Your heart has a lack of color Who: Linnea & any Niemi's (or Bradley's) Where: Niemi household When: Evening
None of it had been real.
None of it had been real?
Linnea had entered into something very akin to a state of shock when she opened her eyes in the high school, right where she remembered being. And just over there was Valterri, looking perfectly alright. She could even see Isolde. None of them looked as though they had moved from where they had been stood, and neither did she for that matter. There had even been something like a gentle kick in her stomach; and that had been when she had started to cry. She could not have told anyone if they were tears of relief or regret, but once she had started she did not stop until they took her to the hospital. Part of her wanted to reach out and find Valterri and make sure that he was alright, but the part was overwhelmed by the rest. They had tried to ask her questions when she arrived, but were unable to get anything out of her until they checked to see if she was pregnant. She was.
I still am... I never wasn't...
She had floated through the rest of it as though in a dream. From start to finish, answering questions in something akin to a monotone as she kept her hand firmly in the pitcher of water they had fetched for her. At last it was over and she could go collect Valterri and return home. All she wanted to do was go home, make sure her children had survived without her, and then lay down in a tub of water and not move for the rest of the night. It sounded absolutely heavenly and divine and -
'You may want to just go straight into the pool.'
The voice popped into Linnea's head as she opened the garage door and gave her pause. She frowned towards the house, finished parking, and went inside to find her familiar waiting underneath one of his heat lamps. "Why?" The house seemed unusually quiet considering that she and Valterri were back. Hadw none of them seen the news? In fact... Linnea was just starting to realize how strange it was that none of her children had been at the hospital waiting for them. Except for Leif. He did not surprise her in much of anything that he did other than requesting that she help with his elementalism at last.
Strike rattled his tail and curled in tighter on himself. 'I don't know if I want to be the one to tell you.'
Now Linnea was starting to feel the first wisps of panic. "Strike... where are my children?"
'Upstairs I think.' A pause. 'Except for Satu.'
Her breath caught and the half-drunk glass of water someone had left on the counter froze solid. "Where is Satu?" Out with a friend? ...she doesn't have friends... Strike was not saying anything and Linnea crossed the room in a blink, leaning down to put herself on an eye-level with the snake. "Where. Is. My. Daughter?"
'The mental ward at the hospital, I think.'
"WHAT?!" The fountains in the next room went wild for a moment before freezing and it was a true surprise that the pool did not follow suit.