A/N: Wave the banner high! I actually lived through my first term in college! (Assuming I won't die in my second T^T Seriously, who studies Botany?) Term break!

So sorry about this overly late one :(( Exams and all other college paraphernalia. I promise I'll try to make it interesting as compensation.

Plus, I'm trying to see which fic I should finish first (T^T) This, or The Last Ten Days. I'm uploading a chapter for both, and I guess the fic that gets criticized first wins the bragging rights to be my point of focus for days.

Chapter Seven: Don't Let Me Go

"Glinda, I'm leaving!"

"Wait, Elphie!"

Elphaba paused by the door, a bulky sling-bag hanging from her arm as she held in the other hand her chemistry tool kit.

Glinda ran to her and held out the green girl's old glasses. "How can you forget this, you silly thing?" she teased.

Elphaba smiled upon realizing that she had indeed forgotten them. She took it and placed it carefully on her sharp nose. "Thanks, Glinda," she said, giving her glasses another reassuring push, "I must've been so excited."

Glinda grinned amiably at her. "Do you think Doctor Dillamond will keep you there for a while?" she asked, sounding strangely childish.

"Don't worry. I won't let him this time," Elphaba answered, smiling back at her, "When I get back, we're going to have dinner at the café. Just you and me."

"It's a date, then?" Glinda teased, giggling.

Elphaba laughed. "Yup," she answered, nodding slowly with a joyful grin on her face, "I guess it is."

"Come back early, all right?" Glinda asked hopefully.

"I will," Elphaba said, turning the knob of the door, "Wait for me, will you?"

"I will," Glinda reiterated with a warm smile.

They waved each other goodbye, for the last time, with wide smiles on their faces, before the door closed and Glinda was left alone.

Elphaba never came back.

The sun was streaming into the room, and the disturbance caused Galinda's eyes to flutter open.

The first thing she saw was the wall clock hanging in one side of the room. She didn't need to know the time to realize that she had missed all her morning classes, and that it was almost lunch break.

She didn't care.

Nothing seemed more important in that moment than to feel numb, to try and forget everything, to erase everything she had seen in that simple but awful nightmare…

"… Are you all right?"

At the sound of Elphaba's voice, Galinda closed her eyes again, trying in vain to stop the tears that were threatening to escape. Even in her dreams, she was being haunted by painful visions of her doomed friendship with Elphaba.

"Hey…" Elphaba said gently, "What's the matter?"

Galinda realized that a lone tear had leaked from her eye. Trying to blink more tears away, she summoned the courage to look at Elphaba.

The green girl was kneeling beside the bed, intently looking at her with a very worried expression. "What happened?" she asked softly.

Galinda's throat was jammed with suffocating emotions. She found it impossible to speak as she stared back into her dead eyes. Instead, Galinda found herself reaching out for the ghostly green hand casually placed near hers. Elphaba didn't know what was running through the blonde's mind, so she patiently stayed still and eyed the slow movement. Galinda felt more downtrodden when her hand sank right through Elphaba's. She immediately pulled her hand back.

Their eyes met.

"What?" Elphaba tried to ask again, putting her hands off the bed, not completely understanding what had happened.

"Why…?" Galinda uttered, crying openly now, steadily holding her gaze.

Elphaba seemed to be taken aback by the sudden waterworks, but she was so confused that she didn't do anything. "Um… Why what?" she asked uncertainly.

The next words seemed to strike the green girl utterly dumbstruck.

"Why did you have to die?"

Before she knew it, Galinda was sobbing hysterically as she lay there.

"Galinda, don't cry," Elphaba said gently, unsure of what to do, what to say, "Please, don't."

Galinda was too distraught to be calmed. Maybe the proper question was how did Elphaba die. But the mere thought of asking was only heightening her anguish.

She didn't want to know. She never wanted to know. She wasn't keen on discovering how she lost one of the best people she'll probably meet in her short lifetime.

"Please, Galinda, stop…" Elphaba hoaxed gently, "I'm here… Don't. Galinda, please. It hurts me to see you like this."

"Don't leave me," Galinda found herself saying in a trembling voice, her tear-filled eyes pleading Elphaba's lifeless ones, "Please don't leave me… Don't leave me again…"

Elphaba pursed her lips, and then she got up and sat next to her on the bed, looking down on Galinda's tear-stained face with a tender gaze. "I won't," Elphaba promised wholeheartedly as she could, "Now, calm down. I'm right here. I'm always here—"

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"For Oz's sake, what's happening to her?" Pfanee snapped in an irritated manner as she stood outside Galinda's room with ShenShen, "She missed all classes before lunch. We should, like, you know, run to Morrible and send her to the nearest loony bin."

ShenShen rolled her eyes at her before calling through the door. "Galinda? Galinda, are you up? Come on out! We have something to tell you!"

There was no response.

"Galinda, we're breaking the door if you don't open it!" Pfanee shouted, giving the wooden barrier a firm kick as an emphasis.

"What… what is it?" came Galinda's hoarse and shaky voice from the other side.

"Hey, are you all right?" ShenShen asked, her brows furrowing, "You sound odd."

"I have… I have a cold," Galinda replied.

"Can you come out?" Pfanee asked, feeling impatient with the delay.

"You might catch my cold," Galinda reasoned.

"We. Don't. Fucking. Care," Pfanee spat irritatedly, "Open the door, or Ozdamn it, Galinda, we're ramming it down!"

There was a pause, in which ShenShen turned to Pfanee with a small frown. "I think you scared her," she said.

"Oh that's it…" Pfanee muttered. She started pounding heavily at the door, "I'm not going to miss my date because of this little inconvenience. Galinda, we warned you!"

Galinda glanced at Elphaba, who gave her an encouraging nod, before pulling the door open.

"Finally!" Pfanee bursted exasperatedly, pushing Galinda aside in annoyance as she stormed into the room.

ShenShen frowned at the prompted rudeness, and decided to close the door for Galinda as she stepped in. She then took notice of the blonde's state. "Have you been crying?" she asked with evident concern.

"What? No," Galinda said, trying to smile, though her sore eyes didn't make it look entirely convincing, "Why would I be crying? I'm sick, that's all."

ShenShen stared at her for a while before deciding to drop the subject. "Let's talk, shall we?" she said as she steered a disoriented Galinda to her bed, "Here. Sit." Galinda had no choice but to comply.

"We need to talk about your… condition," Pfanee said, warily eyeing Elphaba's untouched bed and inching away from it.

Galinda's fingers twitched on her lap. "What does that mean?" she asked softly, suppressing the urge to sniff to clear her jammed nose.

"Galinda, you need help, and we know it," ShenShen asserted cautiously as she stood next to Pfanee, "We've been observing—"

"Spying, my dear, don't bother hiding it," Pfanee snapped impatiently.

Galinda didn't know what to feel about this, so she didn't say anything. But she felt her lungs grow cold at the thought of being scrutinized by her so-called friends without knowing it.

ShenShen bit her lip guiltily, but she continued as she avoided Galinda's confused gaze. "Well fine, that, and Galinda, we think that you're… confused."

"Um, I am at the moment," Galinda muttered, still stung at the betrayal, "What are you two on about?"

"Galinda, please, you know what this is about," Pfanee said, "If you want a damn straight answer, fine. We think you're crazy, and you need some medical attention. There. Does that make a mark?"

Galinda felt a chill in her chest. "You're not… You're not bringing me back to the clinic, are you?" she asked, feeling childish, but she was still shaken with her nightmare and, and now the shock of her "friends" dubbing her as insane. She glanced around helplessly, searching for support and encouragement, but to her great disappointment, Elphaba's phantom was nowhere to be found.

"We didn't want to resolve to that either," Pfanee answered, "it's not like they're helping you feel better, do they? So we took the matter in our own hands." She took out a small bottle from her bag and tossed it onto Galinda's lap.

"W-what's this?" Galinda asked uncertainly. She took hold of the glossy bottle and saw that it had small, round, violet balls of some sort.

"ShenShen went shopping the other day," Pfanee began, "We went further downtown and found assorted goods. There was this loony apothecary, and we found that. It can take away your condition, stabilize it, as he'd put it."

Galinda's heart raced faster. She looked at the enticing balls of purple. "Stabilize, you say?" she mused, "… It can take away everything? Bring me back to the way I was before? … Restore my memories?"

And in what way will she be restored? Her normal self, or Glinda? The memories she'd witnessed didn't add up to her known personality at all. She was entirely a different person when she was Glinda, without the bothersome "a". She was notably gentler, more humane, more considerate. But that was her when Elphaba was alive, when her roommate was by her side… Can the strange medication, by some chance, also take away the pain? The agony of losing someone who'd been so dear?

Pfanee's impatience seemed to have hindered her listening skills. She didn't properly hear Galinda's confused inquiries. "Improve your memory, no idea," she answered nonchalantly, "For all we know, it only stops your wild hallucinations of dead people—"

"Pfanee!" ShenShen hissed, panicking as she glanced around the room, as if expecting the green girl to suddenly appear out of the blue.

"Shut up, ShenShen, that's the problem!" Pfanee shouted, "She's seeing things she's not supposed to, and you know how scary that is!" She rounded on Galinda. "Look, you. Just take a dose when you started seeing things, and you'll be just fine. Eventually, you'll stop having those visions, and viola! You'll live like you used to. So goodbye. Nice seeing you. Have a nice life."

Before Galinda could express her views, Pfanee dragged ShenShen out of the room in haste, fervently checking her watch. The door slammed several seconds later.

Silence.

Galinda glanced around again, waiting for absolution and confirmation from her remaining source of temporary comfort. But none came. Elphaba didn't appear.

"Elphie?" she called, hoarse and parched. She needed a companion so badly in that moment.

Nothing.

Galinda sighed heavily, feeling a horrible constriction in her chest. She was left alone, betrayed, broken, and mentally and physically disoriented.

She said aloud, "What are you, really, Elphaba? Are you just something my mind made up? Or a-a-are you really there? Please, Elphie, talk to me…"

She was starting to doubt herself, and she hated it. Tears of anger and confusion broke loose from her eyes after holding them back for so long. She clutched the bottle in her hands so hard that her knuckles were whitening unpleasantly.

Maybe she was just imagining Elphaba's existence all along. Maybe the shock of her death mentally broke her. Maybe, in accordance to the friendship wiped away from her head, she was just interacting with herself, and she was merely dragging remnants of Elphaba's image with her…

Pop!

She'd uncorked the bottle before she even realized what she was doing. The room was filled with her heavy breathing and strangled sobbing. A round pill found its way to her palm. She took it in two fingers and pressed it against her clamped lips, contemplating whether or not it will finally save her from complete madness.

She closed her eyes. Come on, Galinda… Just swallow the damn thing and be done with it. Everything will go away…You'll return to normal… She'll finally be released from your head… Just do it…

She opened her watery eyes again, and felt her breath hitch in her throat.

Elphaba was kneeling before her. Same impassive emotion. Same dead and empty eyes. "Glinda. Don't," she said simply.

Despite her predicament, Galinda didn't miss the used name. "Who… Who told you that?" she asked, quivering, the pill still mere centimeters from her lips. The memory in her dream, and the sequence she recently saw were not yet being told due to her mourning, and where Elphaba had deduced that name from was highly questionable.

"Don't," Elphaba said instead, holding their gaze.

"What are you?" Galinda asked, feeling her suspicion rise as Elphaba bypassed the first question.

"Glinda," Elphaba said, "Don't let me go."

Galinda unconsciously lowered her hand. She realized she never heard Elphaba wish for anything before. And regardless of the lifelessness, there was something touching and heartbreaking at what was happening right before her.

Who cares if there's the possibility that she's only imagining Elphaba? At least, what they had was real for her. And that was enough.

"I won't."

Glinda, as she was privately called by Elphaba now, tried so hard to act normal as the week ensues.

Surprisingly, her friends took in her façade without question. She smiled and laughed along with the others, and she strongly resisted the urge to acknowledge Elphaba, whenever the green girl would decide to appear. She didn't feel at home in their group anymore. Nothing could match Elphaba's concern, and her stiff, snarky, but loving demeanor. In their room, Glinda would talk to her to no end, until sleep would come to her. She spent less time with them, and she would conjure wild excuses to leave their company.

Glinda and Elphaba had come into a silent agreement not to continue their memory surfing. Glinda didn't need any more proof of their wonderful friendship. Nor did it matter anymore why her memories were gone, or the fact that she couldn't remember what happened to her in her forgotten days. Sometimes, ignorance is indeed bliss.

This secrecy carried on for days, until Glinda slipped in her ways on afternoon.

It was Avaric who caught her.

Ever the obscene, he wanted to take a peek at the Shiz ladies cooling down on the lake. His schedule was wrong, and there were no people there, save Glinda. He wanted to scare her, but as he approached her safe haven underneath a large tree, he heard her talking. He knew that there was something wrong when the blonde kept addressing to "Elphaba".

This was immediately reported to the group.

"That lying little bitch…" Pfanee can't help but swear as they huddled around the fountain by the quad.

"I don't get it," Fiyero added, "You said she was taking those medications."

"Well, she claims she's taking them," ShenShen asserted, "Plus, she acts all fine and stuff."

"Are you quite sure you heard her talking to… to her?" Boq asked uncertainly, huddling closer to the group.

Avaric rolled his eyes. "How may Elphabas do we know?" he shot.

"Don't say that abominable name," Pfanee interjected, "She's more bothersome in death than in life. I guess we're going to have to fix this. Again."

"How can you fix something again that wasn't really mended in the first place?" Fiyero muttered, "I guess medicines won't cut it."

"I have an idea," Avaric suddenly said, drawing all the attention to him, "ShenShen, haven't you mentioned that Galinda takes those late night walks?"

"What else could you remember?" Elphaba asked.

"Should I even try?" Glinda answered with a smile.

Night had fallen at Shiz. There was something beautifully peaceful in walking in the dark and admiring the golden glows of the night lights.

"How about we play that game again?" Elphaba encouraged.

Glinda rolled her eyes. "You know I suck at your 'quiet game'," she answered.

"Proves that you can't simply keep your mouth shut," Elphaba joked.

"Proves that your ultimate goal is to annoy me," Glinda parried with a grin, "I've been working on that theory for a while now."

"Bless you, you dear thing," Elphaba remarked with a smirk, "You're starting to think."

"I have the mind to hit you, if only I could," said Glinda.

"Oh hey, would you look at that. You have a mind?" Elphaba retorted.

Glinda's laugh resonated for quite a while in their silent walk. Her "double-life" was almost bearable due to her nightly joys with Elphaba. If this was going to be her life from now on, she couldn't see anything bad about it—

A strong hand suddenly shot from the behind and clamped itself on Glinda's face. It took Glinda several seconds to realize that the hand had a handkerchief, and the handkerchief was filled with a dizzying scent. Her vision blurred, and before she knew it, she fainted.

"You know I don't approve of this, do you?" Fiyero said angrily as Boq and Avaric hauled Galinda's unconscious body into the carriage.

"What choice do we have?" Avaric snapped, "Do you think she'll go with us on her own accord?"

Fiyero bit his tongue to prevent himself from saying anything else.

"You worry too much," Pfanee said, "After tonight, I think we'll finally get our Galinda back. For good."

And with that, the carriage rolled on into the city in the darkness of the night.

I'm really sorry about this late one. T^T