Hey, so this is my first story. I decided to start with a small piece of it just to test the waters and see if anyone even reads it. For some background on timeline: this is set four years after the first movie's events. I'm omitting the Pitch Perfect 2 storyline just because it doesn't fit well with the direction I have the characters going in. So in clarification, everyone has graduated from Barden at this point. Also, in this story Chloe graduated on time with Aubrey and Aubrey didn't run that retreat. Instead, Aubrey is a resident at a hospital and Chloe opened her own dance studio. (The other characters happenings will unfold with the story, particularly Beca's and Stacie's, though obviously other characters will be appearing)

As the sun begins to set and April crawls to an end, I am left to contemplate what life has left for me. Once I drift away from a person so often called home, away from someone loved so strongly, away from our experiences that shined so bright in the grim hours of wearisome days. What I have remaining is a feeling so suffocating all in one, final sigh… It takes my breath away in the worst ways imaginable.

To say the simple words "goodbye" seems beyond an ignoble task to someone who has come to mean so much to my life, who has come to mean everything to my life. There's a quote I remember discussing in my lit class, "With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable." I think that sums up my relationship to her nicely. Predictable, but undeniably ourselves. A presence that will be missed in each and every way.

The day has arrived. Our one, final sigh together. It feels like time has been moving in all directions at full speed in order to collide in an explosion of something. Something beyond existential in representation of... us. Of the people we've transformed into. And I can't help but feel an ache that it's not enough. It will never been enough. Because with all the change these two years have brought me, I am still so lost. A missing piece of me lingers in my heart. She lingers in my heart.

So that's why I'm here, staring at freshly laid soil with an impossibly small sign sticking out reading five simple letters back at me.

A name.

Her name.

Somehow, they've reduced her to nothing but those five damn letters. If only the people burying her into that ground knew who they were sealing away, that they were sealing her away. Because she's gone. Stolen from my world without any explanation as to why.

So I wonder away to her to her warmth, to her intimacy, to her light. To every ounce of her love that she shared in the hopes of resurrecting what is now so far out of reach. I burn my mind into those five letters until I've set them aflame and underneath it she emerges. There she is. All in her angelic glory. And for a little while, I am home.

That smile. Her smile. It's as vibrant as the colors that paint the sky in every sunrise happening all at once. The warmth that spreads over my entire being comes slowly at first. Then, in mere moments, it doesn't stop until it's wrapped my heart in such a gentle embrace and it won't let go until I'm reaching back, holding it close, begging it never to leave. Begging her to never leave.

I look up into her eyes. The sounds of the whole world melt away in an instant. Suddenly I'm bursting through the surface of the ocean. At first, it's terrifying. But she tells me I only need to open my eyes and see the lost city hiding underneath. I stare and find more intricate details with each passing movement. I learn about it in such intimate ways, it's history, it's people, it's influences, everything. I learn about her in every way.

I reach out to feel her. Touching her is... It isn't simply a feeling. It's a sensation. The tips of my fingers brush across her face so delicately. The cold of me finding even the most microscopic of impact with the warmth that is her ignites light inside my every nerve. She is the electricity that sparks me to life. It's almost as if I'm not even living without her. I am simply existing and she is what makes me whole. A puzzle that no one else could master, but she put all the pieces together the second our hands touched when I met her.

"Chlo, we should probably get going soon. Everyone's heading to the reception."

That familiar voice starts pulling me back to this disgusting excuse of reality. And here I am standing before those five letters again and all those feelings rush away from me. I feel nothing. There is no warmth, there is no intimacy, there is no light.

There's a part of me that wants to respond, that wants to open up. But that's the old me. The happy me. The me that had her. So instead, I allow the emptiness to take over. I let the words sit in my mind, neatly tucked away into another compartment on the shelves I've slowly built since she's been gone. I just continue to stare at those detached five letters below me.

"Chloe?"

I hear the crunch of leaves breaking as a hand wraps around my shoulder firmly. The skin feels… wrong against mine. Dull. Cold. Rough. It's my crashing slap back into reality, one I can no longer ignore. One that has me tearing my gaze away from the five letters that the love of my life has been diminished to and up to my supportive best friend's. Her tear stained cheeks and glassy eyes dig deep into my heart. But my mind has shut down, locked out every ability to show emotion of any kind. So I just stare at her with nothing. I say nothing.

"We can visit her tomorrow, alright?" Her voice is so raw. Thick with emotion so layered, it doesn't even sound like the person I've come to know these past five years.

"We can visit her every day. I promise."

She removes her hand from my shoulder, filling the vacant space of my hand with hers. She tries to smile, but instead an unshed tear finally cascades down her face. It's the ultimate trigger that makes her look away from me.

She tugs my hand and pulls me away. Away from her. Away from that freshly laid soil. Away from my home. Away from those five letters.

Posen.