Realizing there's nowhere else to go, she makes an attempt to sneak past the imperfect vessel, staying as close to the wall as possible.
But as she's moving, she catches her ankles and-
The moment it leaves her mouth she freezes, covering her mouth and staring at the imperfect vessel in horror
She can't bring herself to do it.
She squeezes her eyes shut tight. Trying to bring herself to do it
And then she opens them and she's not in the cave. She's tired... Standing in a flower field with her two friends.
They're taking photos. Laughing, chatting. Talking about the beauty of worlds untouched by humanity.
And they ask her to bring them home.
She tells them she's tired. But it doesn't matter. Friends help other friends, don't they? They can't be late for dinner with their parents!
And so she smiles weakly, and takes their hands, and brings them home. But they'll never make it to dinner with their parents.
No one will ever see them again
Their parents will mourn graves with no bodies. And she will never teleport anyone ever again. Even if that promise is a lie
Meanwhile, all William sees is Lucia freeze, eyes filling with terror. She closes her eyes and suddenly she appears calm.
And then she smiles. And it looks just ever so slightly wrong. She smiles at this thing as if it were her friend as she reaches out towards it, on her tippy toes, one hand grabs its "face", the other it's shoulder.
Tears start streaming down her face, but she keeps smiling. As small impurities begin to form in the surface of this thing
And he hears a sickening cracking.
And she doesn't let go of it, even as the cracks in the imperfect vessel start to get larger and larger
But nothing leaks out of the cracks, as if something, or someone is forcing it to stay together.
And the cracks just keep forming. Until blood begins to leak out of them where Lucia holds it.
It burns her hands but she doesn't seem to care. She isn't entirely there.
Then, he hears, a haunting sound. Not from the imperfect vessel, but from Lucia. She giggles. It is slow, and wrong, as if forced
And in an instant the walls and floor behind it are painted in its blood, the only thing left of it.
Then, only then does Lucia move again, although not quite with her own movements.
Her arms fall to her sides, and she hits the ground, barely conscious. Her smile is gone, and yet the tears remain.
