memories | a fate story

screams

Riven and Kara didn't meet that night. She wasn't sure if he was worried about Beatrix or just forgot it. Kara sat alone on the roof, and she heard them, Beatrix's screams. But she didn't believe it, she believed Miss Dowling. She knew Miss Dowling wouldn't hurt her and the headmistress was a mind fairy. She knew how to use her powers.

Kara smoked 5 cigarettes that night. She didn't know how long she sat there, but she knew that Beatrix's screams didn't last an eternity and even she went to bed one time. So not long after Beatrix stopped screaming Kara went to bed too. When she walked by Bloom's and Aisha's room she glanced inside it, because there was no snoring to be heard.

But Bloom's bed was empty. And that made Kara weirdly suspicious.

*

"Missed you last night", Kara said, "You could've at least texted me!"

"I know I'm sorry, had a lot of work to do", Riven said and grabbed a sword. "Wanna begin?

"Sure!", Kara said, "But that work didn't involve anything with Beatrix, right?"

"Kara!", Riven said, "I am not doing anything with Beatrix, she killed someone! I am not that much of a psycho like Dane."

"Dane?", Kara asked.

"Yeah, he'd still do anything for her. It's weird", he said, "And now, can we please start with the sparring."

"I don't want to do it!"

"I don't care, you're a mind fairy you can't fight against the Burned Ones and if something happens you would simply die. And because no one wants that you must have at least some kind of weapon!"

Riven stood on the mat in this typical fighting position. So that's what Kara did, they looked at each other.

"Ready?", he asked but she shook her head. "Well, I don't care!"

He started attacking her and it didn't take long, one sweep with his leg, and she was lying on the floor.

"Okay, ouch, that hurt!", she grunted, "Break?"

*

"Concentrate on the memory," Miss Dowling said. She stood in front of Kara, her eyes closed and her hands resting on Kara's. "What do you see?"

"A room," Kara said, squeezing her eyes shut even more, biting her lower lip, and drawing her eyebrows together. It was exhausting.

"What's in the room?" asked Miss Dowling.

"I can't make it out," Kara admitted, trying to make something sharp out of the blurred images. But she felt Miss Dowling countering, creating a thin barrier layer between her and Kara.

"Try harder."

Kara squeezed Miss Dowling's hands a little tighter and tried again. She focused purposefully only on the room. Everything around her disappeared, she was no longer standing in Dowling's office or holding her hands, but she was in the room Dowling showed her. It was decorated in red and in one corner was a Christmas tree that had been hung with red and green baubles.

Kara looked around, she was sitting on a soft brown sofa and she could smell freshly baked biscuits, a smile crept onto her lips. Slowly she got up and paced the room, she heard the hum of Christmas music and stood by the window. She could see a snow-covered landscape.

"It's Christmas," she whispered into the room. Then she went on, under the Christmas tree there were many presents, they were wrapped differently. Slightly she bent down and ran her fingers over one of the presents, then she became too curious lifted the present, and shook it next to her ear as she had always done as a child when she wanted to guess what she was going to get as a gift.