"Stay gentle, stay soft, stay kind; I can promise you it hurts worse to live any other way."

Something worse than this? Fern can't imagine it, but she doesn't want to, either. Something in Araceli's soft voice and tender embrace makes the dam break in her, and if she'd been holding back at all before, she isn't now; the tears and sobs pour out of her unchecked, her slight frame trembling from the force of it.

"...what do I do now?" The words come, at last, once she has managed to quiet her breathing enough to speak. Tearful and with reddened eyes, she looks up to Araceli's face, desperate for some words from her that will make the pain less acute.