Lexington

5. Inkling

5. Inkling

"Neglect mending a small fault and 'twill soon be a great one." – Benjamin Franklin

AVALYNNE TRACED THE CRACKS on the wall with the tip of her bandaged finger, then scratched a fleck of paint from the wall. The only sounds in the deserted hallway was the ticking of the giant clock, and the flapping of the loose posters on the wall. Faint murmuring could be heard from her position outside the door but nowhere near discernible enough to understand or make sense of. She continued to wait with thoughts of the two men in the room, having to keep reminding herself of why she was here before she forgot. And soon she had resorted to reading everything hanging on the wall.

Her study of a certain sexual health poster on the notice board beside the door was interrupted by the opening of said door. The man she had seen previously was there again with his whimsically faced friend. He had paused at the door for the briefest of moments, strained in his face before giving the quickest and most minuscule smile he could. It couldn't have been more than an awkward twitch but for the sake of positivity she claimed it as a smile as he strode passed her. His friend followed after him saying, "Iyra's free now, if you want her."

"Thanks," Avalynne offered a pleasantly tight-lipped smile before entering the room.

Professor Blakely was at her desk, reading a thick book rather quickly. The room was fairly light but a dark aura filled it, as if the conversation that Professor Blakely had just had with the two men had an extremely sombre topic. Despite this her tutor looked as though nothing had occurred before she arrived and with this notion Avalynne continued. "I came to ask about the extra reading you suggested I do."

"Yes, I wanted you to re-read more of Shakespeare's tragedies, I think they might help with your ideas." She answered robotically, the common tone for Iyra Blakely. She handed her the pile of books beside her and Avalynne cradled them in her arm.

"Thank you so much. I was at the hospital last night and it totally left my mind. Seven stitches in my finger. I guess I'm clumsy in the kitchen," Avalynne laughed nervously, not even sure if her professor cared much for her minor injury. Especially when she replied with a dismissive hum. "Yeah, I'll get started then. Have a good afternoon."

Avalynne left the tense atmosphere as quickly as she could and continued through the hallway and outside into the still air.

The stagnant air however did not continue for the rest of the day, but slowly descended into a downpour of rain in the late evening. The rain seemed to only let up during the sunlight hours, while the darkness brought brisk and damp weather. Primarily, Avalynne was convinced that the strange weather was to do with some sort of weird phenomena. She was curious into the disjointed patterns and for some reason she believed it had all linked to this foreboding feeling she had for some time. It had to be linked to something else, and for some reason whenever the weather changed so suddenly she felt like the answer was closer to her and further from science than she could fathom.

Often though, the sunrise was just the way things were, and the rain was just an unfortunate happening. Luc had known the influence of the witches since he was a young boy, and how their work reflected around them. He had always seen the rainfall as a sign of something being released, as an explosion of pent up energy finally being relieved. There was something about the magic rain that was different to mortal weather. The force with which it fell was almost comforting to him and so the rain was welcomed by Luc. It was his favourite type of weather, for this almost senseless reason. Maybe it came around when he had finally felt the link between himself and the great surge of power — when he remembered the feelings of pain he felt so intensely as the rain poured down around him.