A Midnight Mind

Chapter 5: Violet

There was no sleeping through class now. Ethan was wide awake, even through Biology, but he still couldn't focus. As soon as lunch break began, he made his way back to the poster of the dream man, checked to see if anyone was watching, and quickly tore off one of the pull tabs. 

Maybe he'd send Neil a text later. Maybe.

For now, he hoped a break to eat would settle him. He just wished he had anyone to sit with. And after going to the poster and then the cafeteria and then spending ten minutes in line to get his smoked meat sandwich and ginger ale, all the tables in the main foyer were occupied. Great.

Passing through the lounge area looking for an orphaned chair, he spotted Neil at a table with three others. Ethan half-expected them all to be nerds as well, but they didn't look that way. 

Neil was laughing with them when he caught Ethan's eye. The laugh died and his expression grew cold. He returned to his friends, brushing Ethan off without a word.

Guess I burned that bridge. At least Neil's not as much of a loner as Violet said.

Sighing, Ethan left the lounge area and headed through the halls, hoping for at least enough open space to eat his food without needing to go outside in near-freezing temperatures. He lucked out and found an empty table off in a lonely corner by a janitor's closet. A few students passed him on the way up and down a nearby stairwell, but for the most part he could eat in peace.

By an unconscious habit, he pulled his sketchbook from his backpack and flipped it to the latest page, readying his pencils as he did so. He only realized what he was doing when he saw the dream man's face again. 

Icy dread froze him in place. The sketch was creepy before, but now it was like looking into the face of death. 

"Hey, isn't that the dream guy?" yelped a voice over his shoulder. It was just some unfamiliar student, but Ethan flinched from the shock.

His hand twitched at the corner of the sketch pad, wanting to turn the page over and hide the drawing, but that would look like he was scared or embarrassed by his own work. The student already saw it--there was nothing to hide now.

"Yeah," he said, looking up at the student and her friend. He couldn't think of anything to add, so he cleared his throat instead, thumbing at the page to keep his hands from trembling.

"That's creepy, man," said the other student, a boy. "Swear to god I saw the dude in a dream once."

"Hell," said the girl, "I see him all the time."

"That's 'cause you're in love with him."

The girl punched her friend in the arm, swearing and laughing as they both wandered off. Ethan let out a long breath. At least they didn't beat him up for being an artist, like he irrationally used to fear.

In any case, there were already two other students who claimed to see the dream man in their sleep, and neither of them looked scared--or dead. More proof that the whole thing wasn't half as serious as Neil Edwards made it out to be.

So he turned the page to a fresh sheet and resolved to draw something new. But the instant he put his pencil to paper, someone else starting speaking to him.

"Oh, hey, dude."

He looked up, almost annoyed. It was Violet, grinning sideways at him. He straightened out and tried to clear his expression into something less grumpy or anxious.

"Aww," Violet cooed, sitting down across from him, "new guy's all alone in the world, sitting here, miles away from a social life."

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Something like that, sure. Watch out or you'll be seen with me and all your friends will think you're being nice to the weird loner."

"It's like the beginning of a horror movie. I'm gonna have to choose between my mean popular friends and the shy new kid, and I'll choose my friends, because I'm vain and my popularity is all I have." She swept the back of her wrist to her forehead dramatically, fluttering her eyelashes. 

The next second she slammed her palms on the table. "But that was a mistake, because I was the only one who could keep the darkness inside you at bay. Now you have no one to keep you from becoming the chainsaw-wielding monster you always knew you were."

Ethan blinked. "Damn, I thought I watched too many movies."

Violet shrugged. "Hobby's a hobby. That was pretty good, though, right?"

"Oh, yeah. You'll be the next Stephen King. Or scream queen. One of the two."

"Maybe both?"

"Maybe."

An awkward moment of silence passed as their grins faded. 

"So how's your first day at Shirewood High treating you, dude?" asked Violet, pulling the strap of her bag back over her shoulder.

"This is my first day in Shirewood period. The school's not bad. Kinda small. Sucks not knowing anyone."

"Yeah."

"Dream guy thing was weird."

Violet flashed a brief smile. "Yeah."

Ethan spoke slowly so as not to trip over his own tongue. He didn't want to ramble too much for fear of scaring Violet off. "The town's okay. I don't know. Haven't really seen much of it yet."

"You from the city?"

"I'm from a city."

"Ooh-ho," Violet laughed, "what a fascinating and mysterious individual you are, Ethan... Ssssmith?"

"My last name is Murdock."

"I was close."

"Maybe about the fascinating and mysterious part."

She snorted. "Look, Mur-dock," (she said his name with a singsong drawl and a click at the end), "I'll show you 'round town some time. I know all the happenin' joints in Shirewood. All, like, two of them. Ehh, one and a half. I'm a 'reporter,'" (here she made finger-quotes again), "so I know this town like the top of my nose."

Ethan perked up. Don't sound too desperate, now... "Yeah, that'd be awesome, actually."

Violet motioned for Ethan's pencil. He handed it over and she scribbled down her number on the corner of his sketchbook.

"First day of school and you got a girl's number," she said as she finished. "Look at you, Mr. Mur-dock, the ladies of Shirewood High never saw you coming."

A thousand wings flapped in Ethan's stomach at once. "So you're asking me out, eh?"

She flicked the pencil at his chest. "Quench your mind of it, dude. I'm just helping the new kid out because I'm generous like that."

He picked the pencil off his chest and put it on the desk. "Uh, what does 'quench your mind of it' mean? You've said it before."

"It means perish the thought. Fuhgeddaboudit. However you wanna put it. I just like the expression, especially if I say 'dude' at the end. It amuses me. So what?"

"So, you're weird."

"Well, ain't we all."

Ethan heard a buzzing sound, not quite the same volume or pitch as the school bell. He patted his pocket, but his cell phone was still. Violet pulled hers from her bag, looked at it, then said, "Alright, I gotta get going. Shoot me a text sometime, Mur-dock. Let me know later on if you survived your first day."

She gave him a final sideways grin, then quick-walked down the hall. Ethan caught himself watching her go. The bottom of her leather jacket stopped right above her hips. His poor heart barely had time to slow down since midnight, for one reason or other....

When Violet was gone, he looked down at her phone number. Beside it, he drew a small, cartoony sketch of Violet's face and wrote her name down. It was easier for him to remember a face than a name, so linking the two through art was the simplest way to recall both at once. He considered drawing the rest of her body, but convinced himself not to. That would be on the creepy side.

Quench your mind of it, Mur-dock. 

He sketched a dinosaur instead.