For a moment, it was almost like she was looking at the caves entrance from the inside; remembering the gloomy, oppressive darkness struck through with bold rays of far-off and rudely tempting sunshine, trickling in through what few and tiny holes there were in the ceiling but void of any real warmth. The scars gnarling her shoulders ached all of a sudden, the smell of misery hanging in the stale air a comprehensive mash up of fear, dust, dried old blood, cold stone, and pig.
And, of course, cat.

Apple was still standing there, stuck, when the others joined her; It was obvious she was broken, felt it deep in her soul, and the thought only served to intensify her anxiety evermore. She would never look at the world around her the same way. She would never trust the same, she would never play the same, she could never live the same, knowing such evil existed around the people she loved and threatened to steal their freedom.

'Would you like for me to scout the tunnel?'

Honoka's words cut into her unexpectedly, and Apple's eyes closed in a tiny, nearly imperceptible flinch; a shield, as if she didn't have to look, it wouldn't be real. Apricot asked if she thought it was a good idea, urging Apple back towards normalcy. A part of her wanted to scream that no, absolutely not, Honoka couldn't go into that yawning, black cave all by herself!
But another knew it would make her heart thrum a little less intensely, if only after a few more moments of struggle.

If you don't mind poking your head in, just to make sure its empty, she offered hesitantly, teal gaze sliding open; trying and failing to swallow through unseen tears that hadn't reached her eyes but gripped her airways all the same.

The golden Duchess leaned into her brother, feeling... ashamed. Heavy. Incapable.

Look at me, afraid of a little cave, she whispered under her breath, the tears budding in her eyes. It didn't matter that she'd been through something traumatic, that she'd been hurt, and betrayed, and locked away. It didn't matter that who she thought a friend had turned on her the moment her guard was down, that she'd feel guilt the rest of her life over the one that'd been traded for her freedom.

How am I supposed to be your Duchess, Apricot? Our allies won't be impressed by a coward, and our enemies will think us weak. A Dusk, acting as if she's afraid of the dark.

It wasn't the dark she feared, of course.

It was the monsters that lurked in it's depths, waiting to pounce, to steal away their happiness.

Her pale brows pinched, frustrated, glaring at the ground and grinding her jaws (though she would not let Honoka go into the mouth of the beast without a gaze hot on her back, as if waiting for her to be snatched away inside).