Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 45: Swimming in Fog

Monday, December 1

When Corrie and Edie reached their room, Edie pulled off her coat and threw herself down on the bed in her clothes. Corrie did the same, but a little more slowly. Edie was trying to fall asleep—Corrie didn't think she would be able to. She lay down in the fetal position, knees curled to her chest, and stared across the dark room. Thoughts buzzed in her brain, and they weren't going anywhere useful. Why had Paul attacked Dawn? Which faeries were behind it, if any? How could they protect themselves in the future? How could Ever help?

It wasn't until she woke up, the room still dark but grayer and paler, that she realized she'd fallen asleep at all.

She closed her eyes, still feeling sluggish and exhausted, but after a moment pushed herself into a sitting position. Her mind might want to sleep more, but her body wouldn't let her. She checked her clock and realized it was her usual waking time. She'd trained her body so well to wake her up for her run that she couldn't even stop it when she'd only had three hours of sleep.

Yawning, she changed into her running sneakers and pulled on a hoodie, deciding not to change out of yesterday's clothes—she was going to have to wash whatever she ran in anyway. Maybe they weren't the best running clothes, but hopefully, this would be a short run anyway.

When she made it outside, moving a little slowly despite her body's insistence on running, the entire campus was wreathed in white. She thought it was snow for a moment before she realized it was fog—the fog that had curled around their feet a few hours before had grown and thickened. Some muzzy part of her subconscious told her that this was proof that the faeries had been involved in last night's attack, but the rest of her just shrugged and started running.

It was like running through a swimming pool, but less difficult, because the fog offered hardly any resistance. It was so thick she could only see glimpses of the ground through it, but it only came up to her shoulders. The buildings and leafless trees seemed to appear suddenly on the white surface. The sun was rising in the east, sending faint rays of winter light over the fog, but not penetrating it.

Thankfully, she'd run the campus paths enough times that she didn't have to think much about which way to turn to keep on them. This was definitely a day that she did not want to step off the paths.

The campus was quiet, the few early-morning sounds muffled by the fog. She didn't see anyone else out until she ran past the dining hall, where a few people were straggling in for early breakfasts. Even they were quiet.

Her muscles burned with exhaustion by the time she returned to Gilkey. She rested against the door for a moment before going inside. When she reached the fifth floor, wishing she had access to the elevator again, she grabbed her shower things quickly and hurried to the bathroom for a long, hot soak.

She dressed and checked her email (the fog was only canceling a few classes) without waking Edie, then stepped outside into the hallway and met Dawn. "Hey," she said, grinning at her. "You doing okay?"

Dawn nodded. There were dark circles below her eyes, but she didn't look like she was in pain. "Rico spent the night with me. I feel a lot better."

Corrie couldn't help grinning even more widely at that. They were so darn cute. "That's sweet of him. Professor Lal says we can miss class without getting in trouble. I couldn't sleep anymore, though."

"I couldn't either. I mean, I figured I could skip class, but I can't. If it was anything other than magic..."

Corrie nodded. She understood. "Well, let's brave the elements. There's a lot of fog, but we should be able to make it to class okay."

"As long as we can have breakfast first," said Dawn. "I'm starving."

"Me, too." They started down the hall, and Corrie looked at Roe's door, closed like all the others. "Should we tell Roe that she doesn't have to come to class?"

"Might as well." Dawn knocked on the door. It was answered in a moment by Talia, Roe's roommate.

"Hey, is Roe still asleep?" Corrie asked softly.

Talia shook her head. "She already went to breakfast."

"I guess she doesn't want to miss class either," said Dawn. "Thanks, Talia. We'll find her in the dining hall."

When they found Roe, she was just as hollow-eyed as Dawn, but looked much less content. "Let's get to class early if we can," she said without even greeting them. "I had another vision."