Twenty Years Later Novels & Stories

Alexander stepped in front of me — a wall of muscle and fury between me and the man who was supposed to be dead. "You're not real," he said. "I watched them bury you." Marcus Vance laughed. "You watched them bury a body bag full of sand, boy. I've been waiting twenty years for this moment." "Twenty years?" I stepped around Alexander. I wanted to see my father's face. Really see it. "You've been alive for twenty years. Watching me. While I cried myself to sleep thinking you were dead."

Looked out at the waking city. Two hundred and ten years. One last copy turned to slag and sea. Enough.

TWO YEARS LATER… . . .

"So impossibly proud." After lunch, while the twins went off with their friends to celebrate in ways parents were better off not knowing about, Claire and Damian walked through Central Park hand in hand. "Twenty-two years," Claire said, echoing her thoughts from that morning. "Sometimes it feels like yesterday. Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago." "Both are true," Damian replied. "That's the strange thing about time - it compresses and expands simultaneously."

Everyone who stood by me. "To Seraphina," Maribel toasts. "Who survived hell and came out stronger." "To justice," Marcus adds. "To new beginnings," Eleanor says. We toast. Drink. Celebrate. Ivy asks questions. "Is the scary man gone forever?" "Not forever. But for a very long time. Twenty years." "How long is twenty years?" "You'll be twenty-seven years old. A grown-up." "That's forever! I'll be ancient!" "Not quite ancient. But grown."

It was the sixth day of May, twenty-twenty-two. How did it suddenly become two years later? Just right before my accident, I was with Tyler, and we were celebrating my success after finishing up the first draft of the script. Now, I am twenty-twenty-two. Thankfully, just as I reached the peak of my confusion, Dr Quinn entered the private ward. “Twenty Twenty-two?” Was the first thing that left my lips as I turned my phone to her as if to back up my claim. “How is this possible? How did I end up here two years later?” I didn't even realize my tears had begun to stream down my cheeks.

"I am Ying Xue. You can call me Xue or Snow." Both girls just smiled at each other. Ying Xue had short hair then and had less makeup on. Janny hadn't changed much from now. Come one year later, the girls were both twenty-three and had officially graduated with bachelors from their respective universities almost a year ago. Time had flown fast, and now, thinking back of all their encounters in their office and how they shared joy and sorrow, having no one but each other, Janny was devastated to learn that her friend had no recollection of those precious memories.

He didn't want his friend to be the target of the pack leader. “Direct him to my study...” Dareen said, taking off his spectacles. The servant bowed his head and left the study. Soon the door swung open. He looked up, a small smile graced Dareen's lips. "Dareen? It's really you…" Blake exclaimed, Dareen rose from his chair, his face breaking into a wide grin. "Blake! Yes, It's really me." A chuckle left from Blake. Dareen approached Blake. The two old friends embraced each other. It's been twenty years since they met. They had once been inseparable, but life had taken them on different paths. Things that happened here made them lose their contacts.

Without even thinking about it, her smile became wider the moment her eyes laid on the person who she never thought would be the person her heart was beating for the second time. He was leaning against his car, smile wide the moment their eyes met. And just like a little child, he jogged excitedly towards her direction to meet her. “Finally, my girl,” he commented, which made her eyes roll, but her cheeks warmed up still because of it. “I’m sorry for letting you wait,” she said as he stopped in front of her. He shook her head. “No, I’ve waited two decades for you, just a few minutes are nothing.”

"Your birthday is coming up, right? I'm planning to celebrate it early because I'm afraid something might happen around the date of the surgery." "Okay!" On the other end of the line, Louis sounded extremely excited, cheering jubilantly. Yvonne glanced at the hazy sheet of rain outside the window and said in a hoarse voice, "Let's make it the day after tomorrow." The day after tomorrow was October 2nd—the day I lost my child. While staring incredulously at the person before me, I realized I had perhaps underestimated the bond between them. Well, love was the most unreliable thing. Someone could say they loved you, but who was to say they wouldn't turn around and give that love to someone els