TW: descriptions of death, murder, and blood. Depiction of a manipulative relationship.
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Snow falls from the sky like glittering crystals from the heavens. The world outside is blanketed in mounds of the fluffy white powder, glistening softly in the sliver of moonlight. Streetlights illuminate the ends of driveways, the light murky and distorted through the falling snow. The neighborhood is sleeping peacefully through the winter storm, but an uncontrollable fear keeps Jane up.
She is perched on her bed, staring out of her window at the world, a single hand pressed to the cold glass pane. She can't sleep, fatigue having long left her body.
The clock on her nightstand lets off the barest bit of light, illuminating the big digital numbers reading 3:17 AM. Her alarm will sound in a little under three hours, though there is no reason for it to go off with the snow outside. School has already been cancelled, but the effort to turn off the alarm and subsequently remember to turn it back on for the next school day is much more than simply turning the alarm off when it sounds.
She continues to sit and watch, watch and sit. Jane herself isn't positive what she's looking for, but the hole chewing away at the pit of her stomach tells her there is something she must be wary of tonight. So, something is what she looks for, eyes darting up and down the street. Each movement under the streetlights sets her on edge, though it's usually just the wind blowing up bits of snow. Her mind won't allow her to calm down, no matter how much she wants to.
On the bed beside her lays her phone, and in that moment, it illuminates the room as a notification comes through. She reaches for it without once glancing away from the window, reading the text from Dani as fast as she can. Before she even has a chance to reply, Jane's phone is ringing with an incoming FaceTime call. She picks up immediately, and Dani begins talking right away.
"Why the fuck are you up at this hour?" he demands. She can't see his face well, the darkness in his room too great for his phone camera to pick up much, but she knows the face he's making anyway. There's slight arch in his eyebrow, a frown mirroring one of a mother's I'm not mad, I'm disappointed, and a wrinkle in his forehead betraying the worry he tries to hide with the demand in his tone.
"Can't sleep," replies Jane. She returns her gaze to the window. "Why are you up?"
"Because you fucking texted me!"
"I wasn't expecting an answer."
It was true that she wasn't, but Dani knew her well enough by now that even though she wasn't expecting something didn't mean she believed something would happen. She expected it without expecting it, and too often others bent to her beliefs. Dani was the worst about it, always doing exactly as she wanted, despite all his complaints and claims he was going to stop.
