Twilit Mage

Chapter 10: Midnight Revelations

The first thing Mercury saw when she woke up was a dimly-lit ceiling.

The second thing was the blanket draped over her, thick and a little too warm, and the pair of metal bedposts at her feet. Beyond the bedposts were closed white plastic curtains, one on each side except for the wall behind her and the one to her right, where a single window stood slightly open to reveal the night outside.

Mercury rolled over with a quiet groan. On the window side of her bed stood a nightstand with a glass of something on it that she didn't bother to recognize before snatching it and downing it in one gulp, almost choking on the strangely fresh, minty taste. Her head grew clearer in an instant. Memories came flooding back, hazy at first, then more and more vivid until she knew everything that had happened yesterday. Georgiana, the bus, the trip through the Otherworld...and then everything had gone blank. Where was she? Her dorm? No...she knew rooms like this. The white everywhere, the curtains, the minimalistic furniture, the potted aloe plant on the nightstand...

The nurse's office, huh?

Mercury rolled over. Figured. Somebody must have taken her here after she had passed out, and she had slept here. How long, she wondered? Could she just get up? Would somebody come and check up on her anytime soon and maybe dismiss her, or was she supposed to stay here until morning?

Something came in through the window, a faint, quiet noise that she couldn't quite identify. She listened closer. That noise, it sounded almost like...like...someone snoring? Under the window?

Peering right and left, she slipped out of bed and padded over to the window, opening it wider to glimpse outside. The room was on ground level, she noticed, patches of grass and gnarled trees growing from the ground below. Somewhere in the distance an owl hooted. But nothing that could have snored–

Mercury glanced down and almost choked on nothing.

Sitting slumped against the wall, right below the window, was a figure. Mercury couldn't see their face; all she could see from above was a mop of messy hair, a pair of knees pulled up to a chest, and long arms wrapped around the knees. Tied around their shoulders was something akin to a blanket cape.

Why was somebody sleeping here? Were there homeless people in the area? But why doze off in a spot like this, with no shelter from the weather over their head? They'd get sick! Unless this person was somehow resistent against the cold. Or maybe they weren't actually human but some kind of supernatural being that could only sleep outside? Hey, it could happen–

The figure mumbled something and shifted, and Mercury suddenly caught sight of their face. A face she recognized.

"Raoul?" she burst out, unable to stop herself.

Raoul awoke with a start. "It wasn't me," he said quickly as he opened his eyes. For a moment he looked around, disoriented, then his gaze finally settled on Mercury, the drowsiness disappearing from his face.

"Mer...cury?" he asked, squinting up at her as he scrambled to his feet. "It's you, right?"

Mercury nodded with a confused laugh.

"Okay." Raoul grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't have left my glasses in my room. I can't see a thing." He pretended to grope and feel his way around like a blind man. "You're that way, right?"

"You can't be that blind!" Mercury replied with a laugh, and Raoul grinned. Dropping the blind act, he gripped the window-frame with both hands, peeked around to make sure no one was watching, and climbed into the room.