She had never seen the elevator so determined to swallow hope whole, blinking felt excessive, even the floor numbers ticked by slow enough to mock her heartbeat. Toshiko stood pressed against you, hands clutching onto your sleeve, unsure if the shiver crawling up her spine belonged to her or the entire world spiraling into quiet despair at once.

Diana’s speech had dressed itself up in all the right words and pretty intentions, but no matter how hard she tried to wrap herself in it, the cold still slipped through, leaving her stomach folding into knots.

"I'm here... and I'm okay," she whispered softly, the same words Ingrid once handed out like a charm against monsters, but monsters never cared for charms, monsters never followed rules, monsters wore faces and names and sometimes even friends. For a second it helped, a tiny little second that folded away once the elevator hissed its doors open and spilled the students out.

They walked away, no goodbyes, no glances, just hollow steps and ghosts for faces, and Toshiko stayed behind, fingers clinging onto you.

Her voice barely made it past her throat, "can we do something together... anything... even doing homework would be less scary than this," and then the tears returned, uninvited but honest, "I just don’t want to be alone ever again..."