Chapter 2
Present day
Barty is hauled back to ‘reality’ by a knock on the door. Why is someone knocking on the bloody door so early? He opens it up a sliver with more apprehension than Barty would have ever shown before.. before-
“Barty!” Dorcas’ voice sings through the door. Barty opens it fully and lets her inside. He’s not fully convinced Dorcas is actually here even when she lands a sympathetic hand on his arm. It feels so real but its always does even when re-
“How are you doing hun?” Dorcas asks, such softness, such care in her voice. “No, stupid question, sorry.” Dorcas says getting up from the couch walking to the adjacent kitchen. “Tea? A dash of milk, no sugar?”
Barty grunts, makes no move to get up from the couch that along with his bed has split custody of his life nowadays.
Barty looks down to find a tea in his hand not sure when it got there or how much time has passed. He looks over to find Dorcas looking at him with a sorrowful look.
“You’re not listening, I get it. It’s been hard.” Barty laughs at this, or more a singular cackle. Hard? For Dorcas? Sure she lost a friend, Barty lost a part of his soul. Barty lost everything he knew. Dorcas wasn’t there, not really; not there to talk Regulus down after his brother left, to reassure him that he wasn’t insane for grieving his parents, to pick up and glue the pieces of an 18 year old Regulus’ broken heart when he found out that James was planning to propose to Lily. No that was all Barty… and Evan.
Barty has tried to not think about Evan just as much as he has banished thoughts of Regulus. Probably because they are so intrinsically linked in all his thoughts. But also because there's more. There's more that Barty has no right to think or feel, especially now.
Evan chose the opposite strategy. He couldn’t stay in that apartment. An apartment that he use to refer to as a home but now felt like a haunted house. No, instead Evan left. Left Barty and all the complicated thoughts and feelings. More eminently left any reminder of Reg. He ran to his sister's place and hasn’t so much as stepped outside since, other than the long nights he spends looking at the stars wishing they talked back.
Although Evan ran away he can’t help but feel the shadow has followed him and started to haunt his sisters home. He has come to realise that Regulus isn’t the ghost, Evan is. More than just a part of Evan died with him. Pandora walks on eggshells around her own place and that was Evan, he did that. Evan has made it so that Pandora looks at Evan as if he is simply a stranger she use to know. Evan didn’t even think about how showing up days after affected a grieving Pandora. Obviously Pandora took him in with open arms but that's just Panda.
Evan even has the audacity to resent her although he is aware that's unfair. Resents her for grieving someone that Evan was so much closer to. Pandora and Regulus had an undeniable bond and love for one another but Regulus and Evan and … Barty. Their connection went beyond love.