Calypso found the car ride back “home” weird for a number of reasons. The fact that they’re riding back home in the first place was one of them, as they were just face-to-face with an agent of fate and destiny.

At least the little shit had the courtesy to give her and the rest of her coven their clothes back. Otherwise, this car ride back would’ve been completely unbearable.

It was somewhere around 9 or 10 in the morning. The… General, shared mind fog of being displaced still lingered, Calypso pondering between the silent stand-off she was in the middle of—if this fog was the result of their brains trying to wrap themselves around the fact any of what just happened, happened at all. Either way, Artemis and Bradley took it upon themselves to drop both Gale and Natalie off at their respective homes—Mrs. Moses simply told Sal’s parents that she’d meet them at the homestead, fading into the crowd that was in the know-how.

So, it left Calypso and a simmering Sal in the minivan. Not one word spoken, since Gale and Natalie left the car. In typical Calypso Grimes fashion, she leaned against Sal as they shared the backseat, a noncommittal and nonverbal gesture of solidarity that she could’ve just said.

But there was still that uncomfortable undertone that hung in the air. They knew. Sal’s parents… Calypso’s aunt and uncle… What she thought was simple familial hospitality now had a sinister edge to it all. And there’s the conversation/line of thought about Calypso’s own mother—who might also know more than what she seemed.

Maybe sent her away, so Artemis and Bradley could do the job she was clearly unequipped to handle.

Calypso just shook her head. Staring out of the window, but not really looking at anything. She just wanted Sal to start yelling—Bradley to start explaining things away—someone doing something. This entire situation has been gotten to her, already crushed her. But the stress still brewed within her now pounding head. And she knows once this farce starts, there won’t be relief in the slightest.

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Soon enough, the Grimes family pulled up in front of the homestead. Sal was the first to exit the van, causing Calypso to stumble without support. As she quickly caught herself, hoisted herself from the seat… Calypso simply looked down and nodded.

She felt the stares of her cousin’s parents and proceeded to help herself up, patting her loose tee in some vain sense of control. She too exited the vehicle without a sound, tempted to slam the door so hard that it damaged the car instead.

But as she tried to act like she wasn’t compromised in the slightest, at least there was one person that she felt was 100% on her side.

Mrs. Moses wheeled toward her student with a worn, but never the less genuine smile on her face. “You did so well, and on such short notice with the odds literally against you. If it wasn’t for my infernal back, I’d give you the hug deserve, Calypso.”

There was a short, but much-needed huff that escaped Calypso’s lips. She found them formed into a soft grin.

“Then allow me to do it myself…” Calypso couldn’t hide the appreciation in her tone.

Calypso bent down and gave her professor a hug, which she readily leaned forward to accept. There was the immediate awkward, lashing feeling from the inside—but the skeletal monster girl didn’t care.

This was the moment she never thought she’d get today. And she’s not going to let go of it so easily.

But she immediately sensed that Sal’s parents were approaching from behind, and broke the hug—smiling at her professor before walking up the stairs.

It felt… Odd. Calypso being glad that there was going to be screaming in this house. From the tops of everyone’s respective lungs—verbal barbs not only traded, but buried into one another to replicate the pain that seemed impossible to covey, let alone measure out in a sense of karma.

But anything was better, than maintaining this now visible, tangible, false ignorance.