The Dome

Chapter Three

          Iris paced around her new bedroom quickly, moving across the entire room with only three swift steps. Seated on the floor behind her was Nora, staring up at her friend with a puzzled expression.

"Iris, hun, calm down. You're home and you're safe and that's all that matters." The tall girl murmured in a calm, soothing voice, which was only met with fear from Iris.

"She knew my name, Nora! She knows who we are! She had that picture and you said it yourself, it looks like me! I can't just calm down!" She growled, gesturing madly with terror clouding her normally radiant light blue gaze.

"Maybe we should tell Nova and Ca-"

"No! Once they know, they'll get all defensive with Fox and the dome kids and think that they did something, you know how they are with new people! Hell, that's how they were with me, and there wasn't even anyone else to blame!" Iris had slightly lowered her voice, not wanting to wake up the rest of the group, all of whom were now sound asleep in their own rooms. "Iris, they can help. If they know, then we can pull you from our missions and Nova and I will go on the raids by ourselves, we'll be able to keep you safe, but we can only do that if we tell them." Nora opened her arms to her friend, allowing the dark haired girl to kneel beside her and fall into her arms. With one calm, gentle hand, the older girl started to smooth out Iris' hair. It had been all over the place when she had returned, half of the strands falling over her shoulder and the other half tied together towards the end with a loose hair tie. Nora carefully pulled the small twigs from the long black strands that they had gotten tangled in.

"I'm scared, Nora. I don't want to have to deal with all of this." Iris sobbed into Nora's shoulder. Every breath that managed to escape her was shaky, gradually becoming softer and steadier as she choked out cries.

"It'll be okay, Iris, just try to get some sleep, alright?" The blonde murmured, feeling a subtle nod from her friend.

With a sigh, the frazzled girl closed her eyes, falling into the calming, sisterly support of Nora's embrace and gradually drifting asleep.

*****

"Where is she now, Nor?" Cain's voice was some odd mix between quiet, hurried, and serious. His blue eyes lit with concern and worry as he spoke. Nora sat before him, the pair having moved as far away from any of the bedrooms as they could in the long hallway.
"She's asleep. I made up her bed while she was gone and she fell asleep when I was trying to calm her down."
"Alright. I'm gonna let Nova know, and he'll pull her from the raids. She'll probably want to spruce up the place anyway. She loved doing that with the camp and now she actually has walls to decorate."
The two shared a minuscule laugh. It was hushed, short, and slightly forced, but the humor was still there. After all, Cain and Nora hadn't always liked the other being around. Cain joined the group shortly before Iris, having been part of a gang with Nova before it disbanded. He and Cain are like brothers, but that doesn't mean that Nora feels the same towards him. In fact, his shock when Iris arrived caused him to almost freeze, only assisting and talking to Iris when Nora was away on raids with her brother. Yet, he was never able to actually do any of the healing that he himself taught Nora. Though the blonde never asked why he reacted the way he did, she had always felt that it was more about her than Iris.

Now, Cain stood to walk towards Nova's room, and Nora fell against the wall, running one shaking hand through her hair as her eyes fell closed.

"What sort of mess have we gotten ourselves into now, Mom?"

A few tears fell onto her cheeks, and a meek laugh slipped by her quivering lips. She hadn't thought about it all in a long time. Her mother was dead. She never knew her father. She was living as a thief and now, everything with Iris and this "Mystery Girl"? It was all bearing down on her for the first time in what felt like decades. She brought her hand up to her eyes, gently wiping away the tears and praying to whatever being was listening that the redness fade away before Nova inevitably came to talk to her.