Just keep walking. No one has any reason to think you don't belong here. For all they know, you're just another face in the crowd. No one suspects a thing. Just. Keep. Walking.

There was nowhere to look that didn't feel like a reminder. Every flower was her favorite color, every shop somewhere she would've loved. Out of the corners of his eyes, every face looked like hers. It seemed like a betrayal, being here without her. The things they'd talked about for hours felt awful without her there.

He needed a way to get her back. But what could he do? There was no insane plan that would work this time. No one of his classic schemes would have a chance of succeeding. They knew him. They knew every part of his mind, every angle he could devise. She was gone forever. And he could do nothing about it. He couldn't save her, couldn't help at all.

Another unpleasant thought came into his mind. Where was he supposed to go? He didn't have any friends. No family, nowhere to stay. The most likely option at this point was to sleep under a bench in the park. It could be worse.

She could've done something. Her plans actually worked. She was the smartest person he'd ever known. She knew so much about the world. But in the end, it hadn't helped her. Not much could've.

It was better than nothing.

He repeated the words to himself as he huddled closer to the base of the tree he had decided to sit under. He faced away from everything, unwilling to look at the reminders of everything he'd lost.

He closed his eyes against the chill, only to force them open again when memories flashed behind his eyelids. There was nowhere he could escape from them. Every moment was tinged with a sense of loss, every second he breathed reminded him of a second she didn't.

But what could he do? There wasn't anything in this modern hellscape of a world that could bring someone back from the dead. When one breathed their last breath, that was it. Their body burned or buried, and life went on.

But it didn't. Not for him.

"Excuse me."

He startled, his head whipping up to see a man in a tailored suit and red gloves staring down at him, a frown etched on his handsome face.

"Um," he mumbled, blinking up at the man.

"Are you quite alright, young man?" The man had an accent that he couldn't place. There was something almost otherworldly about the man.

He swallowed, shaking his head. "I-I'm fine, sir. Really."

The man hummed disbelievingly. "Is that so? Will you tell me, then, why you are curled under a tree like some sort of wild animal?"

He flinched at the rather apt description. "I-" he stumbled for an explanation. "I've lost someone close to me, sir. I find myself lost without her."

The man visibly softened, the frown turning into something more like a smirk. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss, young man."

There was something about the man that compelled him to continue talking. "And I just... I wish there was a way to bring her back, you know? She always had things together. She knew what she was doing, her plans always worked. If she were still here, no doubt we'd be in a comfy inn instead of me trying to sleep under a tree like a... like a wild animal, as you said."

The man's smirk had widened as he spoke, nodding along to his words. Now, as he looked up, he saw a glint in the man's eye.

"Now, I make no promises," the man began, crossing his arms and tapping his foot, "but what if I told you there was a way that you could bring her back?"

He laughed incredulously at first, before realizing that the man was being serious. A small glimmer of hope bloomed in his chest as he swallowed and said, "where do I sign?"