We all react to loss. Loss makes us feel helpless and objectified. When our loved ones die - we feel that Nature or God or Life treated us as playthings. In short, we feel objectified. Losing the narcissist is no different to any other major loss in life.
Denial can assume many forms.
Others develop persecutory delusions, thus incorporating the imaginary narcissist into their lives as an ominous and dark presence. These are radical denial mechanisms which border on the psychotic and often dissolve into brief psychotic micro-episodes. More benign and transient forms of denial include the development of ideas of reference. Others deny the very narcissistic nature of the narcissist attributing to him ignorance, mischief or vicious intentions. At the more healthy end of the spectrum of denial reactions is the classical denial of loss - the disbelief, the hope that the narcissist may return, the suspension and repression of all information to the contrary.