Unreality

5. Loss

Sitting outside Ariadne's room, Virgil waited for the time to pass until the darkness of night gave way into a gray, overcast morning. Her brother, who had eventually left the corridor and gone back to his room, was now finally coming out, with a bag on his shoulders, seemingly ready to abandon the place.

As he descended the stairs towards the ground floor, the door to Ariadne's room opened at last, but not too much. Through the small opening, Virgil saw the girl's face — which immediately gave away the fact that she had not slept at all — observing the outside intently. After seeing her brother disappear from sight, she hesitated briefly, but soon came out of the room, enveloped in a loose-fitting, feathery white robe which covered the whole of her body.

Once more, Virgil followed her, as she obliviously crushed the trail of pills beneath her feet. This time, she stopped just outside the shattered front door, between the cracked stone pillars, which was when her brother seemed to notice her behind him.

With very faint rays of morning sunlight showing through the gray clouds above, her brother appeared momentarily bewitched by the image of his sister, her long black hair swaying in the morning breeze as she held the collar of her angelic robe to shield herself from the cold outside.

'Hey...' she greeted him reluctantly.

Her brother's face was momentarily overcome with a bittersweet sadness, before he clutched his head with one of his hands, clicking his tongue in annoyance and slightly moaning in pain.

'Hey... Sorry, my head's killing me...'

Seeing and hearing his pain, she couldn't help but approach him further, with care as well as concern. But before she could say anything, he proceeded.

'...Did I say or do anything stupid last night?' the question stopped Ariadne dead in her tracks. 'Sorry, I had way too much to drink, so I don't remember very well...'

'You were drunk...?' she questioned, almost displaying a hint of relief, before putting on a more worried countenance, '...While on medication?'

'Yeah... not a very smart thing to do, I know...'

Setting aside the doubt in her heart, the sister embraced her brother once more. A gesture that almost reduced him to tears, which he was ultimately able to restrain.

'You fool... You know that's dangerous!' scolded Ariadne, her voice nonetheless tender and emotive. 'Don't you do that again, you hear me?!'

Her brother smiled sadly and patted her head, 'Yeah... I won't...'

After indulging in the warmth of their embrace, they finally distanced from one another a little.

'Well... gotta go now...' he said.

'Will you be okay... you know, back at your place?'

'Oh, yeah, sure...' he answered, almost automatically, before hesitating to proceed, 'Um, would you like to come see me this weekend? We can have lunch or something... I know a place near my flat which I'm sure you'll like...'

'Of course... I'd love to,' said Ariadne, with an exquisitely sincere smile, which she followed with another sudden embrace, 'God, I'm so relieved... you have no idea...'

'Heh... Guess I don't...' They distanced once more, this time for good. 'Well, see you then...'

'Bye...' she said gently.