Tenth in a series of character-building vignettes following a bunch of characters through their time at Addergoole & beyond.

Year 7 of the Addergoole School; September

Cya had spent most of the summer walking, hitch-hiking, wandering around. Her father had been meant to pick her up at the airport, but he hadn’t, so she’d decided to make a months-long trip of getting back to Addergoole.

It had taken the whole summer of that to clear out the empty spot in her chest, and even that hadn’t really worked. Dysmas was gone. He’d walked away with barely a second glance. Dysmas was gone. It hadn’t even surprised her when her father didn’t show up, after that.

She didn’t feel so achey anymore, but there was still this feeling as if there was something missing. She limped into school, ignoring Luke’s irritated growls. So she’d walked back. So what? So she’d managed to time it so she met a handsome new student at the airport. So what? It was generally considered cheat, she knew… but everyone at Addergoole cheated (And he really was quite handsome).

Dysmas was gone. The loss hit her all over again as she looked at the niche where he’d sometimes snacked on her, the halls where they’d had classes, the stairs down to his suite. He was gone.

She sat on the stairs until her breath came back. He’d been using her, of course. Using and manipulating. He’d been drinking her blood for a year. He’d treated her like an employee at the best of times.

And he was gone, and she missed him. She didn’t want to think about that one too much, and yet she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“Cya!”

“Cya, honey! You made it!”

She looked up, only then realizing she’d been looking at her knees.

“We got the suite!”

Bearing down on her were… were Boom. Were Howard and Zita and Leofric. Smiling. All of them, smiling.

Were her crew.

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