𝑰'𝑽𝑬 𝑮𝑶𝑻 𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 - 𝑫𝑬𝑺𝑪𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑨𝑵𝑻𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟏𝟏

One of the most notable things about the Isle was that it was chaotic. There was never a moment of peace. Every street corner was filled with fighting, stealing, bargaining, and anything else you could imagine.

Sometimes Delphina loved the chaos.

Sometimes she hated it.

Right now, the chaos of the Isle was the only thing keeping her from breaking down.

The market streets were packed with people doing their early evening shopping or simply in search of something to do for the night to escape their mundane, imprisoned lives. Delphina floated along in a sea of faces, trying to keep her tears at bay as she numbly navigated her way back to her grandmother's salon.

As she walked, she played her confrontation with Uma over and over in her mind.

'I don't know who you are anymore.'

That sentence bounced around in her head, echoing into the void. Just thinking about it made Delphina want to crumple down in the middle of the street and start sobbing.

Uma didn't know who she was? Five years of friendship and endless secrets shared and unbreakable trust, but after three months, Uma didn't know who she was? None of this made sense. What did she do? Uma had to have seen or heard something, but what? What could possibly push her to something this drastic?

Delphina was pulled out of her thoughts as she crashed into a woman in the middle of the street, derailing both of their paths. The bags in the woman's hands crashed to the ground, and Delphina cursed softly, immediately ducking her head. The last thing she needed was to draw attention to herself in a busy street like this.

Crouching down, Delphina quickly gathered up the items closest to her while the woman did the same on her end. "My bad," Delphina offered lamely, keeping her eyes on the ground and lowering her voice a tad. "I wasn't paying attention. Here—"

"Delphina?"

Her head snapped up in shock, eyes widening at the immediate recognition. Usually the voice trick worked pretty well. Which meant someone was either paying more attention than they let on or they knew her well enough to...

Anastasia stared back at her, gaping and bewildered at the sight of Delphina in front of her, in the flesh and not just behind a computer screen.

"I...what..." Anastasia stumbled over her words cluelessly, and Delphina tried to muster an awkward smile.

"Um...there's a good explanation for this, I swear," she muttered, glancing around. Both of them became aware of the still-busy market, and Anastasia cursed softly, quickly scooping up her bags, and tugging Delphina up with her before she had the chance to decipher which Anastasia it was.

"Come on," she muttered, reaching behind Delphina to tug her hood up before taking her hand. "This way. If anyone sees you out here..." Anastasia just trailed off, shaking her head. She led Delphina through winding roads and busy market streets, then behind a few buildings and across a handful of alleys before they finally came upon an apartment building on the outskirts of town.

Anastasia led Delphina up the stairs of the building to the point where Delphina's thighs began to burn with the effort. They reached the top floor of the building, and Anastasia released Delphina's hand to fish out a key, making quick work of the door and ushering Delphina inside.

It was a rundown apartment, with cracked walls and loose floorboards, but it was certainly lived in and maintained as much as it could be. It was clearly cleaned regularly, and the couch in the living room had been decorated with the nicest throw pillows and blankets you could find on the Isle. There were other sitting chairs and rugs to make the space feel more homey, with a kitchen to the left and a hallway on the right that probably led to bedrooms.