"Actually, I gotta get the place back together first. Fucking being gone for a week... everything... well, it's destroyed." He bit his lip, then said, "Had Clare go over to Judith's so I could move shite around on my own. It's a lot of fucking heavy lifting with a kid in the way."
Part of what he'd said was a lie. The damage had been done before Mathwall, when he'd poured the water in, on the night after that woman had- the thoughts hit him suddenly like a bucket of cold water to the face and he choked, stumbling back as his arm slammed against the building with a sharp wince. It broke the urge to cry, snapped it in half as his wand had once been snapped, and he slammed it against the brick again, ignoring the pain, ignoring the blood and sweat that trickled down his skin as his chest heaved.
"I- no, that's a fucking lie- it fucking broke with the mirrors-"
It all came down at once. It all came down and he suddenly felt overwhelmed by it all. His mouth opened and he said something, just the first thing that came to mind, although it couldn't make any sense to someone who didn't love poetry, "The center... the center can't fucking hold, Warrington."
Then Zach stepped away, knowing how crazy he must sound, how insane it all was, and started walking again, his step quick as he stumbled across the street, wishing he could Apparate, wishing he could fly, wishing he could do anything to erase the sour taste in his mouth and the burning of his eyes as he realized that whatever had happened in Mathwall, he was failing the people in his glass. Failing whatever it was he had unleashed.