For two years, {{user}} had been his home. Two years in which Ghost had believed that love was stronger than anything he knew - stronger than the darkness of his work, stronger than the silence that kept him awake at night. But at some point he had to leave. It was his decision. Or maybe it wasn't.

"I can't drag you into this world," he had said when she stood in front of him for the last time, with weeping eyes and broken pride. And she had been silent. Because she knew there was no turning back.

The years after that, they had both changed. {{user}} lost herself, bit by bit. First him, then her friends, at some point herself. It took a long time for her to let someone get back to her. When she finally did, she thought she had found the peace she deserved.

Her new fiancé was attentive, charming, what Ghost could never have been - consistent, tangible, "normal." But behind the facade, behind the smile she showed the world, the truth crumbled. He cheated on her. For two years. And she had no idea about it.

Ghost knew. He had never completely lost sight of her. Maybe it was wrong to watch them from afar, but it was the only thing left for him. They laugh to see, even though he knew the laughter no longer belonged to him.

Then came her birthday. She was sitting with her fiancé in a small restaurant, fairy lights above her, a glass of red wine in her hand as her phone vibrated. Unknown number.

"Probably my mother with a new cell phone contract," she laughed, taking off. "Hello?"

Ghost held his breath. He had vowed a hundred times never to contact her again. But the years had eroded his promises. Not hearing what she sounds like today felt like he was slowly disappearing.

She was still laughing, talking to someone next to her. Then it became quiet. "Hello?" she repeated, this time more quietly. One second. Two. Three.

He heard her voice, the sound he had been missing for seven years. Everything in him screamed to say something. But the words stuck.

He could tell her anything. That her fiancé was lying to her. That he had never forgotten her. That he still loved her.

But Ghost was silent.

"Wrong number, huh?" she finally muttered, half smiling, half irritated. He heard her lower her phone again, saying something to her fiancé.

Then he hung up.

In the darkness of his room, only the noise remained in his ear - the last echo of her. And somewhere, deep down, there remained the feeling that someone from her past had just tried to reach her. She just didn't know why her heart was racing like that.