Wake of Darkness [1]

Chapter Twenty-One

 ♕ Through the Dark ♕

Aubrette stayed sitting on the middle of the floor feeling her head buzzing from all the dancing, the chattering and laughter of people still present in her ears, as if she could still hear them moving around her, laughing as they catch the reflection of light in each other's skin. But it was quiet now. There was silence, and not even her, that had never desired to sleep trough a full night, could remain awake for more than a couple of minutes.

"Don't be a buzz kill" Said Vereena hugging Asher from behind. "We won't make a mess. I promise"

"You will make a mess" he argued, and maybe he was right but Aubrette was too tired to move up the stairs. All of them were.

"And what about it?" Vereena asked. "We can clean after"

"Fine" he said and Vereena jumped kissing his cheek.

"Thank you!" she said and clapped her hands looking back at them. "We are having a sleep over" she said, and the rest of the girls dropped to the floor. Aubrette followed their lead, thinking that she might have fallen down had she stayed standing any longer.

"We used to do this all the time" Nova said, watching Raven and Vereena walking upstairs to pick up blankets. "Specially after a day like this"

"Layla would have loved this" Izabella said.

"She gets to be in the sky now Iz." Hazel replied. "Maybe she was with us today. On the sun's halo."

"Yeah" Iz whispered and closed her eyes.

Aubrette remained quiet, not having anything appropriate to say.

Vereena and Raven rushed down the stairs soon after, handing them blankets and pillows. All of them shifted in the floor to make their beds, but Aubrette moved enough to cover herself with it.

"I'll see you in the morning" Asher said, and his voice was not light. Aubrette knew exactly what he was thinking. Tomorrow they'd have to start the investigations again. Tomorrow wouldn't be a day filled with laughter, and they probably would not see a day like this for a long time. And maybe it was the fact that no one seemed to care that he was leaving, or that no one noticed the heaviness in his voice but Aubrette turned towards him anyway.

"You could always join us if the darkness gets too scary" she said at him, making him laugh. "We won't laugh" Aubrette said and hid her smile.

"Goodnight Bree" he said and continued his way up the stairs.

"Did u have fun today?" Hazel asked. None of them mentioning her interaction with the prince. Aubrette was not even sure if they'd even cared to notice.

"I did, thank you" she said.

"For what?" Vereena said and it took a second for Aubrette to understand her question.

"I don't know, making me feel included"

"Well we couldn't juts let you sleep your ass off all day" Raven said, leaning against Vereena.

"Rave" she said, reprimand in her tone.

"What?" Raven asked, clueless to the tone of her voice.

"We didn't want to leave you alone that's what she meant" Vereena said, with an apologetic tone.

"Thank you anyway," Aubrette said, knowing that if she hadn't been so persistent, she would have slept through it all. "How long have you been together?" She asked them and Vereena grinned.

"Couple of years" she said, and Raven hid her face on her neck.

"Holy stars, you should have seen them when they first got together, we couldn't get them to be further than an inch apart" Nova said and shivered like the thought was too much for her to bare.

"Shut up Nova" Vereena said, and hugged Raven closer.

"I thought Raven didn't have the ability to smile until then" Nova said and all of them laughed.

"She smiles plenty now" Vereena said defensively.

"Okay stop it. Both of you." Raven said, her cheeks slightly red.

"I think it's cute." Aubrette said hugging her pillow against her chest.

Vereena smiled, "Thank you Bree. Raven does too even if she does not wanna admit it"

"Hey! You're supposed to be on my side" Raven said, and Nova rolled her eyes, shifting her attention towards Hazel.

"I love you Rave but you are pretty closed off, that's one of the reasons I fell in love with you" Raven's cheeks became even more red.

"Get a room" said Nova throwing them a pillow.

Aubrette laid down, laughing as she saw Raven stand from her place and smack the pillow against Nova's arms.

Feeling her eye lids heavy, Aubrette turned around and drifted off to sleep with the sound of their voices in the distance and dreamed of a moon surrounded by rainbows.

☾

When Aubrette opened her eyes, it was still dark outside, but without the moon to guide her she wasn't sure how far into the night they were. The Aureums slept peacefully next to her, holding so tightly onto their sheets Aubrette would have thought it'd be snowing outside. All except Izabella, whose spot on the floor was completely empty.

Aubrette frowned, searching for her across the room but there was no sign at all from her. It was then when she noticed the coldness of the floor underneath the palm of her hand. She would not have noticed the coldness of the room around her or how the glass of the walls seemed to freeze, if that same glass had not cracked behind her.

Aubrette stood from the floor, careful not to awake any of the girls, and made her way up the stairs, following the familiarity of the coldness through the halls.

It wasn't long before she realized where it came from. The door of her room was open. The knob of the door turned completely black, like the gold from it had been burned until it shifted in color, but the sight of the rose... it made Aubrette shivered.

The drawing had been cut from the woods and had been thrown to pieces that now laid at her feet.

Aubrette stepped into the room, swallowing down her fear as she stepped inside.

The room had been turned into a graveyard of ashes.

The floor and walls were completely black, and the furniture was nothing but dust, the glass from the window cracked open. The cold that surrounded the room made her teeth shiver. Her skin filling with goosebumps.

Aubrette closed the door, flinching as it made a sound that sounded too much like a voice. And paled as she saw the markings on it. The wood seemed to have been peeled away. Aubrette took a step back, trying to get some air into her lungs a she realized the carvings looked like someone tore the wood away with their nails.

But her eyes seemed to only focus on one thing.

A note nailed into the wall.

You're next

Aubrette crunched the paper in her hand. and could no longer feel the cold.