Grey read it and looked up at the mountain beyond the trees. His mountain. What would be a worthy way to spend his last morning, his last few hours? Did he really want to die a petty bastard?

Fine, he responded. Tell her to meet me on Mt. Sama.

Grey sat back against the big boulder on the mountain and looked down at the tiny town of St. Rosetta, snow-covered shops and small buildings dotting it like thorny burrs. He could make out St. R’s sprawling campus from up here too. Concealed inside it was Jaya, possibly getting ready so she could come up here and say whatever it was she wanted to say.

He thought about speaking to her. How did he feel that he’d be seeing her so soon? How did he feel that this might be their last ever conversation?

He felt close to nothing, he realized. It was like one of those magic eye pictures. If he squinted and contorted himself, he might be able to see hints of sadness, of hurt, of loneliness, of fear. But besides that? Nothing.

If Jaya had, over the course of the last few months, chipped away at the block of stone surrounding him to reveal who he was underneath, she’d also managed to scour him bare in the matter of a single night. All he felt right now was a hollow nihilism.

An icy wind whistled past him, but apart from that, there was no sound of life. He was completely alone.

Jaya

“Come on. We’re going for a walk.”

Jaya realized she’d been slumped back on the couch, watching the day gradually lighten outside. She blinked her dry eyes and looked at Daphne Elizabeth, who was towering over her dressed in a big coat, pants, and a winter hat, her hands on her slim hips. Next to her was Isha’s much smaller form, also completely bundled up. “What?”

“You can’t just sit here like this. We’re going for a walk.” Daph shoved a coat at Jaya; Jaya realized it was hers. Daph and Isha must’ve gone into her room to get it.

“What—what time is it?”

Isha consulted her phone. “Almost five a.m.”

Jaya rubbed her eyes. Her cup of cold coffee sat abandoned on the table in front of her, looking as lonely and sad as she felt. “You guys want to go for a walk now?” The early-morning snowball fight with Grey flashed through her mind before she could stop it, bringing with it a wave of pain.

Daph and Isha exchanged a look, unaware of her thoughts. “Yes, we do,” Isha said firmly. “Come on.”

Jaya felt discombobulated enough that she did as she was told, slipping on her winter coat and following her little sister and Daph meekly to the stairs. “How was your night, Daph?”