Her red cardigan.
She stared at it, her brown eyes searching the bottom of the box vacantly, not really seeing it, almost as if lost. But she knew what it was and she knew from where and from when. Her right hand unconsciouly came up to her chest to calm her beating heart, the fluttering emotions and the ache in her head.
Her red cardigan. Not hers, but another's. One who had passed, or who had simply lost and forgotten the garment. Or maybe it'd been ripped from their claws, the thing had so many holes and tears. It had as many lying there as it had when she'd finally stopped wearing it, ages ago.
She sat down on the dusty attic floor and took it in her trembling hands. Cold as they were, the sweater helped a little to warm her fingers, and she grapsed at the material tighter than before. She brought the yarn to her nose and found herself inhaling. Cigarette smoke and urine and despair. It smelled like Jude. It smelled like Kit. Grace and Arden and...
...and it smelled like Wendy.
Her throat closed. Out of anger, she threw the cardigan down, tears welling up into her eyes. She sat in her attic, silent sobs suddenly racking her body. A red cardigan that she had worn for years after leaving the asylum, in the safety of her own home, away from prying eyes, its crimson patterns a comfort. A red cardigan she had meant to throw away, rip apart, burn into ashes, toss to the wind.
But she never could, not with a piece of her and a piece of them inside every stitch. Her fingers played with the furled edges of the sleeves as her tears fell down her face. Now, she reasoned, now that she was married and well on her way with her career, now that the asylum was closed, now that she had dug every one of her monster's graves, could she let it go?
She took her time closing the box back up, and she took her time putting it into the bin with the other useless things she'd accumulated over the years. Early drafts and notes on napkins and dust, so much dust.
And she walked back downstairs encased in faded red that smelled of burning cigarettes and loneliness.