EXCERPT 1

The rain poured.

Students ran,harmonising with the falling torrents outside. The sound of pattering footsteps descending and ascending staircases, feet shuffling towards the doors of the Main Hall,strained, tired expressions,rapid heaving -they all added up to the apprehensive atmosphere. 

 She was the only one walking. Nay - not walking.

 She was actually dragging her feet,as if they were lead -taking small, silent footsteps, arms straight and suspended. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles turned white,her fingernails clawed into her palms,the surfaces of her skin trembled. She halted,then started walking again. 

 Her eyes were looking at nothing in particular, they just peered through the hexagon lenses resting at the bridge of her nose,past the running students,into faint oblivion. Some of them even turned to check if she was fine,searching for the reason why he acted like a roaming ghost,why she was dragging herself and not sprinting- like the rest of them;only to be met by a cold,blank, lifeless and inanimate pair of eyes.

The corridor was large, surrounded by thick stone walls to its left,cornered by glass walls and windows to its right and enveloped by an airless vacuum occupied space at the center clean mobile floor on the ground,giving her inverted reflection on this clear surface ,also on the glass wall to her right, perfectly embodied the lonely aura cornering her,outside was The Botany, the largest garden in The Academy,with rare and local flowers, green and colorful,large and small, fragrant and lovely, the walls covered in ivy branching out like veins covered with leaves, making the walls appear like ruins in a wild forest, in a wilderness.

 The corridor led to the main hall ahead, with large walls and windows , a central podium, seats and tables, blocking curtains, a high ceiling and the heavy atmosphere in between. The array of students sat and waited impatiently ,murmuring,whistling,whispering, shuffling.Most of them had their arms and legs crossed ,chins up, relaxed postures and blank, uninterested faces. Few were heaving, trembling, quivering-at nothing in particular.

 Girls turned to whisper to each other, relating new gossip, giggling in the mid conversations, exchanging quick knowing looks ,making language signs,lips curving,blushing,gushing smiling.

 Someone walked towards the stand at the podium;all eyes darted to his direction, chests heaved a quick breath of relief. There were some long awaited announcements to be made.

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She's still stood in the hall.

Her first clenched further, crumbling the written paper in her hand,covered in cold sweat. The beads of sweat on her forehead glistenened, making the bangs of her hair moisten and stick on her forehead. They trailled down her pale sharp jawline, down the nape of her neck. Her expression was lonesome,distant, indifferent, frigid,her peach slightly pouted lips were pressed to a thin line. The glimmer in her eyes had disappeared,replaced by dull shade of gloom, welled with thin streams of threatening tears.

 She froze.

 Her eyes turned along with her body to face the glass wall to her right,with thin strips of metal railings and a perfect arc at the top. 

 The Botany.

 She walked towards it in brief,reluctant strides. Her legs step down the first step of light of six stairs, a second one, a third one, the fourth - until she finally reached the bottom, the center of the dry pavements shadowed by a lower roof. It shielded her from the falling torrents just a metre next to her. 

 She walked towards it roboticaly, looking right ahead, ignoring the sudden feeling of rain hitting on her back,her hair-her entire body. She lowered her head to face downwards ,making a few locks of hair suspend from the crown of her forehead. Her downcast eyes looked at the gathering droplets on her skirt,her socks and finally, the leather boots of her feet. She could almost see the rapid drops falling on the short grass surrounding her, filling up puddles, uniting, binding, rejoicing. 

 Then she looked up.

Her eyes met with the distant ominous clouds which were vast and did not leave any blank spaces. The showers of rain covered her face, glazed her glasses, trailed down her nose, lips,chin , chasing after the tears streaming down from her eyes, covering the hidden traces of sweat at the lower part of her neck, drenching the collar of her cotton blouse, the dark purple bow fastened around it. Masses of droplets assembled at the black wollen trench coat on her shoulders, making it look thrice as dark. They streamed down the blouse she wore, drenching and making it stick on her pale skin beneath, colliding with the ones on her purple skirt and finally, dripping across the seam of the skirt to join the other droplets underneath. 

 She turned again, scanning the vicinity around her,like her heart, covered with shrubs of thorns, raining torrents, piling droplets, cracked surfaces, fenced boundaries - no life,no change.

 He was not here anymore.