The Next Bennett Witch

Chapter Eight: "What Was Hope Doing In Your Dream?"

Evelyn lays in her bed, passed out with a textbook under her head.

The past few days, Evelyn has been studying. This was the first time she actually fell asleep.

"What time is it? Evelyn yawns and sits up, grabbing her watch, standing up slowly and pulling on some sweatpants. She glances at her door and walks over, peeking out before following everyone to the grand hall.

I miss Josie and Lizzie, I hope they're having fun with Aunt Caroline.

Evelyn pouts a bit, listening to Alaric though looking around the room. Her eyes land on Kaleb and she smiles before turning her attention back to Alaric.

Once the assembly is over, Evelyn goes back to her and Hope's dorm, grabbing her book and flopping down onto her bed, studying until she falls asleep.

Evelyn wakes up early and quickly gets ready in a black crop top, dark blue plaid pants, and yellow shoes. She uses makeup and her hair to cover her hickeys before going to the assembly, taking a seat with Hope and yawning.

"Hey, Eve. I didn't see much of you last night until after the assembly." Hope whispers quietly while they both pay attention to Alaric.

"Yeah. Sorry I was in the library." Evelyn smiles, looking to Hope then back to Alaric.

Evelyn wasn't even telling Hope that she was purposely avoiding her, as she didn't want to slip up about Jed or be forced to listen about Landon.

"You study a lot." Hope side-eyes Evelyn, speaking quietly.

"I don't want to fail my exams." Evelyn laughs quietly then turns her full attention to Alaric.

After the assembly, Evelyn goes to take her first two exams and then goes to the library, grabbing a coffee before sitting across from Kaleb and MG.

"Hey, Guys." Evelyn smiles softly, opening her textbook and notebook, beginning to study, fairly slower than the both of them.

"Hey," Kaleb says, glancing up to Evelyn and smiling before continuing to read.

"Hey! How are you?" MG pauses, looking up from his book.

"I'm fine! Been studying a lot lately. Mostly outside of the school, like the football field? It's a really good place to study. Are either of you evacuating?" Evelyn picks up her coffee with both hands, sipping it while looking to the two of them.

"Nah, staying here and staying awake. I would rather be here with the possibility to help than gone and being helpless. And I'm taking exams either way so there's really no point in me leaving." MG talks quickly, with Kaleb just adding on a "What he said." At the end, Evelyn begins to daydream about one specific tall werewolf until she snaps out of it and goes back to studying.

Evelyn continues to study before looking around and realizing nobody's there anymore. She stands up slowly, beginning to walk. Her eyes fly to the wall, where Enzo sits against it, a pool of blood under him.

"Dad!" Evelyn runs over to Enzo screaming.

"Dad! Dad! Are you okay? Dad!" Evelyn drops down to her knees and tries to help her dad, only to get blood all over her hands. She stands up slowly, looking at her hands before letting out a blood-curdling scream, which is when she jolts awake, all the lights in the library getting extremely bright before exploding, though the lights from the window keep the library lit.

Evelyn breathes softly before standing up, grabbing her books and leaving the library, ignoring all the eyes on her.

Hours later, she sits with everyone else as Hope explains what the Oneiroi is.

"I'm staying." Evelyn stands up first, looking to everyone else as they stand. She helps the group layout the sleeping bags and such, breathing softly. She's actually the first to fall asleep or the group.

Her nightmare starts off with her waking up handcuffed and chained to a chair, three chairs in front of her each with a different person. The first is Jed, a wolfsbane central line in his arm. The next is her mother, her mouth sewn shut and chains wrapped around her whole body. The last, and directly in front of her, is her dad. He has a smile on his face but he's handcuffed. A shadowy figure goes up to her father, reaching its hand into her father's chest.

"Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! Dad! Stop!" Evelyn screams, tears running down her face as she struggles against the chains.

"Stop! Dad!" Evelyn continues to scream before the figure rips out her father's heart and drops it on the ground.

"No! No! No" Evelyn screams, continuing to fight against the chain. The figure then moves over to Jed, reaching its hand into his chest.

"Stop! Get your hands off of him! Stop! Please stop! Take me instead! Please! Stop!" Evelyn screams, continuing to struggle against the chains. The figure, The Oneiroi moves over to her, getting right into her face.

"This is your destiny, Evelyn. Everyone around you is gonna die. You're gonna be an orphan, you're already halfway down anyways." The Oneiroi croaks, while Evelyn just screams, sobbing.

"You're a liar! You're lying!" Evelyn yells, fighting against the chains.

Evelyn stops fighting against the chains, closing her eyes.

"This isn't real. You aren't real. None of this is real. Fractos." The chains holding her break and she leaps forward, falling clear through the Oneiroi, who is now gone.

Evelyn jumps awake at the same time as everyone else, looking around to them.

"Where's Hope? Where's the demon?" Evelyn breathes heavily, climbing to her feet. The demon and Hope come flying in, but Evelyn stands her ground until Hope tells her to stand back, watching the whole thing.

"Yeah Kaleb, Landon was right." Evelyn laughs, looking around to everyone. In the slomo of them walking down the hall, Evelyn walks only a little bit behind Hope, a smile on her face.

After her shower, Evelyn gets called into Dr. Saltzman's office, taking a seat.

"Hey, Evelyn... Your mom called me earlier but she didn't want me to tell you until.. after your exams... it's about your dad." Alaric sits up in his chair, looking to Evelyn, a sad look on his face.

"Don't say it. Don't you dare fucking say it." Evelyn stands up from her chair, backing up from Alaric, her former smile on her face completely gone.

"Your dad... he passed away yesterday." Alaric stands, walking towards Evelyn, who stops all movement and just brings her hand to her chest, holding her hand out to Alaric, signaling him to back up.

"Don't touch me. Please.. don't touch me." Evelyn backs up until she reaches the wall. She begins to shake and throws her hand forward towards him, causing him to fly back into his desk. She runs from his office and straight from the nearest exit and into the woods.

Before she can stop, Evelyn drops down to her knees and lets out a horrifying scream, the trees in the immediate area around her swaying and the leaves blowing far away from her. As the scream holds, the trees around her wither and die before falling over, in a domino effect really until she goes unconscious, her nose bleeding immensely.

Evelyn is carried back to her room by MG after he, Kaleb, and Hope hear her screams. They lay her in bed and Hope simply just cleans up her nose.