A Promise: That would surpass even the dimension of time, Part 2

Mark opens his eyes. Bright light shone from the outside of his bedroom window. He checks the clock, 8:30 am. 

He gets up hastily and rushes over towards the bathroom he shares with his entire family, brushes his teeth in a matter of seconds, washes his face and hair 'thoroughly', as he would describe it, and puts on his school uniform without even waiting for his hands to dry. 

He runs downstairs where his mom was busy preparing in the kitchen. 

'Mornin'. Break-..' 

'Mornin. Cant. No time. Bye.' he cuts his mother's sentence short. 

'-fast. Bye.' 

Mark puts on his socks, shoes and his headphones and proceeds to the bus stop, where the bus lady was just about to close the doors. 

'Wait!' He jogs for a good 20 meters, the bus lady glaring at him as if he had just said something infuriating. 

'Thanks.' As he gasps for air. 

He takes the back seat of the bus where no one else usually sat.

13 years of age, Mark was your typical introverted, glasses-wearing teenager. He attends Grade 8 at Fellowshire High, a breeding nest for aberrations, as he would call it. He had 4 friends in total, 2 of which were his childhood friends and the 2 others he met while in their 6th and 7th grade. 

Every day during break and lunch times he would spend it with his friends, and they would talk about the most random thoughts that came to their minds during class hours. On this day however, Mark had a particularly gritting topic he wanted to bring up among his group.

'So I had this weird dream last night. I was one of those captives from Word War 2. I was with a group of old and young people about to be executed in one of those gas-chamber things. They were screaming, begging for something I couldn't quite fathom.' 

'Uh-uh.' His friends Lisa, Edward, Sam and Yuki nod their heads in unison as they listened.

'But there was.. something else. On the night I was taken in by the Nazis, or whatever you called them, I was with someone. A girl around our age.'

'O-ooh. What did she look like?' inquires Lisa.

'I.. I cant remember the specific details, but she was beautiful. Her eyes glistened with the snow, her hair long and flowing and as dark as the night sky itself. Breath-taking, to be honest.'

'So then what happens to this girl?' Yuki went to ask him.

'We were separated, forcefully. Our hands were locked together so tight in the dream that I swear I felt my fingers aching when I woke up this morning. It just felt so.. surreal, at a point.'

'Are you sure you didn't just sleep late playing video games?' Edward teases him. 

'No dude! So anyways, just as we were about to let go, I made her a promise. I promised her that 'I would find her, whether in this life or the next' then we parted ways.'

'Wo-aah. That sounds..' Sam, the 'slowest', struggles to find the word 'weird, I guess?'

'Yeah, it does.'

'What happened after the two of you got separated?' asks Yuki.

'Everything else after that was a blur, and when the scene cleared up I was stepping into the gas chamber. Then..'

'Then?' they all ask him.

'Then that was it. I closed my eyes, listened to the gas escape from the nozzles on the walls, and I wake up.'

'.. Maybe it's one of those reincarnation instances in our old books. They say that when you die, you get resurrected as someone else in either the future or the past. Although most of those stories had the guy end up being a pig or a bird in his next life.' Yuki, the 'brains' in their group shares.

'Haha! Imagine Mark being a bird, flying in the sky with his glasses, pooping on peoples windshields as he went.' Edward, the 'jester', jokes.

'Ha-ha!' they all laugh together, as they always have. 

'But you don't possibly believe in all that resurrection crap, right, Mark?' Lisa, the 'cool one', smugly asks.

'I have no idea, to be honest.' Mark, the 'generic friend', replies.

'Ha-ha!'

The school bell rings, and the 5 of them return to their classrooms to resume the rest of their day.

The truth was, he didn't believe in an idea such as resurrection. He thought it was absurd and not even worth making a joke out of. It's not real, he thinks.

But Mark, as do most creatures who possess human nature, shield their eyes from the sudden flooding of light which is reality. 

'Alright, class. Settle down, now.' Their old English teacher arrives with more paper in his arms than usual. 

'I was just at the faculty office, and was told that we are to receive a new student today. She and her family had just moved here from England, and I would hope you fellows welcome her and make her feel at home. Come on in, dear.' 

He gestures at someone out in the hall to proceed inside. 

'Please, introduce yourself to the class, young miss.'

Mark, scribbling on his notebook, is poked by Edward from behind him. 

'Dude, check it out. She's cute.'

He lifts his gaze from his notebook to this 'cute' girl Edward was referring to. 

.. her hair long and flowing and as dark as the night sky itself.

His eyes land on the girl standing awkwardly in front of the class. 

.. her eyes glistened with the snow.

He stares, and holds his sights firmly on her. He didn't really know why, but for some reason he held his breath for a good 4 seconds, as if consumed by the very existence of this stunning yet reserved woman in front of them. 

'Hello, everyone. My name is Lili Medvonhart, but you can call me-'

Edward nudges Mark again, this time with considerable strength to wake him from his trance, at the same time making him cough out and disturb their new classmate's introduction rites. 

'-ACGHK!' 

'Ha-ha! Sorry!' Edward whispers menacingly. 

'-Lili.' 

'Sorry! Uhm.. uh..'

Their teacher glares at him from the sidelines. 

'Ok, since Mr. Mark here disturbed our newcomer, he shall be in charge of introducing her to most of the amenities we have here in our school, as well as giving her his notes from the classes she missed.'

'Ha-ha!' The class laughs altogether, as Lili giggles while smiling at the floor. 

'Dude I hate you.' He whispers back to Edward, who was busy holding his stomach from the laughter. 

'Go ahead, Lili. You may take the empty seat beside your bodyguard.' Professor chuckles to himself. 

Lili walks towards Mark, as he returns to scribbling on his old spiral notebook, blushing at the mere thought that a girl this refined and astonishingly mesmerizing would be seated right next to him. 

'Hee-hee. Hello, Mr. Mark.' She cheerfully greets him.

'H-hi.'

'I look forward to you being my bodyguard!' Lili jokes. 

'...' He was dying of embarrassment as the rest of the class continued to giggle silently in their seats.

Lili proceeds to take her seat beside him, leaving a trail of her scent enveloping Mark. Like fresh spring flowers, he thought, still not taking his eyes of his random scribbles.  

'Alright, alright, settle down now. Time for us to begin.' 

Mark is poked by Lili from the side, and when he proceeded to respond, he is greeted by Lili's smile, sending him in to a cosmic explosion of emotions. 

Hers was the most beautiful smile he had ever laid eyes on. He retaliates with a tiny, forced smile of his own. 

'N-nice to meet you.'  

Little did Mark, Lili, or anyone know, that the lie that was their reality was about to uncover.