penelope missed her brother, von eden. that alone was no secret to the others in the group. she often talked about how much she missed him for hours on end, & nearly every session ended up in tears, coming from penelope’s side. she didn’t know where he was, not yet, & desperately missed him so. last she had heard of him was that he was being taken out of the country to get treated for his simple illness, & the people that had taken him away had promised her that he’d be back before she knew it… she hadn’t seen him at all since. they couldn’t call. there were no phones. she couldn’t sent him any letters, & any she did manage to send out to him remained without a response. she couldn’t even contact the doctors that had taken von eden, as any letter she sent to them was met with radio-silence as well. she felt helpless, hopeless, knowing that with the recent outbreak of DUZII she had close to zero chance of meeting up with her brother again. so she did the next best thing she knew when times were dire & hopeless like this. her parents had always told her that crying it all out whenever things felt impossibly down was always the best way out of a predicament. whether it was that all those bottled emotions would finally be flushed out, or one would be struck with a fresh idea for the solution to their problem whilst sobbing, penelope’s parents had always encouraged her to let the waterworks flow every once in a while when she felt down. so she did. without telling anyone where she was going, penelope snuck out of the group’s hideout cabin hidden out in the centre of the woods. penelope trudged over to a particularly large oak tree after a bit of a walk, feet dragging through the fallen autumn leaves littered all over the ground. she sat herself down heavily underneath the tree, back against the bark, & pulled her knees against her chest, hiding her face in her folded arms before beginning to sob.