𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡'𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 || 𝘛𝘰𝘮 𝘙𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 (ʀᴇᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ)

| 7 |

Nyx woke up in the middle of the night, feeling as if something heavy was sitting on her chest, making her unable to breathe properly. Slowly, she opened her eyes, being met with the sight of yellow orb-like eyes staring right back at her, causing her to jump in her bed, pushing herself into the headboard whilst letting out a pained groan from the harsh collision.

She saw Feathers—her roommate sleeping nearest to her—slightly stir but did not wake, making her release a breath of relief. She then returned her gaze to the creature before her, having to squint from the darkened room they were in. With the lack of light, she wasn't able to properly discern what it was, but what she was certain for, was that it was black, its skin—or fur's outline could barely be distinguished, causing her to assume the creature's colour was the same tone as the dark room.

She reached for her wand placed on her bedside table, nonverbally casting Lumos to lighten the room and give her a clue as to what it was. To her relief, and puzzlement, it was just a cat, its fur black coloured as she assumed, but what puzzled her, though, was that none of her roommates owned a cat.

The feline gave a soft pur, rubbing itself against her body before leaping out of her bed, tail held high whilst walking towards the door. She watched as it moved further away from her until it stopped, sitting down on the floor—unmoving.

It was a stray cat, and an odd one at that, she thought to herself, watching as its piercing yellow eyes turned to meet hers, staring intently at her, while its tail flicked back and forth.

They remained like that for a moment until Nyx became bored of it all, muttering the word nox before retiring back to bed. But as once as her head hit the soft pillow, she felt a weight on her chest once again, forcing her to let out a groan before sitting up straight, finding the cat on her bed again.

"This bloody cat," she said in a low voice, not wanting to wake up anyone from their slumber, but half wishing the cat would bother the others instead of her.

The feline bared its sharp teeth as if offended by her words before jumping off the bed again, but not before it stopped by the door and looked to her once more.

She glanced at the clock by her bedside, taking in the numbers shown. It was one in the morning—she internally groaned, instead of peacefully sleeping like any normal student, she had to get up and deal with this cat.

She got out of bed, quickly changing into her school robes before making her way to the feline, following behind it as it led the way out of her dormitory then out of the common room.

She silently wondered how it even got in in the first place.

As she stepped out into the cold, dingy dungeons of the school, closely following the black cat, her senses seemed to heighten, ears and eyes alert in case she ran into anybody unwanted, but for some reason, the halls were all cleared of any professors patrolling the corridors, making it easier for her to move around unspotted.

She crept along the shadows, noting how the feline was leading her to the second floor with a bounce in its steps, yet the pads of its paws remained silent as a grave, the only sound that could be heard was Nyx's loud breathing—for good reason, though. In all her years, she had never—she repeated in her head—never done something like breaking the school's rule. She had always admired herself for keeping her record clean of any bad reputation, and if she got caught, all her hard work would crumble down to pieces.

That was not what she would want.

She quickly snapped out of her train of thoughts when almost tripping over something small. She swiftly regained her balance, taking a few steps back to look down at what it was that almost caused her fall, finding the cat she had followed to stop in its tracks. Its yellow orb-like eyes stared directly into her soul, unblinking, causing a shiver to run down her spine and an uneasy feeling to form in the pit of her stomach.

Finally, she managed to break their eye contact, taking to look around as to where they had stopped. To her surprise, she was standing right in front of the girls' lavatory.

She wanted to scream out in frustration.

Had she been stupid enough to follow a cat, in the middle of the night, to a bathroom?

Nyx was about to turn around and head back when something about the lavatory caught her eye. The door slightly creaked open, almost as if urging her to push through the door and come face to face with whatever was behind it.

Instinct told her to run, but yet her curiosity urged her forward.

She turned back to the black cat, panicking once seeing the feline had disappeared from its spot beside her, but quickly calmed down once her gaze found it once again, standing right in front of the lavatory. However, to her horror, the cat slipped through the crack of the door, leaving the frightened girl alone to her racing thoughts.

For what felt like eternity, Nyx plucked up her courage and stalked forward, gently pushing the door open to find—to her surprise—nothing.

Her quivering hands stopped trembling, instead, they fell to her sides. Was she expecting a beast to jump at her once she stepped in?

Perhaps, a part of her responded.

Letting out a breath of relief she didn't know she was holding, she was just about to head back the way she came from when suddenly, as if her feet had a mind of its own, pushed her forward towards the cubicle in the far back. She tried to stop, however, failed in doing so, causing her brows to furrowed in confusion and slight fear creeping its way onto her face.

She attempted to use her free hands as if to hold onto the sinks nearby in order to stop herself from moving anymore, but once again, was unsuccessful. Her hands were rigid by her side, every grunt and panicked breath counted each second she wasted on trying to stand her ground. Her pace was steady and even before Nyx eventually came to a stop in front of the slightly ajar, giving her a small insight of the dark stall.

"Open it."

Her whole body stiffened at the smooth, yet ominous sound. She knew not of who it belonged to but could sense the voice coming from just behind the door.

She was standing stock still, rooted in her spot—terrified—of what was lurking behind yet another door.

"Isn't this how the characters in horror movies tend to die?" She thought to herself, now imagining how stupid she would've looked standing there to the viewers.

"Push it open," she heard the voice once again, but this time, a slight growl to it as if it had become impatient.

Yes, she knew she was an idiot to take orders from a stranger, and better yet, a stranger she could not pin point where their body was, and even more stupid to not flee right this instant.

It was probably because her curiosity would kill her if she dared returned back to the safety of her dormitory, leaving tonight's events a mystery. But you know what they say, "curiosity killed the cat".

Before she could rethink her decision, she pushed the door of the bathroom's stall opened, revealing—to her surprise and relief once again—nothing—but there was the cat which had lead her here in the first place sitting on the toilet's tank lid, its tail flicking side to side.

However, upon pushing the door open even further, she found that the feline's yellow eyes staring intently at something on the ground, not so much as looking up to meet her gaze, and not just that, she found herself unable to push the door wide open to its fullest without seemingly hitting into something.

"You ought to respect the dead, Nyx," she heard the mysterious voice say again, amusement lacing his words.

This puzzled her even further before she finally dropped her gaze to the floor, eyes widening ten times its size when she found herself staring right into the dull, lifeless, yet wide eyes staring back into her own.

Laying on the ground Myrtle Warren, glasses slid off her face and body turning colder by the second.

Myrtle was dead.