#earthrunes

Chloe looks back at Petunia with clear appreciation of her skill with the mortal, and then turns to regard the one they've come to meet: Petra.

"Hello?" A voice, Petra is behind a plastic, air being filtered to the 9th degree.

Ironicly, she seems healthy looking in some ways.

"Hello." Chloe pitches her voice to a quiet tone as she approaches the barrier. "My name is Chloe. This is Petunia. You're Petra?"

"Chloe? " the woman says "Wait ,Chloe DuBois?"

"I..." A blink. "Well, yes. You know me?"

"I believe I once called you a heinous waste of skin and a horse beater."

"Oh boy" Petunia mutters

Another blink. A pause. "I got better."

Vague, very vague memories of Chloe being a bitch to this lady. Chloe was loaded. This girl was... well, Lower UPpper class?

She narrows her eyes a bit, trying to hunt down the memory, but a bit reluctant to touch more of that life than she has to. Instead, she asks, "How did this happen, Petra?" Indicating the plastic and the contraptions.

"It just did. I was always getting odd colds. " She says "THen boom... the right chemicals in my body clicked and my immune system was gone. Odd huh? They thought it was HIV at first"

"Odd," she agrees, looking the girl over. "You don't look very ill."

"RIp the plastic, cough on me, and I'm dead." Wry "Why ARE you here, Chloe? I don't understand. I heard you were nicer but.. .friends?"

"Honestly? I didn't even remember your name." Said without shame. "We're...well...it's complicated. I was coming to sort of interview the girl I'd heard about, and didn't realize it was someone I used to know." A curious look. "How did your parents take all this?"

"They're trying to save me with miracles... and suddenly we've got religion. I really don't MIND religion, but I'm pretty sure God, or Zeus, or Xenu isn't going to be fooled by this Agnostic."

"Oh." A nod, thinking. "What did you end up doing after school, anyway? Or did this happen pretty much before you could get started?"

"Correspondence for the last part of it. " Petra says "I didn't want to be filmed, but folks talked me into doing that 'gradutate no matter what' example so I went with it."

"Doesn't sound like you think it was the right thing to do. You regret it?"

"I'm not some heroine ... folks made more of me than I was. I just want to... you know, be somewhere else. ANYWHERE else"

A pause. "Somebody out there in the hallway let slip that you were considering nowhere else."

"Bless her, but she's got a big mouth" A mutter.

A smirk. "Sounds like there's a bit of religion in there, after all."

"Cultural Indoctrination is a bitch" Sheepish

"Mm." A nod. "You serious about it, though?"

"Killing myself, saving a small fortune for my parents, and ending this farce? Yes. I was serious"

"Sounds...like you don't want to, but you figure you should." Troubled.

"Is.. is there a point to this? Honestly, when you showed I half way thought you were going to rub my face in this after all these years'

Chloe doesn't answer immediately. She turns to Petunia, and her expression clearly reveals that she's having doubts.

"Pardon" Petunia moves back with her to a corner "Okay. You don't think she's the one?"

"I...she is. But...I thought it would be something...urgent, unmistakable. Something I could justify to August. If he ever finds out she was like this, he'd argue she could have been counseled, could still have a life like this. He wouldn't be able to forgive me." Few things make Chloe hesitate...but apparently, this is one of those things.

"I think the arguement is this isn't much of a life" She says "But I admit to confusion... I too thought it would be more...immediately grimmer"

"Is...is that the cost of the Lantern? That it must be an act that's morally gray?" Chloe looks distinctly annoyed.

"I don't know, but I..."

Petunia's eyes widen "Put that down!"

Chloe turns to see what she's looking at.

And sees that somehow... where the ballpoint pen came from she doesn't know, but it doesn't look clean and the woman has taken it out of her case and snapped it, and is cutting at her wrist.

"Petra!" Is there a gap in the plastic?

A small one, Petra herself might have made it. Near the floor.

But to move a body in there? She'll just have to unseal and go in

Which she does. She grabs Petra's wrist, compressing the wound. "Listen. If you do this...you don't get anything else, ever. Do you understand?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because I need to know that you understand. I'll let you do this if you really understand...but it may end differently than you expect." Urgent.

"I understand" She says

"Now. Do it." A wild look to Petunia, not letting go of Petra's wrist.

Petunia pulls out the lantern, "What's the name of the soul we seek?"

"Perdita!" Then to Petra. "You need to know...you were right about me. You were right. But that was before something wonderful happened to me, and the same thing is going to happen for you. You deserved better than what happened to you...and this is the best I can do."

"I don't under..."

"Perdita, House Danaan...if you are out there, heed and call... and let this soul wander for you to a happier life"

"Oh my god, there's so much to see" Petra gasps, then sees Chloe, "You're so pretty and... "