tam talked with linh sometimes. never about the memories, but sometimes about other things, harmless ones. like his old friends.

tam had hardly seen any of them since he had gone back to choralmere. he knew them enough to know that they were probably worried about him, but linh had told them that he wasn't ready to see them. she still updated him on how they were doing, though. like how sophie foster & fitz vacker had finally broken up. & how keefe sencen had finally woken up. that one relieved tam, since it was his fault keefe had been asleep in the first place.

they didn't discuss what had gone on when tam was in the neverseen, or where tam went during his quiet times. it wasn't something he could talk about, not even to the person to whom he was the closest.

tam didn't know how much linh knew about what he had gone through in his months of absence. she never told him about the shadows which crept into her room when he slept, the shadows that twisted themselves into the shapes of his past. linh could see his pain, & his shame. & his guilt.

it was the guilt that worried her. she could never tell quite what he felt, but the shadows had been getting darker, if that were possible. heavier, weighed down by the past. linh knew sophie could fix a shattered mind, but what would she really heal? if this went on, tam's mind would keep shattering until sophie couldn't fix him anymore. he needed closure. & linh couldn't give it to him. she could only watch him break.

linh was not a girl to give up easily, though. she never had been. someone who didn't know the twins well might have thought that she was the weak one, but it wasn't the case. in fact, linh was fairly certain that she was much stronger than her brother. she wished that she could change that, take her brother's pain, but she knew that she couldn't. & that even if she could, he would just take it back.

linh wanted desperately to talk about her fears with someone, but she knew tam didn't want anyone to know. & so, on her own, linh thought long & hard about what she could do.

after several crumpled papers layering the bottom of her wastebasket, linh gave up. she walked into the bathroom & she cried. she cried for tam & the brother she had lost. she cried for anyone else who had been broken by the neverseen.

then she stopped crying. she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand & walked out of the bathroom. because she knew what to do.