ᴏᴍɴɪꜱᴄɪᴇɴᴛ ✵ʀᴇɢᴜʟᴜꜱ ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ✵

𝐕𝐈𝐈

☼ ꜰʀᴇʏᴀ ☼

»»-------≪ °❈° ≫-------««

Through the windows that welcome the passage of light, the dorm room is alive with vibrant hues of morning. Freya stirs, cradling a pillow to her chest, but the beams of sun rays won't allow her to drift back to sleep. Once her heavy eyelids flutter open, she stretches her arms out and hears a satisfying crack. She sits up with a small smile of content, but it quickly falters when she notices a figure on the edge of her bed.

"Fucking hell!" Freya exclaims, jerking back in surprise.

"You laugh in your sleep. It's actually quite frightening," Pandora says, oblivious towards Freya's discomfort. "Cuppa tea?"

"Er, sure." Regardless of such a bizzare way to wake up, Freya doesn't hesitate to take the pink mug with a floral design. She holds it below her lips that form into an 'o' shape and blows soft air out to cool the steam that rises before sipping the tea. "Cheers."

"Van and Cas already left for breakfast," Pandora tells her. Today her eyelids are neutral tones blended together with sharp wings of eyeliner that have tiny, sparkly stars along it. She's truly an artist with makeup. "I told them I'd wait for you."

"Oh, that's kind of you." Freya places her already empty cup on its matching saucer, and then stands in her silk nightgown. "How was the Slytherin party?"

There's an enigmatic gleam in her green eyes at the question. "Quite fun. Would've been better with all of you."

Freya hums in vague agreement as she gathers the robes she left out neatly folded the night before. "You can go down to breakfast, I'll meet you after I'm ready."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll see you there."

As Pandora exits their dorm, Freya enters the bathroom. There's lavender in a vase that's most welcoming to the senses. She hadn't noticed last night when she showered, but it's an interior of interlaced white and chrome with marble floors that are cold against her bare feet. She turns the faucet so she can wash her face, but soon there's a furrow between her eyebrows as she peers down at the ripples of water in the sink. Suddenly a pungent smell of salty air overcomes the lavender scent.

Everything around her begins to distort, and Freya feels an all-too-familiar icy draft drift through her heart. The bathroom that once surrounded her disperses, as though it were merely dust, and the floor beneath her disappears; her body falls through an endless mass of nothingness.

When the soles of Freya's feet land on a mucky and uneven surface, she can hear the sound of rushing waves and crashing. A warm breeze – unseasonably warm for early autumn – grazes her skin. She opens her eyes to see an infinite blue of sea lit by the moon that hangs above in the starry sky. Flecks of cold salt spray hit her face as water churns and foams below. A towering cliff stands behind her, seeming to hold a void inside it. Against her better judgement, she ventures into the supposed void.

"Lumos."

In a cavern so high that the ceiling seems hidden, she stands at the edge of a large, dark lake whose size is so great that Freya cannot see its far-off banks. A long way out, at what appears to be the centre of the lake, a misty greenish light glows. She squints to see two figures right next to it, and her ears catch the sound of sobs that carry across the water.

Freya treads very carefully to the edge of the rock where a series of jagged niches make footholds leading down to boulders that lay half-submerged in water. This is where she stops, the hem of her silk nightgown now soaked, and once she's able to see the centre more clearly, a sharp breath of air is sucked through her parted lips. One of the figures is no other than herself; she's a bit older, albeit not by much, but she still looks as though the cruelty of life has stolen her hopeful youth and replaced it with a vengeful demeanour.