Sometime past midnight, he forgot exactly when, Randy threw his blankets back and sat up with an annoyed grunt. It was useless trying to sleep anymore. If it wasn’t the headaches it was the strangely persistent feeling of someone trying to get his attention. When he managed to close his eyes there were monsters waiting to show him horrible things.
So he was left to sit on his bed and study, hoping that it would all blow over. He could, he supposed, ask Grace for some of her sleeping meds, but the stuff tasted gross and quite honestly, he wasn’t sure that wasn’t the cause of this all anyway. The dreams had started shortly after taking his first dose. Hadn’t they? He couldn’t really rememebr now. Well, at least his grades would improve from that, assuming he didn’t catch up on his sleep during exams. He clicked on the table lit. It illuminated the blue in soft water colours, functioning more as a nightlight than a decent reading lamp, but what could you do? Anything else and he’d probably end up waking Leo in the next bed over.
He wa grabbing for his Potions text when he noticed the next bed over was in fact empty. Randy checked his watch. Well past midnight. Not early enough for breakfast, not that Leo was an early riser for that anyway. He frowned briefly. Last year there was the strange things in the Ruins. Before that kids were being kidnapped. Most kids, though no one’d admit it, wouldn’t even go to the bathroom after Lights Out anymore, at least not alone. Those kids with sense anyway. Randy figured Leo to be a guy wth some sense. So where was he, after th Library was clearly closed.
Then it occured to him Leo wasn’t alone. Talora de Black lived just across the way. They were probably in the Common Room studying. In anyone else’s case he would have said “studying”. In the case of those two, he doubted it was much more than actually that.
Another hour or so passed in trying to figure out the differences between the Cronenburg Elixir and Romero’s Draught, when he heard the click, of the door beginning to open. Randy cursed to himself. He didn’t know there was a second Rounds this later-early- . He shut off the lamp and lay as still as possible. There was no way he wanted to explain to Professor SHoney, or one of the older kids, that he was having nightmares like some firstie away from home for the first time.
But the person who opened the door didn’t just stand at the door way and check. In fact, he could see almost distinctly the darker blackness of the person sidling into the room. He waited until it closed the door behind itself the flicked the light on again.
” Dude,” He whispered, though her really didn’t have to. “Scared the crap outta me.” He sat up again and reopened his Potions book. “Take it you two had one helluva study session.”
Leilah was ready to pass out. She was walking along the corridor of the Weir house when she finally reached her door, sighing in relief. “Finally,” she muttered, opening the door slowly and flicking on the light. She felt bad after turning it on, not wanting to wake Cora. She closed the door and promised herself not to ever go down to the village after dark to see her best friend’s band ever again – she was exhausted! Just as Leilah was about to turn around to face the mess that was her and Cora’s room, an unfamiliar voice rang out in the room. “Dude,” It said, scaring Lei out of her wits. “Take it you two had one helluva study session.” Leilah spun around, not finding an intruder in her dorm, but a whole different room. With boy things, and socks laying around. Not the familiar light blue walls that Cora had painted last month, or the cork board full of Cora’s pictures and her own – not even the soft purple duvet that was supposed to be on her bed.
“Aah!” Leilah screeched, backing into the wall, looking rather frightened of what was happening. All she saw was a rather attractive boy laying where her bed should be, and Lei didn’t like that one bit. “What the-? Who are you?!” Leilah stuttered, trying to collect her bearings. What room did she walk into? Leilah rubbed her bear arms, that weren’t very warmed by her tank-top and skirt, and starred at the boy, gulping. Oh god, Lei, what have you done? “I’m the friggin’ Batman.” Randy said his lip briefly curling in a sneer that was nealry identical to his sister’s. It was gone once he ran his hand through his hair.
“I think the bigger question here would be why you’re sneaking around the boys rooms.” Okay that wasn’t the bigger question. In fact, he could answer that pretty easiily and did. “Troy Bastrova and Aaron Willoughby are in Bastrova House, you know that right?”
It took a minute, but he winced. Stupid Troy. Now he was getting Randy to say it. ” I mean Balgren House.”
Leilah looked at him and puckered her lips slightly, making her look angry and confused at the same time. At the sound of Tory’s name, her perfectly curved eyebrows rose in slight anger. “What?” she snapped angrily.
“I have no reason to find Troy Bah-freaking-strova! I absolutely hate him, always throwing his royal weight around!!! I hate those kind of royals! They make us all look snotty!” Lei was getting really steamed up. “I’m just trying to get to my room! I walked up the wrong stairs!!!” She looked murderous that someone would suggest that about her. “I’m in Weir! This is my house, too. What do you think, I’m from another house?”
Zydrie and Ri
The jolt lurched through her body and physically woke her up. Zydrie sat up in bed and clutched at her stomach. She felt physically sick but she was aware that it would pass soon enough. It had been a really strong pull though, much more than the usual dim scratch she had grown to recognise for what it was.
Her long brown hair was sticking up at wild angles and she ruffled it even more without thinking. She didn’t know anyone who was pregnant. Must be a distant relative then. But no…there was no way it could be so painful. The female Danuliete blood line recognised its own in strange and binding ways.
Her feet pushed their own way out of bed, without the control or consent of their owner. She stood up in her strawberry pattern pyjamas. It was calling her and she wanted to follow it. She glanced at Talora, even in sleep she was so neat and pretty, her bed barely ruffled by her presence. A dramatic contrast to Zydrie whose duvet was now lying in a heap on the floor and whose sheets seemed to defy the laws of sheetdom and come untucked every single night.
No she didn’t want to disturb Tal; her blood sang in her and she had to go.
It was close. Really weirdly close. She made her way stealthily out and headed towards Reym.
As Orion stormed away from Bradley’s bedroom her head begun to hurt. She ignored it at first, taking it as just another sign of how much the arrogant git really annoyed her, but the closer she got towards her bedroom the more the throbbing pain in her temple thudded against her skull. She paused for a moment and massaged her forehead gently before continuing along the corridor. There was a small part of her that wished she hadn’t thrown the pendant at him, Leo was going to give her hell for that later on.
Her room mate was no where to be seen, unsurprising really as Jess took a lot of time off school to be with a her father. Her pillow received a proper thrashing for a good ten minutes before she had to lie down. Her head was still pounding and she felt a sickening pull behind her stomach that made her whole body erupt into queasy shakes. She lay with her head over the side of the bed for a while, trying to ignore it. She couldn’t be that upset about it could she?
Throwing the pendant was just a way to make Bradley see she wouldn’t take his punishment lying down. Of course she wasn’t going to quit the Thestrals, he’d be begging for her to come back in a week or two he always did – after every single fight they’d ever had. She wasn’t that upset about losing John either. First boyfriend he may have been but he’d practically run for the hills at the first sign of trouble, she needed someone with at least a little bit of courage.
She lay around moaning for a solid half an hour before she heard a little tap at her door. Groaning she got to her feet and padded across the room, pulling on her pyjama shorts to make herself slightly more presentable should it be Blackwell. But it wasn’t Blackwell at all.
“Zydrie?” she asked, a little bit dazed from feeling sick and exhausted. She waved her arm in a sort of ‘Enter, I guess’ motion and pulled back the door to allow her friend into the room.
Zydrie didnt walk in though. She looked at Ri with a very weird, puzzled stare,
“You?” she said and shook her head. The tangled head bounced around wildly. “No, no, no, sorry I think I’m just way too tired. What time is it anyway? Sorry really sorry were you asleep, oh a Palvadean practice hoop!” she suddenly pounced on an orange ring which was flung across several layers of clothing on the floor. “Awesome,” she grinned. “Can I borrow?”
She jumped up and clapped Ri on the back….and wished she hadn’t. Another jolt, even stronger than before hit her and she retched slightly.
“Who the hell are you?” she demanded accusingly. “And what have you done with Ri?”
Ri didn’t know whether it was because she had stood up too quickly, or whether it was because she was just standing up, but her headache had certainly gotten worse. She stared at Zydrie for a moment, bleary eyes not really focusing what was going on. She looked just as confused as she felt. She glanced down at her watch and the face and hands swam together causing her to blink a few times. “Um, late?” she offered unhelpfully.
She followed Zydrie across the room to where the bright orange hoop was lying in a heap of last week’s practice gear and Python tshirts. She’d meant to take it to the next Thestral practice, but now she was off the team that didn’t seem likely. She frowned as Zydrie picked it up but nodded. “Fire away,” she grinned.
In the next moment she wished she hadn’t said anything. Zydrie clapped her on the back and she immediately had to fight the urge to retch. She staggered backwards, pushing Zydrie off her with a not so gentle shove. Her hand flew to her temple and her eyes squeezed shut against the strength of her headache. “I am Ri!” she muttered. “What the hell are you doing to me?”
Zydrie knew it would pass. She remained on the floor, put her head into her hands and breathed deeply. Her head thumped and she could feel her blood swirling around every limb.
A few minutes passed, she swallowed and pulling herself together crawled over to Ri, being careful not to touch her this time.
“It’s a family thing,” she explained. “Female line stuff. But you’re not family, so that’s totally weird. I don’t get it, there must be a link somewhere, I’ve never known it to be wrong before. I’ll send some owls out later.”
She mentally flicked over who she could safely ask. Probably Giedre was the safest bet. She certainly cared the least and was the least likely to get over excited by such an occurrence.
“Who’s your mother?” she asked. “What’s your line?”
atbecollections 