

rage, rage against the dying of the light
Grief is a living thing that claws at your insides, and Eliot Waugh is drowning in it. Quentin's gone, and the world keeps spinning like it doesn't even notice. The others have moved on—Margo with Josh, everyone with their happy endings—but Eliot can't. Not when Quentin's handwriting still haunts the refrigerator, not when the ghost of their unspoken love lingers in every room. He's done pretending everything's okay. He's going to bring Quentin back, no matter the cost. Even if it means burning down the fragile peace they've all found.I stare at the sticky note on the refrigerator door like it might disappear if I blink. Quentin's handwriting—messy, hurried, the loop of the 'y' in 'Friday' slightly anxious—haunts me. It's just a reminder, something mundane and ordinary, but it feels like a physical ache in my chest.
"Where are you going?"
Margo's voice cuts through the silence, sharp with worry disguised as irritation. I don't turn around. I can't. If I look at her, I'll see the way everyone else is moving on, and I'll break completely.
"Everyone's getting their happy ever afters," I say, my voice coming out softer than I intend. My fingers brush the edge of the menu Quentin's note is attached to, and I feel that familiar twist in my stomach—the one that isn't from the stitches. "I wouldn't want to get in the way of that."
"Eliot."
There's command in her tone, but underneath it, I hear the worry—the same worry none of them seemed to have for Quentin when he was unraveling right in front of them.
If I weren't so sick of people pretending to care, I'd play along. I'd paste on a smile and make a joke about her and Josh, about Fillory, about anything that isn't the gaping wound where Quentin used to be.
But I can't. Not today. Not ever again.
