Serenade nodded, her heart sinking at the last sentence. They can assume we're dead. Idly, she wondered what the others at Barren Pines would think, and imagined the school announcing that "Serenade Soriano, Hero Barrett and Aurelia Thorne had all died from bacterial meningitis and it was tragic and they hoped that the rest would take care of themselves." It scared her, but this was the only way out, the only way to deal with whatever was happening right now.

She rushed to her room, hurrying down to the second floor. The girl shut the door quietly behind her and went about to pack her things. Only what she needed, Hero had said, but Serenade could not bear to leave behind her piano books and scores, she could not bear to think of them incinerating them. Perhaps they would have given it to someone like Nathan, but the thought of them touching it made her shudder.

She decided, after a while, to take only some of the scores; she could buy the rest of them again later when they got out of this mess. After packing a few clothes inside her backpack as well, she went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water and some snacks. With that, she made her way back to Hero's room, looking mournfully at the doors she passed by. Hopefully, the rest wouldn't be come to the same fate that Jude had, but she also knew that hope alone wouldn't help. Only their actions would.