A name. Over and over, pulling through the darkness, but she has to see this through to the end. She has to swallow it down to where her own heart can break it down, or else it'll never dislodge from where it burns her nerves and chokes her breath. Her hand spasms in his, trying to grab hold and flinching away, back and forth.

Fire burns through the darkness, bright and powerful like the sun, somehow more blinding than blindness; the ghost before her seems to grow more solid, light defining more features. It's so hard to recognize anything familiar under fear, but gradually it burns away in the wake of something bigger, something brighter. Less of Karkat Vantas filters back through the loop, draining down. Light overtakes darkness, and in that illumination, everything snaps into place. Her vision focuses on the world outside her.

Hope.

          "... Karkat?"