It is painful to flee while her body is unmade, but it manages. It always manages.

Maverick and Adwin hear the splash. They turn their heads, but see nothing except the waves. Adwin has the good sense to look up, and he sees a figure hanging above.

"Who's that?" Adwin asks, looking at the figure. From here, they can barely make out the colours of his clothing, let alone who it is.

Maverick shrugs. "We should head back and check."

They are the first to leave their location, but the trudge up is long. So, of course, they don't make it back before Tim is already in the bedroom, curled up in the sheets. He continues to hiccup so that he doesn't lose the feeling of panic in his body.

Tim is a method actor. He imagines them all finding him and knowing what he has done. Instead of the guilt of a killer, he tries to feel the guilt of someone who is not a killer but who believes they are. Then, he actually begins to panic at the thought of being discovered. His body shakes and his teeth clatter and his sobs are loud.

So loud, in fact, that Flo can hear them from outside the cabin. She bolts in, with the grace of a woman who knows how to carry a dress but not how to run. From there, she kneels down next to Tim's bed and takes his hand. It rattles her whole body. "What's wrong? What has happened?"

Alvaro follows in after her, careful to keep his distance. "Is he being possessed?"

Flo recoils her hand and stumbles backwards. She hates it, she does, but she can't touch him anymore. She wishes someone were here. She wishes it was Adwin. It was easier to comfort a madman than a demon. "I... you don't think? My word, you do not really believe in possession, do you?"

"Stranger things, Flo, way stranger," Alvaro manages, before he kneels down next to her. He helps her off the floor, and her nails cling in deep enough to him that if his heart weren't already pounding, it would start thundering.

"Tim," Flo asks, her voice wavering. "Tim!"

"I don't think he can hear you," Alvaro says.

Tim most certainly can, but he is so deep into character that he has lost himself.

Beverly and Mickey are the next inside. Mickey stares at Tim, then his eyes dart over to Ivy's bed, at the opposite side of the room. It's empty.

"What happened?" he asks, stepping closer. "Where's Ivy?"

Tim's sobs get louder, and the other two turn around, noticing her empty bed. Flo's knees grow weak. She finds herself falling to the ground once more. She expects Alvaro to catch her, but she slips through his fingers and her knees bang into the wood.

Mickey steps closer, and Beverly is too stunned to stop him. This is less fun now, with someone missing, and the change in tone from their lighthearted laughter in the woods hurts her stomach.

"Tim fucking answer me!" Mickey shouts.

Alvaro doesn't dare hold him back.

Mickey grabs Tim out of the bed and drags his body across the room, just as Maverick and Adwin enter. "What did you do?"

"What's going on?" Maverick tries to pry his way in between Mickey and Tim, but the man's grip is too strong. "What happened?"

No one knows how to answer.

Alvaro is torn. He watches as Maverick and Mickey wrestle and is caught between both of them. Doing nothing and doing something are both statements.

"It's... it's Ivy," Beverly finally manages, blinking rapidly while she speaks. "She's gone."

Adwin's head swings around wildly. He expected to feel himself fall apart, but he is grounded. The splash. The figure. All the dots connect in his head, all in a row. With Mickey still raging, he doesn't dare mention it. "Whatever has happened, beating Mr. Penworth is-"

"She went missing under his watch!" Mickey counters, turning away from Tim and towards Adwin. Clara walks in as he yells, but Mickey is too focused on Adwin. He should have known that Adwin of all people would be in leagues with the enemy. "Ivy's gone now!"

Flo finally manages to make her way over to Tim. She and Maverick help the sobbing boy back to bed. From there, Flo sits with his head in her lap, and she strokes his hair out of his face over and over.

Clara closes the door and crosses the room. Though Mickey has historically responded well to a good slapping, the others have not. Instead, she puts her hands on his shoulders, even though her hands shake as she does. "Mr. Gall- Mickey, you need to relax."

"But..." he tries not to relax into Clara. She is his greatest weakness. He feels like he is in a boat with a hole, and he is beginning to panic, but how can he become agitated with her there too steady him in the wind? "Clara, he knows what happened to Ivy."

"I need to talk to Tim in private," Alvaro gulps.

That's when Maverick clues in. He shakes his head back and forth. "No. Both of us do."

The two exchange a look. In it is a shared question. What happened on that cliff? They both know she is very weak. Adwin can't imagine Tim having an incentive to kill Ivy. So, did she jump of her own accord, or did he help her? Maverick is less charitable. Did she slip from his fingers, or was she pushed?

Alvaro looks at them, trying to read their faces.

"No secrets," Bev cuts in, and Alvaro is thankful that she said something rather than him.

"We need to know," Clara cuts in, nodding. She turns so that she is at Mickey's side. She tries to put her head on his shoulder (I wish she would) but her body is too stiff. Instead, she resolves to let her fingers graze is, using her uninjured hand.

Once again, Maverick and Adwin look at each other. Maverick shakes his head, but Adwin can't stay silent. "We heard something splash in the water when we were at the beach."

Flo stops moving her hand. It tightens into a fist around Tim's locks, and she closes her eyes to try and stop herself from shaking. Tim feels the pain but says nothing. His tears are authentic, but he tries to keep himself from letting his face betray why he hurts.

"What... no," Mickey shakes his head back and forth. "Did... how? She can barely walk."

"She stopped a knife last night, she can probably walk," Adwin winces. "Sorry, not helpful."

"I... I don't understand," Beverly manages.

Maverick looks over at Beverly. "I know it's hard to process."

"She couldn't get there alone." Mickey insists. When he tries to step forward, Clara pulls him backwards. She rubs her hand off on her skirt, carefully tucking it away. "No way."

"We saw someone with her," Adwin tells him.

Maverick winces.

Mickey lunges for Tim, but Flo bends herself over top of him, folding up so that she is protecting him. Mickey wouldn't hit a woman. He has never even wanted to hurt one. So, he takes a step back and breathes in.

"Relax," Clara whispers, but it comes out more like an order.

Death is nothing new to Alvaro. He looks at Tim, and then back at the others. He closes his eyes and sighs. "Tim, was it you who was there, or did someone come and kidnap her?"

There is a muffled wail from beneath Flo. She doesn't dare relinquish him, instead looking at Mickey with tears in her eyes. She shakes her head back and forth at him, before stroking Tim's hair off of his ear.

"So, you're saying that Ivy fell," Beverly tries her best to process the information. "That... that she fell off a cliff? I am sorry, but this all seems highly unusual to... to..."

Even Flo, who has dedicated herself to folding over Tim, finds herself waiting for her answer. She curses herself under her breath. "Timmy, take your time."

"If someone attacked her, we need to know now," Mickey argues. "We don't have time to wait around like sitting ducks before the French show up."

Adwin squirms beneath his own bodyweight. Everything feels numb. "But... but if it was an accident-"

"How could it possibly be an accident?" Mickey demands.

Maverick wishes that Mickey could hold his tongue. He doesn't believe what happened was an accident either, but speaking it will only cause a panic. Without Adwin to support him, he glances over at Alvaro. He doesn't let his gaze linger too long.

"Didn't Mr. Tremblay say she was possessed?" Clara lets her fingers dangle against Mickey's once more, trying to ease his words.

Now, Mickey's angry all over again about Clara and Hubert.

"She could have, walked off of her own accord," Adwin suggests. "Though, perhaps she was much too weak to walk."

"She stopped a knife last night. I'd hardly call that weak."

Mickey cannot handle himself any longer. He breaks himself out of Clara's grasp and walks outside the cabin. No one follows him, and he is happy to be left alone.

He sits on the porch, wishing he had a cigar to smoke. Mickey thinks of all the things he has lived through. Of course, another death would happen and interrupt his already crazy life. He buries his head in his lap, his knees jolting beneath them. It feels like his brain is ricocheting back and forth in his head.

Clara wanted to follow him, but she allows him his space. The last twenty-four hours have been confusing enough without bringing in her complicated relationship with the man on their stoop. Instead of speaking, she crosses the floor and sits on her bed.

Opposite her, Beverly stands still struggling to get a grasp on Ivy's disappearance. How could they be sure the splash was her body? Beverly is in tune with the world. She knows the ocean like she knows the call to danger. The forest is more complicated. It is intrinsically part of her, yet separate at the same time. So, Beverly ought to know if someone crashed into the water.

She was told by Hubert that they had a purpose. Ivy could not have been brought here by an ocean only to be ripped from their grasp.

So, where is she?

Adwin, Maverick, and Alvaro stay put, crowded around Tim. They each want answers, and they are all willing to wait out the night to get them. Their suspicions grow as the fire dies out.

The room becomes colder and colder.

Flo pulls herself up and off of Tim. His sobs have died out, and she has no doubt he has a headache. Normally, she would offer him water. Now that the threat of Mickey has been removed from the room, she wants to leave Tim and take a shower. Even the rot feels cleaner.

With a silence finally washed over the cramped space, Tim sits up. He doesn't dare let himself look at the others, instead blinking and staring at his lap.

"She, she wanted to go to the cliffs," Tim whispers, and the others all lean in to hear him. "I... I thought she just wanted to see the view. Her eyes, they glossed over, and she... she took a step closer to the edge and I wasn't... I tried to pull her back but my fingers... she just slipped and..."

And she fell.

"It's not your fault," Adwin reassures him, kneeling down in front of him. Adwin takes Tim's icy hands, and he feels the coldness crawl up him like ivy.

But it is Tim's fault. And Tim is sad too because he deserves to be punished, but they had all agreed she was going to die anyway, and the sea wanted a life. Anyone would have come to his conclusion.

He hopes that he is not alone in doing the deed.

~~~~~

Was it confusing? Maybe. At least I accomplished it though, and that is what mattered. I'm very excited to see where this goes though! So very excited.