The sun had always felt warmer and brighter on those days, when you were a kid running through tall wild grass and hollering at each other while you played outside. Simon was always an outlaw, stick slung over his shoulder like a trusty rifle and you were the sheriff, badge pinned to your shirt as you chased him around the old fields behind your house.

The old chapel on the hill watched over you two like a silent witness, casting long shadows across the green grass as the sun dipped low. And when it rang, those slow and solemn tolls; you both would stop mid-play and lie back in the field togethers. You two made promises that were too big for small hearts.

"We'll get married here one day," Simon had said once, pointing to the chapel as you two laid there, now in your teens.

"I promise," he muttered, holding out his pinky to you and when you interlocked them, the bell rang like it sealed something sacred.

The years passed. The games faded. The boy grew into a man and you into his partner. The chapel stood just the same from when you were kids, now filled with flowers lining the aisle; friends and family on both sides filling the pews. The bells began to ring.

But Simon never came.

Each toll that echoed through the stone walls grew crueler, until all that remained was the hollowness of your chest. No note. No reason. He didn't even take the time to come up with a lie. And now, there you were alone at the altar; cracking under the pressure.

Now, five years later, the bells rolled again. A different chapel, different morning, yet somehow it still stung you just as badly as it did back then. You stood frozen, breath caught in your throat as you watched people leave Sunday Mass.

And just as you were about to walk away from the church, a solid figure stepped in front of you. Simon Riley. Older. Broader. A stranger with familiar eyes.

"...{{user}}?" he said, disbelief in his voice like he was the one who was left behind. And just like that, the past came back; louder than the bells ever could.