The Metaphorical Key Book I- Call of the Raven

Chapter VI

Aiden woke up in a cold sweat, breath rasping in his throat as though he'd run a marathon rather than woken up from a nightmare. He curled up, facing the wall with his limbs drawn up into his torso like he was trying to escape from some invisible threat. He had his head bowed, eyes squeezed shut as he counted to ten, trying to ground himself. The blankets were cool, the mattress was slightly uncomfortable with springs pressing against the material. During his dream, he'd managed to wrap himself up in his blankets and hurriedly untangled himself. It was less like a warm comfort and more like a spiderweb blocking his escape from his imagined nightmarish scenario. He sat up, tucking his legs back and sitting against the wall with his knees curled up. His skin was cold and clammy but his head was pounding and there was a sickly sort of heat radiating from his cheeks and forehead. There were no mirrors in the room, but he assumed he looked like he'd been in a fight. He curled his hands into fists and pressed them against the side of his head, trying to catch his breath as he ran over the events of the dream in his head.

Training was terrifying. Every session would leave him with nightmares featuring the topic of the day.

The previous lesson, they'd been training to survive a fire. Aiden had done relatively well during that training, and Regina had - to his pleasant surprise - given him an approving nod for escaping the max level of the simulated fire. (The smoke and fire were both harmless, although the flames were uncomfortably cold - Aiden was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be, or at least not naturally.)

And that night, Aiden had gone to bed relaxed, thinking there'd be no nightmares about the simulated blaze that night.

He was wrong.

His dream had been simple, but harrowing - he was burning, his skin prickling horribly at the heat - but somebody was trying to save him - or rather, multiple someones were trying to help him. Four different people attempted to protect him in the dream, but they all burned in flames before reaching him, bodies crumbling into ash that joined the smoke in the air (the flames weren't cold, the smoke choked him, adrenaline pumped through his veins but his legs were glued to the ground and he couldn't run.)

First, it was Rico, then Pollux, then Dulcie, and then - Ada.

Oh god, Ada.

He'd left Ada behind, without a note, without a word. Not only that, but the Ravens had removed him from the records. To her and to his adopted siblings, he'd just dropped off the face of the earth.

Aiden held his hand over his mouth, sinking his teeth into the skin of his palm, trying his damnedest to stop his shuddering sobs from waking up the people he shared his room with - all still sleeping quietly, blissfully unaware of their trembling roommate as they were lost in what Aiden presumed to be far more peaceful dreams.

With a shudder, he slipped off his bed, stumbling awkwardly and shakily to the door like he was drunk, fumbling with the knob until the door swung open. Once he was outside of his room, Aiden removed his hand from his mouth and clenched his teeth, walking across the hall to one of the many bathrooms in the Ravens' headquarters.

He checked the bathroom doorknob to see if the lock was turned, and upon seeing that it was unlocked, knocked thrice just in case somebody was inside and had forgotten to lock the door.

There was no response. Wiping his eyes on his shirt sleeve, Aiden shuffled into the bathroom, neglecting to flick the lights on. All the bathrooms had two cabinets, one red and filled with over-the-counter medications and toiletries and a blue one filled with paper cups. He opened the red cabinet by mistake at first before cursing and opening the other cabinet, fumbling around in the dark until he had the cup under the tap. Not caring that his hair would get wet, Aiden dumped the luke-warm water over his face, repeating the action multiple times. Having cleaned his face, he filled the cup up once more with water, drank, and set it aside. He drowned a washcloth in ice cold water and patted it around his eyes in an attempt to alleviate the puffiness. He leaned forward and squinted into the mirror. His eyes had adjusted to the dark and he could tell that he looked less... awful.