Location: London, England
Day: Wednesday
...
She's sitting at the small table, drinking a cup of tea from the tray that had been delivered to their room, staring out the Venetian blinds at the garden below, when he walks in again, all bed-head and ruffled clothing.
He plops down on her neatly made bed, and a deep sigh escapes his lips. She finds herself smiling slightly at the noise. He notices this, and she thinks he looks slightly happier at seeing her smile.
Puck throws on arm over his eyes, and he breathes in and out deeply.
"Our flight leaves in a few hours, I forget to tell you that yesterday."
Her mouth twitches upward again slightly at the memory of their outing yesterday.
"Thanks. Yesterday was fun, by the way. Thanks for that."
He moves his arm off his eyes and smiles at her. "It's okay. I had fun too. So what do you want to do now?"
Sabrina doesn't say anything for a while. She just sits and stares at her mug, watching the small wisps of smoke coming from her tea dancing in the air. She doesn't feel like going out today. Right now, all she wants to do is sit here with someone and just do something normal, like watch TV, or read books.
"Do you think we could just stay here until we have to leave? I just want to just, you know...relax for a bit."
Puck nods his head. He seems to understand what she's trying to get at. It's almost as if they have this weird sort of connection, like everything she wants to tell him doesn't have to be expressed out loud; in words. He just knows.
"Sure, sounds great."
Location: Beijing, China
Day: Thursday
You're doing pretty well, Sabrina, if I do say so myself.
Tell me, what motivates you to keep going? What persuades you to go on this wild goose chase around the world, searching for my letters?
I guess I'll never know. I am dead after all.
Well, let's continue.
Tell me, Sabrina, did you know where I was those countless hours you worked at the gym? Did you know what happened while you were away having fun with all your fitness friends? Did you know where I went?
Let me tell you.
I was at the therapist.
That's right. I was receiving physiological help.
If you want to know why I was visiting some mental psychiatrist, you're going to have to go visit Evelyn Dawson, my therapist. Tell her Daphne sent you from the grave.
But that's for when you're back in New York.
Right now, your journey continues in India. The wonderful Taj Mahal. See those four towers located on each corner of the building? My notes in the right one in the corner.
Save me a samosa, will you? Oh no, sorry. You can't. Because I'm dead.
And I highly doubt you'll be visiting India for the great Indian cuisine. Something tells me your reason is a lot more serious...
Well, have fun!
Daphne.
She can't stand it anymore. The paper note crumbles in her hand, and she tosses it angrily across the room with a shout of fury. It hits the hotel room's wall, and falls pathetically to the carpeted floor.
Sabrina curls into a ball on her small bed, hands drawn up to her face and knees tucked into her stomach. She doesn't understand.
Why does she sound so cruel in her notes? Why does she seem so...so...heartless? It's almost as if she's taunting them, reminding them that she's dead, and that it's all their fault.
She doesn't need a reminder. Every second she lies awake, every moment she spends standing alone without her little sister by her side, she knows. She knows that this is the outcome of her disinterest in her younger sister's life. This is what happens when she fails to pay close attention to what's going on.
It is all her fault, and she's accepted it. But that doesn't mean she can move on.
She's crying silently into her hands when Puck walks in. He was the one who had rented their room in the Park Plaza Wangfujing hotel. He was the one who had made her stay behind and rest. He was the one who had flown all the way to the Great Wall, just to retrieve this note.
Sabrina finds herself wishing he had never flown there in the first place, never gotten that stupid plane, never flown here.
What was the point? It was only breaking her heart even more, tearing up what little sanity she had left, exposing all her worries and fears, killing her from the inside out. What was the point, when every word she read felt like a blow to her soul, one reason more to just completely disconnect from this pointless world.
But then Puck lies down behind her, and he wraps his strong arms around her waist, holding her, securing her, and she finds one more reason to stay. One more reason to hold on just a little bit longer, to try and tough this out, even if it seems hopeless.
He holds her while she cries, and she knows he's probably doing the same thing, because she can feel her neck getting wet from his tears, but she doesn't care. Because right now, she needs him, even when he's at his worst.
Even though he seems so vulnerable now, so broken down and helpless, she still thinks that this man is what's keeping her together. He risked everything just to travel with her. He, of all people, chose to stick by her side. He chose to go on this journey, this horrible, soul-ripping journey, just to be with her. He was already broken inside, but the parts of him that were still intact he risked, just for her.
She feels her shredded heart ache, and she thinks it's highly impossible, but that shredded heart manages to stitch itself together a bit when she thinks about him sacrificing so much, for her.
She turns in his arms and hugs him tightly, and they fall asleep that way, one broken soul embracing another.
...