A Sacrifice of Names

Chapter 3

I could not quite grasp why my feet were feeling this dirty. Lowering my hand I tried to rub the mud from them. Cold shivers ran up my arms. Was the heater broken again? It would not have been the first time that happened, unfortunately. I looked up, only to find myself not in my room.

"Awake again?" The sound of the low, male voice immediately sent a chill down my spine. I tried to look over my shoulder, only to be met by an odd shadow in the corner of- where even was I?

A cave? A few candles lightened the place, but not enough to make out all the shadows now gathering around me. I wanted to crawl away, only to realise my ankles were bound. I could feel something cold caressing down my shoulder, forcing an inaudible gasp past my lips.

"Let me out..." The plea sounded strange coming from my own mouth as if I knew what was happening here. I didn't. All I knew is that I wanted to get out of here as soon as I possibly could.

A loud scream not far from me made me freeze on the spot.

"I'm not here to hurt you," the male voice spoke again. Softer this time, almost if he was standing right next to me, whispering in my ear. I tried to look around, but could only see the shadows closing up on me. I tried to make myself small.

"I'm here to warn you..."

✒

Cut down on the caffeine. At least that is what the doctor had advised her three days after the library accident, if one could even call it such. Awfully bold of the man to assume that, as a student, she fuelled herself with energy drinks to stay awake during the day. Drowning herself in coffee on the other hand, it was safe to say she was guilty of that habit. For years it had been the first thing she would make herself in the morning, sometimes even ignoring breakfast altogether when she was in a hurry, but coffee was something she could never skip. It had become a custom to, at least, have three or four cups throughout the day. The coffee shop on campus was to blame for that.

Cutting down on that would make her bank account happy, at least.

Her sleep had not improved, however, not one bit. Peculiar dreams continued to plague her at night, forcing her to wake up every few hours. Harper had jokingly called it the withdrawal period one morning when she stumbled upon Earie standing in their shared bathroom, covered in sweat. It had just been another nightmare, one of the many.

Most of them had a recurring theme, although she could not recall all of them. Sometimes she was in what eerily resembled a cave, but not all times she was bound. The shadows were there pretty often actually, but not always did they feel hostile. Sometimes she felt like she was bathing in bright light, as if on a well-deserved sun vacation, only to feel the cold creep beneath her skin. And that voice, that male voice.

Whether it was the exact same voice every time she would hear it she could not tell exactly, but it felt as if she was starting to recognise it.

Earie looked down at the prescription the doctor had given her. Just something that would help her sleep a little better. Some valerian that would get her through the night, hopefully. She could get some of those pills at the drugstore, easily. Perhaps something she should have thought about getting far sooner already.

She could do that after class, the only class she had that day. Fridays were always a good beginning of the weekend, or well, as far as one could actually call it a weekend. She never had been too outgoing, but grabbing a drink with the housemates on a friday or saturday night had always been a very welcoming break from her studies. She adored the many pubs back in the city, and those nights would always end up somewhere in a shawarma place before they had to carry someone home.