Robert
It had been... A month? Two? Five? Annika lost track of time ages ago. It was hard not to. She had been stuck in a small dorm room, hiding away from the world, fearing for her safety every moment she dared to leave. It was hard not to feel trapped, to lose track of time, after a while. Barely anyone knew where she was, but... She was safe. Safe enough, anyway. No one would find her, cooped up in the dorm room of the toughest girl on campus.

She arrived, way back when, with nothing. She had the clothes on her bag, and a little plastic bag full of metal shards, and a burner phone. That was it. She'd spent what little money she had on food. She arrived at Newton's Cradle ragged, destitute, scared and alone.

But even though she'd gotten new clothes, and had been fed every day, and had even become quite good at English in the past few months, Newton's Cradle was beginning to become a prison to her.

It was dusk. Gentle orange light filtered in from the window. Annika was sat on the foot of the bed when Valio came back in, clutching the bag of metal shards in one hand and hugging a stuffed toy in the other. She looked distraught.

"I can't stay here."
Susan
Valio let the door close with a soft click. She stared at the girl with a knowing stare. It has been quite some time with pure silence on the angels end, it could all be a rouse. She doesn't know. 

Valio had gotten her many things, she was a sharp contrast of how she looked when she first arrived but. The small girl still wears that far off look of fear. I mean who wouldn't. 

The soft light moved up Valio's larger figure as she walked further into the room. The orange glow reflecting into the deep blue of her eye. 

"Yeah, I know. Where do you think you should go?"

She questions, her tone soft but inquisitive. She never questioned the girl but, maybe she could now. Maybe she can scrape a little more together on what's falling apart about what she knows.
Robert
"I don't know."

Where could she go? She had run away from home to the Angels, only to then find herself running away from the Angels. What was she going to do? Go back home? What home?

How was she ever going to survive like this?

"I can't go back home. I don't have a home."

She hugs the stuffed animal a little tighter.
Susan
Valio purses her lips looking at Annika. 
The girl has lost everything, without fail. A family a home, Valio wasn't sure what the girl could do. Valio dosent know what she could do. 

"Didn't you have one with the lady at the cafe?" 
Valio moves to one side of the bed and sits on it creating an imbalance in the weight of it, lifting Annika from her curled position into the air by a centimeter. 

"Sorry."
 Valio mumbles. 

"I'm- what happened with the angels. If I'm allowed to ask and if you're ready to talk about them. It's okay if not." 

She tries to soothe whatever wound she might've poked with poorly covered words so close to turning into more apologizing.
Robert
Annika barely even reacts to being bounced into the air. She just mopes a little, letting herself be jostled about by the sudden launch.

"Not anymore. She made me leave. She said it... It was not safe."

Annika let herself softly lean on Valio. Valio was safe. Even if she wasn't a substitute for a parent, Valio was still a comfort. Someone Annika knew she'd be safe around. Someone Annika didn't have to be scared of.

...

Annika looked down at her hand, and the bag of metal shards. She lifted it up. "This happened. I can't go back there. Not... Not anymore."

She looks down at the floor, away from Valio. An expression of... Shame?

"I gave up."
Susan
Valio's hands intertwine in front of her. A sigh it let out when Annika settles against her. One of relief or guilt, Valio dosent know. 

"Yeah. I can understand it being that way." 

Valio stares at the metal shards, probably piece's of the halo. And how they glint sadly against the light of the windows filtered rays. It was a sorry sight, to watch them slide against eachother haphazardly against eachother in the bag. 
"Well those. Two other angels uhm- friede and another they were looking for you.-"

Valio pauses. Looking at Annika's disgraceful stare.

"You gave up on what?"

Valio inquires.
Robert
Annika shakes the bag again. The halo-shards rustle like dense rocks. "I don't know how to say it in English. It's hard to say." The gears are turning in her head, crushing her thoughts. She's trying so hard to think that it actually feels a little uncomfortable.

"Complicated. It's complicated. Hard to explain."

And she didn't even want to try. She had a lot of bad memories associated with the Angels - and some of them used to be good, too.

She didn't remember her first kill with fondness anymore.

"I'm scared."
Susan
Valio watches the girl shake and twist the bag as if it has done her wrong. 
"That's okay. So... Complicated?-" 
Valio watches the girl blurt the word she was trying to find in the damned English lexicon. 

"Yeah. After... I dunno I asked Margo sometime before she y'know left to the tower. She said she like saw something. She didn't give me full disclosure. I- wait wait." 

Valio frowns her brow furrowing, in an instant there was a concerned stare for Annika. Gods what did they do to her? She shouldn't ask. 

"It's okay to be scared. If you want I can get you out of here. I have the ability to make sure nobody really knows. You can leave, I can help."

Valio says and she feels the electric current thrum within her. Crawling at the singed flesh of her body.
Robert
Annika nods. She's appreciative, even if she's still kind of shaky. "Thank you."

But she doesn't know where to go. She just knows she needs safety. She needs somewhere to call home - *Real* Home, not a hiding place or a shelter.

Or a cult. The lady at the café had taught her that word. Cult. It seemed... Sort of fitting. But only sort of.

"But..." She paused. It was hard to really get herself to say what she needed to say, no matter how hard she tried. "Where do I go? I can't just... I need somewhere to go. I don't know where to go."
Susan
Valio nods. "Sure." 
The poor girl needed a lot more than what Valio could give. 

This isn't the place for her, it's a damn Prison- rehab- whatever. It isn't the place for a scared child escaping from murders.
 
The angels seemed ruthless. They could do whatever they want their their damn glowing knives or something. 

"I don't know, Annika." 
Valio's voice borders a mix of guilt and sorrow as she stares at the girl in question. 
"I'm due time to leave at least a month from now. You could go anywhere, I'm not the person you need. And you know this."
Valio says, doing little to comfort her. If she was doing that in the first place with what she said. 
"We can find this out. Do you have to leave now?"
Robert
"I..." Annika teared up. She nodded. "Mhm. I... I need to leave soon." She felt tortured, like the entire world was conspiring to hurt her at every possible avenue. She felt alone, abandoned, desperate. She felt exactly the same way she felt when the Angels first took her in. Exactly the same way she felt when they gave her a home.

Exactly the same way she felt when they convinced her she needed to kill, to hit back at the world that had hurt her so.

"I don't know how long I have been here anymore. I feel alone here. I need to leave soon."
Susan
Valio stood and started shifting through her drawer. Pulling out money she has continuously saved from her job. 
"Alright, Annika." 
She says pulling money out.
This is awful, Valio didn't know what to do. She wasn't the person for this! She just she has to do something. 

Valio didn't know what happened, she dosent need to know to say what happened was awful. Because, Annika simply looks... Broken. Her hands settle against polished wood. 

"Alright Annika. I have money, and I will be giving it all to you. To leave. To catch a train and something to leave Sweden."

Valio looks to Annika.

"You don't deserve to be scared like this. You don't deserve to be alone."
Robert
Annika takes a moment to steel herself. Deeeeeeep breaths. Her face slowly morphs into something less miserable and more determined.

"No," She insists, "Don't."

What good would the money do her? Run away, go to Denmark or Norway, and then what? Where would she stay? She can't just run away. Being scared and alone somewhere else doesn't solve anything. The thought is... No. She's scared to even think of the journey, let alone what she'd do once she got there. What she might have to do.

"I need somewhere to go. I can't just run, Val. I need a place I can stay, someone I can talk to, anything. My fa- The... The Angels. They don't leave Isakstad. They stay together. I don't need to leave Sweden, I... I just need somewhere to go."

She sighed. It was going to be a long few days.
Susan
Valio stops looking guilty. Why is she the one falling apart and making rash decisions when she's literally 20 years old. 

"Okay." 

Valio settles against the drawer looking guilty. Gods she needs to get herself together. She's scaring a kid. She should do better than what she's doing now. 

"Yeah. Problem is, I don't really know where you could go."
This was going to be very long for the both of them. 
"Should I just ask around or something?"
But to be honest Valio dosent know much because hell she was in prison for a hell of a long time. And that time was spent bloodying her hands for no damn good reason. She wants to help.
She just- she just dosent really know how.
Robert
Annika doesn't really say much more. She doesn't know any more than Valio does. All she knows is that she needs to get out. She curls up into the fetal position, resting at the foot of the bed, head buried in her knees.

"I don't know. I don't know."
Susan
Valio sighs and just goes back to sitting down right next to Annika. She feels bad that she can't give an answer instantly. Her hand slightly hovers over Annika's head, before it just settles there in the wisps of her fair white hair. Shes at least trying. As if that was ever enough. 

"Okay."