Parallel

8. Bread Crumbs

Eve felt the events from last night hit her like an avalanche before she even achieved full consciousness.

She sat up quickly from her bed, clutching at her blanket as she leaned against the headboard, vision still blurry and a yawn half-disappeared in her throat as images bombarded the forefront of her mind, playing like a horror montage.

dungeonsRiddletrappedalcovethreatenheknowsheknowsheknowshe'sontomeheknows

It felt like she'd just woken up inside a nightmare. Last night felt like a blur—after the whole interaction with Riddle, she'd somehow fallen asleep to the relentless sound of rain outside, unable to focus on a single one of the innumerable thoughts swirling around in her head. She didn't even know how she'd managed to doze off after all that.

And now it was the next morning, which meant that her first class today was Potions, where she sat just about one foot away from Riddle as his goddamn desk partner. Just the thought of sitting next to him for nearly a whole hour, pretending as if nothing happened after last night, made her want to rush into the bathroom and throw up from anxiety.

She jerked when a female voice hit her ears.

"Eve, are you coming to breakfast?" asked Kate, who was standing by the door with Sophie, ready to go. Both look concerned at the fact that Eve was still in her bed when she usually would've been up and ready with them.

Eve hadn't even noticed her friends standing there. She glanced at the clock on Sophie's nightstand and repressed a groan—she'd woken up late.

And breakfast—

He'd probably be at breakfast too. Even though Eve knew she'd eventually have to face him, which was a thought she really didn't want to dwell on, the idea of going down to the Great Hall right now and sitting across from him and eating breakfast, so soon after last night, just felt wrong. She hadn't even processed it all herself yet.

"I, um, actually feel kind of sick," Eve said, holding a hand up to her forehead for good measure. "Headache. I might skip class too."

Kate and Sophie exchanged worried glances.

"You should go to the Hospital Wing!" exclaimed Sophie, with Kate nodding vigorously by her side. "Come on, we can take you!"

"Oh, nonono," Eve blurted quickly. "That's okay. It's not that bad—just a headache. I'm going to see if I can sleep it off."

Both girls looked unconvinced by the doorway, but they didn't press the matter, waving goodbye to Eve and promising her that they'd catch her up with what she missed in class.

Then they were gone, and she was alone in the dorm with nothing to occupy her but her racing thoughts.

Eve sighed, sliding back down and burying herself under her blanket, images from last night overtaking her mind again. It had all felt like a fever dream—she wished she could look back and realize that she'd just dreamed it all up, and that she'd actually been comfy and asleep in her bed the whole time.

What am I supposed to do? She stared blankly at the top canopy of her bed. Sure, Riddle had no proof of anything, but that didn't really matter if he had suspicions regardless. She didn't even want to think about how he would treat her in public from now on. Act all nice and pretend like last night never happened? Act cold? And then how was she supposed to act in response?

It was too much. Eve muffled a small scream into her pillow. Why, out of all times, did that have to happen now? Why does Riddle have to be so smart and observant?

She laid there, mind replaying the events from last night and cycling through a series of different responses she could've given. If she still had her Time-Turner, she'd genuinely consider rewinding back to last night and slapping herself. Why in the world had she even stepped towards that stupid alcove when Riddle motioned for her to? He'd only said "Come look," a phrase that was vague and ominous enough, and she'd been dumb enough to think that there really was something interesting to look at, and she'd stepped forward!