[location] paradise
[date] october 1, 10:02AM
[availability] @catalystunbound
After a brief period of running like hell, Stella slowed. Abel had said that she would be safe once underground. And there had been no footsteps following her, no wings filling the small corridor. So she took her time. Let her hand run over the wall, feeling distance and time. Trying to memorize the path, imprint it in her mind. Once she was out, she was going to mark up a map of the tunnel. Where it came out, the twists and turns of it all.
She found herself sloping up, finally. Morning light broke through as she made her way up. The Mayor’s house. Where it had all began... Stella rubbed at her face tiredly and just set off for her house. She was covered in dirt and mud, sweat tracking through the grime. She was exhausted and hungry and desperate for a shower. But as she pushed herself the last few miles, as she looked around... She was home. She wasn’t in the prison any longer. She wasn’t surrounded by ancient beings from Heaven and Hell.
And after another twenty minutes or so of walking, she was really home. At the house that she had claimed her family in. Stella only hoped that they were all there. That all her girls had made it through the venture in New Utopia. That they were all back, safe and sound. Dragging her faded body up the steps, she pushed the door open. “Hello?” she called out. Her voice was ragged and harsh. She coughed, cleared her throat. Tried again. “Adelaide?” she asked.
Tears gathered, joined the layer of filth over her face. She was home. She was with her family. And she just... She just wanted to see them. To see Holly’s smile, Lydia’s bright eyes, Adelaide... She wanted to feel Adelaide. She wanted the other woman to hold her close like she had a few days ago in the prison yard. “Is anyone here?”