stardust|completed

nine|crazy

"there are ghosts in the walls and they crawl in your head through your ears."

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It was ten o'clock when Leo finally settled in and went to sleep. Knowing my 10 hours of sleep would get me through another few days, I started to clean. Walls were scrubbed, floors mopped, and I'm pretty sure I used enough bleach to kill a few small children. When I was finished it was around 2 a.m. the house smelled of pine-sol and my hands were rubbed raw. Fresh laundry was tucked away in neat stacks, the floors were shampooed, and our new toothbrushes for the month took their places in the bathroom.

I slipped out of my bleach spattered clothes and stepped in the shower again. My skin was bright red when I was done and the entire bar of soap was gone. Even with the house gleaming and my hour long, piping hot shower I still felt dirty.

A pounding headache started to creep it's way in, my ears were ringing, and I could feel reality starting to slowly slip away. My headphones were jammed in my ears and a loud guitar leaked it's way out of the tiny pieces of plastic. The music did nothing to keep me rooted. So I tried my breathing techniques.

In for 5 seconds, hold for 4, and exhale for 6. The mantra and actions were repeated over and over.

When that failed I tried to focus on something tangible. Across the room I zoomed in on the pencil that was sitting on the dark wood of my desk. Finally I could feel myself start to slip back. The desk itself was the next thing I focused on. Soon I had gone through my whole room and the last item on my list was the physical presence of the room.

Almost there, Nyx, you can't let this suck you back in.

Suddenly I saw it, a single inky black spider. It looked like it was created from the shadows themselves. Then it started to multiply, soon they were crawling all over me, weaving in and out of my hair, making nests in between my fingers. I had stopped fighting them and let the shadows consume me.

○○○

My sense of reality returned when I felt bony hands shaking my shoulders. Tensing, I rubbed my blurry eyes and tried to make out the figure above me. When my vision cleared, I recognized the figure as my brother who had a worried look painting his features.

"Nyx, are you okay? I've been trying to get your attention for 10 minutes."

Smiling to the best of my ability, which I'm sure looked more like a grimace, I mumbled out a 'feeling dandy'.

I stretched my stiff limbs and mentally gathered the energy to move. Moving my head towards the left three bright red numbers glared at me accusingly, 6:50.

"Ugh," I groaned loudly.

Leo snickered to my right as I scrambled to find clothes.

"Do we have to go to school today, we'll probably be late anyways."

His puppy dog eyes didn't go unnoticed by me and I actually considered it. But then realized my attendance record was probably horrendous.

"Sorry kid, that's a no go. We've missed too many days already but, if it makes you feel better we'll stop for hot chocolate and muffins."
I shouted from behind the bathroom door, which I had made my way into having found a suitable outfit.

I heard him grumble a bit under his breath but he made no further objections. Emerging from the bathroom in black jeans and a baggy green flannel, I roughly shoved my socked feet in a pair of converse.

We made our way out of the house and into my truck. I drove towards Starry Nights a little too fast and quickly jumped out when we arrived. Leo stayed in the car as I grabbed muffins and made a quick batch of hot chocolate for the two of us. Placing everything in a to go bag and plastic cups I made my way towards the door.

"Did you pay for that?" A voice called out from behind me.

Almost dropping everything in surprise I whipped around to see Carl looking at me with an amused expression on his face.

"Why of course I did! Stealing is wrong Carl." I said lightly making my way towards the door again.

I heard his chuckle mix with the sound of the bell on the door.

Handing Leo his hot chocolate and muffin, he immediately started devouring it with such vigor you'd think I didn't feed him.

"Onward faithful steed!" He mumbled around the food in his mouth and started to affectionately pat my dashboard.

Rolling my eyes I stepped on the gas pedal and prayed for green lights.

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A/N
I know it's been like two eternities since I last updated but fear not, I haven't forgotten about this story (or Orion, he'll appear very soon) feel free to leave comments.
-d.c.