Silver Rain

Chapter 17

Over the next week, Olivia had been over-caffeinated and anxiety-driven.

While still attending her coursework and getting lab hours in, she had also started staying up late driving all around Brookside with Calvin and Felix trying to find the Coven of the Witches into the early morning hours.

Searching down alleys, driving on the outskirts of town, places in Brookside where Olivia never has been. Calvin told Olivia that her scent was likely to draw in the supernatural, but the more and more they wandered the town, the less she believed him.

Her nights were a blur of dark streets, shadowy figures, and the constant hum of tension that hung in the air. The relentless search took its toll on her, both physically and mentally. Her body screamed for rest, but her mind refused to let her succumb to sleep. The unanswered questions and the growing sense of danger kept her on edge, her nerves frayed and her patience wearing thin. The Coven obviously didn't want to be found.

As expected too, Felix had tightened the restraints on Olivia's freedom.  She was not to be out of their sight, ever. From breakfast, until she was back in her room after their nightly escapades, she was watched by either man. The constant surveillance grated on Olivia's nerves, exacerbating her already frayed patience and exhaustion. She hated the feeling of being watched, the sense of suffocation that came with the ever-present eyes of Calvin and Felix tracking her every move. It felt like she was a pawn in their game, a piece to be moved at their whim.

That's what she felt more and more every day. She was a token to them. A key to help them survive and keep what was theirs safe.

Despite her frustration and exhaustion, Olivia couldn't shake the feeling of being trapped, of being nothing more than a means to an end for Calvin and Felix. It was a bitter realization, one that gnawed at her spirit and fueled her determination to break free from their suffocating grasp. It didn't help that neither she nor Felix finished their argument or their moment together.

Which left her even more frustrated.

It had gotten so bad, that earlier in the week, she had nearly bit Calvin's head off when he accidentally ran into her.

"Watch where you're going," she had snapped, her voice laced with irritation as she shot Calvin a withering glare.

Calvin recoiled slightly at Olivia's sharp tone, his own frustration evident in the tense set of his jaw. "I didn't see you there,"

Olivia rolled her eyes, her patience wearing thin. "Big surprise since all you do anymore is watch me,"

Olivia remembered Calvin's look of shock that crossed his face before returning it to its usual cool demeanor. She knew she didn't have any right to get angry with him, they were all tired and frustrated. Frustrated at the damn witches. All were in need of either a caffeine shot straight into their veins or a good night's sleep that lasted a week.  She honestly preferred the former.

And she needed it now.

In another lecture hall, Olivia fought the fatigued heavy eyelids. The professor's voice droned on in the background, the words washing over Olivia in a blur as she fought to keep her attention focused. But despite her best efforts, her mind kept drifting, pulled inexorably towards the promise of sleep.

Sarah or Calvin sat on either side of her and would nudge her every once in a while to wake her when she would doze off. But as the lecture dragged on, the intervals between nudges grew shorter, and Olivia found herself slipping deeper and deeper into the clutches of sleep.

Her eyelids drooped heavily, her head nodding forward as she struggled to stay awake. The professor's words became a distant murmur, lost in the haze of her exhaustion.  A warm lecture hall was no friend of hers.