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Eva was sure she had never cried as much in her life as she did that last month.
The tears would burst forth like water from a dam, spilling down her face. She could feel the muscles of her chin tremble like a small child and nothing she did seemed to soothe her. There was constant static in her head, the side effect of the persistent fear, persistent stress she lived with. She could hear her sounds, like a distressed child, raw from the inside. It takes something out of her she didn't know she had left to give. That's the way it is when people are hard. It's like theft of the spirit, an injury no other person can see.
Everyone would always tell her to:
"Cheer up."
"Put on a smile."
"Live life."
"Stop being sad and depressed."
Though she seemingly found it impossible. She was constantly tired beyond belief, weary with the burden of long-closed eyes; she could have easily pulled off being a walking zombie, dead on the inside but subconsciously awake. She found a charm to cover the bags under her eyes and fix her hair, but it was so obvious that the girl was mentally and physically weary.
Kaelyn never left the girl's side and constantly tried to cheer her up. Eva had not spoken to James even a month after their argument. James had stopped trying to talk to her after only a week. That hurt.
And Eva did want to sleep, but her nightmares made it not possible. Her aunt decided to make nightly visits, and the girl was too frightened to even close her eyes. Her nightmares had become increasingly more vivid and clear, so she hardly slept.
Christmas break was approaching, and Eva was more eager than anybody to go home. Her grades had dropped increasingly, and she stopped doing the things she loved. The astronomy tower had not been visited, the house-elves hadn't heard her voice, and she had a horrible substitute in her spot as Chaser.
"That's it, Eva," Kaelyn told her friend, dragging her off of her bed. "You've been in that damn thing for almost a month. You've hardly seen the sun and you're deathly pale. No, don't look at me like that. You're way too skinny to still be healthy. We are going to get you breakfast and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it."
"Kaelyn..."
"Absolutely. No. Excuses," she said. "Adan went to go clear the marauders out of the Great Hall."
"We all know that's not going to work," Eva sighed.
"I'll hex them if I have to," she said matter-of-factly.
Kaelyn spent only 10 minutes fixing up her best friend, but the little details did everything. Her hair was combed and a bit of pink had returned to her normally ghostly cheeks. She was no longer in the same robes she had worn repeatedly for the past month and she looked decent.
