Cassandra looks forward and as soon as she sees the street lamps glowing and cars rushing by on a road not far from her, she collapses face first into the ground, her arms barely able to move enough to protect her face as she falls. A bitter, cold wind envelopes her being as she realizes she is laying face down in at least half a foot of snow. Her arms are under her head, crossed to form a pillow. She sobs into the ground, her tears and body melting the ice and snow around her, but her body temperature is lowering. More freezing wind thrashes against her and slowly she begins to feel numb. Her eyes already being closed, she doesn't see her world blackening. Before she passes out, she hears voices, but she can't make them out.

When she wakes, she experiences a sense of paralysis - her mind is awake, but she can't move her limbs or open her eyes. She panics and instinctively her body shakes. She hears voices nearby and this time she can make out some of the words. A woman's voice speaks first, "What are we going to do with her? She clearly needs a healer."

Another voice, a slightly deeper woman's voice speaks up, "I already called Triss. She'll be here soon. For now we just need to wait and see. Oh shit, she's convulsing. Fuck. What do we do about seizures?"

The first woman's voice sounds panicked as she replies, "I don't know! Roll her on her side and protect her head. I think?" But by the time the woman finishes her sentence, she has stopped convulsing.

It was then that the scarlet haired girl could finally open her eyes. She falls off of the table she'd been laid on. She's in a house or an apartment of some kind, clearly having been on a table in the kitchen. There is a tea-like aroma in the air, but it's bitter and clearly over-steeped. She curls up in a ball for a moment, closing her eyes tight. She lets out a hoarse sigh and she tries to get up. She feels a warm pressure, a touch against her shoulder and she screams, "Don't touch me!" She shuffles herself backwards across the floor to get away and she begins to sob, "Please don't touch me. I promise I won't run again. Please, please Xander. Please." She cries hard, nearly a scream.

The figure in front of her backs away and then speaks, though it's difficult to hear over her sobs, "She thinks she's still in Arcadia."

The second woman says, "I'll call Triss again. Make sure she knows that it is more urgent than we thought. She'll know how to handle this." She can hear footsteps moving further from her.

Suddenly, a figure appears before the scarlet haired girl. Had it teleported or had she just not noticed in between her cries? It speaks to her, "You're all right now. You made it through the Hedge. They can't get you now." It is the voice of the first woman again, but it has a sweeter tone to it.

She dares to look up briefly to see the likely predator before her. The woman has dark, smooth skin, beautiful, curly black hair, and dark brown eyes. At least, this is what she sees at first. Her eyes see beyond this illusion to the person beneath, a snake-like creature with dull, black scales and violet eyes. She screams and thrusts her arms out to push the creature away, using her nails to defend herself and she yells, "You can't have me. You can't trick me." Her emerald eyes become panicked and she tries to stand up, "I need to run. I need to go home. Please let me go home." She begins pulling herself by her arms across the floor, but she flinches in immense pain.

The snake woman seems to have dodged the scarlet haired girl's attacks for the most part, "Hey, hey. Watch yourself there. You're injured really bad. The Hedge was not kind to you. If you keep freaking out you're going to pass out again." She doesn't try to reach out, but keeps speaking, "You're in Baltimore. You made it out."

The scarlet haired girl shakes her head and sobs, "You're lying. Xander, why are you doing this? Give up on me. Let me die." She begins shaking uncontrollably, clearly having a severe panic attack. The snake woman nods at her and then leaves.

There is shock in her eyes, Is this the day you will let me die? She thinks to herself. She looks around the kitchen. The counters look weird. The colors are more neutral, drained of life. She remembers the somewhat sickly green color of the kitchen in the home she grew up in. The home she fought so hard to return to. It didn’t make sense. Alexander would never allow a dream to go without color like this. Colors always swirled around the edges, but there were no opalescent edges anywhere.

She moves onto her knees, shrinking back in pain from the bruises that haven’t fully formed. She tries to go through the drawers that she could reach, looking for something to defend herself with. She finds a cake cutter, the best she could find in her short time shuffling through the drawers. She holds it close to her, her heart pounding so hard she begins to wonder if it can be heard.

The snake woman appears moments later with… a blanket? The scarlet haired girl’s emerald eyes show clear confusion as she stares at this white, quilted blanket. The snake woman steps closer to her, but she holds the cake cutter close and hidden. Gently, the snake woman lays this folded blanket close enough for her to reach for it without the snake woman being too close.

The scarlet haired girl stares at it for a long time, looking back occasionally at the snake woman in case it is a trap. Slowly, she reaches for it. Once it is in her grasp, she quickly pulls it around her. Somehow the blanket makes her feel even colder until her body temperature finally begins to put heat into it. She leans back against the dull, off-white cabinets and holds onto the blanket as if it were a lifeline.

“I’m Erin,” the snake woman starts, waiting to see if she can get a response, but the scarlet haired girl stays silent, “You know, we have something in common,” this statement seems to elicit something in the gray skinned, scarlet haired girl. Perhaps a hint of curiosity? “We are Changelings, one of the Lost, and we both managed to escape from our Keepers and find our way through the Hedge.”

“Lost?” The one word question is barely a whisper from her lips.

“It is what we’ve been changed into by the Others. Or some say it is the Hedge ripping apart our souls, but that’s not exactly a fun way to look at it. Surely you’ve noticed the change,” the snake woman says, clearly trying to be helpful and explain things, but the girl’s head is foggy from the loss of blood, fatigue, and general anxiety. When the girl gives a confused look, the snake woman continues, “Can you see my true face? My fae mien? You have your own, though… you honestly don't look that much different. Most of us get at least one kind of dramatic change. Though your skin is pretty grey."

The look in the scarlet haired girl’s emerald eyes is one of confusion, fright, and an odd calm. The calm is clearly a false calm, meant to take someone off guard. She shakes her head, but it doesn't seem like she is saying no. She is denying reality. She rests her head down on her knees not saying another word and pulls the blanket tighter around herself as if it could protect her somehow. Pain seers through her and she realizes she is bleeding again.

The snake woman, Erin, gasps a little as she sees blood starting to soak through the quilt. Her voice is panicked, "Oh, fuck. Um. Lay down, we need to put pressure on your wounds to stop the bleeding." She moves closer to the scarlet haired girl.

The bleeding girl, tightly wrapped in her own blood shrieks, "Don't touch me!" As she screams a door opens somewhere in the distance. She pulls the cake cutter from her chest and points it at Erin in a defensive posture. Erin responds by backing up.

A tall, rather curvaceous woman enters the kitchen. Her shoulder length hair is like spun gold and perfectly curled, her eyes are a bright blue, like gazing into the ocean. She is wearing an unzipped sweater jacket with a green tank top underneath, faded light blue jeans, and off-white canvas shoes. Immediately, the room smells of lilac and roses. The blonde looks at Erin, "Why is she soaked in blood?" That's when she sees the cake cutter in the scarlet haired girl's hand. She shakes her head, "Erin, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! She rolled off the table and backed herself into a corner. There might have also been some trying to escape…" she kind of trails off there, likely wondering how much of this is her fault.

The scarlet girl calls out again, "Don't touch me." This time her voice is more firm, as if she has control somehow over the situation. Clearly, she doesn't.

The blonde looks carefully at this terrified girl in the corner of the kitchen, clearly trying to be brave, "Don't worry," her low voice has an almost motherly tone to it, "I don't need to touch you to heal you, but just in case…" she moves her hands in an almost wave-like motion and a sweet smelling breeze washes over the hostile girl. Within a few moments, the girl's eyes begin to flutter to a close and she becomes limp, her whole world blacking out.