Finished Seeing a Ghost from the Past

"It's fine. Don't worry too much about that...Yes, I know, grandfather... They are in the middle of a merger... Just... Can you ask them to maybe reschedule when they can instead of cancelling altogether?" Zoraida suggested as she awkwardly balanced her phone, the pink box of pastries from the Bearclaw Bakery & Cafe along with her purse, and a bottle of imported champagne as a house warming gift for a good client and friend who had just moved from Johannesburg to Manta Carlos.

"No, abuelo... I can't. Celeste and I are going to dinner later tonight. Okay, well, I'll see you when I get back to the office... " here Zora snapped her phone shut as she slowed her pace as she came to a busy crosswalk and stopped.

Putting away her phone in her handbag, Zora first glanced at the traffic and then across the street at the light. It was still red. She wondered momentarily if she should just teleport back to the office. It'd be much quicker, yes. However, she really did not want to deal with her grandfather, Rafael, right now, and besides, it was a beautiful day. She had not even needed a jacket and had been able to wear her favorite dark blue angora top and a dark red leather designer skirt.

Sighing softly, Zora looked at all the people also waiting for the light, not really paying all that much attention to who was beside her as she scanned absentmindedly the faces around her.

That was until she saw a very familiar face in the crowd. A face that made her freeze, go deathly white and sent her heart racing wildly. She had to be seeing things, she realised as she stared at the young blonde-haired man as people jostled her as the light turned green and they slowly started moving past her...He was dead. She had been there when he died, when he had taken his own life. The fight, the angry words, the sound of his cries, of his skull imploding ... the feelings of desperation and despair as she tried to revive his lifeless body as it lay there... everything came flooding back to her all at once and hit her like a punch to the gut.

"No, it can't be..." she whispered hoarsely, taking a step backward as her head swam. "It just can't be..."

"Broen...?" she continued, a stricken look on her face as her grip on the bottle lessened and the champagne slipped from her hand and crashed loudly against the pavement.

Zora simply stood there, in the middle of the busy sidewalk, shellshocked, mute and dumbfounded when the man, this carbon-copy of Broen, approached her to ask if she was alright and if she had cut herself with the bottle.

"I-I am fine," Zora stammered in wonder, her voice now seemed strange to her, foreign and disembodied like it was a million miles away somehow. She hadn't even looked to see if she was bleeding.

Staring at him, still immobile, her eyes flickered over the oh-so familiar and once loved features. It was not possible, was it? Could he have survived? Had Jude lied to her? Hated her that much that he had kept the truth from her?

Shaking her head to clear it as it buzzed in confusion, Zora slowly realised that despite looking like Broen, he had not recognized her. So that meant maybe it wasn't him. Maybe she had just seen his twin?

"A-Are you Godfrey Broen?" she asked him finally, her voice hesitant, somewhat fearful of the answer, and just above a whisper.

Zora just nodded mutely and let this Broen lead her to somewhere more private. She was in too much shock to resist or to question. He could have even mugged or kidnapped her at that moment and she'd not have cared.

Sitting down on the bench, Zora closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breathed and exhaled slowly, before nodding at Broen's question. "Yes, I think so... or no, but, I will be, " she said quietly, still very confused by everything.

"Who... who are you?" she asked hesitantly and in awe, her eyes reflecting all the confusion she was feeling as she clearly struggled to understand what was happening.

When she heard the name, Broen-Crawford, Zora felt her head swim in disbelief as she gripped the bench for support. It was all way too surreal. He was Broen, but not. At least not the one she had known and come to love.

Staring at Broen again, listening to him speak while he explained who he was, Zora felt like she was in some twisted version of The Twilight Zone.

But as with most shows like that, one slowly becomes aware of the differences. His voice, the way he spoke, even his body language was off slightly. Where the old Broen had been guarded and defensive, and very unapologetic for his behaviour, this Broen was seemingly the opposite.

And when he apologized for what his other self had done, Zora felt her eyes prickle as she quickly blinked back the tears and shook her head, unable to speak, afraid to speak now as a lump formed in her throat.

Zora had never expected this to happen, not in her wildest dreams. Here was Broen apologizing for what the other Broen had done ... for whatever he had put her through even though he had done nothing.

"I am sorry too," she finally got out, her voice breaking as she tried very hard not to cry. "I - I wish I could have stopped him. I tried, but I couldn't. He wouldn't let m-me," she said as she broke down finally in tears.

"I am so sorry, so so sorry..." she said in a strangled whisper as tears rolled her face.

When Broen pulled her into an embrace, Zora automatically hugged him back tightly. She knew it wasn't her Broen, but he felt so much like him, and even smelled similar to him, all of which made her realise just how much she still missed him.

"I know I c-couldn't, but I loved him so so much," Zora quietly sobbed, her whole body lightly shaking as she let Broen 2 comfort her. "I - I have replayed that evening over and over again. The fight, the angry words...everything," she told him between sobs, burying her head in his shoulder, still not able to talk about those very last awful moments.

"I' just wish he were here still, alive," she told him as her sobs subsided. "I can't ask him for forgiveness, and it hurts to think he probably hated me before he died," she confessed sadly, her voice quiet as she stared off into the distance as she spoke.