TW: Death(Offpage), terrorism

"I'm scared..."

They both were, though neither admitted it often.

"I'm here."

"I'm scared we will always be here."

"I promise, we'll get out of here."

"Tell me that story again... The one about your cat."

"You never tell me anything about your life."

...

"Blue?"

"I've never told you anything because I can't remember."

Miko, Persephone, and Tommy were talking when the sky lit up.

They could be described as fireworks, if fireworks tore into the community house and scattered debris and smoke into the sky.

How much TNT...? How much did it take to do that level of damage?

"What the fuck...?" Tommy asked in shock, hands trembling. "Wh- What's going on?"

Willow, who had been talking with Wilbur froze, petrified. "Oh Primes... Oh my Primes..."

The air was wrought with explosions and screaming. Wilbur's eyes followed a smoldering piece of debris in horror.

Persephone seemed to be the only one not frozen. She stepped back, in shock and awe at the sight unfolding in front of her.

I have to do something- She thought to herself frantically. Wilbur started twitching frantically as Persephone ran in the direction of the smoldering building.

"Where are you going?!"

It sounded like either Tommy or Miko, but Persephone didn't slow, reaching into her pocket as she ran. She needed a disguise- Even a mediocre one would work.

She ducked into a nearby alley which was deserted, probably because everyone was evacuating. Stands and stalls littered the sidewalks, and that's when Persephone remembered the date.

November 2nd.

Día de los Muertos.

Or, Day of the Dead.

On the plus side, there was make-up just sitting in the stalls... Practically begging to be used... And would make for a very good alter-ego. Persephone grabbed a few color paletes without looking at the colors and sprinted behind one of the stalls.

She had grabbed a couple greens and a gold.

"It'll have to do..." She muttered to herself, opening the palete and picking a sponge up off the ground.

She dabbed it into the green and dabbed it on her face. Her inner conscience was screaming, This is no time for make-up! People are dying!

But a disguise was pretty much necessary. 

Once the green was spread somewhat evenly on her face, she used her finger and the yellow in an attempt to make a somewhat viable olive branch my her eye. Someone in the distance screamed and Persephone decided enough was enough. She pulled her hair back and spread her wings, beginning to fly away just as Wilbur tore around the corner, yelling her name.

She didn't stop to look at him and instead just flew towards the tower of smoke in the near distance.

The destruction was terrifying. Piles of rubble crumbled off of the community house as smaller 'aftershock' explosions went off. Buildings around were nearly crushed. 

A figure was perched on a building overlooking the damage.

Dream.

She should have known he was behind this...

Sapnap, however, was nowhere to be seen.

A mass of people tittered around the wreckage, some crying out in pain, others in sorrow, others in shock. Some were dead still and silent. Others were sobbing, wraught with grief.

Persephone landed in front of a woman trying to get past the authorities.

"-have to get in there, you don't UNDERSTAND, my KID is in there!" She was screaming and kicking as a few policepeople held her back. Persephone ran over.

"What's wrong?" She asked gently but firmly, completely disregarding the police. The woman's eyes were red and puffy and she looked up at Persephone.

"M-my kid..." She said between cries. "He wandered in just seconds before it happened..."

Persephone nodded before backing away, decisive in her movements.

A policeperson tried to step forward, a warning tone in his voice. "Hey, ma'am, wait a minute, you're not allowed t-"

Persephone turned and flew towards the rubble, but was stopped by a figure. It was Dream, his smiling mask as unnerving as ever.

"Go in there and you may very well never come out, young hero." He warned but he didn't sound concerned in any way. "Are you seriously going to risk your life for the life of a child who is probably already dead?" His voice was filled with intrigue, and Persephone wondered if he was a sociopath.

It was like he was testing what she would do. She didn't move.

Dream shrugged and stepped away. "Your loss of life, not mine." As Persephone moved towards the shrug, she heard the voice, creeping through the air like tendrils of vine.

 "Day of the dead, more like day of the dying."

After several minutes of searching and her lungs filling with smoke, she heard a small voice calling out. 

"Help! Help me!"

It was the voice of a young boy. Persephone immediately turned in the direction of the voice. "Hello?" She called out, but her voice cracked from the smoke.

It was silent for a moment and she coughed into her elbow before hearing another faint "Hello?"

She moved in the direction of the voice, fanning the smoke away from her face with her wings. Soon enough, a young boy came into view. He was hiding under a fallen beam propped up on a rock and holding a chicken plushie close to him. His eyes were watering.

Persephone ran over and fanned some of the smoke away before reaching out. "Hey, hey, hey, come here, okay? I'm gonna get us out of here."

The boy shook and wrapped his arms around the chicken more. Persephone's mind raced. "...What's your name?" She tried.

The boy trembled. "P-Ponk..." He mumbled. Persephone tried to manage a smile. 

"That's a cool name," She said in an encouraging voice. "I'm Persephone. Your mom was looking for you." 

Ponk peeked one of his eyes open. "R-really?" He mumbled.

Persephone nodded empathetically. "Yes. She sent me to go get you. Come on, I'm going to take you back to her." But her heart rate quickened as she said that. The kid had been in here for a while... How much smoke had made it into his lungs?

Ponk finally crawled out of the space and Persephone scooped him up, chicken and all. As she walked, her wings cleared the smoke around them. She began to talk in a quiet voice, the one adults would use to calm children or the one children would use to talk to scared animals.

"So, Ponk, how old are you?"

"M-My mom told me not to give my age to strangers..."

"I'm not a stranger, remember? I'm Persephone."

"Oh yea... I'm seven. Seven and three-quarters."

"That's a big age! I'm seventeen. Does your chicken have a name?"

"His name's Kanye!"

Persephone could see the light coming into view, but the smoke was crawling into her lungs and her throat was burning dangerously. Black spots began their dance in the corners of her vision and she bit down hard on her tongue to stay awake.

She stumbled out of the smoke and saw several things: Ponk's mother running to greet her child, civillians cheering, Miko, Willow, and Tommy standing by in fright, and Wilbur showing his ID to the policeperson.

Persephone didn't feel like cheering. She'd saved Ponk, yes, but hundreds of innocents had probably 

Persephone set Ponk down just as Wilbur came running over.

"I did it..." She said in an exhausted tone of voice. "I saved him..."

Wilbur reached out to grab her.

But her vision was blurring and she didn't notice the whispers of civilians, they were all saying one thing, a name based on the olive branch that looked a lot more like an ear of wheat than an olive branch...

Demeter...

So yeah mhm I uh I did that

Fun fact; Ponk was originally supposed to be Foolish and the mother was supposed to be Puffy but then I remembered I had Foolish in another already-published chapter which really sucked.

So I made him Ponk instead.

And yes, I did make the civilians dub Persephone's mediocre disguise as 'Demeter' which is a little silly considering that in Greek mythology, if you were unaware, Persephone's mother is Demeter. Lol.

I did consider making Schlatt the villain of this chapter considering he is the victim of all the 9/11 jokes but I wanted to det Dream up as the main villain(And there's that little detail about it being the community house as opposed to a skyscraper or something).

This chapter is meant to be a major turning point in the book because, like I stated, hundreds of people have now been murdered by Dream.

This is pretty much the point of no return for this book.

Anyway sorry for the long A/N but I wanted to explain a few things.

Word count: 1391

Have a great day!

-ITCFWI