'Faye'rytale

Chapter 2

Back in 2021, Raeburn woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. He dreamt of her again. He knew Sahara was dead and would never come back. But, the dream was almost like it was all real – dancing in the desert under the moonlight holding her in his arms, she looked like a princess right out of a fairytale, attired in a blood red outfit and antique jewelry. When thrusted back to reality, he sat there wondering if she will ever come back, peering deep into the darkness outside his window. Some nights, he would stay up looking at his phone waiting for her to text or call. But then, it never happened. He was never going to have those late-night conversations with his best friend again. Maybe with someone else – someone who wasn't her.

It was almost a year since her decease. Everyone else had moved on. Even Camila, who was one of her closest friends. Camila checked up on him occasionally. She knew he had not gotten over Sahara's death. It was shocking for everyone who knew her. But there wasn't anything that time couldn't heal. Perhaps, Raeburn needed a few more months or at most a year. After that he has to be alright.

When the last vestiges of the setting sun disappeared over the horizon, Raeburn stood in the middle of the desert relishing the occasional glitter of a faraway star. He hoped it was her. They say, when you die, you turn into a star. He had read in a magazine that human bodies are made up of stardust. There must be a connection between that age-old belief and the fusion of astrophysics and human biology. She must be around, blending in with the universe. Whenever he felt suffocated, he would drive down an endless road in the desert. The vastness and emptiness were relatable for him. Ninety percent of the time, he would even see her. This time, it lasted only a second. His therapist told his mother that those visions were his way of coping with the grief.

Camila dealt with it in a different manner. She refused to speak about it and pretended that everything was fine. It seemed to work for her. After her friend's death, Camila turned into a fearless rebel. She even made a drastic decision of shaving her hair off. Unlike women who cut bangs when distressed, Camila was forced to do it. It wasn't just an expression of self-delusion. This was something she should have done long back. Only now she gathered the courage to actually do it. More than a desperate attempt to right something unendurable with a trimmer, it was her way of showing the world that nothing could crush her, not even the angel of death.

Alopecia – That was what coerced Camila into a baldie. She had an auto-immune condition, where the immune system attacks the body's hair follicles thus resulting in patchy hair loss. It was like her body was allergic to her own hair. Despite the fact that it had no cure, she kept on trying courses of medication for several years. After all, she had to fit in to societal standards of beauty. But she had had enough. Apart from the fact that she had no hair on her head, she was perfectly healthy. Neither Raeburn nor Camila had any clue that their lives were going to intersect with Sahara again. If anyone ever told them that they would get to finish those unfinished moments with her, Raeburn and Camila would have sneezed at that blatantly implausible claim.

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