It was December, and it was the season of snow. Out of those waiting for snow, one of the people eagerly waiting for the snow was Charlie, a 21-year-old introverted boy living on the ground floor of Cyber Colony Society. He was in his final year of college. He didn’t have any friends in college or society with whom he could chat or play. Like every winter, this was also a boring winter vacation for him. He would stand outside his home waiting for the snow to fall so that he could kill time playing with snow. He opened his mobile and checked the notification, and a smile appeared on his face. The notification read: Prediction of snowfall tonight in your location.
He looked at the sky and smiled. At night, he couldn’t sleep as he waited for snowfall. As a child, he lived in an area where the temperature and topography were unsuitable for snowfall. It was always his dream to see snowfall, and this year would be his first snowfall. He shifted to this new location this year due to his parents' transfer. He looked at the sky, and suddenly the weather changed. As he stretched his hands, the snow fell gently on them. The sky hung low, grey and heavy, while delicate flakes drifted from the clouds. They landed silently, covering rooftops, trees, and empty streets in a glistening blanket that shimmered in the pale light. Charlie grabbed some snow from the ground and started making a snowball. He threw it toward the sky and laughed as the pieces of the ball fell on him. He started making another ball when he heard a laugh when his eyes got stuck on the balcony of the first floor opposite his block. A girl of the same age as him was standing on the balcony and looking at the sky. Her long, chestnut hair cascaded over her shoulders with a grief expression on her face. Wrapped in a cozy sweater and a scarf, she looked at the snowflakes falling from the sky. Her cheeks flushed pink from both the cold and the exhilaration of the moment. Snow fell softly around her, and her presence lit up the dim evening like it was made of sunlight.
Charlie’s breath caught somewhere between his chest and the winter air. For a second, he forgot about the cold biting at his hands. Forgot the chill in his sweater. Forgot the rest of the world.
He couldn't help but smile. Watching her in that moment, he felt something shift. Like time slowed just enough for him to memorise the way the snow clung to her hair and the pink on her cheeks. And in that silence, he realised he was falling for her.
The next morning, Charlie woke up and ran toward the door to look at the balcony opposite his flat. There was no one on the balcony, and he looked at it for more than an hour with no results. He came inside the room and thought about what he had seen the previous night. The snow, the warmth and the softness. He looked at the watch and waited for it to be night so that he could see the girl. As it turned dark, he got outside, but there was no snow and no girl on the balcony. He kept waiting, but all in vain. He slept on his doorstep while waiting, and his sleep was interrupted by his mother waking him up. He looked around, it was already six in the morning. He went inside with a disappointed mood.
Charlie’s mother came to him and asked, “Is everything alright? You don’t feel yourself today.”
Charlie thought for a second and said, “Do you know who the new owners of the flat on the first floor, opposite our block are?”
His mother looked at him and said, “Yes, they are Mr. and Mrs. Evans, but why do you ask?”
“I saw a girl on the balcony of that flat one night before, but didn’t see her after that night.”
“So, my boy has a crush,” his mother chuckled.
Charlie blushed, “There is nothing like that. I am just asking out of curiosity.”
His mother laughed, “I know what curiosity you are talking about,” his mother left the room.
Charlie looked at the balcony from his window and thought, “Tonight it’s predicted that there will be snowfall. Hope you will be there too.”
At night, the snowfall started, and Charlie went outside to the compound area and lay in the snow and looked at the snow falling from the sky. He moved his hands and legs in the snow to make a snow butterfly. Suddenly, he looked at the balcony and saw the girl standing on the balcony but with a grief-stricken look on her face. Charlie kept looking at her in awe, but was curious to know why the girl looked grieved. He waved his hands, but the girl kept looking toward the sky. Charlie stopped waving and could feel his heart pumping faster. His breathing fastened, and he softly said, “Hello?”
The girl didn’t respond.
“I think she didn't hear it. Should I say it out loud? It’s late at night, it will be awkward,” Charlie thought, “Should I make a snowball and throw it towards her? No, that will be rude. What should I do to talk to her?”
As Charlie thought, he noticed that the girl wasn’t there anymore. He thought, “I think she would have seen me and got inside.”
He kept looking at the balcony for the next ten minutes, but no one came out. He got back to his flat and lay on the bed. He kept looking at the ceiling and thought, “Why did she go inside? Even if she had noticed me, she could have called me or waved at me. I think she’s an introvert like me.”
The next morning, Charlie’s mother woke him up and smiled, “I have got some news for you. Regarding Evan’s child.”
“What is it?” Charlie asked while stretching his body.
“They had a daughter, but she died some months ago.”
Charlie went into thinking, “How is this possible? That girl looked in the same age range as mine. Is she Mrs. Evans whom I see? I don’t think so. That girl was so young and beautiful.”
That night, Charlie looked at the balcony through his window. The snow started falling, and he went outside. As he left his flat and entered the compound, his eyes got stuck on the balcony where the girl was standing. This time, she was not looking at the sky as she always does. She felt lost in something. She seemed to be in deep thought. Charlie waved at her, but in vain. He looked around, thinking about calling her, when he noticed that she was not on the balcony anymore. He walked backwards to get a wide view of the balcony and was amazed to see an empty balcony. He got frustrated and thought, “I will go to their flat in the morning.”
The next morning, Charlie went to the opposite block and stood in front of the flat door. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. After a few minutes, Mrs. Evans opened the door.
“Yes?” Mrs. Evans asked.
“She doesn’t look like that girl. Thank God,” Charlie thought before saying, “Good morning, Mrs. Evans.”
“Yes, how can I help you?” Mrs. Evans asked.
“I am Charlie, I live across the compound on the ground floor, Flat number 1-A. You can see it directly from your balcony. My mother told me that you are new here. If you want any help, you can ask me, I will be happy to help.”
Mrs. Evan gave a slight smile, “That’s so sweet of you. Thanks for asking.”
“If you and Mr. Evans and your child need any help, I am one call away.”
“It is only me and my husband, Mr. Evans. We don’t have any children. We used to have, but she’s not with us anymore,” Mrs. Evans said in a depressing tone.
“I am sorry to hear that. I will be leaving now, you take care,” Charlie left the block with several thoughts in his mind.
He was confused and thought, “If there is no one except Mr. and Mrs. Evans living here, then who am I seeing on the balcony when snow falls?”
He sat on the sofa and was in deep thought when his mother noticed Charlie, “Are you fine?”
Charlie was upset and confused. He said in a low voice, “Mother, I don’t know what is happening. Whenever there is snowfall at night, I have started seeing a girl of my age on the balcony of Evans, but they don’t have any children. Then who am I seeing?”
Mother grabbed Charlie’s hands and said, “Oh my dear Charlie, it looks like your loneliness has overwhelmed you. I think you are just imagining a girl. You should go to your grandma’s home for the rest of the vacation, otherwise, you will get depressed here.”
“Wait, in the weather app, it is predicted that today there will be snowfall. Please come with me to the compound at night. I will be sure if the girl is real or just my imagination,” Charlie requested.
His mother thought for a second and nodded.
At night, it started snowing at around eleven. Charlie rushed to the drawing room where his mother was already waiting. They went to the compound area and looked at the sky, it was snowing. They looked at the balcony, but there was no one. They waited for an hour and then went inside.
The mother locked the door and said, “Charlie, I think it is just your imagination.”
“What if she didn’t come out? Or maybe she would have seen you from her window and decided not to come out?”
The mother yawned and said, “That doesn’t make any sense. If there is any girl, why would she not come out tonight? Just because I was with you? Charlie, I will be packing some clothes, and you will be leaving for your grandma’s home tomorrow morning. Your loneliness and isolation have made you fall for a girl who does not even exist.”
“Why do I see her?” his throat tightened with the question.
He gripped his hair, trying to squeeze sense into the chaos of his thoughts. No name. No past. Just moments, fleeting, vivid, impossible moments and yet he had feelings for her. Not in the way people say they love ideas or fantasies. This felt deeper. Like something lost and aching to be found again. He could feel her absence like a bruise beneath the ribs. He wanted to scream, to shake himself free, to forget her entirely, but every time he tried, she came back stronger. Like the memory of warmth after years of cold.
“What kind of madness is it to love someone who isn’t real?” he sat there for hours.
As these thoughts became stronger, he heard a girl’s voice, “Charlie.”
He looked behind through the window, and the girl was there and looking around. He stood up and went outside to the compound and looked at her.
Just then, a thought crossed his mind, “She isn’t real. It’s just your imagination.”
He took a deep breath and walked toward the girl’s block and stood beneath the balcony. The girl looked at him and smiled. Suddenly, Charlie’s phone screen began to flicker. Lines of static broke through the white background. The screen glitch and then blinked.
A message appeared: “Snow memory anomaly detected. Coordinates: Cyber Colony Sector 14. Subject: Emily Evans. Link status: Partially active.”
Charlie's breath hitched. “Emily Evans? What is this all about?”
Another message typed itself in real-time: “You are not hallucinating. She exists. But not in this timeline.”
Charlie’s chest tightened.
A third message appeared: “Memory threads between realities are rare. Snow enhances the tether. She’s trying to reach you.”
As Charlie was reading these messages, he looked at the girl, who was already looking at him. He raised a hand. She also raised her hand. The air around her flickered. The girl suddenly vanished from the balcony and appeared in front of him, “I have been trying to find you,” Emily whispered across the cold silence. Her voice wasn’t carried by air, but through his mind.
“You are not a ghost, are you?” Charlie asked with his heart racing.
“No,” she said, shaking her head gently. “I am from another layer of reality, caught in a loop of snow and memory. But your presence here is pulling me through.”
Charlie blinked, “Why me?”
She smiled, her voice echoing within him. “Because I died in your world and you died in mine. And somehow we are connected across the snow.”
The world around them grew quiet. The snow fell more heavily.
“I came so many times, but you always ignored me,” Charlie said with a heavy heart.
“I didn’t. This technology was in a testing phase. During the testing phase, you did not see the real me. It was just my projection. My projection couldn’t hear or say anything, or even move my body parts. I could only listen. Some days, the machine didn’t even work. But now, the technology is fully developed, and the first thing I did was to travel to this timeline.”
Emily reached out a hand. Charlie hesitated, but stepped forward. As he touched her hand, a pulse of warmth rushed through his body. Visions flooded his mind, her world, her life, himself in another version, walking beside her, laughing, loving.
“I don’t have much time,” she said, voice trembling. “But this window might close forever if I don’t anchor myself.”
Charlie looked into her eyes, “What can I give you?”
“A memory,” she said, “Something pure. Something strong enough to survive both worlds.”
The air pulsed, delicate and unreal, the world around them flickering with the fragile glow of two timelines brushing edges. The cold bit at Charlie’s skin, but he didn’t feel it with her standing just inches away.
“I have waited across nights and snowfalls, just to feel this,” Charlie whispered.
Their faces drew close. Snowflakes melted between their lips before they ever touched. The kiss was slow, trembling, unsure at first. Then deeper, more urgent, like memory clinging to flesh, like time holding its breath just for them. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was every silent night, every moment he had watched her from below and wondered if she was real. Tears slipped down her cheek and mingled with the snow on his. Charlie wrapped his arms around her like he could hold her in this world if he just held tight enough. Her hands curled into the fabric of his sweater, anchoring herself in his warmth, in him, in a moment that felt infinite and vanishing all at once.
When they finally pulled apart, her forehead rested gently against his, “I will remember this in every version of me,” she whispered.
The snow around them paused, just for a second. A silence so profound, even the wind dared not interrupt. Then, everything flickered. She began to dissolve.
“No!” Charlie whispered, “Emily!”
She reached out one last time, brushing his cheek with fingers made of stardust and memory. “You gave me enough, I will find a way back. Promise me, don’t forget.”
“I promise,” Charlie said with tears in his eyes.
And then she vanished.
The snow resumed, and Charlie stood alone in the compound, breathless, the wind howling in his ears. His phone was dead. The screen was blank.
Beside him, he saw a single snowflake-shaped pendant, glimmering faintly with a light not from this world. He picked it up. It was warm. As he held it close, a whisper echoed in the air, “One day, across the snow between worlds, we will meet again.”
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