#clairedsfield

Marin Fanfic Snippet, based on an idea of what the aftermath of episode 374 and 375 could mean for our dear ladies.

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Her heels clack hard on the tile floor of the dormitory. She’s running as fast as she can, up the stairs and down the hall and curse these shoes but she grabs the doorframe with one hand and yanks the door open with the other and- 

Gone. 

Her stuff. Her decorations. Her side of the wooden wardrobe. 

It’s all gone. 

Every single trace that Fina had ever occupied space, lived in and laughed, cried, in her bed in her room, everything was gone. 

“I don’t know when she left."

It’s Carmen’s voice that pulls her out of her daze. She’s staring at the bed, where Fina and her made a little nook for themselves with stolen kisses and glances and messages in books. Two books on the nightstand were all that remained. 

And Carmen’s voice cuts through the static in her ears and her racing thoughts. 

She stutters, “She- she left?” She tears her eyes away from the blank sheets to look at Carmen. Carmen, who looks at her like she wants to break but is more afraid of what will happen when Marta breaks. “But how- what- I don’t….” 

Carmen steps towards her, holding out a steadying hand which Marta blindly, almost unconsciously reaches for. Carmen guides her into the room and onto her own bed. Once she’s seated she goes to close the door to seal them off from prying eyes. 

A running boss through the corridor had attracted enough attention. 

Marta stares at the bed again. Then her eyes move to the wardrobe. The clothing hangers are all empty. For a moment she has hope as she sees something laying on the chair in the corner of the room until she realizes it’s Fina’s uniform. Neatly folded. 

She looks back up at Carmen, eyes wide and confused. She opens her mouth to speak but the tears spring into her eyes in an instant and her voice catches and she's sobbing. 

Carmen has her arms around her in an instant and Marta doesn’t even fight it. She just sobs into the shoulder of her store manager, the one who brought her back from panic when Fina was stabbed, and when Fina was arrested. Fina. Always when Fina was in trouble. 

Only this time, Carmen had no clue of the trouble Fina was in, but she still held Marta and let her sob until the tears ran out. 

She had been the shaky voice on the telephone asking her if she'd seen Fina today. And if not, if she knew something. Marta had stopped her in her tracks before asking any more questions. But Carmen hadn’t known what else to say on the telephone other than: “I think she left.”

Marta’s entire body froze, an uncomfortable heat ran through her at those words. “What do you mean, left?”

“I think you should come to our room and-” Carmen started, but was interrupted by the phone being out on the hook. 

All that was left of Fina in the room was her uniform on the chair, and 2 books on the nightstand. Carmen had been too afraid to touch anything. She’d spent the night with her husband and had gone straight into her shift to open the store, chatting with Gaspar during her morning coffee. She had been absolutely none the wiser that in their room, one third had been cleared out. Not until she came up during lunch to say hi. 

She hadn’t hesitated and called Marta right away. She knew nothing, held no answers. She hadn’t even seen Claudia either, having Gema with her in the store. 

But now here she was, asking herself what the hell was going on? 

Marta pulls back from Carmen and stands up, beelining for the uniform. Everything is there, but no note, nothing extra. Just her set of clothes, and the scarf that once signified her as the temporary manager. Marta lets it slip through her fingers as she turned her attention to the wardrobe. 

Frantically, she pulls open the shelf, hoping there would be something, anything left. 

Nothing. 

She looks towards the bed again. Her books. Her own books she’d lent Fina a couple of weeks ago. But there was nothing else. She was desperate for a note, anything of Fina’s own words that would tell her where she went. 

Why.

But she knows why. She knows exactly why Fina had left. She just hadn’t thought it would ever actually come to this. 

Fina left. 

For her own safety.

For their safety.