"This is the longest Van has been gone..."
...maybe he's dead?"
"Gerald!"
"S… sorry."
The volume of Vanya's voice was enough to make the trees around them tremble, causing some leaves to separate from its branches. But instead of falling down, the leaves did not even move away for more than a foot, as they just floated near the branches where they once lived.
"If father is dead, I would feel it," Vanya then said as she stared at the horizon, which was filled with almost nothing but darkness-- only lit by the sprinkles of light from far away.
"But a few months ago, didn't you say you could no longer feel him?" Gerald then breathed out as he joined Vanya, "You got the others worked up when you said that."
"He's alive," Vanya insisted, "I can't feel him, but I know he's still running around somewhere."
