The Lost Element

Chapter 15

*Her heart beat hard against her chest, the pressure from Jason being on top of her left her feeling helpless. Looking up at him, she realized it wasn't Jason on top of her, but it was Ember. A sickening grin his face as he tried to unbuckle her pants, his strength was overpowering. She felt her fury well up in her body again, yelled "NO!", and lost her vision. She came to, Ember laying on the ground, not moving. 

"No, no, no, not again. Ember, wake up, Ember please.." She was starting to hyperventilate. A lump grew in her throat.

"Hey..hey...Ardiel! Hey!" Ardiel snapped out of her sleep, Embers hand against her face, his voice trying to soothe her. "It's okay, you're alright."

Ardiel sat up and looked around, another dream, one she found that to be particularly disturbing. 

"Bad dream?" Ember asked her.

"Uh, yeah, definitely." She looked down at her bed, saw Embers hand holding himself up, and put her hand over his. "I'm glad you were here."

"Me too." He smiled at her. 

"I wanna go check on Kiara, do you mind taking me to your room?" She asked.

"Yeah, no problem. Let's get cleaned up first, and I need a drink pretty badly." He got up and went to the bathroom.

Ardiel laid back down in her bed, and looked at the big analog clock on their wall. It was gorgeous, it looked like it was made of a slice of a tree, the tick-tock was nearly silent. It read 7:30am. She took a deep breath and tried to process how she was feeling. That dream had left her really scared, but when she woke up to Ember, he immediately made it go away. She had never woken up next to anyone other than her mothers or Brise, it was a weird feeling, but one she could get used to. 

"All yours." Ember came out of the bathroom, pulling her out of her mind. 

"Thanks, I'll be quick."

She showered and brushed her teeth, moving as fast as possible. She was worried about Kiara, she knew she was probably fine, but she wanted to be sure. After getting out of the bathroom, her and Ember walked down the spiral stairs of the Aisle, over to the Corridor and up the spiral stairs there. Ember lead the way nearly to the top, Ardiel couldn't help but feel a bit of fatigue in her legs from walking up all the steps. 

"You get used to it." Ember said to her, noticing her rub her legs. 

"Who needs to workout when you do that everyday?" She joked. 

He knocked on the door, and waited a moment for an answer.

"Come in, we're naked." Jacob responded.

"Oh, excellent." Ember said, opening the door to find them fully clothed and drinking coffee.

"We could've been naked you know." Jacob said.

"It's a shame you weren't then, isn't it?" Ember joked.

"It is a shame we aren't naked.. anymore." Jacob smiled before getting an elbow in the ribs from Kiara. "Ouch! I mean, ever, a shame we aren't naked ever. Anyway, would you guys like a coffee?"

"Sure!" Embed exclaimed.

"I'll take one to go. Now that we have a break before the next semester starts, I'm gonna take some time to explore the school in more detail." 

Ardiel had already explored some of the ground, but there was one area she hadn't even ventured to yet. She had roamed around most of the eastern side of the grounds, but she noticed that the forest wrapped around the school, and she wanted to check out the other side.

"Got anywhere in mind?" Ember asked, pouring her a coffee into a travel mug.

"Yeah, a couple of places. I might even check out the library now that I'm not there looking for study material." She took the mug from him and gave him a warm smile. "Thank you."