Flash Fiction: Based on The ForNever Series

Heather's hand freezes halfway to her latte when she sees them—two boys at opposite corners of the room, both staring at her like she's a ghost. Kieran by the window, warmth radiating from him like summer sun. Jayden near the door, all intensity and storm clouds.

Her heart shouldn't recognize them - but it does.

"Not again," she whispers.

She knows them. The shape of Kieran's jaw. The way Jayden's smile reaches his eyes. She knows them the way she knows her own heartbeat, intimate and undeniable.

Kieran approaches first. "You remember." It isn't a question. 

Heather's coffee cup shatters on the floor.

The memories flood in: a medieval castle where she wore silk and chose wrong. A Victorian ballroom where she waltzed into death. A 1960s diner where she kissed the wrong lips and woke up drowning. Again and again and again, across nine hundred and ninety-nine lifetimes.

"The curse," she breathes. "It's real."

Jayden materializes at her other side, his presence steady, safe. "You're remembering earlier each time. Maybe this life, you'll finally break it."

"Break it how?" Her voice cracks. "I don't even know which of you I'm supposed to choose."

"That's because," Kieran says softly, "your heart has always been divided. The witch who cursed us knew that. She made you choose between duty and desire, safety and passion. Every time you pick one, you betray the other. Every time you betray one, you die."

The coffee shop falls away. Heather sees the witch's face—a woman scorned. The curse was the witch's revenge. Live it again. Choose again. Die again.

"There has to be a way out," Heather says.

Kieran and Jayden exchange a look that spans lifetimes. For once, they agree.

"Maybe," Jayden says carefully, "you've been asking the wrong question."

"Maybe," Kieran adds, "it was never about choosing between us."

Sometimes relationships don't last, because love isn't enough. What if the curse worked differently? What if the witch's revenge wasn't forcing her to choose, but forcing her to believe she had to?

"What if I choose myself?" Heather whispers.

Thunder rolls outside. The lights flicker.

And for the first time in a thousand lives, something shifts.

"Finally," Kieran and Jayden say in unison.

The curse shatters like her coffee cup. 

For the first time in a millennium, she is free.

Sometimes the only way to save everyone is to refuse to play the game.

© 2025 Rosaline Saul

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