Zell walked down the hallway slowly and knocked on Lina's door. There was no answer, but the door was open, so he walked in anyways. Lina was lying in her bed, asleep. Her left hand was clasped over her necklace and her right hand still held her yearbook closely to her.
Zell looked down at her with gentle eyes. He understood the pain Lina had to endure; he understood how Lina could feel such anguish from this...losing your best friend is not an easy thing to simply just get over. He sat down next to her and stroked her hair softly, making sure not to wake her up. Zell picked up the yearbook from her hand so that it wouldn't stir her slumber and flipped through the pages quickly. He conveniently landed on the page with Dan's note on it, so he read it.
After reading it, he closed the book and kissed Lina's forehead knowing that Lina had cried herself to sleep earlier, explaining why the door was still open; quietly, he left.
The next day Zell and Karen coincedentally met in the hallway of the Dormitory and together, they walked to class, but there was a note posted on the automatic gray sliding door: No Class today. "What happened, Zell?" Karen asked him quietly; she had felt that something strange had occured ever since the day before, but she had never been able to decipher just exactly what it was..
"Yesterday... umm... well Gina...she... Um... Gorld and...," Zell didn't exactly know how to say it, but he sighed, skipping the details for now and going straight to the main point. "Dan died yesterday." Karen stared at him in disbelief. She knew something had been wrong and now it just seemed like she had been hit in the head with a brick.
"What?!" Karen screamed suddenly, breaking the silence. Her shout echoed through the halls of Garden; Zell was sure that all the students heard her incredulous cry. Zell sighed tiredly as Karen's eyes suddenly turned into two round balls of shock and fear all at once. She realized what it meant...it meant that their Trio had been separated. The group Karen, Lina, and Dan had made up had finally been conquered by Gorld.
"Yeah..." Zell shook his head. "Gina...was actually Gorld...in disguise and she came back to try to hurt Lina...She stole Lina's powers and was about to attack Lina, but Dan came running in, stabbing Gorld from behind." He paused to sigh. "Gorld turned on him."
"Oh my god..." Karen walked away slowly, digesting what Zell had just told her, but Zell noticed tears in the corner of her eyes. He had never seen Karen cry before...no one had; this was all just too much at once. Zell sighed deeply yet again and headed for the library, dragging his feet behind him. There he found Sally sitting with Nida by her side.
"Sally, have you seen Lina?" Zell asked her reluctantly. The tension between the two of them had never entirely lifted. Secretly inside, Zell partially still hated Sally for what she had tried to do to Lina and he definitely didn't trust her. Sally felt sorry for what she had done and it was hard to say if she was entirely over Zell, but if her feelings for him decided to kick in again, she didn't know if she'd try to attack Lina...maybe just...
"I think she went to the Quad," Sally informed him, looking at him with concern. "She was really depressed, Zell. Did you hurt her feelings?" Zell shook his head furiously, utterly offended by the question.
"HELL NO! I would never hurt her! You know that." he half-yelled at her. Sally then asked him exactly what was wrong, but Zell stayed silent; he didn't feel like explaining what had happened again, especially to someone like Sally. But, he soon found out that he wouldn't have to because Karen suddenly appeared from behind him.
"Dan's dead!" she screamed and cried; her tears capable of creating a giant waterfall in her despair. Karen, in her depression, attempted to punch Zell, Sally, and Nida, missing Zell because he was dodging, and landed a couple of forceful blows to Nida and Sally unfortunately.
"Oh, that was the noise yesterday," Sally shrugged after pushing Karen away from her tiredly. Zell and Karen both nodded, Karen's sobs echoing in the library.
"Uh...yeah," Zell muttered and headed for the Quad as Karen broke down and started crying so loud that Sally had to roll her out to keep the library quiet.
The Quad was a quiet place. The only thing that could usually be heard was the silent trickling of water from the hidden pond behind a small thorny bush, and various bird calls from the tops of the trees outside of the metal railings. Zell just barely spotted Lina by the small hidden pond with her feet dipped in and her shoes put aside.