unhinged ↠ 𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞

Tower

_________

Kitioma Hadlee

The Astronomy Tower is windy at night. The wind whips through my hair, forcing me to brush the tight curls out of my face. My breath is knocked out of me as I stand on the edge of the railing, the altitude sucking the oxygen out of my lungs and the screams from my lips.

I have never been to the Astronomy Tower at night.

This realization passed me by as I stand, gripping the railing that I have somehow found myself on the other side of. I feel like I need to get back, to step back, but there is nowhere to step.

The clouds look dizzying below me. I glance down, my hair still streaking across my face and obscuring my vision, but I can still clearly see how high up I am.

My hands start to slip off the railing, and I cry out as I feel myself tipping forwards.

A hand on my waist catches me, pulling me back, grabbing my wrist in the same motion.

"The moon is beautiful tonight, my dear. Look, enjoy it," His voice is low in my ear, my trembling suddenly not only from the biting chilliness of the wind.

I look up, obeying whoever is currently holding me from plummeting to my death. I don't see anything, the sky filled with an aching void of darkness, not even stars to grace its night.

"There's nothing there," I say, but I'm not sure he can even hear me. I can barely hear myself through the roaring wind.

"A new moon." His lips, savoring the joke, are hot against my ear, his hands cold against my waist. And then he lets go, a light whisper of a shove sending me all the way over.

I plummet, my body suddenly weightless against the rushing, freezing air. I can see pine trees below me, ready to crush each bone, collapse my lungs, to make me inevitable one with the earth as a decaying corpse.

A gasp and I'm suddenly I'm in my bed, wrapped in a tangle of sheets. The rushing of wind still haunts my skin, the feeling of my body ripping away into the sickening night making my hands shake in the bedsheets.

I roll over, breathing hard. What kind of dream was that? When comparing everything going on in my life, I'd assume that it is due to paranoia and stress, but something so vividly real is terrifying.

I half-knew I was dreaming, too, so why didn't I wake up before? It felt less like a dream and more like a vision, but still.

The bedsheets suddenly feel suffocating. I kick them off, holding my body in a fetal cradle. The last of the tremors start to leave my body as I try to hush my unsteady gasps, but it's difficult to keep quiet with other girls in the room.

Something glints on my arm as I readjust the bonnet on my head, making my hair more comfortable. I breathe out, hard, when I see the bracelet, a strange sort of peace engulfing me.

I am safe and protected. Everything is quite alright, it was just a dream. I repeat jumbled affirmations under my breath, trying to calm down.

The bracelet reminds me of protection, that no one can hurt me with more dark magic, that the dream wasn't real. I'm safe, and thanks to a Slytherin boy who I made a terrible first impression too, nonetheless.

"Kitioma?" A groggy voice calls out, and I whip my head around, pressing my lips together in a thin line. Gabriella's tired eyes meet mine from the bed beside me, smears of last night's makeup still on her face.

"Yeah?" I call out softly, trying my best to not wake the other girls.

"Are you okay? I heard commotion."