#haringey

Day 2907, 30 May 2026

"Attenborough Alley" in Haringey, London.

Seven Sisters Corner in Tottenham, Haringey, London

Organisers of a Christmas toy appeal are urging people to donate to the project if they are able to, so they can give gifts to thousands of children living in extreme hardship in north and east London. The Hackney Local Buyers Club is running its 12th annual appeal, but fear donations will drop due to increased pressures on household budgets. This year, the project aims to provide new gifts to…

Location: Berat's Grave

She hated this period when the Earth was beginning to thaw from Winter's icy grasp. Oh, it would be cold in London for a few months yet, but the give of the ground under her boots told Nevra that warmer weather was coming. She always welcomed the sunshine and the inevitable shedding of seasonal depression that came with it; or maybe that was just normal depression. She really couldn't tell and care to.

Both would be gone by the time she descended the hill again.

Mud inched its way up her boots as she made her way across a small expanse of grass on a small hill on the outskirts of the borough she used to call home. The place was quiet, no one else there except for the yard's caretaker. It was a miracle the borough had enough money to employ the man, given the sorry state Haringey had always lived in. Surely the money could have been spent on something better. Then again, the salary was likely so meager that it wouldn't have made a difference if it had been used for something else.

Tomorrow this place would be host to a fair amount of people. It's why Nevra had come today. Tomorrow would be a years since Berat's passing. Today was just another day. Tomorrow a year before had been just another day too, until it hadn't been. Funny how that is.

Not funny at all.

Berat's gravestone came into view far faster than Nevra had been ready for. Hell, she'd waited a whole goddamn year to visit him. She was never going to be ready.

It was clean and there were flowers on the grave, likely Emine or Adya. They were always good with that kind of stuff. Knowing someone had been taking care of him bloomed in her a small kind of comfort. Their people always stepped up when someone needed help. It was yet another characteristic that distinguished them from her.

She'd let herself become selfish in the years following her departure from the Turks. The Rutherfords lived by different standards and Nevra had sunk into them like a duck does into water. Then, when her and Berat started seeing each other, meaning more to each other than they'd ever think they would, she'd stepped up again; started to care more for those around her. It was an enlightening time for her.

Fitting, then, that it was his departure that broke that habit in her. She spent the past year cocooning herself in her own wants and needs until she felt whole again. Time would tell if it had done her any good.

"Miss? Can I help you find someone?" She hadn't heard the caretaker come up behind her. Turning her head, Nevra caught him squinting at the stone before them. "Ah, did you know him?"

"I-no. I just came up here to walk around and pay respects. You never know who gets visitors or not." Her eyes dragged back to Berat's name and the sad truth finally hit her. "I didn't know him."

If she had known him, she would have known what day it was. She would have known how much he was hurting. She would have known how to help him. All of that time spent together, all of their whisperings and jokes and love exchanged, and Nevra still hadn't really known him.

"You don't need to worry about this one. He never lacks visitors. He's one of the lucky ones." He smiled a sad smile and Nevra echoed it, genuinely happy that Berat wasn't lonely. She nodded at him, turned around, and walked back down the hill without glancing back.

A car which hadn't been there when Nevra ascended the hill idled by the curb. The woman next to it stood by the open back door. Of course she was here. She'd been the one next to Nevra on the plane a year ago. The woman gave Nevra an appraising look and once satisfied, nodded.

"You're done with it now." Medea's voice cut through the air.

It wasn't a question, nor was it a command. Simply a statement that they both knew to be true.

Nevra slipped inside the car and listened as the older woman listed the things that needed to be done this month. There was a familiar rhythm to the act and Nevra settled into it with something akin to lightness.