[ It takes a moment for her words to sink in. She's not talking about a secret, underground threat, here. She's not even talking about a dawning crisis. She's talking about a world that has more monsters than survivors. His expression grows serious, sad, and he says, quietly: ]

Wow. That's awful.

[ He had known right from that first meeting that Julie is a girl who has been through some shit. But he'd been so blinded by worrying about his brother that all his empathy over that had gone out the window. Now... that's not the case.

He thinks about Five, about how he had had to grow up in an empty world, nothing living or undead there with him. Would that be better or worse than a world full of undead monsters that seemed pretty vicious and deadly? Is there any point in comparing? Weighing two apocalypses against one another? ]

But you survived them, long enough to make it to Hadriel and - now here.

[ Ben thinks that doubtless Klaus knows all this. She must have told him already, and while there is some temptation to say his goodbyes and go grill his brother for this information... that would probably be pretty shitty of him. He's really trying, to be less shitty. So he lets out a slow sigh and asks: ]

Has it always been like that, your whole life?