liquid acid

5: practice

I woke up feeling better than I had the past couple of days, though not without the obvious pressure of the way the creature had decided to take residence in my skull. It was a feeling that was hard to describe, but nonetheless, I knew that's what it was. It was never the same kind of discomfort a headache would offer.

It was earlier than I would usually wake up, even earlier than Cillian, so that meant he was likely still in bed. I first texted Alaya for her dorm room number, then spent around thirty minutes making a half-hearted attempt to clean my room. After it looked moderately better, I changed into clean clothes, duct taped the soles of my boots so they wouldn't fall off, and headed out of the dorm.

The sky was dark, as it always seemed to be these days. It was always in this everlasting tension that fell upon the sky just before it would start to storm, but never began to storm. The air always vibrated with that energy, a kind distinct to this weather. It pissed me off sometimes. The sky wanted to rain, and yet, it never would. This somehow managed to occupy my mind as I walked across the mostly empty campus, for it was too early for most classes to have started. I appreciated the rather clear lawns and sidewalks, since it was always filled with people during the day, when I was usually out.

The halls were quiet when I entered the girls' dormitory. This was the first time I'd set foot here, and somehow it felt like I was doing something wrong. I quickly entered the elevator and rode it to Alaya's floor, pressing the close door button as though someone was following me. In the quiet hallway, I looked upon each door, many of which had a decoration underneath the door number, either of the occupants' names or just something pretty. Alaya's door had no such thing, and while I expected that she might've been the type to do something of the sort, I had assumed incorrectly.

After I knocked on Alaya's door, there was an eternity of a minute before she opened it. I was met with the sight of her with her hair tied messily behind her head, and no makeup upon her face. She was still in her pajamas, which I supposed was given.

"You really did want to come over here first thing, didn't you?" She stepped aside, letting me step in. As I did, she shut the door quietly behind me. "Try to keep it down, my roommate is still sleeping."

I nodded. "Sure."

The dorm layout was pretty similar to the one I shared with Cillian, though very obviously a lot newer; this was evidenced by the fact that the floor was covered in carpet, rather than chipped tiles, and the corners didn't appear as though plaster was somehow rusting. The small common area in between the two bedrooms had a wider window, which clearly wasn't bolted shut. And once again, no kitchen, just a mini fridge and a microwave, likely left behind by some previous students.

When I followed Alaya into her room, I was greeted with the sight of her unfinished painting sitting on a desk beside the wall on the opposite side of the room. I'd not had the opportunity to do any research on what she had described as "visual kei", but it seemed close enough to what she had told me. The subject of her painting was androgynous, with no certainty of whether they were male or female. And while she had been using a variety of different colors for the piece, it wasn't a bright rainbow, it was a lot more dreary. The colors were all muted, drained of the life they'd have otherwise. Additionally, her art wasn't hyper-realistic, instead it followed a more exaggerated style, reminiscent of cartoons and anime.

"Your painting looks really good so far," I said, glancing over to her.

She'd been going through a set of CDs as I stood there, and when I spoke, she turned her attention to me. With a small smile, she replied, "Thanks. You know, it's not really done yet, so it'll look a lot better once I finish."

Upon taking another look at her desk, I observed a palette covered in a mess of mixed paints and a discolored glass of water with various paintbrushes sitting inside. "Were you up working on this last night?"