ariel just wants to get away from here without being seen. she thinks it should be easy, everyone is in the ballroom from what she can tell, judging by what she’s hearing, what she’s already seen. ariel already knows she couldn’t have prevented this. if there was anything to do to stop it, she wouldn’t have seen that all this would happen in the first place. but she did, over and over again, all night, as she tried to get away from everyone, tried to leave the ballroom because each new brush against her arm, each accidental touch, she saw someone else dead. she’s never been surrounded by the sights of so much death before, in her mind, and then now... in her ears, right in front of her eyes, and she imagines she can taste blood in her mouth like she’s the one doing the killing, like she’s death itself, like she walks around and leaves a trail of bodies and maybe if she’d just stayed dead none of this would have happened. it’s a giant leap of logic but her vision is blurred by tears and she only wants to get away at the only chance she has, potentially the last one she gets, because she knows she gets out of this unscathed and isn’t that just ironic? though ariel is pretty sure her wrist is sprained, she’s clutching it, can’t remember what happened there, she thinks something got slammed into her arm, whatever, she doesn’t care. ariel is out, she’s made it out, when she collides with a form that’s so familiar it makes her want to cry. “let me see,” she says instead of greeting him, of course he’s here right now. surely he has to know what she means as she holds out her hand, it’s shaking and her wrist is bruised. “let me see.”