How It All Goes Down
Drawing Dark
- After a full day of the worst classes in the history of ever, Luce is ready to unpack.
- Luce finds her way down the hallway to the room where she is going to be spending her foreseeable future and decides whether she should unpack her duffel bag or her own emotional baggage.
- Emotional baggage it is.
- Luce mourns being away from home, her old life at Dover Prep, and her relationship with Trevor, which really never had the chance to go anywhere before he disappeared in a cloud of fire, changing Luce's life forever.
- A knock at her door interrupts Luce's thoughts, and she opens it to find a note pinned to the corkboard on the door.
- The note has a single arrow on it, pointing down the hallway.
- How mysterious…
- Luce follows the cryptic arrow to Arriane's door, where another note is waiting for her, telling her that she has to stay in the nurse's office for some rest after the shock collar incident.
- Luce also spends a good deal of time staring at Roland's door. Roland happens to be Arriane's neighbor, and Luce wonders if Roland and Daniel are currently hanging out. Could catch a glimpse of him?
- As Luce is reading Arriane's note, Roland emerges from his room, and Luce makes up an excuse about being there, telling him that she's heading to the library and totally wasn't hanging out outside his door like a hopeless-romantic-slash-stalker waiting for a glimpse of a boy she hasn't even officially met yet.
- Roland, who may or may not be judging her, tells Luce that if she's going to the library, she should check out the special collections in the east wing. Luce, unsure if he's making fun of her or being genuinely nice, decides to do just that.
- Once inside the library, Luce feels immediately better. She meets Miss Sophia, the kind, incredibly friendly librarian who calls Luce by her nickname and also expresses genuine enthusiasm about meeting her.
- Finally, another nice person at this school.
- Luce wanders to the east wing to look at the special collections and finds Daniel with his back to her, sketching something into a sketchpad.
- The shadows infiltrate while she's there, and Luce freezes, worried that something might happen, but all thoughts of the shadows flee at the sight of Daniel.
- Luce is struck with a moment of memory. She could almost swear that Daniel is drawing her, and that she could look over his shoulder and see her own image on the sketchpad in front of him.
- But that would be crazy, right? Where would she have come up with that idea?
- Turns out Luce had a dream like that the night before. In it, she was wearing a flowing dress and was watching a boy draw her own likeness.
- Now, where have we possibly seen a scenario like this before?
- Turns out Daniel isn't drawing Luce—because that would be weird, to assume that a total stranger is drawing you, right? In fact, he's drawing the cemetery that he can see from the window.
- Because that's much more reasonable.
- Daniel and Luce have a staring contest. Daniel's stare is of the hostile kind, Luce's of the tongue-tied kind. Daniel packs up and leaves, because he's been intruded on.
- Luce stays in the special collections until long after Daniel and the shadows are gone, wondering why she can't get Daniel out of her head.