"Sorry." I quickly shuffled forward to close the gap. The three girls behind me stepped forward too, at the same interval behind me. There wasn't a single sound, no footsteps, no nothing, other than the faintest brush of fabric.
When I reached Saph, she was sitting on the stage ledge. "Hihi~ What's your name?"
"Rien," I replied.
"And your family?"
"…De la Fontaine."
*Fwip!*
Saph plucked out a sheet from the stacks beside her and handed it to me with a smile. "Here you go. Classes begin tomorrow."
She flipped over the sheet, revealing a map of the campus. "All of your classes in the schedule will have where they're held, so you can use the map here, and don't be afraid to ask for directions if you need to."
Saph then tapped a square building in the middle of the campus. "This is the admin building. If you have any questions, you can check in there—or if you'd like to send a letter home letting your parents know that you've arrived, you can do that there as well."
"Thank you," I bowed.
"No problem," Saph quipped. "Next!"
I turned and started back up the aisle toward the top of the theater toward the exit. Behind me, I caught a snippet of conversation of the three girls with Saph.
"Where are you all from?"
"St. Vincere Arle." …The girl's accent didn't quite match the region—I'd been there before.
Saph nodded along. "Ah, I see."
I kept walking out of the hall.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The day passed quietly, and I spent most of it wandering around the campus after quickly dropping back by my dorms and unpacking. I didn't have too much energy to say hi to anyone.
The dining hall was… chaotic. Some alpha noble had thrown a fit over seating hierarchy, but the student council resolved it eventually. But hey! The food was nice.
I hadn't had jjigae, bibimbap or bulgogi in a long time.
"Sigh…" I trudged along in the dusk back towards the beta dorms. I saw a few others hustling back as well, with a small group going for an evening jog.
I passed from lamp post to lamp post, each of the small lively flickering flames hissing and sputtering inside their glass casings. The pools of light gathered on the rough cobblestone roads, the slight smell of salt, wet stone, and wood in the air. All around me, buildings stretched and towered high above like dark statues, connected by walkways.
*Tchak, tchak, tchak*
My shoes echoed slightly. As three figures drifted past, I shivered. It was getting cold. One of the students waved to me.
I stopped but they continued walking on, chatting. I stared at their backs, my schedule paper slip tight in my hand.
Who…?
I caught a glimpse of black hair. Squinting closer, it was the three students from before.
An incomprehensible feeling came over me, like someone'd dumped a bucket full of bloody ice that'd been used to chill fish down my back.
I kept watching as they rounded a corner and continued their conversation like nothing had just happened.
My breath gently fogged up the air in my face as I stared for a bit longer, spacing out before I snapped out of it and quickly made it back to the dorms.
I managed to change, drag myself into bed and tug myself under the warm blankets. I had a harder time falling asleep than usual and I tossed and turned.
*CLANG, CLANG, CLANG*
I lay there for who knew how long. Even the academy's clock tower struck twelve outside.
*Tick tock, tick tock*
The geared clock against the wall counted every second I was awake, struggling to sleep, but eventually exhaustion dragged me under.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*Pitter patter, pitter patter*
The warmth of my bed thinned as the weight of the blankets dissolved as I felt myself momentarily weightless, folding through air before I landed gently on my feet. Somewhere in the distance, I once again heard the quiet ripple of a sad flowing fountain.
I opened my eyes, rubbing the grey sleep from my eyelids.
I was standing on the still lake as sheets of rain fell from above, breaking up the cold lifeless surface with small droplets.
"What the fuck…"
I—wait, this was where I was last night.
As if my once-foggy memories had been unsealed, last night's dream rushed in like a rolling tide. Right. The rain, the faceless girl, the warnings that bad things were coming, that I needed to trust someone who came to me.
"W hy Ar e Y ou Su rpr i s ed ? " The faceless girl sat on the bowl of the slow, pewtering fountain. She playfully dangled her legs from the stone structure. The hem of her dress was still soaked through.
I opened and closed my mouth once or twice before eventually just striding forward till I stood face to face with the little girl. I rubbed my temples, recalling everything that had happened so far.
"Earlier in the theater. I heard a voice. Was that you?"
"W ho El s e ?" She replied, tilting her head slightly.
"I…" I had so many more questions than the previous night. "Okay. Does that mean you aren't a dream, then? What are you?"
No response, just the pitter patter of rain and weeping of the fountain.
Cool. Great talk, guys. Next question.
Or rather, questions.
"Are you real? What do you mean bad things were going to happen? Who am I supposed to trust?"
I even asked the stupid questions, too. "There were these three strange students, did they have anything to do—"
"St u de n ts ?" Finally I got a reaction to one of my questions as the little girl froze before sliding off of the fountain. She stood up on her tippy-toes and craned her neck toward me. "T h re e ? "
I quickly slid a step back. "Yes."
"…D e sc ri b e T he m To M e . "
I quickly gave the little girl a run down of the three strange students and my current theories and ideas—which weren't many.
By the end of it, she looked thoughtful and spoke. "T h in gs A re Pro gre s si ng Fas t e r T h an I Th ought. I Ca n no t In te r fer e . B ut Se nd T o Fr it z, A nd Be w a re Of Th o se Th re e. T ha t Is A ll I C an G ive Y ou. "
My blood ran cold and I shuffled back half another step. My mother's revolver weighed heavier in my waistband. "How do you know Fritz?"
Suddenly, the downpour stopped and the fountain grew quiet.
The little girl looked up to the sky as if at some invisible clock. "O ur T i me Is U p. Th ank Yo u Fo r Th e C omp any . I S h a ll H av e Yo u R em e mb e r Th is T i m e. I' l l Be I n To u ch."
I felt the same grip as tentacles wrapped around my heels and limbs like iron, curling around me.
I was again swallowed by the writhing tendrils and dragged under the surface down into the icy watery tomb, the freezing water running courses on my nerves.
*Glug, glug, bogeul-bogeul…*