Finishing up her first day of classes and heading back to her dorm, Rom noticed other students leaving the building wearing dresses and suits.

Where is everyone going? she thought.

“So shiny,” Shade mentioned looking at some of the gowns young women were wearing. “Do you have clothes like that?”

“No. Not my style,” Rom responded while walking into the dorm.

“Rom! It looks like we finished our classes around the same time,” a familiar soft-pitched voice said.

“Oh hey, Suke. Yeah, it looks like it,” Rom replied.

“Good. You remembered my nickname. I always felt like my parents should have given me a different name. It was so hard for me to spell when I was younger and other kids used to make fun of it to the point I would cry. So, I can't change my name yet but I can shorten it to something somewhat better.”

“Very chatty this one,” Shade commented with Rom adding “I know right.”

“I know the feeling. That's why I have people call me Rom.”

As the two started walking to their room, Rom found out that there was an event for freshmen going on. “Oh, that’s why everyone was dressed up.”

“Exactly. I’m surprised your Watcher didn’t tell you,” Suke remarked.

Rom knew why Durn, who was her watcher, didn't say anything about the event. He probably thought she wasn’t going to make it to her first day of college which would have forfeited her acceptance. Or a more simple reason for him just not caring to tell.

Upon entering their room, Suke jumped back in terror.

“What happened ?!” Rom shouted but no response. Just a frozen pale face.

Hoping to get some sort of response by waving a hand in front of her roommate's face but not a punch that landed right between her eyes. “What the–” Rom didn’t have time to finish what she was saying before another punch came her way. A swift step to the left allowed the second punch to miss her this time. Before Rom knew it, she was defending against a fury of hits. Punches, kicks, and even grapples. All were dodged and the only reason Rom wasn’t fighting back was because something seemed off.

Shade who was holding onto Rom’s shoulder for dear life as they swayed back and forth evading attacks, stated “The bleeding is getting worse.”

“What do you mean worse?!” Rom responded.

“It’s spreading!” Shade exclaimed.

Suke’s spectrum now had the bleeding growing rampant. The sphere had blackness circling its blue color and it only kept increasing.

“What do we do?!” Rom demanded.

“If you don’t know how would I!?” Shade shouted back.

Rom’s mind was racing trying to find a way to stop her roommate without hurting her. After dodging the majority of Suke’s attacks, Rom finally remembered what she read in Bleeding Spectrum Volume One.

Lesser of two evils.

“What's that?” Shade asked

“You're about to see,” Rom said before grabbing Suke and pinning her to the hallway wall.

Luckily there weren’t any other students around to get caught up in all of what was happening since they were all at the event.

“I want you to try and change the spectrum. You need to change Suke’s sadness to something else,” Rom said.

“Change her sadness? I don’t know how to…”

“Shade?” Rom glanced over to her shoulder to see her quill frozen in place. “This is not the time to take a nap.” Although only a few seconds had passed, Rom was beginning to worry until she saw a glimmer within Shade’s pink eyes.

“Correction, I do know how to change her sadness somehow. Just need to know to what tho?”

Rom had no idea what happened to Shade but that wasn’t important at the moment while her roommate was fighting to get free from the wall.

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“Her name. She was just going on about how she doesn’t like her name Sukecan,” Rom answered.

Shade hopped onto the neck of Suke saying “This may take a minute. I never went through someone's emotions before, let alone switched them with…actually, I just found her sadness for her name. Rom. I think I might be a pro at this.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Now I want you to switch Suke’s current sadness with that.”

After a few seconds, Shade shouted “Done!”

The struggle from Suke stopped. “Rom?”

“Yeah, it's me and I don’t know who or what you were seeing but I need you to confirm if you are seeing anyone else in this hallway other than you and me?”

“Don’t forget me,” Shade mentioned.

“Correction. Other than you, Shade, and myself?”

“Who is Shade?” Suke asked which was quickly met with Shade fluttering in front of her face. “Oh, Shade is your quill. So pretty.”

“I’m starting to like her,” Shade declared.

“Oh really. I wonder why,” Rom said, releasing her roommate from the wall.

Thank you and sorry were the only words coming from Suke while she and Rom walked into their room to talk about what happened.

“So you figured out what to do from reading a book from the fourth floor of the library?” Suke asked.

Rom nodded.

“And that was finding another sadness in my life to replace the current one my spectrum was reflecting to stop the haunting?”

Rom nodded again and added “The book said that a haunting can occur when someone’s spectrum is bleeding or having a traumatic feeling. A rekbane would latch onto that feeling and the memory tied to it to begin the haunting but switching out that memory with another that’s not traumatic will give the rekbane nothing to latch onto.”

Suke pounded her fist into her leg muttering “Dammit.”

“What?” Rom said.

“I messed up. My father told me I should meditate every day to keep my psyche up to defend against hauntings from rekbanes ever since my brother passed away. If you weren't with me then I might have become a host to that damn parasite.”

“I am guessing you and your brother were really close?” Rom asked.

Suke averted her eyes downward. “Quite the opposite actually and he was my half brother as he would have corrected since our mother had him before she met my father. He recently passed away and let’s just say he wasn’t winning any award for best brother of the year. He was my unwanted personal bully when we were younger and how dedicated he was to making my life unpleasant felt like it was his job to torture gleams.”

Rom, who was leaning on her desk, stood up saying “Wait. You are half gloom?”

Gleams are what people born with an Exalted and gloom blood are called. There are many who would keep their lineage a secret to live a life outside of constant judgment, ridicule, and hate. Having a parent from the Nile and another from the exalted skies didn’t mean acceptance into both but ostracization.

“Gloom on my father’s side and exalted on my mother’s,” Suke stated plopping on her bed.

“Oh.”

“Oh? Well, that's better than what an exalted person would say. They probably would have complained and had me switched out from being their roommate by the morning,” Suke claimed with a wistful smile.

“So if you don't mind me asking. What did you see from the haunting?”

The room fell silent for a moment until Suke took a deep breath. “My brother. It was my brother terrorizing me like he did so many times before but this time I fought back.”

Rom placed a hand between her eyes and said “Well if your brother was still around I am sure he wouldn’t bother you again after taking one of your punches.”

“Sorry again for hitting you.”

Rom waved it off. “At least I know who to call if I need backup in a fight.”

The two girls laughed while Shade was wondering “Why was her brother mean to her?”

“If I had to guess, it's probably because he blames both her and her father for ruining his perfect life as an exalted,” Rom answered in dismay.

“Before I forget, what Shade did with switching your memories was just a temporary fix. I am sure there is someone on campus who can-” Before Rom could finish, Suke shouted “No!”

After receiving a look with a raised eyebrow, Suke continued to say “Sorry, I didn't mean to shout. It's just that if word gets out that I was haunted, then I will be quarantined for who knows how long and will fall behind in my classes.”

“So, you rather allow a rekbane to latch on again and continue messing with your mind?” Rom asked with a puzzled look.

“I am aware of what is happening to me and will have more control over my emotions.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“Meditation. It will keep my psyche strong and those vile parasites won't be able to affect me again.”

“You mean the same meditation you forgot to do already which ended with me getting punched. I will need more reassurance that you can stop your spectrum from bleeding again outside of crossing your legs and closing your eyes.”

Suke started to change out of her clothes saying “That isn’t the only way to meditate and since you need reassurance, how about you come with me to the freshmen event and keep a close eye on me and see that I can keep my spectrum under control.”

Rom thought about her roommate’s proposal and how it could put her mind at ease along with not needing to sleep with one eye open. “Fine,” she reluctantly said while sitting down on her bed to wait for Suke to finish getting changed.

“That’s what you are going to wear?” Suke asked, scanning Rom up and down.

“Rude and unfortunately my shiny dresses and pearls didn’t make the cut in my backpack since my cramped trip here could only fit one carry-on bag.”

Cramp trip was putting it mildly as Rom was actually hidden within an empty cargo barrel on an aircraft shipment of spices to the college from the Nile.

“Well, you can't go like that. Just grab one of my dresses from my closet and we can be on our way.”

Rom rolled her eyes and started looking through her roommate's closet hoping to find a piece of clothing that wasn't flashy or stood out which was proving quite difficult.