Daphne slammed the laptop shut, trying to stumble out of her dorm, slipping over the vines that her own body had created. While it watched from the corner, Daphne tried to hate it. As she cried lavender that filled her nose, another scent overpowered the room. Something sickly. Something sweet. Like strawberries. SHE COULD HEAR IT ALL, not just Icarus, not just the father she felt like she killed, or the mother she actually did, but the voices of the damned. Daphne felt alone. Daphne felt tired. She didn't want this. She didn't WANT to die like this, suffocating on her own creation. She pounded at the feet of the lengthy beast, as it stared down upon her with red, almost... sad eyes. She searched for something. Anything. She remembered the comment that had been left... The window! Using her own vines, she slid down the side of her dorm. But the flowers and the vines and the roots still spewed.

It followed her down. When Daphne met its eyes, she couldn't help but feel... relieved. As if this creature offered her a sick, dark, comfort. A feeling of the familiar. NO. She knew this feeling. The faint buzzing she'd feel when Irie would play some trick on her with her powers, only MUCH... MUCH... stronger. Its eyes were toying with her mind, showing her visions, showing her what she desperately wanted... The truth. About this book. About her friend. About her. She couldn't let anyone catch her like this. Alone. In the alley beside the air conditioning machine. In her pajamas. With eyes bloodshot with tears. With her own powers turning against her. She had to stop this somehow.

Daphne spotted a nearby brick that had been broken loose from years of wear and tear. Her own vines holding her back, she lunged towards it, removing it from the bricks of her dormitory. She had to stop this. She had to stop this.

Daphne raised the brick above the hand from which the flowers spewed. And she beat down upon it. She pounded the brick until the flowers were replaced with blood. Until her hand was numb. Until her fingers went cold and limp. Just before her last strike, her finger twitched, as if she was pulling the trigger of a gun.

Daphne went back inside, to her ruined dormitory, and bandaged herself up. She would be fine.