[Adaine tightens her hold and shifts so it's more like a half hug. It's hard, and even though they've clearly lived different lives with different relationships to those around them, there's a deep well of empathy within her. And she feels it radiating off of Jessica as well.

Years ago, Adaine might have tried to drown out Jessica's pain with her own. She might have screamed and cried petulantly for attention, because she'd been so starved of it for so long that she saw anyone else getting anything that she wanted as them stealing from her. But she's changed, she realizes. And from the sounds of it, Jessica's changing too.]

...When my sister was slipping, I didn't see it either. Not until she'd sunken a ship full of people in the middle of the ocean, or until she was so wrapped up in her addiction to pain that she'd choose to destroy the world rather than live in it.

Part of me really wants to blame myself for that, because she was in pain, and I could have saved her. But... it wasn't me. It was this... cycle of abuse that needed to be broken.

I'm sorry that you went through all of that. I'm sorry she put you through that, and I'm sorry that she went through all of that as well. Nothing will excuse it. But I don't think it's your fault either. You...

We were just kids.