strings

t w o

The school was still grey.

Not just the bricks or the sky or the walls that never got repainted. No, it was the way it felt. Everything was quieter now—like the world was running on low battery.

Maevis Ivory-Nico Elirris. Maevis. Mae.

I repeated the name in her head every morning like a mantra. My notebook had it scrawled across every page, disguised in weird symbols and language only I understood. Sometimes I'd write it backwards. Sometimes I'd dot the I's with stars or claws or constellations, because Mae had always loved space.

I missed Sammy's quiet snorts of laughter when Mae said something stupid. I missed Elliot's notebook with the pages falling out. I missed—well, everything.

Even though I had only known Mae and Elliot for a week, it seemed like years.

And no one cared. Not even my parents. Not the teachers. Not the other students. Not even the therapist the school made me see. The one who just blinked slowly and said things like "it's okay to make up friends when we're grieving."

I wanted to scream.

I had screamed once, in the girls' bathroom, with my jacket sleeve pressed to my wide-open mouth. I have screamed and yelled until my throat went hoarse and my face went red. Then I washed my face, went to class, and no one seemed to notice.

So I walked. I survived. I kept writing in my notebook. And I watched.

~-~

It was raining again. Not the cinematic kind—just gross, misty drizzle that clung to your face and turned your socks into squelchy nightmares.

I passed the school gates, hoodie pulled low over my eyes. The courtyard was mostly empty, save for a few Year 11s huddled under the awning sharing a vape and pretending to be edgy.

"Hey."

I turned.

Chase.

My stomach dropped. Again?

"Look," Chase said again, and he actually looked weird. Not smug. Not cruel. Just... off. Again.

I didn't answer. I kept walking. Again.

"No, wait—I—I need to ask you something."

I stopped in my tracks. Again

Chase stepped closer. "This is gonna sound really dumb. But do you remember that girl who used to hum all the time?"

I froze. Again.

He frowned. "She was always drawing stuff in her notebook and talking about space? Not—not like stars and destiny, but sciencey space stuff and all that. I think her name was... Mae?"

The wind punched me in the chest. Again.

I gazed at him with my jaw dropped ever so slightly.

Chase's brow was furrowed. He looked genuinely confused, like the thought had come to him out of nowhere. "I don't know why I'm even asking. It just popped into my head. But I swear she existed."

I stared at him.

"No one else remembers her, right?" he added. "It's like she was just... gone. Like she got deleted. But I remember her humming."

I whispered, "Would You Fall In Love With Me Again."

"What?"

"She used to hum it. From Epic: The Musical."

Chase blinked. "Uh, yeah. That's the one." 

Why did he seem flustered?

His jet black hair ruffled slightly in the wind from the oncoming storm, his equally dark eyes pointing directly at my own simple light brown ones.

Whatever. My attention needs to stay on the fact that-

He remembers Mae.

He

Remembers

Mae.

My eyes were too wide, my mind searching through every possibility that he could just be confused- he couldn't. Sammy's group was the only one that knew Epic even existed in this stupid school.

It couldn't be a coincidence.

My notebook slid from my hand and hit the ground, opening on a random page that I never saw.

The first crack in the world had opened for the first time in almost a year.