Recover: Book 2 of the Magic Mutations Series | ✓

74: Stirring Sensations of Us

September, 2018

I kept my distance from her, figuring Olivia was keeping her door locked for a reason. But while I was sticking to my room, pressing my ear against the wall we now shared to make sure she was still breathing—her heart still beating—Erica, Jade, Faye, and the rest evidently didn't get the memo.

Visitor after visitor walked up to her door, having heard the news of Ben's passing. They rapped on the wood. They pleaded for her to open up. They advised her that being alone wasn't best right now and that they were all here for her.

But I knew Olivia.

Solitude was her only way of dealing with pain.

Silence helped her process, think it all through, and justify the things that happened.

And so long as she buried herself in that room, I'd stay in mine, hand pressed to the wall, hoping she knew I was here with her, even if we were separated by the plasterboard.

I only barged into her room twice in the weeks that passed.

A new copy of Jane Eyre in my hand, I sat in my usual spot by the wall, listening to the shaking of her breaths as the sobs came and went in waves.

Though this time, I heard among it the gentle clicks of a phone—Ben's had arrived in the mail a couple of days ago, and I had slid it under the door for her despite Erica's protest.

Just reaching the part where Jane returns to Thornhill to find the place burnt down and Bertha gone, a large clatter followed by the sound of pieces of plastic smashing echoed in Olivia's room.

I leapt to my feet, ran out of my room, and went to her door. As usual, it was locked. But as my hand gripped the handle, it took a few mere seconds to pry the lock before throwing the door open with a bang against the wall.

Olivia barely glanced at me through her legs where she sat in their bed. Knees tucked to her chest, her body shook with pain as my eyes trailed around the room.

Finally fixating on the shattered pieces across the ground, I noticed it was Ben's mobile.

Without even a word to her, I walked into the room and collected the remnants. Then I made my exit once more, softly closing the door behind me, leaving her to feel everything she needed to without me getting in her way.

I went straight to my room afterwards to fetch my wallet and jacket. Then, stepping out of the Hammersmith House, I headed onto the glistening streets of London, starting my long quest to find any phone repairer able to fix it.

All turned me down, saying it was too shattered.

So I went all the way to the outskirts of London, braving Oran a visit. He took one look at it, smiled, and then started laying runes around the pieces of phone. A couple of chants later, and it was working once more.

The second time I entered Olivia's room was a week later after she smashed the mobile.

Blanket tucked around her, her red locks splayed out as her body gently rose and fell with her peaceful breaths—sleep was her only solitude now.

Gently placing the device on the bedside table, I held back every desire in me to sit down and stare at her. To tuck her hair behind her ear. To pull her close and tell her I was there...

So instead, I left the room again, taking my normal spot by the wall, drifting my magic through the floorboards and feeling her existence instead.

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