evelynn seen it?

She sat bolt upright.

The basement. There had been a door, an iron door set in the wall with an integrated lock.

Swiping the keys Kane had given her, still laying on the counter, and a flashlight from the windowsill, Evelynn impulsively headed to the farthest corner of the basement, tucked behind the footing of the central chimney was a flimsy wooden partition. She eked her fingers between the boards, pulling them from their rusty nails.

The door.

Laden with dust, the swipe of large fingertips swept beneath the handle. Themselves settling with a dirty film, someone had opened this door, but not recently.

Combing through the keys, she found one of ancient origins, a single stem with square teeth and slipped it into the lock with ease, rattling the key as the pins within the lock fell into place and the bolt ground open.

Swinging open the door she shone the flashlight's beam inside.

There, haphazardly laying on the bottom of a musty brick hole, one corner smashed and covered with dirt and debris, was her briefcase.

* * *

Formerly a neat, organized aggregation, the briefcase was now packed full, practically bulging at the seams. Edward had added a multitude of paperwork.

Removing everything from within it, Evelynn had laid it chronologically across the kitchen island. Skipping over those documents she had found herself and memorized long ago, she deliberated over the additions; in particular, the photographs.

Though the newspapers articles were black and white, and the flimsy newsprint upon which they were printed worn with time, one man appeared in nearly all of them. Sometimes featured prominently, sometimes lurking in the background.

Milo.

Inspecting the articles relating to the crash that killed Edward, "Gottcha," she whispered. There he was again, standing opposite the crowds gathered atop the cliffs as Edward's mangled silver Mercedes was pulled up the embankment.

Evelynn flipped through stack after stack until she had pulled from them every picture containing Milo, and she perused them one after the other, lined up on the countertop.

He never changed.

He looked exactly the same in every single picture.

Checking the dates, she calculated quickly in her mind; the incidents were approximately 12 years apart. Except for the crash, in every single case, a young girl had either disappeared or was killed - always accidentally, always suspiciously.

The only continuous thread, Milo.

She rested against a stool as she considered what to do next.

None of this told her who Ava had been. The documentation Edward added was focused on Jerimoth and his organization, not the peripheral pawns.

There was only one person left who may have more stories to tell than what Evelynn had already found. The only other person who had appeared out of thin air. The aunt she had never known.

Pulling her phone from her purse, Evelynn dialed.

"Evelynn, dear. How wonderful to hear from you." The spry old woman never failed to make Evelynn feel loved.

"Aunt Connie. I'm sorry I didn't call sooner."

"Oh, don't worry. How's the unpacking coming along?"

"Great..." unsure how to broach this topic, Evelynn did the next best thing, "Do you want to have dinner with me tonight?" she blurted.

"Sure, dear." Aunt Connie hesitated, "Is everything alright?"

"Yah, I just..." An ancient old woman is probably not what Kane had meant by his warning, but as Molly was unreachable, this would have to do. "I could use the company."

"That's certainly reason enough," Evelynn could feel the warmth of Aunt Connie's smile, even though the phone. "I'll be down in a couple of hours."

"Great, see you then," with a heartfelt goodbye, Evelynn hung up.

Carefully, she stacked all of the papers back inside the briefcase and busied herself moving and organizing the still-packed boxes so her elderly aunt could easily navigate the first floor. With a quick vacuum, it almost looked like a real home.

A subtle knock at the door interrupted her cooking endeavors. Expecting it to be her Aunt Connie, Evelynn was unprepared when she opened the door.

Kane.

"You're alone?" he questioned, pushing his way through the door, shoving it closed and flicking the lock. "It has been hours, why didn't you call someone over?" Cool hostility brewed just beneath his calm façade.

Stunned, Evelynn couldn't fathom an adequate response as she stood motionless and he stared, waiting.

"I called my aunt?"

He raised his brows, "You have an aunt?"

"That's a weird question," she mumbled.

"You said it like a question," he leaned towards her, "and I didn't know you had an aunt."

Her mouth frozen as she tried to ask why he would know such a thing, Kane walked off, checking the latches on the windows. Rounding the corner of the hallway as he made his way to the bank of windows in the kitchen, he stopped short.

The briefcase.

"Where did you get that?"

"It's mine."

In a swift motion, Kane was in her face, looking over her, he grabbed her chin. "Where?" he emphasized. "I asked 'where' did you get it, not whose it was."

"I lost it," she supplied, but it didn't satisfy him. "And then found it. In the basement."

Letting her go, he turned to the briefcase, running his fingers along the top and the latches.

"Edward had this."

He looked over his shoulder at Evelynn, still standing next to the front door.

"I know," she felt like she was disclosing a dark secret. "He took it from me." Kane turned, leaning his weight into the edge of the island. "I found it again this morning."

Kane slipped his hands into his pockets, as he always seemed to do, jaw tight as he apprised her. He could tell she wasn't lying and he raked a hand into his hair, pausing to cradle his own forehead.

"Do you know who I am?"

She subtly swung her head from side to side.

"Do you know who you are?"

At that, she laughed out loud. "I used to think so, but now I'm not so sure."

"Okay," he drawled, "Who do you think you are?"

Evelynn tilted her head back, willing tears to drain before they made a fool of her. "Ava," she breathed, "She is me." Righting her head, "I am her? You believe it, too, don't you?"

He nodded.

Another wave of vertigo swayed through her vision.

"I need to sit down." She headed to the couch, crashing into the cushions and dramatically draping her arm over her face.

"Evelynn?" Kane was there, kneeling in front of her. "Tell me what's happening right now?"

She raised her eyes, surveying the room. It was exactly as it always looked. There was no rogue colonial store. No whispering mirages.

"Right now," she looked him in the eye, "nothing." She brought her hand to her chest, feeling her pulsing heart. Having just disclosed he believes her to be a dead woman, the sense in hiding any of this was lost. "But I've been hearing things - seeing things... people."

"Who?"

Evelynn bit her lip, but Kane brought his thumb to her mouth and pried it free.

"Who, Evelynn?"

"First? Your brother, but I didn't know that when I heard him," she continued rambling through the list. "Then Edward. Valarie..." she continued on, divulging everything that had happened over the last few days; everything that is, except what she had seen happen to Ava on the pier.

To say Kane listened patiently would be inaccurate, but he did listen, hanging on Evelynn's every word.

"The only part I don't understand," she finished, "is what Ava has to do with any of it."

Kane had come to sit next to her as she was speaking, and now she pivoted to cross her legs, curling her fingers among one another in her lap. "Who was she?"

A faraway look overcame Kane. It was the first time Evelynn had seen anything other than calculated composure painted across his features.

"Everything. And nothing."

Evelynn rolled her eyes, "After everything I just told you, making myself out to be a lunatic, that's not really an answer."

Tugging at her hips, Kane lifted Evelynn to himself.

"I can see her in the way you move, the way you speak." He ran his hands from her hips down her thighs and back to her hips. "It's not the first time." He paused, his words and his movements, looking up at her.

Confusion riddled her face. "What isn't the first time?"

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the couch, Evelynn was still, watching him. Their position was thrillingly precarious, and dubiously familiar.

Righting himself, he looked into Evelynn's face. "I met Ava a very long time ago. She lived here," he gestured around the room with his chin and and chuckled, "Back then, something like this," he waved his hands at her legs draped over his own, "would never happen. She inherited a shop from her father, selling the goods local tradesmen, farmers, and merchants brought to her. The only way she would allow me to be alone with her was when I was eating the baked goods she sold."

"I saw that," Evelynn looked towards the front door, "You were leaning there, eating something. She brushed crumbs from your clothes."

Kane smiled at the memory.

"What happened to her?"

Kane looked away, tightening his grip on Evelynn. "I don't really know."

She leaned to the side, trying to catch his gaze. "Tell me?"

He pulled his hands away to rake them over his face, pulling on his jaw, they came to rest on his abdomen. "I've lived a lot of lives, Evelynn. I've been many different people, each with an evolving set of values," He sighed. "Milo and I were the only two children born to my mother in a time when most women had a dozen.

"Our father was a merchant, albeit not a very good one. Business wasn't his forte, he was in it for the adventure. Sailing around the world, procuring goods, he made ends meet, but just barely. And then he didn't come back. It wasn't uncommon; sickness in strange lands, sunken ships, pirates. The stuff of legends and fairy tales. My mother died not long after.

"Being the eldest brother, Milo took over my father's business. Like my father, he doesn't have a lot of business sense; but, unlike my father, he also has no sense of adventure. He only cares about his lifestyle. Lifestyles of the rich and famous.

"In those days, affording the lifestyle Milo desired came on the back of a rigorous dedication to hard work and frugality, neither of which Milo possessed." Kane paused. "Or marriage."

Evelynn grimaced.

"The latter isn't ideal, but it's certainly easier; and Milo is always down for whatever is easier. Unfortunately, Milo's a bit of a dick. He holds no allure for women, and that's where I came in."

Evelynn's frown deepened.

"I became a bargaining chip. Milo needed a marriage of opportunity and only I could pull it off."

"Ava?" Interrupting with the question, Evelynn could already feel Ava wasn't the answer.

"No," Kane said sadly. "A girl named Emma. She was the daughter of the Governor. I don't know the details of how he arranged it, they weren't relevant to me. The only thing that mattered was the commitment Milo had made on my behalf," he scoffed. "My behalf? My back, more like."

"But Ava?"

"Ava," Kane brought Evelynn's face to be level with his own, staring intently at her eyes. "Ava was a threat that could bring the whole thing crashing down."

"Obviously I didn't know her," Evelynn shrugged, "but she seemed pretty nice?"

Kane sighed. "She was. I," he shook his head, "I was a bird that couldn't be caged." He gripped Evelynn's hips again, "I wanted her more than anything, but she wouldn't have me. She said I was destined for greater things than keeping shop by her side." His tone had become wistful, engrained with regret. "If Ava had relented, I would have shirked Milo's brokered deal. They all knew it - Milo, the Governor, and Jerimoth."

In his silence, Evelynn considered what he had told her thus far. There were historical documents in the briefcase, documents she did not collect herself; among them had been portraits of this Emma. And a photograph of her gravestone.

"What happened when Emma died?"

"Died?" So strange had this entire situation become, Kane didn't question how Evelynn knew Emma had met an untimely death. "She was killed. Found with abrasions on her arms... at the bottom of a well. Back then they had no way to discern whether she died before or after she ended up down there; but it doesn't matter. Everyone knew it wasn't an accident."

Evelynn narrowed her eyes. "Why would someone kill her?"

Kane pursed his lips and shook his head, "I have no idea. She wasn't the most moral woman, but unless someone was eeking revenge on her father, I never understod." There was no reason to share with Evelynn that there was a night he couldn't remember, wondering if he had killed Emma himself. Of the thousands of nights he had lived, only that one was lost to his memory. "But that night, the night they found Emma's body, Ava also disappeared."

Evelynn's pulse throbbed. "Disappeared?"

"My reaction was the same. Emma's mother accused Ava of involvement in her daughter's unfortunate death." Kane scratched his chin in thought. "You know," he mused, "if Ava hadn't also disappeared, I might think someone killed Emma to frame Ava." He shook his head, "But it doesn't fit."

"Emma's mother knew of your feelings for Ava?"

"Everyone did. It was never something I tried to hide. Milo despised her for it. I always thought it was jealousy, but that seems a superficially empty excuse, after all this time."

"After all this time?"

"You're quick with the questions, aren't you?"

"Sorry," Evelynn smiled shyly, looking down at her hands, "I feel caught up in it all, having seen some of this myself. I forgot it's personal for you."

Something hung in the air between them, a bomb ready to drop.

"This isn't the first time I've found someone like you."

Evelynn stilled, "Like me?" she whispered.

"In time, there are many things we forget; but I will never forget Ava's eyes. As life went on after she disappeared, every now and then I would meet someone with an uncanny resemblance to Ava. After the first two or three times, I found myself seeking her. And I found her... well, she found me." He looked around the room, "Right here," he pointed towards the ground. "If I waited long enough, she always came back."

"That sounds pretty crazy."

"I know," he lamented. "But look at you. You look more like her than any of the others. You've seen and heard things only she would know. And here you are." He raised his hands as he shrugged. "When she comes back, I can sense her now. Spot her in a crowd, and the eyes never lie."

"That's why you approached me at the marina."

He nodded. "I told you. The way you move, the way you talk. It's all there."

"Sorry," she slipped away from him at last, turning to stare at the river instead of him. "This is a lot to take in."

Kane sat in silence. What could he say? She was right. He was telling her she was someone else, reborn into this life with the soul of another. If he didn't know it to be true, he would think himself insane.

"Why are you alive?"

"Excuse me?"

Evelynn turned to Kane, a serious look upon her face. "Why are you alive? Emma is dead. Ava is, was? Dead? Why are you still alive? And Milo and this Jerimoth man?"

"If I knew that, Evelynn, I'd be dead. People want immortality, but I tell you, it's not what it's cracked up to be. My brother loves it. He has amassed wealth beyond his wildest dreams. Jerimoth has become unstoppable."

Click. Shuffle-shuffle. Click. Shuffle-shuffle.

Kane sprung to his feet and bounded to the door, reaching it just as a shiny, wooden cane pushed it open.

"Aunt Connie!" Evelynn hastily reached to embrace the old woman, pushing around Kane.

"Aunt Connie?" Perplexed, Kane stepped back as the grey-haired Constance bustled through the door, enfolding Evelynn in a warm greeting. "Constance?"

"Well," Constance tapped her cane on the floor, resting both hands on the handle, and peered at Kane and Evelynn. "Things are moving more quickly than I had anticipated, but," she shrugged her shoulders, "such is life. Come." Click. Shuffle-shuffle. She made her way to the kitchen. "I need a drink and," she looked back at Kane and Evelynn, eyeing them with knowing concern, "I suppose I have a few things to explain." Seating herself at the island, she rested her forearms on the stone edge and clasped her hands together. "What's for dinner?"

As they ate, Constance refused to speak of anything pertinent, instead discussing everything from Spencer's building, Evelynn's poor sense of decorating, to the decline of men's fashion and how Kane had been a dapper gentleman some hundred years ago.

She spoke of these things so casually, it was all Evelynn could do to focus on anything other than "a hundred years ago".

As they began to clear the dishes, Constance's mood intensified.

"Kane? I believe you should get going?"

Kane looked at the windows, into the sultry darkness that had settled around them, then back at Evelynn. "Why?"

"Your brother knows, dear," Constance was never condescending, even as she stated what they both knew to be obvious. "It would be most prudent if he didn't find you here when, inevitably, he comes looking for you."

With a deep breath, Kane acquiesced, leaning down to meet Constance's small stature as they paused by the door. Evelynn couldn't hear their exchange, but Kane fixed Constance with a stare and she reached up to pat him on the shoulder.

"Now, dear," she shuffled back to Evelynn, slipping her coat over her shoulders and gripping her cane. "Listen carefully, because this will likely be the only opportunity I have to say this." Evelynn stood, rapt and waiting.

Taking Evelynn's face in her gnarled hands, Constance stared at the woman she had raised, noting the wisdom that now etched her young features. "Everyone tells you life is a circle, but they've mixed-up their words: life is cyclical. Up and down and around, always coming back to what was. Sometimes, it seems, there is a hiccup. A break in the wave and it gets a little... loopy. Around and around until it breaks again, returning to its regular pattern." She patted Evelynn's cheek. "Our dear man tried to put his perceived freedom on a pedestal, and in so doing, caused a little hiccup. Twelve years ago, he saved your life. While he could have done a better job of it, he succeeded nonetheless. He cracked that cycle, but he didn't break it." Turning to leave, Constance paused with her hand on the doorknob, "Break it, Evelynn, once and for all."

* * *

Alone again, Evelynn stared at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. All of the lights in the house were off. While this made for an eerie setting, if the lights weren't on, she thought maybe it would look like she wasn't home.

Kane's warning echoed in her mind. Milo knew she hadn't died with Edward and Valarie. And whether she was Ava or not was irrelevant in light of that simple fact.

Spitting in the sink, she stood in her bedroom, wondering what to do. Go to bed? Sleeping seemed foolish. Every villain in every horror movie she had ever seen struck, at one point or another, when the victim was sleeping.

But her decision was made for her when a pounding on the front door resounded throughout the house.

Pulse frantic, her heart stilled. Slipping to the nearest window, she peered down. It was a man, though she couldn't tell who. Glancing at Kane's house, only one light was on, but he could have been anywhere. She looked back to the person at the door. He gestured towards the driveway and three men sauntered from within the darkness.

Pressing her fingertips to her temples, was this real?

Were they real?

Of all the times to fear you're a raving lunatic, the cusp of an emerging crisis isn't ideal.

Deciding she should consider those men to be as solid as the floor beneath her feet, she quickly rolled a blanket and tucked it into her bed, then slinked into the hall. It was the middle of the night, and they would assume she was sleeping. Right? That's why they were here at this hour?

"You cannot divide your loyalty between her, and me, and the lifestyle we're afforded." The voice of Milo sneered.

Jumping back, Evelynn pressed herself to the wall, steadying her breath before peeking around the doorjamb into a spare bedroom.

There stood Kane and Milo, but hazy and in clothing of another era.

Surely, these men were not real.

Skimming over the less important parts of Milo's statement, Kane focused only on Milo. "You're my brother," he scoffed, "why would my loyalty to you ever come into question?"

Milo's cynical laugh unnerved both Kane and Evelynn. "You were going to choose her," he jabbed a finger towards Evelynn.

Could he see her?

"Me!?" a woman's voice, very much like her own, screeched from behind her. "I only just met him! You're crazy!"

"That kind of talk is not helping," Kane held up a hand to quiet the woman, pinning Milo with a deadly stare, "This has nothing to do with her."

Turning slowly, Evelynn saw the smoky outline of a beautiful woman, taller than herself, but with the same silky brown hair and piercing green eyes.

Ava.

Another version of Ava.

"Oh, Brother. It has everything to do with her." Backing away, Milo stopped when he had put a few more feet between himself and Kane. "Why she never seems to die, though, I don't quite understand."

Kane flashed a look to the woman and she shook her head in dismay.

"Evelynn!" The basement door banged open and Evelynn's hand flew to her heart.

Kane.

It had been him outside?

"Evelynn," another voice drawled, calling through the house.

Milo.

Paralyzed by fear, the hazy images had disappeared, replaced by the very real forms of Kane and Milo, approaching her from opposite sides.

There had to be a way out of this.

Milo paused, watching as Kane stepped protectively in front of Evelynn.

"What is this," Milo waved between them. "You're playing hero now?"

Kane began backing up, Evelynn could do nothing but mimic his action.

"No. Embracing fate."

Milo laughed, viscous and malevolent. "You still don't get it, do you?" He lunged towards them and, for the first time, she could see the blade in his hand.

A wave of nausea bubbled inside of her.

Cyclical indeed.

She had been here before.

Did knowing the end of this scene spoil the whole story?

Kane had walked so far backwards, away from Milo, he had all but pinned Evelynn between the wall and his body. While the position seemed safe enough, his brother was unhinged. There was no telling what he would attempt next.

Inching along the wall as Milo stared daggers at Kane, she felt for the basement door.

It seemed rather apropos to descend those steps, having watched Ava do the same thing, only to lose the race, but in her mind she would leave Kane to distract Milo. It seemed like the best option.

Finding the doorknob, she slowly turned it, Milo was so focused on Kane he didn't flinch when the door creaked open.

But Kane did.

"The boat," he whispered, keeping focused on his brother.

With no idea what that meant, Evelynn turned and bounded down the stairs as fast as she could. Slipping once, she grabbed for the railing and righted herself, slowing as she reached the bottom.

The other three men.

She had entirely forgotten about the other three men skulking in the darkness under Milo's command.

Maybe Milo had figured this out, too, because all three men were lined up when her feet landed on the carpet of the basement floor.

In a lightning fast movement, one of them reached for her face, pressing his hand to her mouth and his wrapping his other arm around her head. He spun her back into his chest.

"Shhhhh..." he soothed.

One of the other men bounded up the stairs in stealth silence as she kicked her feet wildly - at the walls, the wooden stairs, anywhere that would alert Kane to her predicament.

Silence.

When the man reached the top of the stairs, she watched as his silhouette looked left, then right. He shook his head, calling to his comrades below, "They're not here."

Not here?!

The man still waiting at the bottom of the stairs shot up in ascent as the man at the top rushed into the bowels of the house. No doubt, they were off to find their boss.

Whatever had happened to Ava, maybe it was time she saved herself.

Evelynn bucked violently, throwing her head into the face of her captor. He groaned as she collided with his upper jaw, his teeth sinking into her soft skin and her hard scalp ramming into his nose.

A blinding flash of pain shot through her head. Surely she was bleeding, but as he dropped her to grab his own face, she scampered away. Flinging a hand to the back of her head, it was hot and sticky.

But she was free.

The man from whom she had escaped was holding his nose, trying to follow, but was severely hindered by his own hand blocking his view.

If the other two men had indeed rushed into the house in search of Kane and Milo, her best bet should be outside.

She threw her weight into the basement door, rushing and stumbling into the murky darkness beneath the porch.

Pausing, she listened.

Silence, save for the bleak toll of the buoy. Judging by the galloping rate of its ring, the tide was low; the river currents, torrential.

The image of Ava falling into the water, blood seeping from her wound, haunted Evelynn's vision.

That wouldn't be her.

All of this would be pointless if she was just another version of Ava, ready to die in some twisted game of fate and free will.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," the deep, truculent voice of Milo bounced among the shadows of the porch.

Evelynn froze.

Afraid to move, even to look around and see where he was, she waited.

"You'll never win; for us to go on living, you must always die," he taunted.  "He's gone; you're alone."

Gone? Kane left her here?

Milo had to be lying?

A runner by hobby, even if she could run for miles, she wasn't fast. Escaping down the driveway, or through Kane's yard to the next house, wasn't plausible.

She'd never be able to scale the rocks of the riverbank long enough to evade four men.

There was only one choice.

The river itself.

Averting her eyes to the river, she had studied that bank enough times from the vantage point of her porch above to know that a straight shot from the end of the driveway only lead to a boat ramp.

Too easy.

She needed a route that would slow Milo down if he should follow her.

Directly out from her porch, a small outcropping of the craggy shore overhung the river.

She could jump.

She would only have one shot.

The aim would be to fly out there as quickly as possible, giving Milo no time to react and hoping he didn't think the river as viable an option as she did.

Closing her eyes for just a moment, gathering her courage, she fled.

Feet stamping at the ground and arms pumping, she made it to the edge of the porch and into the open.

Then failed.

Milo collided with her, toppling both of them to the ground. In her bout of frantic decision making, she had never looked to the right. She hadn't given herself the chance to spot him, lurking.

He had shoved the blade back into his pocket, she could see it clipped to the seam.

Trying to right himself without letting go of her, Milo struggled to stand.

Evelynn had no fighting skills. Zero experience in hand-to-hand combat.

So she merely tripped him as he tried to get his footing.

Shouting in rage, he scrambled to grab her again as she skittered across the rocks towards the river's edge.

Remember his knife, he drew it from his pocket, flicking open the blade.

It's size was irrelevant, the shine of the moon on the blade sent a shiver through Evelynn as he swung it hysterically in her direction.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, hoping for all hope that Kane was actually somewhere nearby, she crawled to the lip of the riverbank, heaving herself onto the rocks.

A blinding pain enveloped her, the ache of her bleeding head dull in comparison.

Flesh grinding into bone, she glanced back to see the sickly smile of Milo, his hand clenched to the knife, blade sunken into her leg.

But when he lifted it to strike again, she threw herself over the edge.

The sear of the salt water erupting through her wounds, she gasped a great mouthful of water, still icy cold, even in the depths of summer.

Currents lapping around her, some distant person howled in defeat. Though it was probably Milo, her addled mind hoped it was Kane, realization hitting him that he had lost her again. Like hands wrapping around her, the frigid water pulled her along until she gave in, allowing herself to succumb to the reality of another swirl in this never ending cycle of life and death and rebirth.