And unexpected End (Anna)

Ender Chan you have succeeded in destroying my feelings and indirectly causing a nervous breakdown. Thanks.

I'm getting revenge FYI...

“Ughhhhhhhh” I wander into my room and fall face down into my pillow with a groan. Farkas pats me on the head, “What's wrong?” He asks and puts a place mark in the book he was reading. I withdraw my face from the pillow and turn sideways to look at him “Do you ever feel so tired and shitty you just want to fall asleep and never go back to a classroom again?” He shifts back, leaning against the stone wall “hmmm, Do I feel tired sometimes? Yes. Do I feel like absolute crap sometimes, yes. Is that related to school? Not really.” Oh right, I forgot about that “I honestly forget you were homeschooled so much it's rather annoying.” I yawn “Anyways, I'm exhausted and yet I probably can't fall asleep.” Farkas tilts his head “Why's that Len?” I sit up and cross my legs “Ev and Valan and Lanriael all sent me frantic emails, calls, texts, and letters. Caitlin's in trouble. Big trouble.” I say showing him one of the texts. “What'd she do?” He examines the message more closely. “Farkas, Caitlin jumped off a building.” He looks at me with wide eyes “She what?!” I nod “You hear me correctly, she's in the hospital now with serious injuries. By the nine I hope she survives them.”

There is a period of silence then, neither of us making a sound, wanting to talk, instead- we process the unfolding events, watching the snow and darkening sky steadily growing with each passing moment. “She reminds me of my mother sometimes you know, Caitlin. She looks a bit like her…” Farkas says with an unwavering voice all the while staring out the window. He almost blends into the scene outside, with dark hair and fair skin, it's as if he could just disappear. Vilkas is the same way, and based off pictures, so was their mother. I walk over and sit next to him “But you never knew your mum.” He clicks a button and opens a shiny, small, thin, almost box like object. Inside are some faded pictures. On the right is a picture of the twins when they were little with Aela and her parents. Then looking to my left I see what he was looking at. “No, I never knew my mother. But Kodlak would tell us stories about her when we were little, and when we were older he gave us these.” He gestures to the object. “But because I never knew Liliya, I think that's why Caitlin reminds me of her. Something about her- but I can't quite place it…” He closes the object holding the pictures then and puts it on the side table. Sitting back down with a sigh and puts an arm around me, “What do we do now?” I ask watching the people on the stone streets below walk through the snow, the lanterns are lit now, and have melted a small amount of the ever rising line of snow. “What else can we do. We go, and we find Steve- though he likely already knows, and we check on Caitlin's condition.” That's what I'd thought would be a good idea, and so we grab what we need, Put on coats and shoes. Then open the door and start walking through the darkened city, Though with the snow and the concept of reflection and refraction it makes the night brighter, really, but this isn't a science lesson. I'll save that for Xavier. We walk to the outskirts until we find a set of stones laid out in a particular pattern, the two of it walk towards it and the portal leaps to life as we get close, the swirling purple light a sharp contrast to the darkness. We take a breath and step through, one after the other.

The two of us come out in a plains like environment, I see the beginnings of a desert farther away. Where are we specifically though? I pull out the map, the readings of it are different from Tamrielic map reading, and so it makes it harder to read. We eventually find our way to the hospital, and up to the critical and intensive care unit. A short nurse with purple scrubs and dark hair shows us to Caitlin's room. “She's still unconscious I'll have you know.” We look her over, she's on a ventilator and other life support, basically a vegetable, someone in a coma. The doctor comes by and stands next to us “Are you friend of hers?” He asks quietly. We nod “Well, I'm sorry to say, but we don't think she'll make it. At this point, with this severe injuries, and asphyxiation, it's near positive she'll die.” The white lab coat clad doctor says solemnly. We watch the monsters as they steadily decrease, dropping lower and lower until they flatline with a sickening sound. That's it, it's over. Caitlin Netherfield is gone, at least she died peacefully. I feel tears coming to my eyes as my body turns numb. I look to my left, Farkas is just staring straight ahead, his pupils dilated. The only other person who was like a mother figure, gone. “What will you do now?” He asks the doctor who sighs and checks his clipboard “On here it says she wanted to have the useful and intent organs harvested for organ donation, that way it could help others. We're to do an exam and see which are able to be taken and used to help others in need.” That's at least nice to know she'll live on, and we can always remember her. I look at her body, her long dark hair and fragile form, she was smaller than me, by about five inches or so. We thank the doctor for trying to save her and exit the unit, then take the elevator down and walk out into the night. The two of us sit on a wooden bench outside the hospital “What do we do now?” I ask looking at my feet. He shrugs “I guess we either find Steve, or we go home.” We decide it would probably be a better idea to let Mark or Landon or someone else break the news to Steve, and so we head for home. The portal whirs with a magical energy that goes away whence we step through, it's the early hours of the morning, around 12:30 and the world is dark- not even the stars shine, as we walk solemnly home.

The door closes as silently as it gets. Runa’s head peeks from behind a door, “Mama? Papa?” We give her half smiles and she walks out and over to us “Where did you go? And why do you look so sad?” She asks noticing our stonic, tired expressions. “We had to go visit some people.” I whisper, as Sophie's still asleep. And the last thing I need is two ten year olds asking about the events that have happened. “Who? Who'd you have to visit?” And while having two children ask these questions is terrible, one is not much better, especially because to Runa, suicide and losing friends was normal- in Riften, a town full of corruption and hardship, people turned to devastating coping mechanisms, and she understands them all too well. “We had to visit some friends, Caitlin and Steve. Do you remember them?” Runa nods “I remember Caitlin was very small, and very nice. A-and I met one of her students too once, the redhaired girl- Alex. Why'd you need to visit her at this time of night?” And that's the only question I had hoped to avoid. I sit Runs in a chair before taking a breath “Due to health issues and internal factors, Caitlin Netherfield has sadly passed away.” Runa sits for a minute before leaping up and hugging both of us tightly, mumbling incoherently, I managed to make out the words “I'm Sorry, I'm sorry your friend died. I know how you feel.” Eventually she passes out and we put her back to bed, by now it's closer to 1:00.

Neither of us sleep that night, too consumed by grief and restlessness. But at some point we must have both become unconscious as we awake some time in the afternoon. On the side table there is a note that simply says,

“I let you sleep. You seemed like you needed it.
-Runa Fair-Shield”

I sit on the edge of the bed reading the note, she's a good kid. Lazily we get out of bed and get dressed, go downstairs and eat breakfast, Sophie waves shyly at us from the chair by the door. “Can we go play with Svari?” We nod and the two of them run out the door, slamming it behind them. I sigh “Now I guess we tell the others?” I get up and get some pieces of parchment and a pen and ink. Granted I can't even read most of my handwriting, Farkas scribes as I dictate then hands the paper back over as I illustrate a small picture on the bottom of each paper, based on each person. For Vilkas, though we’ll tell him in person as well, I draw a wolf. For Valan I draw a lion, and Samantha I draw a bird. Phillips includes both the enchanters symbol and a stack of books, and Everan’s is the dominions seal. The process goes on and on until there is a letter for each of the 20+ people, after addressing the envelopes and the ink has dried we place the stack of the letters in the mail. But before I place a few of the letters in the mail a voice shouts “Anna!” Valan runs to us and stops, gasping for air. We wait for him to say something, he signals to wait a minute, let him catch his breath. “I have something to tell you.” He pants “About Caitlin.” We hand him the letter “We were just going to send you this, we know.” He takes the letter and rips open the envelope and pulls out the letter, skimming his fingers over the lettering as there is a technique I know to make the ink raised so he can read it easier. “It's a shame.” He eventually says when he finished reading the letter, then asks if we're informing the others. We nod, and Aela is organizing a meeting in person as well. “Also, on an unrelated note sorry for kind of dying in front of you just then, Dragon chased me all the way from DragonBridge, but then it just flew off and I was like ‘Mate, really?! Not even putting up a fight, wow.’ It was an, uh -interesting- morning.” That cheers us up a bit and makes us laugh. The thing with Valan is if you catch him how he usually is, cheerful, sarcastic, and witty, you're in for a laugh and he'll make you happier if you're sad. But if you catch him in a rather depressed mood, which can come out of nowhere, it's best to avoid him and let him regulate himself. Because if you catch him in a bad mood, he tends to be, well, for one darker in nature, quick to aggression, and just it's not a good idea to mess with him. Unless you have a death wish and your someone he's not exactly fond of. “So how'd you find out?” We ask as we wander through the streets. “Mark contacted me in the middle of the night, shortly after I saw it on the news.” He then explains that Mark was staying in the same building as Steve and Caitlin. “Alex was on the news too, apparently she was up there when Caitlin jumped. I feel bad for the poor girl, and Alice, and everyone else too.” He says shoving his hands in his pockets. Oh right, Alex! I had forgotten she was Caitlin's private student! By the divines I hope she gets help processing things, unresolved feelings after having a teacher, especially one who was like family, can have serious affects on mental health. “What do you think Alex would be feeling, Valan?” Farkas asks him. If any of us would know what it's like to lose someone who was like your family, it'd be Valan. The reason being, Farkas and Vilkas grew up Orphans, their father died in the war before they were born, and their mother died after childbirth, so they were raised by the rest of the Companions and Aelas mother mostly. I still have both my parents, the only death I've experienced is the all too expected death of my mother's parents, Oma and Papa. But Valan has a different experience with Family, His father died unexpectedly when he was a small child due to a seizure induced cardiac arrest. Though he says that his mother knew his dad would have a short life, nobody expected that short of one. Some people think that witnessing such events messed up his little three year old brain, but then again those are also people he's historically not gotten along with. I think that because he lost a parent early in life who he was rather close with, that he’ll be able to sympathise with Alex, because the loss of someone who's practically family is never easy, and the level of closeness only makes it harder. “Do you happen to have Alex or Jordan's contact? I'll see if I can get in touch with Alex. Try to help her out a little if she'd like me too.” We’re in the Inn now, as it gotten colder and so I find a piece of scrap paper and write down Jordan's Address and Phone Number on it and hand it to Valan, who thanks me and puts the slip of paper away. Everyone around us who knew Caitlin seems to be having a rough time processing her unexpected end, and I sense it will only get worse from here, though I Certainly hope not. All we can say, is that it was an altogether, unexpected end…

-Max