It Looks Like a Lie

Eternal Soul Separation

Adrian's light brown eyes stare into mine, getting narrower the longer I go without answering.

"Um, nowhere?" I say dumbly.

Adrian huffs. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, just know that if you're caught being out past curfew you'll lose us house points. That effects all Hufflepuffs so be careful."

"Then I guess it's a good thing that I didn't get caught." I pull another chair close to the fire and plop down into it. 

He scoffs, but smiles slightly. "Yeah, I guess it is."

So, what are you working on so late?" I reach out, grabbing one of his books before he can stop me. 

The cover is a rough, black leather and the pages are starting to turn yellow with age. Flipping through it, I can see that some pages have signals and drawings for rituals scribbled all over them and most of the writing is in something close to Latin.I really wish I took the class Annabeth organized last month so that the Greek demi-gods could understand the Romans easier.

"Nothing." He snatches the book back out of my hands. "An extra credit project."

I hum, not believing him. 

"Okay, fine. I'm trying to create a new spell," He relents. "It's something really hard to do and only a few wizards have ever accomplished it so I wanted to keep it a secret before I figure everything out, happy?"

"I'm always happy. What's the spell supposed to do?" I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees and and my head in my hands. 

"Depends," he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms. "are you going to tell me where you were tonight?"

"Fine, don't tell me," I pout. "I'll figure it out myself." I grab another one of his books, this one with a soft brown cover, and open it to a random page. 

"Hey! Give that back." Adrian tries to take it, but this time I hold it out of his reach. 

"Uh huh," I mumble as I turn the page. "Interesting."

Adrian gives up trying to get his book and slumps back into his chair.

"I think I understand. I only have one question." I flip the book around so he can see the gibberish. "What does any of this say?"

Adrian throws one of his crumpled papers at my head. I tilt my head to the side so that it misses by a hair. 

"Okay, okay," I hold my hands up in surrender. "I can see that I'm not welcome here anymore." Returning the book, I stand up and stretch. "Let me know if you need any help reading that chicken scratch."

"Good Night Will," he shoos me away.

"Night Adrian. Don't forget to get some sleep. You're almost as bad as Nico."

His face  scrunches up in disgust at the idea, but doesn't comment as I walk up the stairs to the dorms. 

Surprisingly, I find enough energy to change out of the uniform I've been wearing all day and into a pair of fuzzy blue pajama pants and an old yellow shirt. I crawl into bed, careful not to awaken the other sleeping boys. It doesn't take long for my fatigue to take over and put me to sleep. 

A nice, long, uninterrupted, sleep cycle is always welcome, preferred even, so, of course, that's not what I get. No, I end up closing my eyes only to be dragged directly into a dream. Worse still, I haven't been able to figure out how to control my dreams like the Hypnos campers and Nico have. I'm stuck following wherever it takes me until the end or at least until I wake up.