<span style="font-style: italic">How…</span>Talyah was at a loss, the world falling out from beneath her as her mind still reeled from the notion that someone knew her past, knew what she’d gone through.<span style="font-style: italic">How...could anyone know about that?</span><br/><br/>None outside of her family knew what happened, knew of her struggle to rejoin the world of the living. The child that had stayed in that chair for a year, not eating without others feeding her themselves, not moving to do anything...still remained within herself, locked away in a dark part of her mind that she’d prayed would never come to light. She’d been so careful to keep it hidden away…<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">If I’d been so careful...how did he know?</span><br/><br/>“How” seemed to be the question that would remain unanswered, like other important questions of the world. The difference, however, between the world’s questions and her own, was that the world’s quandaries didn’t directly affect her in most cases. Yes, it was curious to know why things happened,and why they were the way they were, but to suddenly have someone know everything about you...a detail that was too intimate to ignore...it raised more questions. Who were they? How long had they known about you? Why now did they come forward and take such a piece of information and flaunt it? What was their end game? What were they trying to pull her into with such knowledge that they threw around so casually, so callously, without regard for how it would affect the other person?<br/><br/>She hadn’t heard his quiet protest, his willing for her to wait, to stay. No, she’d not heard anything passed the sound of her heartbeat flooding her ears, passed her shallow breaths as her head grew lighter and lighter. A panic attack was inevitable, the feeling all too familiar to ignore, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t allow herself to have such a reaction in front of him. This was something that needed to happen in the comfort of her own dorm, or in a place that was secluded, outside, that afforded her privacy.<br/><br/>...But where? Since coming there, Tal hadn’t sought solitude and had welcomed the presence of others, so finding such a place that existed was proving to be more difficult than she’d anticipated. Add the coming anxiety attack, and she was feeling at a loss for really...everything. How was she to find a place she didn’t know the existence of while panicking about this newfound stalker?<br/><br/>How had he known…? How could he possibly have known…?<br/><br/>Her harried steps took her outside, bursting through the very doors that’d once assaulted her arm with what would have looked like a vengeance. Nothing stopped her from charging through, her steps hastening down the stairs as her eyes looked about wildly for someplace to reaffirm her calm, to reaffirm order. Faceless people moved in and out of her sight line as things grew blurry, as everything felt far away.<span style="font-style: italic">Someplace...any place…</span>her mind tried to instruct her, blurring vision making it difficult to find anything at all as she stumbled from place to place. No step was in a straight line, finally deciding on the first direction she clearly saw and making a staggered break for it. Tears streaming down her face, the sun burning into her eyes, she couldn’t even begin to see the man closing in on her from behind.<br/><br/>With how she was acting, the eyes she felt boring into her she attributed to the usual human curiosity; She knew well how it was to see someone in such a state, and watch as they stumbled by, not saying a word.<br/><br/>Where she was so into her own thoughts, as per a norm that she continually tried to break, she hadn’t felt Patch closing in, she hadn’t felt the other getting so close to her. No, she was too self-invested to focus on the outer world for even a moment. Only when she was forcibly ripped from her thoughts by the sound of what had offset this entire reaction yelled at her and injected himself into her personal space did she focus. Somehow, another had gotten so close to her, had been right there when<span style="font-style: italic">he</span>had come out of nowhere to stop the touch, his eyes pleading with hers as confusion rocked her to the core.<br/><br/>What did all of this mean? What was going on? The jovial demeanor that had once held itself prevalent in his piercing gaze was now gone, filled with fear and urgency as the other was getting his bearings...another that had...eyes as dark as the deepest chasm, devoid of all life, of all light, of even a glimmer of being within them. Her breath rushed from her lips as her own eyes widened in their confusion, confusion that was slowly turning to fear, fear that mirrored the fallen angel’s own.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">What is this?!</span>came a thought, even as it was cut off by another cry for her to run.<br/><br/>Stammering out an unintelligible consent, she bolted. Where was she running to? Even she wasn’t certain, but her feet were carrying her further and further away from the stalker turned...savior? He’d seen a threat long before she had, and had taken charge of the situation, getting in between them so she could make a break from it.<br/><br/>But what<span style="font-style: italic">was</span>it?<br/><br/>By the minute, her world was becoming more and more complicated. Only this morning, Talyah had awoken to a normal existence, a normal life with a normal friend of which she shared a dorm. She’d gotten ready and gotten her coffee like she had done daily--albeit at a later time--since the age of sixteen. For all intents and purposes, today was supposed to be a normal day, filled with classes and events that evening to get to know those that had moved onto campus.<br/><br/>After what she’d just seen, something told her that wasn’t going to happen.<br/><br/>For what felt like hours, she ran, feet carrying her until her steps couldn’t carry her anymore, until her lungs felt like they’d collapse. Where had this safe haven been that she sought? Where was this place of solace she’d run to when she felt she needed to think?<br/><br/>A classroom, specifically her fine arts class.<br/><br/>It was public, but otherwise silent as their paper lay before them, along with the charcoal and sharpeners, awaiting their able hands to take up the pursuit of an image needing to escape the confines of their mind. Some chose to focus on a landscape, depicting a slice of heaven here on Earth that they found soothing. Others chose to depict scenes that were farfetched, that couldn’t rightly exist but that seemed so real, so clear, as to haunt their dreams.<br/><br/>She focused on those eyes. Instead of drawing on the paper she’d been given, she chose to take up another piece, to draw a sketch of the man that had urged her to run, the man who knew more about her than any outside her family should have...and the eyes that seemed to look into the very depths of her soul and steal every ounce of happiness it harbored...those dark, bottomless eyes.<br/><br/>Had it been a trick of light? Had what she seen not really happened? The longer she drew, absorbed in the images before her, the harder it became to distinguish reality from fiction. Was she too overtired from her night of studying, the lack of sleep now toying with what she knew to be real? Had she been sleeping with her eyes open as she’d often done as a child? ...But no, no that couldn’t be true as she’d felt it. It’d felt<span style="font-style: italic">real</span>. While dreams could feel real, they couldn’t feel<span style="font-style: italic">that</span>real…<br/><br/>...Could they?<br/><br/>A nudge to her side had her jumping, jolting out of her ponderings as her drawing implement fell from her grasp, eyes instantly locking on the person next to her, skipping several beats in their delayed realization.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Patch.</span><br/><br/>An apology came from his lips, but it went unheeded. With what had just transpired and her inability to figure out what was real and what was a mere trick of light, all she could do was stare. Stare as the mental facets, as her ability to articulate her thoughts, escaped her completely, off with (what felt like) the rest of her sanity. Even the small smile went unreturned as her eyes searched his for a sign, a sign that she wasn’t crazy. Perhaps she’d known him prior and didn’t realize it? Maybe he was a relation of some kind that she’d forgotten?<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">“Patch” is such a distinct name...how could I have forgotten a name like that?</span><br/><br/>Instead of accepting his apology, she plunged headlong, her tone hushed, the confusion and worry evident in her eyes as she tried to look as relaxed as possible. Though her attempts to relieve the tension in her shoulders was in vain, she attempted nonetheless.<br/><br/>“Patch…” the woman began, her words uncertain if she dared ask what was most pressing on her mind. “...What...what was that?” Now that it was out, it was as though the other words tumbled free of their own accord. “What happened? Who are you and how do you know so much? Who was that...and what happened to their eyes? Why do I feel like there’s so much going on that you’re not telling me, instead inserting yourself into my life? It’s not just coincidence that you’re here right now, in this class, is it?”