Bitten

Oneiromancy

Riley stretched her arms up, letting out a tired groan. She closed her reference book and put her notebook away. With a lazy finger, she pushed her ink well around on her desk. Riley had just finished her paper on how Occlumens can counter even the most powerful Legilimen with false memories. Her head ached from her eyes straining against the darkness in order to see what she was reading and writing. She rubbed at her eyes, then trailed her hand to her forehead and pulled it all the way down to her chin. Riley yawned and grabbed her candle. Barely making it to her bed, she didn't bother to change out of her school uniform. When she sat down and her head hit the pillow, she was out.

"Riley," came a voice. Riley opened her eyes and found herself in a room. The room was as dark as a night of a new moon. There were no candles and no windows to allow the moonlight in. Riley assumed it was night at least.

"Riley," said the voice again. Other than the small voice calling her, no sounds were coming from around her. But then, when she listened very hard, she heard a small whimpering. Blind as a bat, Riley didn't fight the darkness. She closed her eyes and took a slow breath. Focusing on only her sense of hearing, she followed the sound. She held her hands out so as to not run into anything. Although as she walked, there wasn't anything to run into. It took her several minutes to be close enough to the sound where it wasn't hard to hear.

"Hello?" She called softly, opening her eyes. It was still dark, but there was a candle very high up. It was fastened in an iron, lion-toed candelabra. It was almost completely burned out and the flame struggled to burn on the wick. Riley let her eyes adjust to the new light and looked around for the source of the sound.

A little ways in front of her, there was a boy sitting against a wall. He had his knees to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs. His face was between his knees and he was shivering. His hair was straight and a medium length.

"Hello? Are you all right?" Riley called again, moving closer. His head jolted up. He had stone grey eyes that even Riley could see in the dim lighting. He looked surprised and scared, then angry.

"How did you get here?" He growled. His voice seemed somewhat familiar to Riley. But she couldn't place it. Had he been the one calling her? It didn't sound the same, but it wasn't so different either.

"Someone was calling me." Riley answered, "Are you the only one here?" The boy scowled.

"You shouldn't be here! If He finds you-"

"If who finds me?" The boy was struck silent. His mouth was open in an answer, but no sound came from him. There was the sound of a door opening. His head jerked towards the sound, coming up into a crouch position quickly. He looked at Riley.

"You have to leave. Now!" He hissed. Riley was confused. What was he talking about? It was just a dream. No one could hurt them and nothing could happen. But Riley felt herself being pushed. She felt the dream slipping away. She reached out for the boy, but he made some form of shield around himself. As he was fading farther from her, Riley called out.

"Wait! Let me help you!" She yelled. His face turned towards her and she couldn't breathe for a moment. His eyes were sad and hopeless.

"No one can help me." He whispered, but the sound carried all the way to her. Then Riley was falling, reality and fiction swirling around her to create a never-ending darkness.

Riley shot up, panting for breath. A cold sweat fell down her back and plastered her hair to her face. She brought a shaky hand to her face and pushed her hair behind her ears.She let out a breath and sucked in some fresh air. What had that dream been? Was the boy all right? Maybe she would practice a little Oneiromancy later. She scratched at her part and looked over at her clock. 9:20 am flashed red in front of her eyes which meant classes began in ten minutes.

Her heart jumping in to her throat, Riley jumped up. She retied her house tie and pulled up her black tights. She made sure all her buttons were buttoned on her plain white shirt, pulled on her charcoal grey knitted v-neck jumper, and threw on a cardigan with yellow and black strips at the waist and cuffs. As Riley pulled on her plain black shoes she patted out the wrinkles on her grey skirt. Running out the door, she grabbed her notebook and books for her first and second classes. Snatching a plain, black, silver fastened robe off a hook near the door she rushed to her class.

Just barely making it in the door to her class before the bell rang, Riley thought she was going to die. She was never late to her classes normally. Every now and then she would sleep in, but it almost never happened. As she walked to her usual seat by her classmate Stephanie Cradey, she noticed people looking at her and giggling. Riley placed her things on the table Stephanie and she shared and sat down on the bench.

"Good morning, Riley." Stephanie said, she turned to continue the conversation but stopped. Riley blinked as Stephanie burst out in to rolling fits of laughter.

"What? What is it?"

"Riley! All over your face!" Stephanie choked out. Riley blinked again. She reached up at rubbed at her face. She looked at her palm and it was covered with smears of ink. Under the ink, Riley's face turned bright red. Last night when she had rubbed her eyes and things, she must have had ink on her hands from her well. She jumped up, rushing from the room and tried to outrun the laughter from her classmates. Just as she was about to reach the door, a chill ran down her spine.

"Riley!" yelled the same voice from her dream that night. She snapped her head up just in time to stop herself from running in to someone. He looked down at her with cold, grey eyes. Riley's heart stopped in her chest.

"You...you're from," she murmured. His straight blond hair fell over his eyes a little where he peered at her. His skin was pale in the classroom light. This was most certainly the boy she had seen in her dream last night! He went to her school? They had a class together? How had she not remembered?

"Filth." He spat, "Get out of my way." He said, his lip curled up in a sneer. Riley blinked. Something flashed across his eyes and he pushed past her, hitting her hard on the shoulder as he passed. She stumbled a bit. She watched him sit down three tables in front of her own. His tablemate said something to him with a look back at Riley. The boy looked over his shoulder at her and Riley could swear she saw recognition in his eyes. But then his face became spiteful and he made a snide remark to his friend. Riley felt her face turn hot and she pushed past the teacher as they entered the classroom.