Beautifully Horrific// Xavier Thorpe

I really couldn't tell you

We made it to our next class, with Thornhill, learning all about plants, which would be rather tedious for me, as Mother was an avid gardener of all deadly and carnivorous plants, and we had been tending to them with her since we were young. When we walked through the many plants, Wednesday veered off to go and talk with Thing about his disappointing performance in keeping his fingers on Rowan, I looked around the room, seeing Enid was already sat with someone, I heard someone sigh behind me, before they stated, "There's a seat beside me, if you can stand my annoying personality."

I turned around and saw Xavier sketching at one of the front tables, I sighed lowly and sat beside him, then realising there was another empty seat next to a girl on the next table over. Wednesday took that seat a few minutes later, Xavier was still sketching, I glanced over and saw it was a death heads moth, and I would admit he had a real talent for drawing. He saw me looking at his drawing, he moved the sketchbook so I could see better, and hovered his hand over it, his fingers twitching slightly, then the moth came from the page, flying up to settle on my hand.

"Mr. Thorpe, I doubt Valdis is impressed by your tricks." Ms. Thornhill called out.

Xavier looked over at me, "Admit it, you are a little impressed?"

I looked down at the moth, blowing on it, watching as the pencil dispersed into the air, there was a light chuckle from the whole class, Xavier slammed his sketchbook closed and sighed heavily. I felt a strange pang in my chest, something I hadn't ever experienced before, it urged me to lean over and say something to him, "It was a beautiful deaths head moth."

Xavier looked over at me and smiled softly, "I knew you were impressed."

"Never mention it to anyone."

"Or you'll kill me?" He teased.

"It will be much worse than that."

"Well, everyone, time to focus, Wednesday, Valdis, we are thrilled to have you both joining us, welcome to the world of carnivorous plants. Can anyone tell me the name of this beautiful plant?"

That question sparked a verbal battle between Bianca and Wednesday, I completely blocked them both out, trying to order my thoughts about what had been happening. I was brought briefly back by Xavier asking, "Are we still talking about plants?"

There was a sniggering around the entire room, I rolled my eyes and took out my own sketchbook, deciding to finish some abandoned pieces I had started, I flicked through the pages and found one I had started a few days before we left for Nevermore, it was a skull, just a skull so far. I just started to trace around the skull, getting completely lost in the pencil movements, not even really knowing what I was drawing until I picked the pencil up and saw the outlining of flames around the skull. I placed the pencil back on the page, feeling myself get completely pulled into the movements, not really feeling myself moving the pencil at all. I don't remember most of the class, instead I was transfixed on the page, when I was finally finished and came out of my trance, there was a perfectly shaded skull in flames, in the background there was dense woods and a full moon, illuminating shadows coming out of the woods, through large gates. I sat back slightly in my chair, placing my pencil down, seeing my hands were shaking slightly, there was something more to this drawing, I had never gone into a trance like that before when drawing, something was going to happen on the full moon in the woods, and I had a bad feeling about it.

"That's really good." Xavier whispered, nodding to my drawing.

"Thank you." I whispered back, my voice slightly shaky.

"Do you normally go into trances when drawing?"

I looked over at him, my glare hardening at him, "I don't know what you are talking about."