“I’ll get it,” Stephen groaned, after the bell rang insistently for the second time. What was the point of sneaking into the still-not-quite-finished house with his fiancee for some alone time, if even there he would be found?

“It’s probably your sister,” Martha admonished him, smiling. “We haven’t exactly been giving out the address. Go on, be grateful she bothered to ring.”

Sufficiently chastised, Stephen let Martha go and headed for the door, quickly counting in his head. Kat mentioned something about the new moon, and the weird lights from the north a week ago coincided with that. Kat and the others should have arrived around now, and after asking around have probably figured out where Stephen had gone.

He expected to see Kat, obviously. He more or less expected Molly to be there, too.

He didn’t expect the only person he saw to be Lucas.

Without his armor, the halfling looked even smaller than usual. There was also something downtrodden in his expression, and Stephen’s anticipation turned to worry.

“Lucas? Where’re the others? Where is…”

Lucas looked down, and Stephen’s heart ached. Lucas had always been so strong, so optimistic… it couldn’t be that –

“I’m sorry,” Lucas said, quietly. “She… she didn’t make it. Molly, either.”

Lucas kept saying something else, but Stephen couldn’t make it out. It was as if there were waves crashing in his ears, drowning out everything else.

“Sorry,” Stephen mumbled, and shut the door in Lucas’s face.

He’d have to apologise later. But for now, he stumbled back to the room where Martha was, sight clouding as tears hit all at once.

Kat had downplayed the situation to him so much, that he’d never expected her not to come back.

“Steve? What’s wrong?”

Martha’s warm arms circled him, reassuring.

Stephen shook his head, words stuck in his suddenly dry throat.

He hugged her back, as tight as he could, and wept.