━ DENOUEMENT ( jerome clarke. )

48 ⊳ HOUSE OF SORRY.

Again, Mara Jaffray nodded to inform her housemate that she had answered the question, encouraging the blonde-haired girl to continue with her seemingly random quiz, "Okay, that's great. Can you think about three things you can hear?

That was obvious: Sydney Anderson talking to her, her heartbeat thumping in her ears, and the scuffle of squeaky shoes against the floor as other students made their way out of the room and presumably to their classes.

"Two things you can smell."

Perfume (for a moment, Mara wondered if it was perhaps Joy's perfume—it smelt vaguely familiar and reminded the girl of her current roommate, but she soon moved on), and the distinct smell of the school; it was hard to place exactly what the school smelt like, but it was a smell that only a student or teacher would know.

"Almost done. What's one thing you can taste?"

Salt.

"Alright, we've got you." Sydney muttered comfortingly, also referring to the other two women who were besides the brown-haired girl, rubbing their hands against her arm soothingly and letting her know that they were still there, "Is that any better?"

In that moment, Mara Jaffray realised that it actually was better. Of course, it wasn't perfect. Her breaths were still laboured, and her chest continued to visibly rise up and down faster than normal, but the sound of her heartbeat drumming away in her ears had reduced and, despite the laboured breaths, Mara Jaffray finally felt as though she was able to take a breath, at the very least. So, she nodded.

"What is that?" Joy inquired, having watched the entire scene with narrowed eyes.

"The Senses Method, right?" Jerome answered, glancing over at his best friend for her approval; he remembered her using the exact same technique the prior year, when Alfie Lewis drank what was assumed to be the Elixir of Life and had a reaction, plus he tried to learn as many techniques to support the blonde-haired girl through her trauma, and The Senses Method was one of the more well-known and advised methods.

"Yeah. There are other names for it, too." Sydney clarified, communicating silently with Jerome as she instructed him to retrieve the water from her bag in order to pass it to Mara, whilst the female prankster continued an explanation of The Senses Method to Joy, "It's a grounding technique, so it helps to calm people down by getting them to focus on something else that isn't troubling them, even if its mundane."

"Here, drink this." Trudy—forever being the most amazing housemother despite not being employed as one anymore—instructed, grabbing the water that the male prankster had retrieved and unscrewing the lid, lifting it up to Mara's lips and helping her to drink it.

As Mara finished gulping down the water, Mrs. Andrews came rushing over to the table with furrowed eyebrows, leaning across the table so that she was almost the same height as the (ex?)-student and telling her, "Mara, please don't worry. I'm sure there's more to this than meets the eye. I'm going to have a word with Mr. Sweet now."

With that being said, Mrs. Andrews stormed off to find the head teacher, and people (Joy Mercer and Trudy Rehmann included) began to disperse too as classes were due to start soon—yet, Sydney Anderson remained, pulling her ex-roommate into a comforting hug and stating determinedly, "We won't let you leave."

"What if there's no choice?" Mara croaked out.

And, probably for the first time in her lifetime, Sydney Anderson didn't have a response—instead, she shared a glance with Jerome Clarke, their eyes holding a thousand words whilst their mouths couldn't think of any, neither of them knowing what else they could possibly do or say to help their housemate from her fate.