Tomorrow came quickly. Elizaveta woke up early to the sound of rain pitter pattering against her widow and a gray sky beyond. She sighed and sat up, stretching. She got up and made a quick stop in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and hair, before returning to her bedroom and looking through the closet. She couldn't wear Bella's dress again, so she looked in the way back of her closet for anything else she might own that was nicer. Elizaveta wanted to see Gilbert again, and he seemed to like her in a dress.
Her hand brushed something soft that she didn't remember having. The pulled it out and found a black, long sleeved dress with a matching headband on the hanger.
"It'll do." She said. "It certainly matches the weather outside." She slipped out of her night dress and grabbed a clean bra and a pair of panties from her dresser, changing into the fresh ones. She gently pulled the black dress off of the hanger and put it on over her head. She grabbed the headband and slipped it on as well. She looked at herself in the mirror. It was strange to see herself in so much black, but she thought she looked nice.
Elizaveta turned to her nightstand and reached for the pink flower that Gilbert had given her yesterday. She had set it on her nightstand before she went to bed, and she wanted to wear it again today. Picking it up, Elizaveta noticed that it had faded and wilted. It shouldn't have died so much in one night, but she just slipped it behind her headband anyway.
She walked carefully down the stairs and grabbed the keys to her car as the passed the table in the entryway. She stepped outside and gently closed the front door behind her, locking it. She stalled on the porch, looking out over the yard and across the street, remembering her night with Gilbert. She had never been happier than she was last night. The rain had stopped, leaving a gray mist hovering over the ground. The sky was still gray and gloomy, but the air was warm. Elizaveta smiled and breathed in deeply, taking in the scent of the storm and the pleasant aroma it left behind. She thought that Gilbert would enjoy the smell as well, and remember that she had wanted to go see him.
She jumped off the porch and walked over to her car. As she went to open the driver's side door, she noticed that the front tire had been slashed and was flat. She walked around to the back to find that those tires had too been slashed open, long cashes in the rubber. The passenger side tire was torn open as well, leaving Elizaveta with four useless tires and no spares. She sighed.
"Well," she said. "Looks like I'll be walking to Gilbert's." Elizaveta placed the keys under a rock in her garden so she could find them when she returned home. She set off, the mist dampening her legs, but she didn't mind. Regardless of the surrounding gray, she found the day to be beautiful. Delicate drops of water hung from the tips of leaves and petals of flowers that caught the light, making the plants shine in the little sun that shone through the heavy clouds. The little drops would fall from their resting spot and land in a puddle below the plant they had been hanging from and a new droplet would take its place, extending the rim of the puddle bit by tiny bit.
After a while of walking, she entered Gilbert's neighborhood. Things were quiet. Quieter than usual. Everyone took after Gilbert and would usually be outside talking or just making noise. Today there was no one. The yards were abandoned and the houses seemed to be empty. The birds and their song lacked from the tree branches about Elizaveta's head, and even the chattering of the occasional squirrel was missed. It was as if everyone and everything had simply gotten up and left during the night.
She rounded a corner and walked down Gilbert's street. It looked just like the rest of the neighborhood until she pressed on and noticed something in Gilbert's yard extending into the street in front of the house. Lights. A bunch of little lights. They appeared to be floating in midair, trying to break through the gloom of the mist and gray and illuminate the street with the small amount of light that they could offer. As Elizaveta got closer, she realized that the lights weren't floating. They were white candles, and each one was being held by a nation. She saw Ivan standing with Toris, Raivis, Eduard, and Feliks. Alfred was with Matthew, Francis, and Arthur. Lovino stood with Antonio and Bella. She saw Kiku and Yao. Berwald was with Tino, Lukas, Emil, and Mathais. Even Peter was standing there with them. Absolutely everyone was there, and each of them held a small candle. Their eyes were closed and they faced the ground, their faces solemn.
Elizaveta sneezed and everyone looked up at her. Many of them had bloodshot eyes, and others' were rimmed in red and puffy. After a moment, they nodded at one another and made a clear, narrow path for her, leading right to the front door. She glanced at Lovino and Antonio, then at Francis and Arthur. Was this what they had been talking to Gilbert about yesterday? Was this why they bothered to come so far inland on the same day?
She looked down at her feet and slowly approached the front door. Gilbert's door was usually welcoming. Not today. She felt as if the air around the door was trying to keep her away, to turn her back around and send her home. It felt like it didn't want her to know what was inside.