Italian’s in the English building on the other end of campus since the department is so small. You double back the way you came and the walk is long, farther than your dorm. You barely make it. The pain is that bad, the fear that comes with it.

Against your impulses, you picture yourself dying. Gasping for breath like a hooked fish. Seizing in the hallway outside of Italian 102. What a way to go. The thread is too pulled, the mystery too deep. At the top of the stairs to the long white building, you turn around.

🩸 See the school nurse.