When the soft sound of footsteps on grass pass by outside, the front of Nia's brain says staff doing checks, but she finds herself sitting up, anyway. She fumbles for her glasses. Shoving them on her face. Smudging the lenses in the process. Not that it matters in pitch darkness.
Antonia pokes her head out the tent's flap and finds herself nose to petal with a cluster of purple flowers that most definitely were not there before 10PM. Curious, she extends a finger and touches them, as though they might not be real. But they are. And that's when she notices the trail of them and how they lead to a teenager in strange old clothes.
She disappears back inside, sitting with a heavy, anxious wumph of air. She should stay in here. She should not engage ghosts or...forest entities. But, Nia supposes, if anyone should be out there, it's the Head Girl. To make sure no one else goes out. Gets hurt. Or taken. "Ursula, I'll be right back," Nia hisses, patting what she assumes is her tentmate's foot before crawling out and into the open.
You shouldn't be here is what she plans on saying as she stands and brushes the grime from her knees. Or Jesus Christ, Ennis, get back inside when she spots him out of his tent. But the closer she gets the more she thinks about flowers and being angry and lonely and her stomach ties itself in sad knots so tight that all she can think to say when she's finally close enough is, "it's good to finally meet you."
She presses her lips into a flat line, afraid to let silence linger long. "Are they treating you and the... other children well? The MAC-- our parents?"
Nia
Antonia pokes her head out the tent's flap and finds herself nose to petal with a cluster of purple flowers that most definitely were not there before 10PM. Curious, she extends a finger and touches them, as though they might not be real. But they are. And that's when she notices the trail of them and how they lead to a teenager in strange old clothes.
She disappears back inside, sitting with a heavy, anxious wumph of air. She should stay in here. She should not engage ghosts or...forest entities. But, Nia supposes, if anyone should be out there, it's the Head Girl. To make sure no one else goes out. Gets hurt. Or taken. "Ursula, I'll be right back," Nia hisses, patting what she assumes is her tentmate's foot before crawling out and into the open.
You shouldn't be here is what she plans on saying as she stands and brushes the grime from her knees. Or Jesus Christ, Ennis, get back inside when she spots him out of his tent. But the closer she gets the more she thinks about flowers and being angry and lonely and her stomach ties itself in sad knots so tight that all she can think to say when she's finally close enough is, "it's good to finally meet you."
She presses her lips into a flat line, afraid to let silence linger long. "Are they treating you and the... other children well? The MAC-- our parents?"