Room 218, Thursday Evening

[glacial_witch]

Karla, to put it lightly, was in a miserable mood when she stormed into her room, all swirling black Widow's Weeds and residual bad temper. She was tired, bitchy, hungry, and pissed off at every vampire ever who thought it was all right to kidnap and feed off her friends in some kind of obscure power-play

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[didntchewgrass]

Elphaba, blessedly free of the tik-tok tot, didn't know for sure if her friend had returned from whatever had detained Karla from attending reserves yesterday. Nonetheless, she stopped by Karla's room with a half-eaten apple in one hand (and another in her pocket, just for safe-keeping). With her free hand, she knocked on Karla's door with an assertive three raps.

"Hello?" she said, hoping for a response.

[didntchewgrass]

"Thinking is always the hard part," Elphaba said. "But I won't push you, either. I was concerned when I learned you all had run off, but I knew you'd be able to take care of each other. And the same goes for now, that you've returned."

[glacial_witch]

Karla gave Elphaba a smile. "I appreciate your concern and can't say it was unfounded." She brushed her hair back away from her face. "There was a lot of violence. I'm getting really tired of violence and death. Tired of killing, tired of being forced to kill. And this time, I didn't even have to fight. I hid behind a shield and watched my friends do it for me."

[didntchewgrass]

"And is that what is making you angriest of all?" Elphaba asked, prying just a teeny bit.

[glacial_witch]

"I'm a Healer," Karla said, looking away. "Killing isn't what my Craft is for. But being unable to help? That bothers me. I hid. My friends were in danger and I hid. It might have been the right thing to do, but it felt so wrong."

[didntchewgrass]

Elphaba nodded, knowing that the idea of feeling useless was the worst possible feeling she'd ever felt.

"But you were able to help after the fight was over, in ways that were far more important?" she offered, though her tone was a bit questioning.

[glacial_witch]

"After the first fight, yes," Karla said. "Sookie'd been drained almost to death. She was slipping away when we got her hands on her."

Karla still didn't know where Sookie's soul had gone after Bill had fed on her.

"The second...? When I hid? Not so much." She shrugged a bit, uncomfortable. "Sookie traded herself for another during that fight and we had to drive--which I can't do--to rescue her back. By the time we got there, much of it was over."

[didntchewgrass]

"I think saving Sookie's life is far more important than any violence," Elphaba said. "It takes little to hurt, but much more to heal."

She meant that, too. Life was very precious, to Elphaba.

[glacial_witch]

"I just wish that I'd had a chance to Heal her the second time, too," Karla muttered. "Instead of her having to rely on more of that damned vampire blood."

[didntchewgrass]

Elphaba was starting to lose the plot, sadly. "I think I'm not meant to understand what all happened," she said. "And I'm sorry I cannot really do anything to ease your mind, either."

[glacial_witch]

"My fault," Karla said, waving away the apology. "I'm not being very clear. It's all kind of jumbled around in my head anyway. Actually, do you mind if I give you kind of an abbreviated version? Maybe it'll help me make sense of a few things."

Not that Karla would be mentioning Sookie's breakdown, or giving details about the vampiric betrayal she'd faced, but the basic gist should be all right to share.

[didntchewgrass]

"If you wish to tell it, I'll listen," Elphaba said. "It may help me better understand, if nothing else."

She really did want to understand better, as well.

[glacial_witch]

Karla spilled out the story, from hearing Sookie's panicked mindcall while she was being kidnapped, to going to Fangtasia to beg help from Eric, to heading to Lou Pines with Alcide to see if they could pick up Sookie's trail. She explained Russell's entrance to the bar, following him home, and the state they found Sookie in, barely alive, will Bill crouched over her, feeding, like a wild thing.

Then it was one fight--the werewolves who showed up as they were rescuing Sookie--to another--the werewolves that showed up at Sookie's home--with Sookie volunteering to surrender to Russell if he would release Jessica, while Eric demanded Kennedy and Bobby as feeders.

...She did admit that was part of his half-assed plan, to be fair, though might have emphasized just how incredibly half-assed it really was.

"I don't quite know what happened after that," she admitted. "Eric and Russell fed on Sookie again, almost killing her--again--and then a bunch of crazy stuff happened and we pulled up just in time to see Sookie hauling Russell's burned-

[didntchewgrass]

"I don't know, either," Elphaba said, having nodded along with the recounting that Karla had given her. "I also don't know what you could have done differently to improve things, either. It seems like you did the best you could."

[glacial_witch]

"There has to have been something," Karla snapped. "Some better way of keeping her safe, or doing something to Russell when he had Jessica. Not just hiding on the couch behind shields while I tried to catch my breath! Hell's fire!"

[didntchewgrass]

"You could have locked her in her room and never let her out," Elphaba said with a droll tone. "If she chose to associate with such... scheming people, I don't know how you could have prevented them from hurting her."