❝ But we were in screaming colour
And I remember thinking... ❞
CASSIOPEIA 'CASS' BLACK HAS ALWAYS been hidden away in the dark, but now, her life finally begins when she gets a letter to a school just waiting for her arrival. She meets friends...
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▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ .ೃ࿐ ───── ACT ONE, FIRST YEAR (VOL I.) PHILOSOPHER'S STONE .ೃ࿐ 001 ⋆ THE OLD MAN FROM BOARDING SCHOOL ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
SHE WOKE UP IN THE DARK.
It was too hot in the little room they'd put her in, being early August. Though she supposed that could be the fever. She always had a high temperature, the morning after. They used to put her in a room with a window, but a few months ago she'd been able to smash one of them, and if it hadn't had bars anyway then she'd have escaped. She'd heard them talking about restraining her as she got older. She tried not to think about it.
She remembered the feeling of hunger, so intense it transformed into rage. She remembered howling and keening for hours, circling the cell over and over again. Perhaps they'd let her off lessons today, and she could sleep. It was the summer holiday's anyway, and not fair that she had to do lessons when all the other girls were allowed to spend all day dossing about in the gardens. Sitting up, she stretched carefully, paying attention to every ache and pop of her joints. There was a fresh claw mark in her right thigh and a bite against her forearm, which had been her biting arm for years; bite marks so deep it was a blood red.
She rubbed her hand through her hair, which was slightly wet from the distress during her transformation.
Cass heard footsteps at the end of the hall. It was Matron; she could smell her, hear her heartbeat. Cass' senses were always amplified after one of her episodes. She stood up, pulling a blanket around herself despite the heat, and padded towards the door to listen harder. She was not alone, there was a man with her. He smelled old and somehow... different. A thick, iron scent which reminded Cass vaguely of her father.
It was magic.
"Are you sure it's worth your time?" Matron was asking the stranger. "She's really one of our worst cases."
"Oh yes." The old man replied. His voice was rich and warm. "We're very sure. Is this where you keep her during...?"
"Her episodes." The matron finished in her clipped, nasal voice. "For her own safety. She's started biting, since her last birthday."
"I see." The man replied, sounding thoughtful, rather than concerned. "May I ask, madam, what it is you know about the young girl's affliction?"
"Everything I need to know." Matron replied, coldly. "She's been here since she was one. And she's always been trouble — not just because she's one of your sort."
