" Klaude?"

She felt a sharp pain.

She was in her writing class and she couldn't stop thinking about what she had heard that morning because Oh God, it hurt.

... Klaude had been the ghost from River Hell. Phoebe had been there too.

What did it all mean?

What did it all mean?

She thought back to what the doctor had said about brain damage. She was brain damaged. Her memories were scrambled up. None of it was real.

Klaude wasn't real, Phonograph wasn't real. Nothing in the dream had been real. It was just her mind being confused.

" David Verlaine?"

Her heart stopped.

" David Verlaine?"

The teacher was calling attendance and was saying her brother's name instead of hers. He looked impatient.

" Um, I'm Vida Verlaine, David is my brother..." she said, hesitant, anxiety bubbling in her voice. It made her feel like dying.

The teacher said something else but she didn't quite catch it. Processing issues?

" Um, just, check with the office, please..." She mumbled. She felt like she was being stared at. The thought of Klaude was eating away at her mind.

Klaude was dead? Who had he been in love with?

She reminded herself that it was all just coincidences and brain damage and that the Klaude who had died had not been her Klaude, because her Klaude had not existed. He was imaginary, a coma-induced dream.

There was no Klaude, there was no Klaude, there was no Klaude...

Honora caught her after class.

" That must've been really painful. Being called by your brother's name 'n' all..."

Vida sort of stared through her.

" I, yeah... I'm a really nervous person, so..."

Honora seemed to look around for a moment, and then leaned in.

" Hey, if you want to talk about it, I'm skipping third for a smoke break. I just... I can't talk to Phoebe about stuff like this. You lost your brother, so I thought maybe that... You'd understand."

She looked distinctly uncomfortable, like she had never asked someone to accompany her on anything before.