The Unlikely Resident of Room 313

Chapter 16

Roy returned the next night. And then the night after that.

His presence calmed part of me. The other part... Well, it thought I was an idiot. 

Psychic instinct grated my nerves for hours each night, seemingly refusing the vulnerability of sleep with Roy's presence mere feet away. I had to tell that little part of my brain that Roy was different from the Dark Man. This was a domesticated lion as opposed to one that roamed in the wild. Both were deadly and unpredictable, but my odds with the domesticated beast were a little better.

That did little to assuage my discomfort. When I closed my eyes, the void of the Dark Man yawned over me, eager to swallow me whole, and its thoughts of blood and light echoed in my mind. Her blood is warm. I need her light. Over and over again. And the sleep I did manage to get was violent and exhausting.

That exhaustion followed me to class.

Sitting in the back of my English class, I stared at the thick black words projected on the screen, utterly confused, thoroughly convinced it was some sort of mistake.

ENG1004 Midterm Assignment.

That couldn't be right. The semester just started. We just finished our first round of exams last week. There's no way they already want us to prepare for midterms.

"Yes, you read that right," Eloise said, seemingly reading my mind, and rounded the podium of the small room. "It's time to talk about your midterm assignment. I know, I know. It might be a bit of a shock to you guys." She motioned to the open-mouthed students in the center rows that shared my alarm. "I told you at the start of the semester. College is a lot faster than high school."

Still convinced this was a colossal mistake, I yanked my planner out of my bag and flipped to the detailed overview I clipped to the inside cover. Each class was neatly outlined in color-coded ink, with class time, location, and major deadlines listed underneath. My stomach sank as I read over the schedule that confirmed Eloise's words. I only had two weeks before midterms. My pulse pounded behind my eyes.

I'm so screwed.

A yawn. I was already in deep waters keeping up with classes, notes, and homework. If I continued this awful sleep cycle,  I'd be drowning by Monday.

A little gray notification burst across the screen of my laptop from the group chat a few of the girls on our floor created at the start of the semester. Another notification quickly followed, except this one was way more interesting.

It was a text from Eric.

An invitation to a Halloween party at DTE's main house.

"So, I want you to pick one of the authors we've been studying this semester." Eloise's voice cut through the air and snagged my attention. "And I want you to talk about their impact on the era or genre from which they grew popularity, the effects of that popularity on their lives or legacy, and why you believe they are more significant to the university's history than another."

She punctuated her sentence with a terse nod and the screen changed to a lineup of the authors and the requirements of the paper. Olivia Saint James' eyes bore into mine from across the room, and I gripped the edges of the table to hold back a shudder.

I could think of a few gruesome ways Miss Saint James affected OU's history.

Would firsthand experience count as a source?

As Eloise continued her lecture of proper sourcing, another yawn tugged at my mouth, and my eyes involuntarily squeezed shut so hard, I saw little bursts of color behind my eyelids. Normally, one cup of coffee had me bouncing off the walls into the late hours of the night. Now, I was still two seconds away from falling asleep and a few too-quick heartbeats away from having a heart attack.