For a moment, Quinn didn't know how to respond. Long enough to for the silence to drag, to be filled with a unpleasant anticipation. "[color=ffe63d]I know,[/color]" she began haltingly, "[color=ffe63d]that being in Cantimine is supposed to be a...vacation for me, I think. But...It's just...[/color]" She clenched the phone tigher in a whitening hand and took a long, shaky breath, staring up at the hotel's unfamiliar ceiling. She was starting to get tired of looking at unfamiliar ceilings, and in that moment she wanted nothing more than to be back in the Aerie dorms where she could bury her head in Besca's shoulder instead of waiting a week for a phonee call. "[color=ffe63d]The--the small town. The...street festival. The crowds. The water.[/color]"

Her voice's trembling grew more pronounced, and she levered herself upright, wrapping her left arm around her knees and pulling them tight to her chest while she still held her phone in her right She sqeeezed her eye shut as hard as she could, trying her best to stave off the frantic tears that she could feel burgeoning--that she'd felt burgeoning for hours now. "[color=ffe63d]And--and--then the s-sun started setting and...it was like...like--[/color]" She clenched her teeth tight, the sounds coming through the phone reduced to breaths rendered shallow by an almost atavistic fear.

"[color=ffe63d]I don't...remember most--most of...that night,[/color]" she said after some moments, voice a strangled whisper. "[color=ffe63d]But it's...enough.[/color]"

Having said that, she made some attempt to get her breathing back under control. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In--[i]it wasn't working, she could't--[/i]and all at once, she surged into out-and-out hyperventilation as she reached a hand up to cover her face. The terror that she'd bottled up over the course of the day came rushing out all out once, and her tightly wound nerves [i]snapped.[/i] [i]"[color=ffe63d]And it's like dark bitter water and sickness and the smell of blood and smoke and fire and a sound like thunder--[/color]"[/i]

She clapped her hand over her mouth, forcing herself to suck harsh breaths in through her teeth------