Molly gently lowers Karolina onto one of the couches in the foyer, the four of them releasing a collective sigh as soon as the younger girl straightens.
Gert turns and collapses into Chase’s arms, wrapping her own around tightly around his waist.
Nico approaches the unconscious woman, lowering herself into a cross-legged position on the floor below Karolina’s head. She raises a hand to brush away the small strands of hair covering her face, biting her lower lip as it starts to quiver.
Molly and Alex share a glace, quietly excusing themselves. Gert whispers something to Chase, and he nods, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before following them.
Gert crosses her arms, swallowing thickly as she watches Nico’s careful touches, as though she fears Karolina will shatter if she presses too hard.
She forces herself to take a few steps forward, placing a hand on one of Nico’s sagging shoulders.
“We got her. She’s okay, Nico.”
“Barely,” she whispers, tearing her attention away from Karolina for a fleeting moment. She turns as Gert crouches beside her, the edges of her mascara heavily smudged. “I left her. Again.” she chokes out.
“Hey,” Gert lifts a thumb to wipe away some of the moisture, the protest she was expecting dying in Nico’s throat as a strained cry washes over it. “Nico, she would have done it if you’d agreed to it or not,” she points out. “She literally has a track record at this point.”
A reluctant laugh bubbles out of the other woman’s mouth. She sobers quickly as Karolina stirs, relaxing as she exhales deeply, still asleep.
The two women sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Nico breaks the quiet.
“Thank you, Gert.”
“Of course.”
Nico rises as the others convene at the bottom of the staircase, crossing her arms as she makes her way over. “She hasn’t moved.”
“Neither have you,” Chase points out, tossing her a bottle of water. “You’ve been through a lot, Nico.” Gert nods, reaching for his hand. “You should get some sleep. Have you gone to bed since-”
“No,” Nico interrupts. “Not strictly by choice, but-” she looks over her shoulder, inhaling as she turns back to the group. “I’ll sleep when she’s awake.”
As if on cue, Karolina shoots to her feet.
Chase is the first to notice. His expression lights up for a moment. “Hey-” he begins, starting to wave before his smile disappears.
“GET DOWN!”
He pushes Gert out of the way, following the others as they roll to the side. A wave of energy sails past them, colliding into the wall with a reverberating boom that echoes throughout the subterranean hotel.
“What the hell?” Molly bellows, helping Alex up.
Karolina stands defensively in the doorway to the dining room, eyes darting around the hostel.
“Hey!” Gert yells. “It’s us! You’re okay. You’re-” She screams as the taller girl faces her. Chase steps between them, gauntlets raised.
“Please don’t make me do this,” he says, breathing heavily. “You’re safe. We’re safe. Nico, Molly, Alex, and Xavin got us out. We aren’t going to hurt you.”
Karolina shakes her head. “That isn’t any help,” she calls out. “Where the hell am I?”
“We’re at the hostel,” Molly offers, gesturing to the mansion. “We only found it because you crashed through the roof a few weeks ago.”
“I’m pretty sure I would’ve remembered a place like this.” Karolina says, taking in the expansive home.
“Karolina?”
The taller girl’s attention follows the soft-spoken beckon, falling on the darkly-accented woman who’d uttered it. Her chest falls with a baited breath as she slowly lowers her outstretched arms.
“How do you know my name?”
Nico takes a few steps forward, raising a hand as she slowly approaches her.
“It’s me.” she says, once she’s close enough for a private conversation. She smiles slightly as she takes in Karolina’s soft, flushed cheeks. It’s a conscious effort to keep herself from reaching out to feel their warmth, only stopped by the sudden realization of how lost her alert, blue eyes are.
Karolina gives a slight shake of her head, desperately searching Nico for an answer. “I don’t know who you are.”
Chase lowers the fistigons. “Oh, shit.”
Gert is shaking her head, and Molly wrings her hands together as she turns away from the scene. Alex lowers himself onto the steps, dragging his hands over his face.
The corners of her Karolina’s brows pull together, though her confused expression quickly morphs as moisture begin to collect in the corners of the other girl’s eyes.
“I’m sorry.” she offers, helplessly, as Nico starts to turn away, feeling a foreign tug at the way the girl begins to crumble.
Nico ignores the others as they call out to her, taking the steps two at a time until she reaches the second landing. She disappears into the first room she finds, quickly unsheathing the Staff of One and muttering a hoarse incantation.
Once the silence starts to strangle her, she breaks. The stave clatters to the ground as she falls to her knees, chest heaving as her lungs scream for more air than her rapid breathing can provide. A guttural, jagged screech writhes it’s way through her throat, quickly fading into steady sobs.
Somewhere beyond her muffled eardrums she hears a voice pleading, soft and desperate: no, no, no, no.
-----
She waits until the solitary beam of twilight fades from the warped floorboards before moving, blindly reaching for the staff as she pulls herself to her feet. She catches a glimpse of herself in the dresser’s cracked mirror as she stands, briefly taking in her swollen eyes and shadowed cheeks. She spends a few minutes attempting to clean herself up before making her way towards the door and opening it.
Gert peeks around the corner, quickly rising to her feet. “Thank goodness.”
Nico steps into the hallway slowly, gesturing to the scattered mass of pillows and blankets. “What’s this?”
The violet-haired girl looks down. “We went to check on you a few minutes after everything, and it was completely silent. Wanted to make sure you were okay,” she winces. “Not in danger, I mean.”
“Sorry I worried you guys,” she apologizes, looking sheepish. “Just said the first spell that came to mind.”
“You don’t need to be sorry for anything,” Gert reminds her, sneaking a hand into the back pocket of her jeans. “Molly and I got her settled into a room.”
Nico preoccupies herself with a loose string on her cardigan. A short silence passes between them before a timid voice cracks through. “Is she okay, aside from-”
“Yeah,” Gert assures her, nodding. “She’s completely fine, physically.”
Nico nods, swallowing hard. “That’s good.”
Gert mimics her, before turning to start collecting the comforters into her arms. “Dinner is in ten, if you’re feeling up to it. I can bring you something, if it’s too much.”
“I’ll be there.”
The other girl pauses. “Hey,” she brushes a strand of hair behind her ear, shuffling slightly. “This is all new to Karolina, too. She’s going to have a million questions, but I think,” she breathes in. “We should go slowly.”
Her cracked facade must let something slip.
”She might still be in there somewhere,” Gert amends quickly. “I just don’t want her to be overwhelmed.”
The smaller girl lets out a noise of agreement, before pointing towards the opposite wall. “I should probably go fix-” she gestures to herself. “this.”
Gert musters a smile over the bundle before heading towards her and Chase’s room.
Nico follows after her, taking a left towards her own. Once the door closes behind her, she sets on trying to correct her ruined makeup, letting the familiar routine distract her from- well, everything.
She emerges after a quarter of an hour, descending the stairs and following the muted conversation.
There is a short moment of silence as she emerges from the shadows. She nods, the half-hearted smile she flashes them seemingly enough encouragement for them to continue.
She takes a seat next to Molly, placing one of the table’s dusty centerpieces between her view of the end of the table.
