<div style="text-align: justify;">It was painfully obvious to her that something had upset Dimitri, and just as painfully obvious that he was doing all he could to hide it. She watched him creep over the bottom of the lake, silver bubbles streaming upwards in a belated trail behind him. His blank face and careful, too thought out responses to her attempts to reignite the conversation spoke volumes. She began to long for the dragging sensation in her gut that meant she could get out of the water again. It was with an unhindered sigh of relief that she almost fled out of the water, transformed back into human, and walked in complete silence back to the house with Dimitri.<br/><br/>She had expected sleeping in the same bed to be just as cozy as it always was. What she got instead was a strange, robotic embrace. Alannah watched his chest rise and fall. She practically radiated uneasiness, but got no response whatsoever. It was with a bitter taste in her mouth that she finally went to sleep, for the first time afraid of asking him something.<br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: silver;background:silver;"/></div><br/><span style="color: #4080FF">"So..."</span> A knife scraped loudly across a piece of toast with that special, crumbling sound that only toast can make. Apart from that, barely a sound could be heard in the kitchen where Jill, Herschel, Dimitri and Alannah were forcing down breakfast in awkward silence. Like the night before, Dimitri clearly was not in the mood for talking, and though both Jill and Alannah were doing their best to keep a conversation going, mistrust was oozing from him like pus from an infected wound. He was sullenly pushing his scrambled eggs around his plate, the fork screeching against the porcelain.<br/><br/>Alannah had no idea what to do or say. She had never, ever experienced him like this. The open kitchen felt cramped, and she had to fight the urge to not storm outside to at least be able to breathe. Instead, she did like she had done since she had woken up - forced a smile. She looked anxiously at Dimitri, her face contorted into a grimace. <span style="color: #4080FF">"That - that was delicious, Jill,"</span> she coughed out. <span style="color: #4080FF">"I wish ya would've woken me up earliah so I could've helped ya."</span></div>