𝐍𝐎 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐒, ꜱʙɢ

14

As the group sat, gathering weapons to try and fend off the horde of phantoms outside.

"It's been quiet for a while- do we think they're gone?" Taylor asked, oblivious to the screeching outside the door.

Ashlyn grimaced and Dom just shook her head side to side frantically with a sweat-drop painted over her face.

"Definitely not." Ashlyn clarified.

"You'd guys can't hear it, can you?" Dominique finalised, glancing around the group as they looked at her and Ashlyn, a questioning glint to their eyes.

"I have sensitive ears, I think I can hear them in a way you guys can't.-" she added, then looked back over to where Dominique was standing, fiddling with the phantom tooth in her grasp as a contemplating expression washed over her face.

"-How can you hear it though, Dom?" Ashlyn questioned, making eye contact with Dom as she shrugged.

"My best guess is that it has something to do with my dream a couple nights ago, the first one I had where those things were present." Dom answered, glancing to Ashlyn.

"I doubt I hear it as well as you do, though. It's kind of like an amplified pitch. Like I can hear it, sure, but only quietly." Dom added, glaring towards the door where the phantoms had stopped scratching against it, resorting to making god-awful noises instead.

"So basically it's on me and ash to get you guys out of here because you numbnuts can't hear them." Dominique realised, raising a palm and hitting herself in the forehead with a grimace.

"Great!" She rolled her eyes, grinning sarcastically as she leaned herself back against the wall as she glanced back toward the tooth resting in her hand.

"I'm not too thrilled about that, either." Tyler clarified, throwing an annoyed glance in Ashlyn's direction. "What are we doing?" Tyler groaned, resting his head in his hands, hunching forward as Taylor rubbed soothing circles onto his arm, sending the group a bashful smile.

"We need to keep preparing. We all have weapons, our clubs from that chair that you dismantled, Taylor, and Dom has..." Ashlyn paused, looking to the object resting in Dominique's hands with a grimace.

"Her weapon of choice." Ashlyn finished. Logan and Ben felt wobbly smiles rise to their lips, Aiden snorting at the appalling look on Ashlyn's face. Dominique just grinned, taking a step closer to Ashlyn with the tooth outstretched in her hand, as Ash quickly stepped back, her arms raising in defence. She quickly shook her head side to side, pulling her head back in the game. Dom laughed.

"We need to rest- prepare ourselves for what's outside. Stay together and if you're not preparing yourself, run through some mental exercises." Ashlyn instructed. Dom nodded, her smile slipping off her face as she remembered her and the groups unfortunate position.

Aiden looked back up, lying over Dominique's feet with a questioning look over his features.

"Mental exercises?" He repeated, slightly confused.

"Imagine yourself in high stress situations that have a chance of occouring if we walk out that door, that way, if they do happen, it won't take you as long to react to them. You'll already have a plan in your head." Ash clarified, tapping a finger to her temple. Dominique nodded toward her.

"I agree. We can't exactly go outside and test out our plights or theory's on them without getting killed." She took a glance back at the tooth, clenching it tightly in her palm, looking back at the group with a determined expression on her face.

"This is our best course of action."

Dominique rose in her bed, her chest heaving for what felt like the fifth time that day. She blinked, her head growing fuzzy as she let out a loud groan, easing the pain by rubbing her temples against her forehead. As she raised her hand, she felt something slip out of it.

She looked down, a look of horror slipping past her face as she glanced down at the glowing object in her bed.

The phantom tooth.

"So it really happened." Dom mumbled to herself. She was alerted to the door of her dorm almost snapping off it hinges, seeing Taylor and Ashlyn looming in her doorway with panicked looks painted across their faces.

"DO YOU REMEMBER?!" They both screamed in sync, hurrying over to the side of Dominique's bed. Taylor jumped on her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her back and fourth rapidly.

In response, Dom lifted up the long tooth lying next to her in her bed. In reply, the two other girls just stared at it in horror, before a more sick expression crossed their faces.

Dominique swore their skin turned a shade of green, as they both quickly ran out of Dom's room and raced to the bathroom, releasing the remaining traces of dinner in the stomachs in the toilet and the base of the shower.

Dominique quickly got out of her bed, slipping the tooth into the waistband of her pants. As she did, she noticed the bandages over her arm had disappeared, really ticking her off.

'Fuck this shit.' She swore in her head, kicking her bed in frustration as she ran a stressed, frustrated hand through her hair, tugging at her roots lightly.

"Dom, Tay, Ash?! You guys in here?" Aiden yelled, bursting through the door to the three girls' dorm room. He barged through the room, finally finding two of them hunched over in the bathroom. His eyes widened.

"Dom... Where's Dominique?!" Aiden panicked lightly, his smile slipping off his face. Tyler poked his head up from behind Aiden, spotting Taylor and letting out a sigh of relief. Ash raised her head from the toilet bowl, gesturing into the room beside the bathroom before leaning over again, hurling.

With slightly panicked eyes, Aiden and Tyler made their way through, poking their head through Dominique's door, where she stood, gripping her hair tightly with an anguished look on her face.

The two quickly made their way over, Tyler's hand making its way to hers, lightly trying to unthread them from her hair. Aiden stood in front of her, his eyes hinting at his worry as he softly waved a hand in her face.

"You okay, Dom?" Aiden asked. Dom just blinked, letting go of the roots of her hair. Tyler's hand grabbed her lightly, guiding them back down to her side as she just spaced out, staring at the wall beside them.

"Dom. Snap out of it." Tyler spoke, his voice light at he stood back next to Aiden. He reached down to Dom's hand, squeezing it lightly.

Dom broke from her trance, blinking harshly as she finally took in the two presences in front of her. Her face still held a blank expression, but she seemed relieved to see the two boys. Wordlessly, she pulled them both into a hug, burying her face into their necks and holding onto them tightly, still loose on reality.

They smiled lightly, resting her arms lightly against her waist as the hugged her back.

"We're okay." She mumbled under her breath, over and over. Aiden and Tyler both looked at each other from over Dominique's shoulder, their expressions laced with concern.

'Is she okay?' They questioned, taking a glance at the back of her head.