'Have you seen him again?' Marzia asked him, the following August when he'd returned from finishing his incomplete term at college.
Elio shook his head. 'No. All his social media is inactive. It's like he just disappeared.'
'Maybe he's in counselling and they told him take a break from being online.'
'Maybe,' he replied.
He could feel Marzia's eyes on him, gauging his reaction; seeing right through him just like she always did. She didn't say anything for a long time.
'Do you wonder if he was right sometimes?'
He let that hang in the air for a moment before replying, then shrugged.
'He couldn't be. There's no way.'
Marzia kept her eyes on him, he looked up to meet them.
'What do you think?'
'I think he sounds like someone who has a lot of hardship to deal with and I hope he's getting the help he needs.'
'Me too,' Elio replied; though this hope didn't extend too far.
When he thought of Oliver and his regular life with his wife and maybe even a kid on the way by now; his heart ached and filled him with a sadness he sometimes couldn't shake for days. But he could turn these thoughts into something bittersweet; hold onto those memories and refuse to let the present taint the past. They'd had something beautiful; and whatever happened now that would remain unchanged.
When he thought of Peter, in contrast; there was nothing but despair. Elio knew without having to be certain that wherever Peter was now it could not be a good place. The beauty and magic of the world he'd discovered with Oliver had been overtaken by the dread and horror he felt when he thought of his former roommate.
He didn't believe in whatever sinister cult his friend's troubled mind had invented; but sometimes at night when he couldn't sleep he second guessed this rational thought. Sometimes he dreamed that Peter was out there somewhere; still occupying a a small fraction of his colonised body; begging for Elio to help him; to kill him so his soul could be set free from the demon that possessed him.