I stood waiting by her door, gripping a bouquet of flowers a little too forcefully. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what was to come. Already anticipating a disaster to some extent, I didn’t exactly have high hopes.

At last, she arrived. The house door slowly opened, and it revealed a stranger. She was no longer the childhood friend I once knew. We were adults now, and hadn’t seen each other in a decade.

Suddenly fumbling with the flowers, I held them out to her, saying, “Hello, Lua.”

She looked up at me, the astonishment visible in her eyes. Her emotions had always been easy to read. She took the flowers gracefully.

“Jake.” She said, my name falling out her mouth as if it were the most unnatural thing. “It’s been a while.”

Her tone sounded unsure, more than unpleasant. My stomach took a flip.

“Please, come on in,” she said, forcing a sad smile as she opened the house door wider.

She showed me to the living room, and we sat down across from each other. The silence was loud.

I took a deep breath, and said, “I think you know why I’m here.”

“After all these years…” she started. “You kept your word.”

I smiled weakly.

“You know… this unusual predicament we’re in.” I said quietly.

She paused.

A brief moment passed, but it was long enough for me to see the sadness flicker in her eyes. A dancing, fleeting moment.

Almost laughing, she added, “I really wonder what our lives would be like now if we hadn’t made that silly joke all those years ago.”

“It was my fault… I was immature,” I said, remembering the day with a shiver.

We were both eight years old.

She was my neighbour, and naturally, we grew up together, playing games and running around the streets.

Considering how it was a time when magic was prohibited, we were particularly reckless.

Acting as adventurous travellers, we stumbled upon forbidden secrecies, only to be discovered by either a curious child or a trespasser with a death wish.

An ominous building.

A foggy wall of protection that practically screamed, “KEEP OUT!”

But being the brilliant horror-movie protagonists we were, we entered without hesitation.

We stumbled upon a room, filled with delicate treasures.

An aura of magic coated the air, and perhaps that drove our insanities.

I picked up a little golden ring, with a shiny jewel embedded. Of course, I would not take it, but I lifted it to the window’s light.

Lua gasped, perhaps both out of shock and admiration.

“Wow…” she gushed. “It’s… beautiful.”

Laughing, and properly pumped with the rebellious adrenaline, I exclaimed, “A wedding ring…”

I looked her in the eye, and dropped to the floor on one knee.

Grandly (or so I thought, at the time), I held the ring up to her, and said, “Marry me, Lua?”

It was a joke. A childish act.

She giggled, flattered.

“Yes!” She replied, letting me place the ring on her finger.

…

That moment.

That was when it all fell apart.

Lights.

Sounds.

Force.

The magic seeped through the ring.

What appeared to be a coloured gas rose through the air, blinding the two of us.

Sparkles of light, often shown to be beautiful in the movies, were more like terrifying fireworks being released centimetres away.

Something, through the cloudy fog, pushed the two of us.

I could suddenly feel her hand, and we gripped onto each other out of terror.

A voice, unexplainable, like the moment, came from the room, saying, “The oath. You have made the oath. Once both of you are eighteen, your fates must intertwine. The oath of marriage.”

What happened after was a blur.

A blur I do not wish to recall…

Back in the present time, we both gazed at each other.

“It’s both our fault,” she admitted. “We shouldn’t have trespassed.”

“I suppose.”

There were so many things I wanted to ask her. How was life? Did she ever get that game she really liked? Is she studying medicine like she dreamed?

But I only managed to say, with a saddened heart,

“Marry me?”