Selene leaned against her balcony's railing, feeling the cool night breeze rush past her face. Taking a deep breath and letting it flow into the bottom of her lungs, Selene smiled when a familiar presence came up behind her.
Leon
"Hey, Selly," he greeted her warmly. She threw her arms around him and gave him a hug. He returned it, embracing her just as tightly.
"Leon," she said, taking a step back to feel the moment.
He smiled. "You look as if you're staring at a ghost," he commented. When Selene gave him a blank look, he said, "Ah, that's right. You are. In fact, you've been staring at me every time you've slept for the last week."
"Can you blame me?" She sighed. "You're dead, Leon. That's not something that I can just forget about and move on."
He stroked her hair, touching her in the way he always did – the right way, the way no one else ever could.
She leaned her head on his shoulder, and he held her. "We can't do this forever, Selly," he said quietly. She didn't say anything.
He let go of her.
He looked deep into her eyes. "You've gotta wake up eventually."
Jerking awake, Selene banged her head on her desk lamp. Rubbing her head where she'd hit it, she glanced around, immensely disappointed that her dream was just that: a dream. In fact, that dream had been following her around ever since Leon had a died, exactly a week ago.
Her eyes puffy from tears that seemed to never stop when she was aloe, Selene slowly realized that she was in her office in the dojo. What was I doing? she pondered.
Inventory, her mind answered. The never-ending adventure of inventory.
It wasn't her turn tonight, but Selene had insisted for the last seven nights that she do it. She needed to do it, or else she'd have free time on her hands. And that wasn't good.
James, that's it. It would've been James's night to do inventory tonight. But that wasn't any good. James had died that night too, seven nights ago. According to Damien's report, some Lycan had come up from behind and ripped James's whole head off.
And so here Selene was, with a new shipment of guns and ammo that needed to be logged in, and three major losses on her team. Marc, James, and Leon.
Tears threatened to come. But they didn't. Because Selene was sick of crying, sick of locking herself in the bathroom so that Michael wouldn't see the tears come.
And while she logged in how many Uzis had arrived, Selene promised herself that from now on, she would lock herself mentally, not physically in a tiny room and would never come out.
Never again. Never again would she open her heart and make herself vulnerable. Never again would she show her emotions. Never again would another tear come down her face, not if she could hold it back. And she could.
That night, Selene froze herself in her self-built prison within her mind, throwing away the keys. The tears disappeared, the possibilities of a smile vanished, and all that remained was the shell of Selene.