Raven

Chapter 16

Raven's POV

And so, the birthday ended with me inside my room, paralyzed in bed.

After the dinner, everyone returned to their homes and post. Lilibeth joined Miss Harley at the library to talk about stuff regarding my admission to SEIA tomorrow.

I was left inside my room, alone with that familiar girl with platinum white hair and crimson red eyes from my dreams.

"I told you we will meet again."

"Rori?"

Even though she was smiling, I couldn't help but to be freaked out from her red eyes. She wasn't wearing a cloak right now so I can clearly see her deathly pale skin with intricate patterns on her right arm. "It's good to see you again."

"You're real‽" I asked. I thought she only existed on my dreams. I mean, yes, real people could exist on my dream, but I can feel that Rori's different. That she's not normal.

"What do you think?" She asked mysteriously, approaching my bed slowly.

"W-What are you going to do?" My voice cracked. I only realized now that my throat was parched.

She stood by the side of my bed, reaching out for my hand. A wave of dizziness enveloped me as she whispered incoherent words while squeezing the center of my palm hard.

I want to scream in pain, but due to the dryness of my throat, I feel like I'll be coughing up blood any minute now.

"It hurts!" I let out a muffled scream as my toes dug on to my bed covers. The more Haku squeezed harder, the greater pain I felt all over my body.

I heard her whisper some words as she placed her hand on my head. I tried looking up when it casted a red glow. A surge of warm feeling gushed inside my head, just like the last time.

"ego praecipio tibi eam."

I felt my insides churning. It feels uncomfortable and painful that I kept on squirming just to gain back the control of my body.

And then everything went black.

࿈

Morning came and here I am, standing in front of the class, trying my best to smile naturally.

All eyes were on me when I came to this room. I am so nervous that my palms were sweating like falls. "Good morning, everyone. I'm Raven Black. I hope we could all get along."

The moment I closed my mouth, some already returned to their businesses, some were still looking at me but I know they weren't paying any attention. I can see it from their disinterested eyes. I'm glad though 'cause the longer they look at me, the longer I become uneasy and uncomfortable.

I was about to heave a sigh of relief when a girl raised her hand and asked. "I saw you yesterday with the owner's daughter. How are you two related?"

"Uhm, I'm her cousin." I answered.

Cousins. That's what Miss Harley told me yesterday. If somebody asked, I would just say that we're cousins and no one would immediately mess with me.

Another student raised their hand. It was a boy. "Why only started going to SEIA now? It's halfway the sem."

I swallowed some saliva to moisten my throat. "I am home-schooled, and, and Harley insisted that I should go to school and socialize." Well, that was the truth.

More people started raising their hands but the teacher cleared his throat, stopping them. "No more questions, guys. You can ask her during break. Please sit down beside Adelaide, Miss Black." Then he pointed to the girl sitting at the far back. I quickly went to my chair, head's down, avoiding eye contact.

When I finally sat down on my chair, the girl named Adelaide leaned over and whispered. "Good day, Miss Black. I'm Adelaide Burton. I was assigned by Miss Sinclaír to be your assistant."

I faced Adelaide to look at her properly. The first thing I noticed was her doe eyes. She had a long brown wavy hair and a fair skin. She was grinning at me, like the way Miss Harley grinned.

"You grin like Harley." I unconsciously blurted out. I really hate it when my mind and mouth doesn't cooperate with each other.

She grinned even wider. "I always get that all the time. I see Miss Sinclaír from time to time and must have gotten it from her. I work for the Headmistress Office as a Student Assistant but only few knew about it, which is close to none. I'm so good at keeping secrets." She winked at me before continuing. "Did you already had a tour around the school? Mr. Machiavelli told me that you still need to be oriented with everything." She prattled on.

Today, I officially started studying at SEIA. Miss Harley had a meeting with the Technical Department of Arcane Linker so she couldn't accompany me. It must have been about the work Lala was referring to. Only Miss Gryca went to school together with me. She'll be the one handling today's matters at school and she also wants to personally deliver me to my room.

I, on the other hand, didn't had a good rest.

When everyone resigned to their rooms last night, I was left alone to deal with Haku.

Ever since I woke up this morning, I started seeing colors when I held or lightly touch a person's hand. I'm not sure though if that was only it, I haven't checked it on other people.

When I accidentally held Yumiko's hand earlier this morning, all I could see was white. It wasn't a big deal to me. But when I accidentally held Lily and Miss Harley's hand, it was red and black respectively. The color red I saw reminds me of a red lipstick, while the black was like a blackhole, where no light or sound could pass through.

Before Miss Gryca and I parted, she handed me my study load, so I had the chance to touch her hand lightly and I saw red, too.

I don't know what these colors meant, nor what they represent. I just hope I won't get in trouble because of this.

Even though the teacher told them to ask questions later, the day went on without them bothering me. Miss Harley was right. Telling them we're cousins would lessen the people who would bother me during my stay here in SEIA.

Adelaide and I went to the cafeteria. She already reserved a meal for the both of us, so it was very convenient when we're already at the counter. "Where do you want to eat? Outside or here?" She asked.

"Outside, I guess?" I answered while looking at the sea of students eating inside the cafeteria.

Adelaide led me towards the fountain. There were picnic tables placed around it. Although we ate peacefully, I still felt some stares from the people around us.

"Who the f**k threw their food at me!?"

My attention was caught when a student suddenly shrieked not far from our table. She was incredibly angry, based on her face filled with ketchup and a hotdog sandwich on her lap.

She looked around and locked her sight on the student who probably was the culprit. At first I thought she was looking at me, but she was glaring at the boy who sat at the table behind ours.

She took her cup of juice and stomped her way to where the boy was sitting and dumped the content on the boy's head. It was still full of juice and ice, what a waste.

"Be careful who you trying to mess with." The girl hissed before storming away.

The boy almost cried. I also heard him say 'She wasn't even the target' when the girl was already far.

"Who was that?" I asked Adelaide curiously.

Adelaide looked at the leaving girl, mouth bulging with food. She swallowed it first and drank some water before saying, "Oh that? That was Blyneia Gilberts, the leader of Investigatory Team of The Oeuvre. It's the name of the school paper, by the way, and they're under the Mystery Page Department. Don't worry, she may be ill-tempered and foul-mouthed, but she's the nicest club leader here in SEIA."

"Wow. That's some badass named club you got there. You a member of the school paper too?" I asked.

She smiled while licking her fingertips. "Yes. I'm a feature writer of The Oeuvre. I am assigned to the news related to the Headmistress herself or to the Headmistress Office. You should join the school paper, if you want to."

I shrugged at her. "I don't know anything about writing. I'll think about it."