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Josie rushes into the darkness of a classroom. She leans back on the door, effectively shutting it closed, and tries to stifle the sounds of her anguish with a shaking hand. It was in vain. A sob escapes her and another and another until she's only a mess of hiccups and ragged breathing. Her body was an earthquake of emotion and her knees buckled in a silent plea to kiss the ground. Josie lets them.
She slides down to the floor. Still harboring a tumultuous ocean inside her. Still tilting from the rush of its waves. Still having it bleed out of her.
She takes an object that she had been hugging from inside her coat and places it on the floor beside her. It takes her a few times to set it upright with the trembling of her hands.
Finally she succeeds and whispers a spell, voice hoarse and full of stutter.
"S-s-solis."
A light appears and shines before her before seemingly being absorbed by the object on the floor.
A figure appears in front of her, sitting down cross legged, and leaning forward with a concerned gaze.
Josie holds her breath. For a brief moment the world stops turning. For a brief moment her tears forgot how it was to flow, as if just as suspended in disbelief as Josie is. As if the ocean inside her had forgotten how to pitch its waves.
"Jojo? What's wrong? Are you okay?"
And then just like that the moment was broken and Josie's voice cracks when it finally found the volume to speak.
"Pen-pen-penelope. Penel-penelope."
The ocean inside Josie pitched her forward and Josie's arms outstretch in an embrace... and hit air. Penelope's apparition morphs out of shape and back again like heavy smoke being disturbed by a strong gust of wind.
Josie's tears remember to flow again and rushed down her cheeks with renewed vigor, like a river unclogged.
Sobs claw at Josie's throat again and force their way out of her mouth. She wraps her arms around herself instead and tries desperately to hold down the storm inside of her. It felt like having dark clouds, heavy with rain, clogged on her throat. It felt like the ocean inside her had a hidden monster waking from millenia of slumber and raging to be let out, thrashing at Josie from the inside, screaming at her for locking it up.
Josie can't see the apparition of Penelope clearly anymore. The image of Penelope was being drowned by the violence of her tears.
"Jojo..."
Josie latches onto the sound. God, it had been so long. It had been so long.
"Baby, what's wrong?" Penelope asks again, hovering near Josie, careful not to break the illusion that she wasn't real.
"I-" Josie's voice cracks into a sob again and for a minute she fights the heavy clouds lumped in her throat before she could find the voice they strangled inside them.
"It's dark... And I'm alone... And I miss you... I miss you. I miss you. I miss you. You don't know how much I-"
And just like that the clouds take over again. And Josie buries her face in her arms and cries and cries and cries.
She doesn't know how long it took before the tears started drying up. She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her coat. She looks up, expecting to see worry shining from green eyes.
She looks up to see that there is nothing but darkness.
No light. No worried eyes. No Penelope.
"I miss you..." she whispers. But only the darkness can hear.