S a l e t é I V

XLII - Bravade - Trois

They waited. 

Time must have been passing. To Cassia, it felt as if they were locked in some kind of cruel present. No past. No future.

Only that wasn't entirely accurate, was it? It took only half a minute of thought - if that - for everything to come creeping back up as it always had. It was as if every ugly sight, sound and predicament had fallen together within her head, forming some sort of web. 

One twitch was all it took for all of it to begin vibrating, each thought connected to the next, each transition from one to the next leaving a sickly sensation in its wake that tried to churn within her, that motion the one she constantly had to fight back.

Hands. Smoke. Twisted shapes. Stink. Blades. And now blood.

Blood didn't scare her, in itself. What scared her was what had struck Sleeves so horribly; the thought of where the blood had come from.

Please don't be bad. Please don't be bad. 

Let Sunshine, and Monet and the others put it right. Let whoever had been injured be okay. Please don't be bad. Please don't let there be more pain, not now, not again. 

Please don't be bad.

They'd fallen quiet. 

Swoopy was still, locked in her own ruminations as she sat with Sweets, the younger girl still somewhat alert as she looked around at both her friends and the courtyard she'd come to know so well, the slightest shift or change enough to get a glance from her. Shipshape had remained with Sleeves, who in turn had remained closed off, even as her tears had ceased.

Cassia listened. Occasionally, a sound would come from inside the factory. A muffled voice. A stifled order. Nothing discernible.

When Captain's door finally opened, Sunshine was the one to emerge like she'd promised, closing the door behind her before she turned to face them properly. 

Sleeves looked up, the sound alone enough to rouse her from her stupor before she'd even spotted the teenager. She didn't stand up or try to rush over this time, the scolding that Captain had given her still playing over in her ears.

"Aimée?" Swoopy muttered when she saw her, rising to her feet regardless of what the others were doing, Cassia also standing in spite of the weight that had slowly been setting in. 

Sweets was in more of a hurry, moving to join them as quickly as she could whilst also being mindful.

Sunshine smiled weakly. Had it not been for the children before her, no such expression would have come to her.

"Hello, sweetheart." She said softly, Swoopy immediately sensing every ounce of the tension now coursing through her mentor, stepping up to timidly offer a hug that quickly became purposeful when Sunshine accepted it openly.

"Are you okay...? What's happening...?" Swoopy asked her as they held one another, her much calmer approach one that Cassia believed was destined to work far better than anything else.

The look on Sunshine's face was all but proof that the denial couldn't continue any longer. They had to know the truth, whatever it was, and they had to know it there and then. It was visibly hurting her, that mental soreness even suggesting that she'd had every intention of explaining everything when she'd emerged, with no time left for sugar coating of any kind.

"I need you to promise me that you won't panic, okay?" Sunshine began, bolstering herself one last time before she went any further and as Swoopy stepped away again, Cassia and the others now in close attendance, what the teenager was saying hardly of the most consoling nature already.