House of Bone

Chapter 1̶͕̜̟̈́̃̕͝2̸͙̩̼̉̈́ ⧼⧼𝟏𝟏⧽⧽

The morning is early. Sleep has never been one of my strong suits, and the few times I do actually get good sleep, it's plagued by strange dreams.

I rub my eyes, deciding to make the most of the early morning and go and visit Tia.

"Tia?" I ask, knocking quietly on her door. "Are you awake?"

I hear a muffled noise coming from inside, and then the door clicks and opens.

"What're you doing up so early?" Tia grumbles. "And did you really have to wake me up as well?"

I smile sheepishly, and I go to respond, but my throat closes up and refuses to say what I was going to.

"I-," I frown. "Sorry, I-I forgot."

Tia waves it off, "It's fine. We may as well hang out until breakfast anyways."

We both go into her room, and I finally have a proper chance to admire how it's decorated. The walls are painted light blue, with matching tapestries hung up all over.

While I'm admiring her decor, Tia pulls up two chairs and she plops herself down on one.

"So... what exactly has you up at this hour?" She sips on her cup of coffee, having procured one from somewhere.

"I was..." I trail off, gathering my thoughts. "I-I'm pretty sure I was going to tell you something. I just... can't seem to remember what."

She smiles understandingly. " I'm sure it'll come back to you eventually, but if you're determined to figure it out, then retracing your steps might help. It's what I do when I forget stuff. It doesn't work all the time, but don't you think it's worth a shot?

I nod my thanks. "It wouldn't hurt to try. Where should I start?"

"What did you do before coming here?" Tia ponders.

"I came straight from my room. The only thing I had in my mind was telling you something."

"Let's go to your room then, and we can see what we find there."

We head back to my room to no avail.

I couldn't remember what I was going to visit Tia for.

"Nothing, nothing, and more nothing." I sigh exasperatedly.

Tia shakes her head," We can't give up now! What about last night? Did you do anything interesting then?"

I walk around my room, idly thumbing the spines of the books on my shelves as I do. I frown as I feel a spine that doesn't match the styles of the others - odd, as if it's not meant to be there.

I frown and take a look at it closely, inspecting the title as I do... Passage to the Unknown.

I gasp as some memories come back to me.

I was exploring the ventilation system, trying to figure out what was happening behind the scenes in this place.

But that's when the memories stop, I can't remember anything after that.

What happened next? And why can't I remember?

Tia comes closer, peering over my shoulder "Got anything?"

I shake my head, still trying to wrap my head around this whole thing. I'll tell her once I've figured out what the hell is going on, but until then I just want to figure out how I fit into this.

We passed the time by chatting about our life before we came to the Institute. I learnt that Tia has a younger sister, Violet, or Vi as Tia often calls her. I told Tia about my life as the adopted daughter of Lady Bone-her only child, but without any proof of which house I was from, I couldn't be declared as heir. Not that I minded.

After a while of chatting, we hear Shade get up and decide to join them for breakfast.

They see us come out of my room and raise an eyebrow.

"Slumber party without me?" They deadpan. "I'm insulted."

Tia laughs, "No silly, Kyra wanted to tell me something but forgot what it was so we were trying to figure out what she was up to."

I swear I see something flash in Shade's eyes, but it's gone too fast for me to decipher what it was.

"Did you find out what shenanigans she was up to?"

I shake my head, but the way they phrased it has me on edge. I'm probably just being paranoid, so I shake it off. Tia begins talking again before I can fully dwell on it.

Classes are cancelled today, the tutors are supposedly preparing for the upcoming equinox celebrations. It gives me more time to sort out what I'm feeling, what I know and to figure out what I want to know, so I'm not complaining.

I head to my room and lock the doors, sitting down on my bed, pondering what to do about, well, everything.

I stand up, deciding that I'm going to be productive and investigate what's going on, and try to figure out what I learnt yesterday. And, more importantly, why I can't remember.

I pull out Passage of the Unknown and watch as the bookshelf slides itself across the floor.

When it clicks into place, I'm ready to climb up, into the vents and discover what the hell is going on here.