𓆩[⟡𓆪 𓆩⟡𓆪 𓆩⟡]
Esther Ruth Dubois, age twenty-two, with a delicate scar that curved along the side of her neck—a scar one would only notice if they were to scrutinize her with intent. Esther, who often took long, solitary walks around the building, carried with her an air of fragility. From what Thalia had gathered through the fragmented conversations they’d shared, Esther was an accomplished skater, graceful on the ice despite her otherwise sickly demeanor.
These were mere fragments of Esther’s life, gleaned through casual observation and intermittent exchanges. Yet, as Thalia pondered the recent, untimely deaths of Miles and Serafina, she couldn’t help but feel there was a thread connecting them to Esther. Was it a warning? Esther, with her visible frailty and rumored health issues, seemed an easy target—perhaps even a pawn in a larger, more insidious game. Thalia was certain it wasn’t an accident; Mona had been adamant, and Thalia trusted her instincts. But the question gnawed at her: why would anyone want to harm Esther?
Thalia remained silent as Mona continued her rapid monologue, her eyes staring directly into Mona’s brown one’s. Thalia’s face had turned sour as her eyes widened at the mention of ‘another man’ “What other man?” Thalia asked, her voice breaking the hush with an urgency she couldn’t quite mask.
There where so many men in this school, talks about ‘another man’ did not really help, especially if Thalia did not have a description. If the man was fair skinned with rough dark hair and a heart shape birth mark underneath his eyes- then the man was Frederick Petrov, if he was a red haired with freckles all over his face, and a long nose- then it had to be Cillian Walsh, if he was brunette with handsome dead eyes,
an occasionally slouched posture, and an addiction to nicotine then it had to be Hayes, if it wa-well, you get the point. “Did he perhaps mention a hair color-like red, brown, idk blue?” She questioned, clearly very interested in what Mona had to say. Though, Mona had said that it wasn’t possible true and we shouldn’t focus on that and Thalia really felt like screaming, ‘forgot what I said, let’s focus on that- we have to focus on that’ but she did not, instead, she leaned against the wall, feeling her head ache, and gave Desdemona a strange look, before her lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile but was also not quite a frown. “We shouldn’t focus on that,” Thalia murmured, but they could, “Yeah, you’re right, We shouldn’t, but did Atlas tell you anything like.” She pursued her lips, “Not like I want to focus on that or anything, but i was wondering, because Esther is a good friend of mine,” Good friend was definitely a stretch, “When exactly did Esther faint and where you guys able to detect what was in her body that caused her to you know? Not that we have to focus on that but, it would be interesting to know,”
Thalia had this thing, where when she finds a topic that intrigues her greatly, she holds on to it- it was practically impossible, really, to rip that topic away from her clawed hands, to stop her from obsessing over it, because Thalia was nothing in her soul If not obsessive, it was what kept her moving really-what challenged her despite her inabilities due to the incident.
They had kept the topic about Esther and Atlas going on, despite the fact that Desdemona said they should not focus on it, and Thalia had asked quite a lot of questions, causing her to apologize for it, but Desdemona had only stared at her confused, like she couldn’t understand what she was apologizing for, telling her that it was okay, and she didn’t mind, causing Thalia lips to tug to a smile. She was used to hearing she talked to little as a child or when she talked she asked too many questions, and she did- she usually did, because it is or at least it used to be incredibly hard to truly understand people and societal clues, causing her to have a lot of questions. “Cute,” Thalia had smiled, “'Thought i was overwhelming you,” she explained.
As the dived more into the Esther- Atlas thing, Thalia could not help but to drop Desdemona’s hands and type into her phone , Esther and Atlas- connected??? she wondered if she would be able to catch them together today-take a picture for reasons…
Moreover, Thalia put her phone back inside her pockets, looking at Desdemona. “He’s not evil,” Thalia agreed, he was definitely not the one who harmed her. “Just annoying,” And Though he was definitely not connected to Esther’s incident, Thalia felt like he knew something, but did she really want to talk to him, well sigh. Noticing that they were no longer holding hands, Thalia took Desdemona’s hands back in her’s, “But being annoying is not really a crime I suppose, we all are in some form, still,'” She sighed, “I just idk, he’s not my type of person,” There was def not a possibility for a friendship between them to ever blossom, especially as he was best friend with the Headmaster’s daughter.
“I just don’t like adults,”
That had been Desdemona’s explanation after pushing her away, causing Thalia to resist the urge to scratch her head like -umm ok! She suppose it could be a trauma response, from adults during her younger days, or perhaps it was a lie, but Thalia didn’t feel like calling her out on it. “Not even my parents?” Thalia had said teasingly with a pout, trying to lighten up the mood, “They will be devastated to hear that.” She said putting a hand on her chest, “Oh dear, my poor parents.”
As they scrolled through pictures in thalia’s camera roll, Desdemona had her hand wrapped around Thalia’s torso and her forehead on the slope of her neck. Every time Thalia was flipping through the images, and she saw a weird suspicious thing, she would flip faster, hoping that Desdemona had not noticed it- she never really like showing anyone pictures in her camera.
“Here,” Thalia said, pausing on a particularly scenic shot of the sunset painting the sky in hues of pink and gold, “is where we’ll make countless memories together.”
“It will be great,” Thalia said when Desdemona said she couldn’t wait, “You would like it here, I think, so many different things for you to explore .” Thalia flipped to another image, but the image was a picture of a brunette boy with dead set eyes, staring at nothing in particular and Desdemona had gazed at it, but Thalia quickly switched to the next picture, before she nervously let out a laughter. “We should go here together sometime,” Thalia said pointing to a spot in the photo.