—Where I Can't Follow

== Meta ==
Formerly "Stanford"
(Please Don't Fly Where I Can't Follow)
11 August 2013
Zürich, ZH, Switzerland
== Text ==
Hermann's phone buzzes again at around eight the next morning. He wakes in an instant this time, having slept lightly in unease since Karla's call. The phone displays an unknown number and Hermann hesitates. Other than his siblings or the university, who would be calling him now, especially with the horror happening in San Francisco?
„Gottlieb.“ Hermann thinks that it may be a wrong number when the caller doesn't respond. He can hear sobbing, though, and keeps quiet on his end. Whoever it is needs compassion right now, not an abrupt hang-up. Everyone in the world needs compassion now.
""Herm—Hermann."" The voice is female and familiar. What women does he know other than Karla? He runs down the short list as the caller hiccups and calms some.
"Vigsai?"
""Yea.""
Vigsai Singh.
He hasn't spoken to her since his father pulled him from the University of Manchester, eight painful years before. His heart feels like it stops. He can't imagine any reason for her to contact him now which doesn't chill his blood.
""E-Edan's dead,"" Vigsai says and her voice wobbles.
Hermann's vision swims. He had no way to know, but he did. Vigsai wouldn't have called him unless—unless it was Edan. No other reason. Not when he's made such an effort to hide. Only Edan could force her to seek him out.
"No ...." He knows his voice is a whisper and already
starting to shake with tears. His first love, his true love: Edan. The Scottish boy with bright eyes and a rough accent and a smile that melted Hermann's heart from the first time that he saw it.
He's dead.
""He's—was at Stanford. The monster destroyed the whole-whole campus.""
Vigsai's pain seems spurred on by Hermann's but, unlike with Karla earlier, he can't muster his emotions. He can't spare the strength to rein himself in when he's barely holding himself together. The small part of his mind still coherent says a silent apology.
""He still thought of you, Herm-Hermann. He missed you,"" Vigsai says through her tears.
Hermann is weeping without sound, a skill perfected in his youth after much practice.
"Was-was he happy?" It's all Hermann wants to hear. That he hadn't left Edan broken like leaving him had broken Hermann.
""He was. He was almost done with his Master's. He wanted to tell you when he finished.""
"How long have you had my number?"
""A while. Edan didn't want to bother you. He said that you were probably happy.""
——How wrong he had been!—— Hermann thinks in agony. He's missed Edan so much but his fear and shame have kept him from trying to rekindle their short, intense romance. His father had drilled into his head that no one could ever know about his wings—about his monstrosity. He'd never taken the chance, after Dietrich's one defiance against their cold father, to tell Edan how much he loved him, still. How much he still missed him. And now there are no chances left.
"I'm sorry, Vigsai, I can't—" He can't hold in the screams
of rage much longer. Vigsai will understand; she has to.
""I know, Hermann. I-I'll call you in a few days to see—see how you are."" Vigsai's wet goodbye goes unheard. Hermann gently ends the call, places the phone on his bedside table—his every nerve begging him to slam the phone into the floor over and over again—and curls up in bed. He screams until he's hoarse and then sobs in an unending flood.
He doesn't move when the university calls.
He doesn't move when Karla calls.
He doesn't move when Karla calls again and again.
Hermann doesn't move the rest of August eleventh, 2013, except to go to the bathroom, throw up, and sob.
Category:K-Day
Category:Ficlet
Category:Please Don't Fly Where I Can't Follow
Category:Ficlets in need of timeline help
Category:Vigsai
Category:Stanford University
Category:Hermann
Category:Conversations on phones
Category:Edan (mention)
Category:Dietrich (mention)
Category:Hermann has wings
Category:Lars (mention)
Category:Karla (mention)
Category:Vigsai (ficlet)
Category:Hermann (ficlet)
Category:Zürich (setting)
Category:Ficlets with comments
Category:Trespasser (mention)