Meant to Survive

ℂℍ𝔸ℙ𝕋𝔼ℝ 𝕀𝕏-𝔹𝕒𝕕𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕠 𝕪𝕠𝕦

ℳ𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒶 𝒜ℯ𝓁𝒾𝓃 ℬ𝓁𝒶𝒸𝓀𝒻ℴ𝓇𝒹

My eyes shudder open, my breathing heavy and fast. Another nightmare. I look at my phone. It's 3.24am. Usual time to wake up. I decide to go out in the common after a dozen of minutes not being able to fall asleep again. I get up from my bed and take out a hoodie from my luggage. I put the keys from the room in the pocket to accompany a lighter. Gonna fire a fireplace. I love watching fire and warms from it. I close the door from my room, ignoring my sleeping roommate and walk down the stairs to the common room. I walk in pure silence and darkness. There was no light and I was barely been able not to miss any steps. I walked over to the couches that were standing in front of fireplace. Before I was able to take the lighter out, I heard a familiar voice next to my ear.

"What the hell are you doing here?" the voice asked, whispering in my left ear. A second later, my fist connected with the mouth and nose of the speaker, I turned around to look at them and stepped back at the same moment. I wasn't ready, but my reflexes were. I fired my lighter to see who that was. As I got used to the darkness and small light I saw a tall boy with curls and a scar over right eye covering his mouth and nose with a hand.

"Fuck," I whispered, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you," I apologized, my voice trembling slightly.

"But you did," Matteo replied, "fuck you, Blackford. That was very fucking hard," he complained, moving his hand away from his mouth. His hand was covered in blood. I looked at my knuckles; they were covered in blood too.

"My reflexes reacted before me. I didn't expect to meet someone at three thirty am," I justified myself. We just stood there for a moment looking into each other's eyes. After an awkward minute, I removed my eyes from him and went to fire the fireplace. I heard him murmur something, but I ignored it and lit the fireplace. The fire appeared above the wood and the room became light in the matter of seconds. I walked back to the couch and sat down, looking over to Matteo who was already sitting there. He held a bloodied napkin, from the look of which I flexed my right wrist. I bit my lip down and turned back to the fire in front of me. The red light fell over dark green furniture, couches, and carpet.

"You didn't answer my question, Blackford," Riddle broke the silence.

"Which one?" I asked, not moving my gaze away from fire.

"What the hell are you doing here at half past 3 am?"

"Wanted to go see the fireplace," I said. It was both the truth and the lie.

"Not true," he refused to believe me.

"I don't have to tell you anything, you know," I replied.

"Fire makes you feel better?" He asked. I finally turned my head to look at him. My expression was sad, tired, and annoyed. I looked him up and down then turned back to the fire.

"Why are you up?" he asked. I didn't say anything, nor moved.

"Why do you have a lighter? You smoke?" he asks after a while. I ignored him once again.

"Blackford?" I hear him say. I ignore it. The silence fell across the room to accompany red flames for a solid minute.

"Fine, night," he says, voice annoyed with my ignorance, and walks up the stairs. When the footsteps fade, I exhale. I close my eyes and drift back to sleep.

~☾✧☽~

"Who's that on the couch?" Someone says behind me. I awake from my sleep and open my eyes trying to understand where I am. "Hey, Marta!" says Blaise from beside me.