Rosie Wilson

In the end, Rosie doesn't ask Anne about particularly slow and vengeful ways of killing someone, or go to Sabrina for a hex involving boils or scrofula or something equally vile, or any of the other gruesomely creative things she'd thought about in the space between finding out about Neil and Caleb's breakup--and the reasons therein--and now. She hadn't replied to any of his messages beyond that first one, and even that was a starkly ominous we will talk about this later; in the last day or so, he'd moved on to leaving voicemails, and she hadn't listened to any of them either. There was a kind of glee in letting him stew, in ignoring him in favor of making sure Neil got back on his feet and recovered as much as possible from the blow he'd been dealt.

Eventually, she decides to take him off of whatever agonizing hook he'd placed himself on--not that he hadn't deserved it--and sends him another message, just as short as the last. If you're not home, get there. I'm coming over.

She doesn't wait for a reply, just heads out the door and towards Caleb's building.

At first, she'd given that late-night text from Caleb--a friend in trouble, Caleb okay but out of school for the week--a healthy amount of sympathy, but no real concern. She sought out Clint in the senior hallway and divvied up the task of collecting assignments and notes from Caleb's classes, ignoring to the best of her ability the vague sniggers about sex cults she overheard from a few of the other members of the team as she walked away.

It was all working rather smoothly, with very little room for worry--until she stopped by Caleb's apartment that night and actually saw him. Whatever had happened, it left him drawn and tired, something almost lost behind his eyes. Rosie hadn't pried, despite the flurry of questions that rose to her mind, just handed over the collected assignments and made the appropriate vague noises of sympathy before he pushed the front door slowly shut again. Still, the sight was enough to make her worry, to increase that faint concern from before to something far harder to ignore.

Clint had agreed to drop things off the next two days, leaving Rosie time to think--and to plan. By Thursday, she had at least the seed of an idea, something that might provide Caleb with a little more comfort after a situation that had so clearly rattled him. She got Clint's half of the assignments from him after school, then stopped by the small market a few blocks from Candlewood to pick up a few additional things before heading home.

That night, she loads everything into a few tote bags she and Neil had picked up from one Darrow event or another and heads downstairs. She knocks once, twice, then tries the knob, finding it unlocked and barging in before she can quite stop herself.

"It's just me," she calls, nudging the door shut with her foot.