Marie isn't crying. She isn't, her vision is blurring but that's just dust, or - or something, okay, she isn't crying, because if she's crying the last thing her parents will probably ever see of her is that she was scared. She's said her good-byes to all her family, grandparents and aunts and cousins and siblings, and now she's alone with her parents. Her mom is stroking her hair and looking at the clock anxiously. Her dad is watching the door for mals, even though her grandma and uncle Andreas and Nikos are keeping watch outside. "Tell Lydia we love her, and we're very proud of you both, and we'll see her soon," mom says. And then the alarm on her dad's watch goes off and her mom steps back and Marie is alone and it is very very hard to remember that she is going to hard-won safety instead of somewhere far away from everything she's ever known.

She has several minutes to stand there alone, not crying. She wants her mom back already and she's only two steps away, holding her dad's hand by the door. "I love y-", she manages to start, and then everything dissolves into black.