Apris Academy

12. Visions

From the perspective of Aiko.

I open my eyes and look around, one hand still on the wall. Everyone else is gone. Did they leave me?

Everything is still. Every particle of dust in the air is suspended.

Deafening silence rings in my ears. But something else is making its way to the surface.

My heartbeat. Pounding faster and faster and faster. Until I can barely breathe.

I want to escape. To run back to the safety of Apris Academy.

But my hand is stuck to the wall. Submerged.

Then I hear breathing beside me.

I see a hunched figure by the wall, crouching low.

I see antlers. Like branches. Like roots.

The creature is looking through the shelves.

He picks up a bottle, studies it, and sets it back down, making a clinking sound.

He picks up another bottle.

It's filled with crawling cockroaches.

I can hear their silent screeches.

The creature opens the bottle. Pours the bugs into his open hand. Twists the lid back onto the bottle, enclosing the rest of the roaches.

The screaming of the insects grows louder and louder. A symphony of wild chirping.

The sound crescendos as the creature's hand closes around the cockroaches, crushing them, and squirting red pigment through his fingers.

When the creature looks directly at me, I know I'm through.

I'm going to die.

He walks forward, right towards me. His black cloak trails behind him.

He puts his hand up.

Then brings it down on the wall beside me. Blood from the cockroaches splatters onto the wall.

He smears the blood along the wall, then steps away, revealing what he wrote.

I'm watching you.

But this has already happened before. What is going on?

***

The world blinks in and out again.

This time, the edges are blurry. Darker.

I can see the creature, rummaging through the shelves.

A knock on the door.

He looks up. Walks towards the door. Opens it.

Someone's standing there, but I can't see their face.

They hand the creature a piece of paper. A record. With a picture. Of Deimos.

The creature looks up. Nods.

The face of the person begins to come into view. The features are blurred, disorganized in my mind.

All I can see is flaming red hair. Before the world goes black.

***

When I finally pull away from the wall, I fall into Diana's open arms.

Her light brown eyes are filled with worry. Her dark, curly hair sways around me, the edges tickling my cheeks.

My heart, involuntarily, begins to beat faster. Diana's cheeks flush red, blossoming like roses.

Quickly, she looks away and helps me to my feet.

I brush the dust off my hands and take a deep breath.

"Are you okay?" Brooks asks.

"Yeah," I say, trying to forget what just happened with Diana. "It was weird. I touched the wall and... and..."

"And what?"

"Had a vision."

The whole room is silent.

"It was a vision about the creature-thing," I say, then explain everything I saw.

Nobody speaks.

We all just walk out of the shed. We've found out enough.

***

As we walk down the trail back to Apris Academy, I try to focus on Christina. On whatever those visions meant.

But all I can think about is Diana.

All I can think about is the way her hand brushes mine as we walk past each other.

I've never noticed these things before. But I found a spark in her eyes today. And now that I'm aware of it, I can't ever forget it.