Stranger Stories 3

Hush, My Child.

Raven woke up before Nita did. She hoped she hadn't woken up first. Then again, she had no idea when Cody slept. She slipped downstairs, finding Sammy asleep on the couch. She kept descending, into Cody's room. He was in one of the chairs that had been moved down when they had moved in. it seemed the exact opposite of Raven's home, but she felt comforted by the fact that she wasn't alone.

Cody looked up. "Hi." he looked back down at the book he was reading, sighed, then tossed it on top of his coffin. Raven winced. By the looks of it, the book had to have been at least a hundred years old. "What's up?"

"Nothing." Raven sat down on another chair, tucking her legs in front of her. "You're just the only person awake."

"You sure you don't want to go back to sleep? It's four in the morning, you probably need it."

"No. I want to be awake when Arya tells us we can show up."

She ended up dozing off anyway, almost against her will but welcoming the extra rest anyway. Cody woke her up when Sammy came down the stairs, repeating what he had said to him. "Arya hasn't said anything, but Nita says that the potion's effects will start wearing off soon if she gave it to her at the right time."

Raven nodded, trying to get up through the sleep-induced fog in her head. She started up the stairs, seeing Hastur idly slip his hand through the table, then back up to his face. She let out a small laugh at the bored gesture, sitting next to him at the table. Nita started doling out different potions to different people, also looking like she had just woken up. She gave Raven two. She frowned, looking at the labels on them. Different. Knowing Nita, she gave it to her for a reason. She would have to ask. Raven could recognize one of them; it was formally called a Potion of Plentiful Needs, but Nita always called it a Don't Die potion. She always gave them to Raven and Nanami when they practiced spells for ridiculous amounts of time so they wouldn't have to stop to sleep or eat or anything like that. She looked around. Everyone got a potion like it. She moved on to the next potion. She couldn't understand the loopy, strange language it was written in, but then again, Nita didn't understand the sigils carved on the blade Raven worked her spells with, either. Nita sat down. "Drink up. Cody, your potion should help with sunlight for a little bit, but we still need to get to the house on the top of the hill pretty fast."

No one did anything to reply.

"What are you guys waiting for, the sun to come up? Drink it!" Nita said, downing her Don't Die potion. Everyone else followed suit, the strange texture of the liquid almost everyday for Raven and Nita, but almost certainly not got everyone else, according to their facial expressions. She got up and started to leave with the others, before Nita called her back.

"Yeah?"

Nita gave her the potion Raven couldn't identify and accidentally left on the table. "It's for you if you die fighting Eve. let's just say she'll be surprised."

Raven drank it, trusting Nita and her judgement more than her own. "Let's go."