8 Days till the fall of Almadel

Trix lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. There were no windows to the outside. Their single window was next to the door, and looked out into the passage and the inner courtyard beyond. The shutter was closed now but a faint light filtered through the gaps and she could see the outline of their dormitory room in grey and sepia. The room was split into two halves. Each had a single bed, a small desk, a chest of drawers. She had been lying here for hours. She saw it every time she tried to sleep: The creature in that dark, dark room. One red eye burning like a hot coal. As soon as her eyelids closed she imagined it leaping out of the darkness and landing on her, ripping at her face with gruesome strength. It was worse that she had only seen a glimpse of the thing, her mind filled in the gaps, inflating the creature to impossible size and fierceness.

In the other bed she could hear Emma murmuring and shifting in her sleep. Emma had found her outside assembly the day before, and they had walked back to the dormitory together. She was bubbly, the sort of person Trix would not have usually approached had they not been assigned to the same room. Emma had been happy to do most of the talking, and Trix content to listen. Trix had been surprised to find herself liking the outgoing girl, the constant barrage of words making each thing Trix said feel lower-stakes.

She tried closing her eyes again, but the beast was there, waiting, watching. She doubted she would get any sleep that night. She brought her wrist within an inch of her face so she could make out the hands on her watch. Two in the morning. She felt restless. Suddenly lying in bed was unbearable. She sat up and stared into the semi-darkness. Why is it more frightening to lie here with my eyes closed, than stare out at the dark? she thought. The anticipation. Not knowing when the thing will come, that's the worst part .

She looked over at Emma, sleeping soundly. At first sight Trix had thought that Emma was pudgy, her round face and mass of hair gave that impression, but her slim arms broke the illusion. To pick a single word to describe her, she was "rounded". Curly hair, circular face, small button nose, large green eyes and a general exuberance of body. She was adorable, and had a relaxed nonchalance that Trix envied. Even in sleep she used all the space available, her hair spilling over the pillow, her limbs splayed every which way, one leg wrapped up around the duvet.

After returning to the dormitory last night they had continued chatting, with Emma sprawled comfortably in her chair, like she was a piece of clothing that someone had torn off in a passion and flung there uncaringly, without looking. Trix had been very aware of her own body, sat stiffly, her hands folded neatly in her lap. Both feet on the floor.

Trix couldn't bear to sit there in bed any longer. She got up and went to the mirror to put on her jumper. She pulled her hair up into a bun and looked at her reflection. She was thin and tall, long slim fingers, straight hair. Tidy. Compact. Neat. The opposite of Emma. She stood up straight. Why do my arms hang like that? Do I look like this normally? She tried clasping her hands behind her back, instead, but it looked even less natural. Her mind spun wildly, throwing up a new thought each time she dispatched the previous one.

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It threw up another. More urgent than the others, as though it had been whispered right in her ear. “Go and look at the monster” it said. Maybe the adrenaline of the day still hadn’t worn off, maybe she wanted to feel alive again, to feel that same terror and overcome it, then return to her bed and collapse happily in the knowledge that she was powerful and untouchable and safe. Now that the idea was conscious she couldn’t think of anything else.

I’ll go and find it, and I’ll turn on the light, and there will just be a little cat model there with some batteries in it, and I will feel foolish but I will be able to sleep , she told herself. Even if it's some mutated feral cat-beast, which it isn't, I'd rather it ate me than lie here twitching for another four hours . Her mind was made up, she would go. She had to go.

The cold tile floors had leeched the last of the warmth of the bed from her feet, so she crept to the door and pulled on her slippers. She held the door handle with both hands and turned it as slowly and quietly as possible to avoid waking Emma. She pulled the door open and the light of the corridor spilled in through the gap.

She heard the bed creak behind her as Emma sat up. "Trix? What time is it?"

"Really early. Go back to sleep, I'm just going to the loo" said Trix

"Oh, I'll come with" said Emma blearily. She climbed out of bed with her eyes still half closed and put on her big puffy coat, pulling the sleeves over her hands and wrapping her arms around herself. She padded quietly over to Trix, bare legs and bare feet poking out from under the big coat. She grabbed Trix's hand and drew it into the warmth inside the sleeve of her coat, so their arms were interlinked. Emma pulled her along into the corridor "come on! let's go". One of the windows in the corridor was open and they both leant on the sill for a moment, looking out onto the black trees of the courtyard waving in the wind, enjoying the crisp autumn air on their faces.

"I'm awake now, from all this cold air" said Emma, and she giggled and blew a cloud of mist out the window. "We should go exploring after we go to the toilet."

Trix felt a hot prickle down the back of her neck, the suddenness of it all, the warm presence of Emma right next to her, the coldness of her right hand contrasted with the soft warmth of the other. The whole situation was suddenly thrilling. Illicit. Her fear replaced with excitement at the idea of breaking the rules together. She felt a sudden urge to tell Emma what she's doing, to share a secret together and to thereby become closer. She blurted it out before she could change her mind, feeling her face go red: "I was thinking the same thing, actually. There's something I wanted to show you"

"Oh? What?" said Emma.

"Come with me" said Trix

They padded quietly down the corridor to the dark wooden door studded with rivets that separated the dormitory from the main school building. The door had been propped open with a door stop. They entered into the much deeper darkness of the building beyond. It enveloped them, like a great blanket was soaking up all the sound and light. Trix was aware of a scent of dust and beeswax that she hadn’t noticed during the day. They rushed breathlessly through the empty corridors. Trix resisted the urge to look behind herself, knowing that if she did the fear would just grow and she would be unable to go through the door when they arrived. She felt very clearly the roughness of the terracotta tiles through the thin slippers, and the uneven depth of the grout between each tile. She imagined how Emma's soft, bare feet must feel on the rough stone. She closed her eyes just for a second, trusting to the other girl to lead her, and savored the heightened senses that the dark and the fear had offered her.

They where within sight of the dreaded room when Emma grabbed Trix's arm without warning and swung her tight against the wall. She put a finger to her lips.

"Wait! Did you hear that?" a voice came from Mrs Pooley's office.