He'd done it. He'd almost told Soubi to go after Kio and leave him and Miku and Sousuke behind. He knew in his heart that Kio was important to Soubi because he was actually important, and that Ritsuka was merely his Sacrifice, but that didn't exactly make things any easier to say. Then, just before he could get the words out, the curtain descended and Ritsuka found himself waking up in the Institute again. The sound of dead moaning and the smell of burnt, rotting flesh - all of it was gone.

Now it was just silence. Eerie silence.

Ritsuka sat up in bed, staring down at his hands and then clenched them. The memories of the night before flooded back and he closed his eyes, hunching his knees to his chest as he tried to block the images out. Blackened bodies. Fire. Blood. Pain and death and so many rotten--

Photographs. Soubi had photographs. Miku had been scared. Sousuke was fishing about for things to use in their defense. There. He was calmer now.

Lowering his hands, Ritsuka took a deep breath and slid out of bed. He had apparently overslept because his roommate was gone and his nurse was at the door the moment his feet touched the ground, shuffling him out to 'greet the day' as she put it. Ritsuka felt sick and didn't want to do anything but find his friends. Unfortunately, he wasn't given that opportunity. Instead, he was herded upstairs and then taken into a chapel where his nurse promptly shoved him toward the front and told him to enjoy the morning.

Ritsuka didn't particularly feel like doing anything but sitting down, and so he did, not noticing that there was someone nearby until it was too late. The girl didn't seem much older than him, but he could tell she was a bit taller. And she was staring at the altar with a strange look in her eyes, one that reminded him far too much of his mother when she was hollowed out inside. "...hey, you alright?"