her insides are going to implode, she’s sure of it. this was the correct address, the one scribbled into a clean address book left in one of pryce’s drawers, on top of an old home. he’d moved, obviously, and if letha hadn’t looked to make absolutely sure she was going to the right place, she wouldn’t have.
she’d gone over her story over and over again, how she’d died and saw what it was really like to be in heaven, to be brought back by pryce and how painful it was. those memories she’d tried to block out; the ones where she lay awake screaming, begging for the burning to be over - ‘ it’s just a side effect, it’ll be over soon, ’ he said, but it lasted for weeks. she wasn’t allowed to see her mother or father, she couldn’t write or text, she worried day and night. everyone thought she was dead, they were grieving, getting over her and moving on with their lives. she didn’t blame them.
when pryce had informed her that she was well enough to leave the white tower, he sent her on an extended vacation to europe, he needed to prepare everyone, he told her, that her showing up at her old home would be too much for everyone and could risk endangering them, or even herself. so she stayed away for longer, not knowing the fate of her mother or father, of roman or of peter or even of the daughter she’d given birth to and never even met.
her return brought the news of so much death upon frail shoulders. pryce, her mother and father, olivia. the first place she’d gone after learning the news was peter’s house, which she’d found unoccupied for some time, it seemed. then to roman, who for so long had been her best friend, now nothing but a stranger. she hoped that pryce had not been lying, that he had informed everyone of her survival, REvival, rather, so their reunion would be nothing far from bittersweet.
and with her worry twisting her stomach in every direction, thin fingers rapped against the cool glass, though the doorbell sat just in front of her.