Who ? Walter and Nicholas Where ? Nicholas' room When ? Saturday afternoon What ? Walter returns to the school
Funerals were always tiresome with the mourning and the loss and all the sadness the pervaded absolutely everything but even the grief of a widow, or in this case a widower, was nothing compared to how exhausting it was for an empath. Walter had been pulled out of class on Friday by Ms. Carter who had broken the news to him, that his mother had met a sudden, unexpected end and he'd told them that he'd understood and went to pack his things and prepare himself for the long drive home. Once he got there it had been worse. His mother was dead which left him alone with his step family and the overwhelming feelings of loss and anguish that were nearly suffocating. He had to keep even more of a careful watch on himself, a slip in his mental shields was a paralyzing mistake he'd made more than once and he'd just barely managed to regain control of himself each time. It didn't end at night either. In fact, the emotions of everyone else in the house only got worse at night fall and he felt like he hadn't slept since last Thursday.
He'd also met his half-sister for the first time. Her name was Emalee and she was two, walking and talking with loads of curly black hair and large eyes that reminded him of his mother. She'd been afraid of him at first and while he wished she would have stayed that way, when he was finally able to leave home and head back to Zener she was calling him Wawa and cried when he went out the front door.
Dry eyed and deprived, Walter returned to the dorm much later than he would have liked, dropped his things off in his room, and went straight to see Nicholas who had made him promise to do so when he finally came back. He knocked on the door before testing the handle to see if it was unlocked. "N-n-nich-cholas..."