Persephone's Curse

Traces of the past

The kitchen in our dorm house was almost empty in the morning. Goes to show how much college students enjoy being bright and early, I guess, but I for one could not sleep anymore.

I actually did not even remember going to bed last night. Or how our little summoning ritual had ended. I must have had way too much to drink and not realized, which was rather peculiar - I hadn't blacked out ever since tenth grade summer camp, and I blamed the ridiculous amount of absinthe we had purchased for that. But it couldn't have been anything else besides alcohol, so that's it.

"Good morning, sunshine," said one of the girls - Larissa maybe? - sitting down at the table with a bowl chock full of cereal. "Thea, right?"

I yawned and sat down beside her, picking up a bowl sitting on the table and the carton of milk. "Yep, Thea, morning to you too." I answered, rather glumly, pouring some cereal. I was so not a morning person.

There was suddenly a sharp pain in my shoulder and I cringed and swore.

"Are you okay?" asked Larissa as she leaned in to check on the spot between my neck and shoulder I had placed my hand on. "Ohh, that's rather nice! But you should keep it protected if it's new, it could get infected. Maybe that's why it hurts."

I stared dumbly at her. "Keep what protected?"

She smiled like my mom used to when I was being incredibly stupid. "The tattoo, dummy!" She pointed to my neck. "I saw your neck the day before yesterday, when you arrived, and it was not there. You should've had a band aid over it, at least....who's the asshole who didn't bandage your tattoo?"

I had seriously no idea what she was talking about and was in dire need of a mirror. I couldn't have gotten a tattoo, for Heaven's sake. I did not remember getting a tattoo. But then again, I could not remember most of last night. Fuuck. Nope. I had not gotten a tattoo.

I could not get to a mirror fast enough, and by the time I remembered there had to be one in the bathroom, I was full on panicking. I fumbled with the doorknob and when I finally reached the goddamned mirror, my jaw fell to the floor. Right there, in the crook of my neck, where I still felt sharp bursts of pain every few seconds, was a mark. My first throught was that it looked like a ballerina twirling with her hands up, but a more serious approach told me it was a new moon with a dot inside on top of a dagger. Which also sounded way cooler than the ballerina, but knowing drunk me, it was probably the former rather than the latter. I sighed.
When had I even had the opportunity to go get a tattoo. It wasn't like there were any parlors nice and handy on campus.

I felt around the strange symbol with two fingers. I knew how new tattoos looked. This one didn't seem new. Maybe it was one of those temporary thinghies - but then why did it hurt like this?

"Are you okay?

Larissa was standing in the doorway, giving me a funny but concerned look.

"I don't remember getting this tattoo last night. Where did I even go?"

What had all of us done, actually. It was starting to nagg at me that I could not remember anything past starting chanting.

Larissa laughed, then squinted at her reflection in the mirror, "I don't remember either. But I did have like a lot of the good stuff. Must've passed out cuz I woke up in my bed."

My eyes went wide. "You too?"

She nodded, almost solemnly, then laughed again, "It's called being a lightweight, welcome to the club, honey."

She came closer and took another look at my newly aquired peculiar tattoo. "Do you know what it means?"

"It kinda looks like a ballerina." I said, leaning on the shower door, resigned to the new design on my skin. "Hell knows what was in my head."

"Sophie and Jade don't remember much of last night either, if it makes you feel better. You're not the only newbie who blacked out big time. Hell, maybe they got tattoos too."

I highly doubted that, but I did talk to Larissa a little while longer when we got back to the table to finish off our milk cereal. As we were eating, more girls started gathering in the kitchen and pulling out different kinds of food from the already packed fridge - had we also stuffed the fridge with food last nigh? I could bet it wasn't that full yesterday.

Listening to them talk, I came to a conclusion that might have been a relief, had I not had this sinking feeling in my stomach.

None of the girls that had taken part in the sorority's initiation ritual remembered anything beyond starting chanting last night. And it was way too much of a coincidence to let it slide. But then again, what could have happened?

***

Even though it was already autumn, the sun was shining brightly through the white clouds in the sky, warming my skin, reason for which I was really glad I had chosen to wear my loose, knee long, blue dress. That, and the fact that I loved the way it swayed around me when the wind blew.

It was still rather early to be heading to class, but I had left with a half an hour to spare on purpose, so that I could have the time to stroll through campus unbothered. I hadn't really had the time to admire the actual beauty and work that had been put into taking care of the flowers adornig the sidewalks when I first arrived here, being busy with moving in and all that.
And the view was a good distraction from the fact that my new tattoo still twinged with sharp bursts of pain every few minutes, usually when I'd just forgotten about it.

But god, didn't this whole place look like paradise. Green Meadows University was certainly the best Minnesota had to offer, at least in terms of enjoying a nice view as you stress your liver out with partying and then stress your mind out about being on the verge failing more than half your courses. Fun things like that.

Passing the dorm houses on campus - which honestly looked like some ancient artist had been assigned to design them, not that I was complainig - I eyed a fancy looking coffee shop, chiars and tables and cute colourful umbrellas outside and all that, and I tried telling myself that I wasn't going to spend my whole allowance there. Like the liar I was.

The school building was just as impressive, decorations that I'd only seen in movies and mythology books swirling around the big wooden entrance doors that were swung wide open. The course I had to get to was on the second floor, so with minutes to spare still, I strolled up the stairs, transfixed with the way everything in the building, even inside, seemed to fit together - excuse me, this was a great upgrade from Hazelwood state high school.

Once I found the class - I had truly feared I wasn't going to, knowing my luck sometimes - I sat down in a chair next to the window as any sun loving fellow would and started going through the textbook I had taken out of the library yesterday.

As much fun as world history wasn't, I really needed to not fail this one course. It's one of those that one doesn't actually need but it's still included in the curriculum.
For what reason exactly, I had no idea.
I had signed up for botany not a rehash of the most boring class I ever attended in high school, after all.