Claire was sitting on the couch with her face in her hands while everyone else was doing work around the hideout. For once she just wanted to take a break from doing things around the place. She was always stuck with the messy jobs, it was time that someone else did them for a change, she deserved to rest up a little. She was still shaking a little from her conversation with Adira. Part of her wished she could take back a few things she said, maybe she was just frustrated. But at the same time it felt nice to finally get some things off her chest. Keeping so much locked inside of her was really beginning to take its toll on her. Her little outburst was Adira was enough to tell her that; she was still recovering from it now. She wished she would just vanish for awhile and take her mind off of everything.<br/><br/>Wouldnâ€™t that be nice? Ah, but she was sure that the group would fall apart without her. She couldnâ€™t just leave them because she was feeling emotional. Was pushing through everything and becoming slightly detached not part of being a decent leader? Decent was the only word she would allow herself to use to describe it. She didnâ€™t want to give herself too much credit; she has never felt that she was as amazing as everyone else made her out to be. Perhaps she should have never allowed this leader role to consume her. Now that she was at her breaking point, she wasnâ€™t sure what to do. What if she became like this every time they go through rough patch? Of course, she had always felt emotional whenever they lost people. But nowâ€¦ now things were getting to the point where maybe she should go stand out in the middle of the street and let the monsters devour her.<br/><br/>When she heard someone coming she immediately straightened herself and took in a deep breath. Claire didnâ€™t want to seem like she had been on the verge of crying again. It wasnâ€™t that she hated crying, crying was a great way to release pent up emotions. At least that was how she felt whenever she cried. She just didnâ€™t want them to see her like this, so weak, so stressed out about everything. How long was she going to wear this mask? How long was she going to keep pretending she was this super woman? Good thing it was only Tina who came to her and not the rest of the group. Eventually she was going to have to talk to everyone but not now. She wasnâ€™t sure she was ready to speak to everyone all at once just yet, feeling that it was best to handle things in small amounts.<br/><br/>Claire also looked at the pictures around the house. They seemed to be the only thing around here that wasnâ€™t filthy, in spite of being in rough condition. â€œYeahâ€¦â€ she murmured. â€œWhat I nice family they must have been.â€ Oddly enough she began to think about her family suddenly. It seemed like such a long time ago, and the memory that stuck out the most was the family reunion. The thought made her smile. She has always liked family reunions even though her family didnâ€™t always get along. But that was common in a lot of families, right? Hers wasnâ€™t that much different. From what she remembered of them they were always fighting over something.<br/><br/>Alone again, she decided to get off her ass and straighten up the living room. She moved a lot of the furniture by herself and grabbed a broom she found in the closet. There seemed to be nearly three layers of dust just caked on top of the floor, which looked like it would have been beautiful at one point. The carpet was all torn up and smelled awful. It was probably better to throw it outside, but she was certain that the stench might attract something, and she couldnâ€™t get it out of here all by herself. Maybe she would bring the groupâ€™s attention to it later. For now she focused on clearing out enough space and making the place look presentable. The walls of the place looked anything but. It was going to take a lot of scrubbing to get them clean, but she didnâ€™t hesitate to get to it.<br/><br/>She grabbed a bucket and went into the kitchen where Adira was still working to clean up. â€œHey, we have running water around here, right?â€ Since this place was so trashed, it would not have surprised her if they didnâ€™t. They had been lucky with the other place. It wasnâ€™t a good feeling, watching the city die before her eyes as each day passed. It was pretty depressing, this place was her home once, and there was this empty feeling she couldnâ€™t describe, the city just seemed to die overnight. Things were only going to get worse from here. Isnâ€™t that what they always say in rough situations? For her, there only seemed to be frustration; if she had to go searching for more water that would set everything on pause for the time being. But when she discovered that they had water it felt like another thing was taken off her shoulders.<br/><br/>After filling the bucket she went to look for a mop and a dustpan. There were also some garbage bags left, surprisingly. She took two. When she had everything she needed, Claire back out into the living room to clean.<br/><br/>She started by cleaning off some more of the dust now that she had the dustpan. The walls seemed even worse than the floor; they were stained withâ€¦ oh hellâ€¦ was that blood? Claire stopped scrubbing for a moment and stared at the splatters for a moment. For some reason they sent a bad vibe through her but she managed to brush it aside. This was a dog-eat-dog world. She wondered if there had been a disagreement of some kind. If there had been, perhaps that was why the place looked trashed or why the people who lived here originally had left. This blood was not going to come out, so she just cleaned the spot up as best she could and moved on to clean up the other side of the living room. Once that was done, she attempted to push the couch back to where it had been.<br/><br/>When everything was done, she sat back on the couch and waited for the others.