Narrative: Gone WHO: Dana Novak WHEN: August 8, afternoon [backdated] WHERE: Pegasus dorms and then Ladon dorms
The news had come from Mr. Kaden. It'd been a phone call that someone from the village came to inform her of. Dana went to talk and he broke the news. Dana passed out from shock. When she woke up, she was surrounded by her friends and family. She thought the phone call had been a dream, but one of the older nymphs told her that there had been a phone call. A witch relayed the message.
Sorin was dead.
Mr. Kaden had put it as gently as he could. He was a kind and wonderful man but there was no easy way to tell her. Dana had to hear it again and she nearly collapsed once more. The tears had followed after that. She cried until she was asleep and when she woke up, she was crying again. She couldn't stop it from happening. Every time she thought she had enough control to start to think about it, she broke down into sobs. Her family were trying to help her but Dana was inconsolable. They grieved with her as a way to help her, and it did help. A little. Enough that she could hold a conversation. Enough for her to talk at all.
Discussions followed about what to do about school. Dana sat in silence until they talked about her going back. She said she didn't want to go back. Then she was crying again.
She came back though. Somehow they convinced her that she needed to go back. Dana stood before the door of the room that once belonged to Sorin Antonescu. Her greatest friend, her dearest lover, and quite possibly the one person in the world who seemed to completely understand her without having to be a nymph or a satyr. A gaping hole in her heart lay exposed in the expression on her face. She only stared at the door and had been staring at all day. Like she was waiting for Sorin to step through it and embrace her, telling her she heard wrong.
The door wasn't opening. Dana's slender fingers reached forward to grasp at the doorknob. She longed for the scent of magic brewing in his room, the softness of his touch, the kindness of his smile, and the peace his presence brought to her. She would miss his smile the most. Thinking about it made her chest hurt and she lurched forward, grasping the handle of the door to steady herself.
Dana heard whispers around her. She didn't try to figure out what they were saying. It hurt. It hurt so much. She felt like . . . like she was going to . . .
She thought the pain of John's words when he canceled their date to the dance hurt but this was that feeling compounded exponentially. Dana was on the brink of tears when someone behind her said, "Excuse me."
Dana spun, expecting to see Sorin but disappointed struck her hard. It wasn't Sorin. It hadn't even sounded like Sorin but her mind had morphed the girl's voice somehow in her head to sound like him. The girl was a new face, glancing at the door behind Dana briefly before returning her attention to her, "This is my room."
Her room?
"This is Sorin's room," Dana said. The idea of someone else occupying that space felt . . . wrong. Why wasn't this room sealed off? Why would someone else have to live in it and take away the little reminders that Sorin used to be there.
"Who's Sorin?" the girl asked.
Dana's lips parted and then she whispered, "I should go." Her bare feet went quickly over the floor of the dorm and behind her she could hear someone say, "He graduated last year. He's the one people have been talking about. The one who died."
Her hands pressed against her ears, shutting out the voices of all those around her while looking like a lunatic as she burst through the front door of Pegasus' dorms. Fresh air invaded her lungs and she gasped with a sudden halt. Her hands dropped to her sides and she whispered, "You are strong." She repeated these words over and over until she could put one foot forward and then the other. She made it all the way to her room in Ladon. Stepping in, she closed the door and went to her bed, lying down in it.
Dana reached around to grab the plant that Sorin had given her on Valentine's Day. Holding it against her, she curled into a ball and cried until she fell asleep.