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WATER SYMBOLISED PEACE and yet it was the most lethal of the elements, kissing you to sleep with false peace as it replaced the air in your lungs. Alethea was trapped, feeling only the silence of death as a faithful companion crawling into her body and the claws of pain gripping her limbs.
Deeper and deeper she was dragged as the blurred God lurked above her, watching. 'Why you?' she asked in toneless words, feeling the betrayal steal her mind, replacing affection with violence.
An illusion; a lie that would keep her wandering forever.
HAS SHE SUFFERED any head injuries?" a voice echoing through a tunnel roused her from the sleep that had lasted so long that she no longer knew when she had fallen asleep or what walls she had to build between reality and imagination.
Her eyes remained closed as she was still firmly in the clutches of the dream world and feared she would never be able to break free.
"Her whole body was covered in cuts and abrasions. Even her head was injured, but I would rule out intracranial injury," another voice replied in a distorted tone, and Alethea buried her nose in the soft eiderdown covering her body.
"Psychosis?"
"Well, she still hasn't woken up since your last visit, but from what you told me... I wouldn't discount it. She may have seen something in the murky woods that disturbed her so much that her mind could only process it with the help of another story."
There was a pause as Alethea absorbed the words, trying to remember what had happened and where she was.
"What could be so horrific that the sight of a heartless corpse seems less threatening?"
"Many things, Professor. Death is hardly a relevant fear on the estates of the Academy, only to survive," the woman whispered with hints of revealing the mysteries, and suddenly Alethea knew the woman's name, but not the context. Madam Danvers, the nurse from the Academy. Why could Alethea hear her?
The other person did not answer, as if the words had also left him in a dark room without an answer or a solution. Quietly, Alethea heard footsteps moving away from her and the words, "I'll wait a little longer in case she wakes up."
"Of course, Professor."
The doors of the hospital wing opened and Madam Danvers disappeared with a rustling cloak, leaving the man alone with Alethea, whose name now lingered on the tip of her tongue, waiting for recognition.
Sluggishly, her eyes opened and, weakened by the darkness of her own mind, they began to water under the glaring light of the lamps that fell upon her, intensifying the headache that had suddenly cursed her existence. In the beginning He created light, and as the world rebuilt itself from nothing, she met his gaze.
His attention was already on her, as if he had known all along that she had awoken, and she realised that the incarnation of perfection had a tired glow. Professor Riddle was standing at the end of her bed and Alethea's hand wandered to her head before she felt something heavy on the blanket beside her.
