“I think it needs more damiana. Might make the high last longer.” I hum in agreement.
“What’d the Headmaster want?”
“Just bullshit about my classes.” I roll my eyes. “He threatened to call my father if I don’t bring my grades up.” Killian scoffs. “The fucker dangled an internship at the Medical Center so I would agree.”
“He should be grateful Roth wasn’t there.” I smirk in agreement. With one last inhale, he hands my blunt back to me and slaps my cheek.
“Fucker,” I mutter as I pull back, and he grins, completely unrepentant. “You’re lucky I don’t eat you.”
“You’d never get fur out of your teeth and you know it,” he jokes, and my demon peers at him through my eye. But Killian’s grin just grows. We’re brothers by choice if not by blood, and even our inner monsters acknowledge that.
“Don’t forget,” he says as he walks backwards towards the group of girls waiting for him with hungry gazes, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” I throw the rest of my blunt at him but he dodges and laughs. After a quick text, I make my way towards the cliffs beyond the Temple, my skin feeling too tight despite the relaxing effect of the drugs. It’s not long before I get a response.
Thane Rorvik
Tonight?
Roth Kovacs
11pm. My room. On your knees.
My stomach tightens and goosebumps roll down my spine, making me shiver despite the warm winds buffeting the cliffside. I reach the edge and shuck off my clothes, watching as the churning waves break on the deadly rocks below. There’s a small beach further down the shore that most people use for bonfires and sunbathing and shit.
But I’m not most people.
I’m a fucking monster.
The rush of adrenaline as I dive is more addictive than any drug Killian could ever create. The thrill of free falling a hundred feet courses through my blood. From that height, the water feels like fucking concrete when I hit the surface, an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. The agony of impact releases the demon beneath my skin, a rabid beast breaking freefrom its cage, reforming my flesh and bones into an eldritch creature of endless hunger.
The sudden silence and weight of the depths quiets the screaming in my head. The monster and I become one, descending into the void where my nightmares can’t follow. They haunt the shore, waiting for my return. But here in the crushing darkness of the abyss, I’m finally alone.
10
NYX
I dream of floating beneath a blanket of shining stars. They sing to me, those twinkling lights, of dreams beyond the stardust, of worlds beyond the horizon. A sea of souls drowning in the mists of memory, begging me not to forget them too.
I wake to the echoes of their last lament, of sweet sorrows and whispered promises.
Jesus fuck.
It is too goddamn early tofeelthings.
I wipe the lingering wetness from my eyes and it takes a moment to register that the water stain on the ceiling that’s silently judging me isn’t from my apartment in Lynden.
I’m at college. A magical college. Which I can no longer deny, having spent half the day seeing it with my own eyes.
History and Politics came as naturally as breathing, but after lunch it was like stepping into an alternate reality, one in which the laws of the universe were merely guidelines.
It was trippy as fuck.
My alarm goes off right next to my ear, where I must have dropped it when I passed out pre-reading for today’s classes: Linguistics, Divinity Studies, Taxonomic Studies, and PhysicalTraining. Linguistics, i.e. Latin and Greek, two of the main languages they use for spells and shit, and Divinity Studies, which is basically magical Theology, are two of the classes I’m most looking forward to. Taxonomic Studies, the subject of different species and Orders, and Physical Training, however, are more intimidating.
Quickly, so as to avoid the morning rush to the communal showers, I take a shower and get dressed into another uniforms and once again marvel at how the supple fabric brushes against my skin. I even twirl around a little bit before catching myself. After slipping on my shoes, I dart out of my room just as I hear the hoard of sleep-deprived students shuffling through the halls and make my way past the grand doors of the dormitory and into the frigid morning air.
The campus, so full of life yesterday, rests in the liminal space between sleep and wakefulness as I walk along the tree-lined paths, the sound of my steps dampened by the morning fog. The ancient buildings seem to peer at me through half-lidded eyes as I disturb their slumber, and shivers roll down my spine as I break the hallowed silence.
The Great Hall isn’t empty like I’d hoped, but it is sparsely occupied and for the first time since I arrived here, I actually have a chance to take my time to figure out what I want. Not just what I can grab quickly, not what’s in my budget, but what I want.
