Chapter 468: A second blackout

Third-person POV

The rain had still not stopped by the time Electra and Penelope finally made their way back to Elysium through the back gate. The palace grounds already felt far away now, but the heaviness from everything that had happened there still lingered. Their clothes were damp despite the umbrellas over their heads, and the cold wind that came with the rain only made the exhaustion settle deeper into their bodies.

Penelope was still mentally replaying the horrifying image of Jella burning alive while Electra walked beside her in unusual silence. Normally, Electra would have said something sarcastic or irritating by now, but instead, she looked distracted, almost lost in thought.

Then suddenly, Electra slowed down.

At first, Penelope barely noticed it because she was busy trying not to step into puddles along the muddy ground, but the moment Electra's umbrella slipped from her fingers and hit the wet floor loudly, Penelope immediately turned her head.

Electra herself collapsed right after it.

Her body dropped directly into a puddle of rainwater before she could even attempt to catch herself, and for a second, Penelope simply froze in complete shock. The scene happened so fast that her brain struggled to process it properly. One moment, Electra had been walking beside her, and the next, she was unconscious on the wet ground.

"Electra!" Penelope yelled immediately.

Without hesitation, she threw her own umbrella aside and rushed down to the floor beside her. Rainwater instantly soaked through Penelope's clothes as she grabbed Electra by the shoulders and shook her hard in panic, but Electra did not respond.

The sight immediately made Penelope's heart start pounding anxiously because this was already the second time today that Electra had suddenly blacked out for absolutely no reason. The first time had happened earlier in the bathroom after Electra healed the small cut on Penelope's finger, and now it was happening again out of nowhere.

Penelope could feel the cold rain soaking through her clothes and hair as she desperately tried to wake Electra up, but Electra's body remained limp against the wet ground.

For a brief second, Penelope genuinely started imagining the worst possible things. What if something were seriously wrong with Electra? Electra was not human, so Penelope had absolutely no idea what could even make someone like her faint repeatedly like this. That uncertainty terrified her more than she wanted to admit.

"Shit," Penelope muttered under her breath anxiously before quickly looking around the nearly empty back entrance of the school grounds.

The weather was so terrible that most students had already gone back into the dormitories or classrooms, leaving the area strangely quiet except for the sound of the heavy rain and distant thunder. Panicking even more because she did not know what else to do, Penelope grabbed Electra as best as she could and used all her strength to pull her upright.

Electra was not exactly light, so she struggled immediately, nearly slipping in the puddles herself, but she refused to leave Electra lying there in the rain. Gritting her teeth, she finally managed to lift Electra on her back. The weight almost made her legs give out for a second, but she forced herself to steady her balance.

"Please don't pass out permanently on me," Penelope muttered breathlessly while adjusting Electra's unconscious body properly against her back.

Then she started rushing toward the dormitory building as fast as she could. The rain hit her hard the entire way there. Within seconds, both of them were completely soaked. Wet strands of hair stuck to Penelope's face while cold water dripped down her neck and clothes, but she did not care about any of it right now. Her only focus was getting Electra somewhere safe.

As she finally rushed through the dorm entrance, breathing heavily from the effort of carrying Electra so quickly, Penelope immediately started wondering what she was supposed to do next. Part of her wanted to head straight to Irina's and Roxana's room because at least they would know Electra had collapsed again.

Penelope had barely taken a few more hurried steps inside the dormitory when she suddenly felt movement behind her. At first, she nearly panicked again, thinking Electra was about to fall off her back, but then she heard a tired voice speak behind her.

"What's going on?"

Penelope froze instantly in relief.

Electra slowly stirred awake on her back, sounding confused and disoriented. Her voice was slightly hoarse, and she shifted weakly against Penelope like she was trying to properly understand why she was being carried.

Penelope immediately let out a relieved sigh so deep that her shoulders practically sagged from it.

"Oh thank God," she breathed out before quickly adjusting Electra properly again. "Can you walk?"

Electra blinked slowly a few times before finally seeming to fully wake up. Once she realized she was literally being carried around on Penelope's back in the middle of the dormitory hallway, confusion immediately crossed her face.

"Of course I can walk," she responded while slowly getting herself off Penelope's back.

Penelope straightened her posture with a small groan once Electra's weight was finally off her. Her back genuinely hurt now from carrying Electra all the way from the gate through the rain, and the annoyed expression on her face quickly returned now that the panic was starting to settle down.

Electra herself still looked slightly dazed as she stood there dripping wet in the hallway. Her blonde hair was soaked from the rain and sticking to parts of her face and neck. For a brief moment, she pressed a hand lightly against her forehead, like she was trying to steady herself before looking back toward Penelope.

"How long was I out?" she asked.

Penelope crossed her arms tightly while still trying to calm herself down from the scare. "Just like earlier this morning, only a few minutes," she answered with an irritated look on her face. "Although this one lasted longer than the first time."

Electra frowned slightly at that. The hallway around them remained mostly empty because of the weather outside, but Penelope still lowered her voice a little anyway as she continued speaking.

"Shouldn't you be worried now?" she asked seriously. "This is not normal, Electra. You can't just keep blacking out randomly and pretend it's nothing."

Electra stayed quiet for a few seconds.

Penelope could see the frustration on her face almost immediately. The problem clearly bothered Electra too, even if she hated showing it. Electra looked like someone trying desperately to figure out something that made no sense to her at all.

Finally, Electra sighed tiredly. "I don't even know what I'm supposed to do," she admitted quietly.

That response only made Penelope more worried because Electra rarely admitted uncertainty about anything. Even when confused, she usually acted confident or dismissive, but now she genuinely sounded lost.

Electra leaned slightly against the nearby wall for a second before speaking again. "I don't even feel sick," she muttered. "Except for the dizziness before I black out."

Penelope studied her face carefully while trying to decide whether Electra actually looked okay or was just pretending again. Unfortunately, Electra looked mostly normal now, aside from being wet and slightly exhausted. Which somehow made the situation even stranger.

"We need to talk Irina and Roxana about it," Penelope said firmly after a moment. "This could be something bad, and together, we can find out what's going on."

Immediately, Electra shook her head. "No."

Penelope frowned deeply. "Electra…"

"Don't say anything to them," Electra interrupted firmly.

Penelope stared at her in disbelief. "Are you insane? You literally just collapsed again!"

Electra sighed again, visibly growing annoyed now. "And yet I woke up again too."

"That's not the point," Penelope snapped back. "Something is obviously wrong with you."

Electra looked away briefly before responding more quietly, "I know that."

The answer surprised Penelope enough to momentarily silence her.

For a second, Electra almost looked frustrated with herself more than anything else. Like she hated not understanding what was happening to her own body. Penelope suddenly remembered the way Electra had reacted earlier after fainting in the bathroom. Confused, irritated, and almost angry at herself for losing control even briefly.

Electra hated weakness and right now, she probably viewed these sudden blackouts exactly as that. Still, Penelope was not willing to just pretend nothing was happening.

"You still need to tell them," she insisted stubbornly. "Irina's going to lose her mind if she finds out later that you collapsed twice and nobody told her."

Electra immediately turned toward her and threw her a stern look that made Penelope pause mid-sentence. "Penelope," she said warningly. "Just pretend this didn't happen until I figure out what's going on with me."

Penelope opened her mouth again, ready to argue back immediately, but the look on Electra's face stopped her. Electra genuinely meant it, and even worse, she looked serious enough that Penelope knew pushing too hard right now would only make her even more stubborn.

Still, Penelope did not like this at all, not even slightly, because as Electra stood there soaked from the rain with visible exhaustion hidden behind her usual expression, Penelope could not stop thinking about one terrifying possibility.

What if the next time Electra blacked out, she did not wake up so quickly?