Who: Octavia and Aurelia What: Making a heartbreaking discovery Where: The Cave When: Wednesday Warnings: Heartbreaking discovery is heartbreaking Status: Narrative, unless someone wants to find her.
Aurelia had been fussing a lot lately. The cause seemed to be a pair of teeth trying to push through at the same time. Octavia supposed that would make anyone cranky. How her mother kept her quiet when she was an infant who didn't know any better was beyond her because she couldn't get Aurelia to be quiet for five minutes at a stretch.
The only peace and quiet came when she exhausted herself and slept. She'd sleep for a couple hours at a time if they were lucky. The lack of sleep was making Octavia just as cranky as her daughter, and she guessed Lincoln was feeling the stress too even though he didn't say. And he'd been gone already Wednesday morning when the fussy baby woke Octavia. He didn't generally leave without telling Octavia, but she figured he'd gone out into the woods, possibly to hunt.
She didn't think much of it when he didn't come home or contact her all day. As evening settled, and the forest around her grew dark, Octavia started to feel a little bit concerned. Where was he? Why hadn't he contacted her? She knew he hadn't left her, so there had to be some other explanation. It was possible he'd fallen asleep somewhere where the baby wouldn't disturb him, and if that was the case, she couldn't blame him. It was possible he was caught up in hunting and lost track of the time. It was possible he was hurt, or maybe he just left his phone somewhere. Any number of things could be the cause, but once the sun set, Octavia couldn't stop thinking the worst.
And finally, well past dinner time when she still hadn't heard from him, she typed up a message to send to his phone. She stared at the screen for several seconds, hesitant to send it. If he was hunting, the ping might startle his prey. It probably wasn't enough to wake him if he was asleep. If he was hurt, and couldn't get to his phone he wouldn't answer.
She never once considered the possibility that the message would throw back, unable to deliver. Her worst case scenario had him injured, possibly passed out on the ground. Not...gone. She wasn't sure who screamed first, her or Aurelia, but the baby had a sudden fit, crying as if someone had punched her just as the error: message not delivered notification flashed on the phone in Octavia's hand.
The phone fell to the ground, landing with a thud. Octavia's knees buckled and she went down, hands over her face.