Eternity | Xavier Thorpe

Prologue

Xavier's eyes shot open. His forehead was wet with perspiration and his mind was racing.

His dreams were not usually this vivid; he could practically taste her blood.

Who was she?

Xavier sat up, swinging his legs over the side of his bed and staring at the floor for a moment. His knuckles went white, nails digging into his mattress. He had to get to his shed.

Leaving Nevermore after curfew was no easy feat, but he'd done it before and knew which corridors to avoid.

He didn't waste time covering his tracks or making sure he wasn't followed like he usually would. This time he was in a hurry.

He had to get her face down before it slipped away and he forgot the details of his dream. This didn't happen often but he had a terrible sensation that time was working against him at that moment.

Xavier grabbed the nearest pencil and began to scrape at the blank canvas, pressing down so hard it ripped sections of the sheet, but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop. He had to get this done now.

He remembered her blonde hair, falling down her back in neat waves. Her cold green eyes were void of emotion but hindered by a decrepit weight that made her look ancient. He sketched her round face, pale skin and fangs.

Xavier knew this girl, she went to Nevermore Academy but he had never spoken to her before. He hesitated but his hands continued to move against the canvas despite his brain's objections.

A sword was deeply embedded into her chest placed there by her own hands which lay limp at her sides. Dark red patches marred her crimson dress. He couldn't make out where she was, but she was lying somewhere, dead.

Xavier stepped away from his drawing, the blunt pencil falling from his hand to the floor.

This girl he'd dreamt about... She went to school with him. He'd seen her just the previous day. And now he was looking at her corpse.

A bitter chill travelled down his spine.

Xavier knew better than to trust his dreams as accurate depictions of reality. But recently he'd been predicting things he couldn't explain. He'd dreamt his gorgon friend turned his roommate to stone and the next day he did. He'd dreamt the library caught fire and two days later the headmistress was ordering new books.

These could be coincidences, but he was not going to risk someone's life over his uncertainty.

Xavier fell onto his chair and ran a hand through his hair, not daring to look away from his drawing.

Why had he seen this?

He couldn't shake the feeling that this was a sign - he had to do something for this girl. Why else would he have seen her in his dreams? Taking her own life. It had been so horrible to watch he'd jolted awake - that had never happened when he had a vision.

Xavier stood and covered the drawing.

This girl needed help. And for whatever reason, he was forewarned of it and he was determined to not let her down.