Cobweb Head

t w o

The next time I woke up, I was relieved to see that night had finally passed. Light touched the floorboards. The shower was on in the bathroom. Leo's blankets were tousled, dripping half off his bed, and his clothes were strewn over the floors.

I rubbed my face with a sluggish yawn, and only then did I realise how hungry I was. My tongue felt like sandpaper against my gums and my stomach growled angrily.

My blankets had been tossed down to the bottom of my bed. The uncomfortable warmth still lingered, even as the cold air pressed against my flushed skin. I took to my feet.

Leo stepped out from the bathroom, a thick cloud of steam following behind him. He smiled as he passed through the haze.

"Morning." He wore a patterned button-down shirt, silken fabric decorated with an assortment of blues and pinks, exposing his collarbone.

Inky black curls swept across his forehead, wet and close-cut. He had chestnut skin, two dimples buried neatly into his cheeks and a jaw that softened whenever he smiled.

I grunted in response, rubbing my eyes as I staggered into the bathroom. I was hit with the smog, pressing my shirt against my chest, and I slid a hand over the fogged mirror.

I almost jumped. My skin was bone-white, and deep sacks of tar hung below my eyes. I looked sickly, slight shoulders and white lips. The plague of pale brown freckles across my face had darkened deeply. I washed my face.

I'm scared.

I flinched, taking a chunk of gold-brown hair in a clamped fist as I pressed my elbows against the sink. Fuck - that was loud.

"Are you alright?" Leo.

I responded with a thumbs-ups, straightening and lifting my face up. My cheeks had reddened slightly. Stronger fears always affected me worse than others. The strong ones were loud, leaving me with a dull headache and slight tightness in the chest.

He paused for a moment, hesitated. "You might wanna wash up, breakfast's in a little bit."

I'm scared I won't be enough for the Frights.

I looked up. The tautness in my chest twisted again and the headache throbbed harder. That was Leo's fear? It didn't make any sense.

"Fifteen minutes!" He called from his bed.

I showered briefly, wrestling on a plaid jumper with two holes ripped at the collar. Leo made a face as I pulled it on, to which I promptly returned him a glower and he averted his gaze.

The more I tried to make sense of what I had heard, the more my head hurt.

He talked the whole way to the dining hall, and even though I knew I should've been mapping out my surroundings, I was studying his face closely.

"Why are you frowning at me?" He asked. I realised where we had reached - the dining hall. The noise was raucous, conversation was loud.

I looked away. "I wasn't."

The hall had an arched roof, and light streamed in through long windows which hugged the curved walls. Scattered tables ran across the long room, and students were everywhere, blurry faces laughing and eating and talking. Just looking at the crowd made me tired.

What caught me off guard was the lack of noise in my head. There were no fears bickering away in the inside my skull. It was as if the walls had snuffed them out; an angry wind blowing out candle flames. I breathed out a sigh of comfort.

"Leo!"

There was a voice from one of the tables, and a girl stood up, skipping over to us as a sand-coloured braid fell over her shoulder. Her skin was sun kissed; a face lit with a bright-eyed smile.

The glint of silver met my eye, and when I looked down, I could see an ugly ring on Leo's right hand. He was twisting it as the girl came forward. He cleared his throat. "Morning, Mae."

"You didn't reply to my texts." She wore a sullen look, crossing her arms over her chest. I couldn't quite place her accent. French, maybe. Another international student.

"It was the middle of the night, what did you expect me to do?"

"I know you were awake, Leo-"

But I had stopped listening. I couldn't stop staring at his ring, bulky and embedded with patterns I couldn't quite make-out. It was like I was in the hallway with the shadow again, if it had been real at all. My pulse grew louder in my ears, and I was met with the urge to grasp at it and-

"You're that new guy who burnt his old school gym down, aren't you?" Mae was looking at me, and it took me a moment to tear my eyes away from the ring. The throbbing in my ears halted.

I narrowed my eyes. "And you would know, how?"

A silver necklace rested against her collarbone. I didn't fix a stare on it - I could feel the same throbbing in my ears as the silver winked. I blinked quickly.

I was starting to feel slightly sick trying to look away from the enchanting silver instruments.

"Rumours spread quickly," she stepped forward eagerly. "Is it true? Why did you do it?"

I glared bitterly, to which she puckered her lips and looked away. She frowned and met Leo's eyes. "Let's go, I need to talk to you about something."

As Leo and Mae left, I found a seat at one of the stray tables closer to the edge of the loud hall. A girl was sitting there, pale face veiled by a curtain of long mousy hair.

There was toast spread out on trays along the tables, and the savoury smells tasted warm inside my mouth. Mae's words burned in my mind - did everybody know about the fire?

I was frowning, thinking about the ring and the necklace and the shadow, when the girl spoke from across the table. "You're angry."

"What?"

"You're angry. You're making an angry face." Her voice was small, almost breathy, and when she looked up, she gave me a doe-eyed bland expression. "See, you're doing it now."

It was only when I softened my expression did I realise I'd been scowling. "I'm not angry." But when I spoke, my voice was gruff. I cursed.

"I would be angry if the whole school was talking about how I'd burnt down a building." She was eating porridge with a dry look pulled across her small features.

I looked around anxiously. "What do you mean the whole school knows? I've barely been here a day."

"People found out before you were here - they're saying you're insane, you know." Her lips were small and curved, her nose petite. She looked delicate, like a porcelain doll.

I almost laughed. Lately I had been feeling decidedly insane. I pressed my elbows into the table and hunched my shoulders as I turned my head away. "It was an accident."

"I don't really care if it was an accident or not. People like to say I'm a little crazy, too." She pressed her fist against her cheek and sighed.

I paused briefly, fixing a drifting stare over her face. "What's your name?"

"Effie, and you're Will." The corners of her lips curled upward slightly.

I returned the faint smile.

I replayed the moments, where my gaze had caught onto the silver jewellery and Mae had pressed for answers, until I truly noticed what she had said. I know you were awake, Leo.

Perhaps he had slipped out of the room at night, but to where I didn't know.