Ending is Another Beginning

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Nyra

I don’t know how long I was in the bathroom, but till the time I am done with everything, there are sounds from the other side of the barrier. I take my stuff and go back to my room to see a girl sprawled on the bed with her eyes closed. Her bright red curly hair is spread out on the pillow and she is wearing a cute crop top with boyfriend jeans. I love her style. Her bag is thrown carelessly on the floor and there are songs playing, I don’t know where. I recognize the song immediately.

“ You a directioner?” I ask as I enter the room. Her eyes open, they are bright blue and they find me immediately. She gives me a once over and then she smiles and runs towards me. She hugs me like we were best friends and meeting after years. I chuckle and wrap my hands around her.

I am not the kind of person who likes to be hugged, but right now, her hug was like the thing I was craving for since I came here. She steps back with her wide smile.

“ I finally have a roommate. I am so sorry I am so excited about this, but I did not have a roommate for a long time and living alone can be depressing” She says at such speed, that I am paying extra attention so that I don’t miss anything out.

“ You are gonna love me. Well, hopefully. I am super cool and I can adjust with everything…”

“ Relax. I did not think you were gonna be as nervous as I am. By the way, I am Nyra and you are?” I cut her off because I could sense a long speech coming from her side.

“ Oh! I totally forgot to introduce myself. I am Autumn and welcome to suite 80.” She says. “ This is my side of the room as you might have guessed and I am glad that you liked the bedding I bought for you. And I can see that I was right about the size as well.”

“ Hang on! You bought the clothes and bedding for me?”

“Yes, I did. They told us the day you came here that you were going to be living with us. So I went down to the market and bought the basics you might need because it can be hard to adjust in this new world and the sheer shock of being dead is enough to knock someone into a coma. So I went down to infirmary to see you and took an estimate of your size.” She finishes her story at the speed of a train and I am so touched that she cared enough to take a trip to the market, that I hug her once more.

In my whole life, no one cared enough to do that for me and if I had the ability to cry, I would have, but the tears and I have never been in a healthy relationship.

“ Thank you so much Autumn. I love the bedding and I love that you cared enough to make the efforts.” I step back from the hug to say the words.

“ It was no pain at all. I love shopping and well this gave me the perfect opportunity to spend the money.”

“ This reminds me I have a lot of questions and you have to answer them all.”

“ Totally. I am free this evening as I have no homework so I can answer all your questions and tell you all about this place.”

“Perfect”.

……

The ringing sound wakes me up with a jolt. I am sweating as if I just ran miles and I am breathing the same. I didn't even realize I was having a nightmare or in my case reliving one of the worst moments of my life.

I take deep breaths to calm myself down. The memory was from my childhood. I became an orphan when I was eight years old. My dad left me and my mom when I was four, so that he could be with his new wife. This broke my mom but she stayed strong for me. She became my best friend and she never made me feel the absence of a father. We were happy till that day. The day when she died.

I was only eight years old and we were going for groceries to the nearest grocery store. The grocery store was owned by this pleasant woman who was friends with my mom. Going there was always fun. She used to let me pick any candy from the whole store and I thought I was the happiest kid in the whole damn world. That day was no different. We went in to pick up some basic stuff and came out with the everything that we needed and I was holding my favourite candy in my hand.

I don’t really remember the details of what happened next, but the next thing that I remember vividly is my mom lying on the road in the pool of her own blood. The candy in my hand fell down onto the road and I was trying to run to her. But I couldn’t because someone was holding me. They were holding me back so tightly, that I could not move anything except my legs.

I was calling for her, waiting for her to wake up and yelling “ I scared you” and laugh just like she did when we played hide and seek. But nothing happened. Before my eyes, my mom’s body was taken inside the ambulance and then away from me. Then I was taken to the nearest orphanage till the time my dad was contacted. I could not cry, I guess because of the shock. This was what I just dreamt about and reliving this moment is not an amazing feeling.

I shake my head in the hopes of emptying my mind of these memories and come back to present. I turn my face to my right to see that Autumn is sleeping soundly on her bed. I then turn towards the window to see that the sun is rising and the faint light is making the sky a beautiful sight to watch.

Last night, Autumn called in for pizza for us and then explained a lot of things to me. She started with telling about herself. She told me that she was in second year of school. That meant that she came here more than a year ago. Then she switched to how the suites work. She told me how to get the basic stuff and she even told me how the barriers of the rooms are different from others in the school.

The barriers in the rooms are mostly soundproof and the students have the luxury to put any kind of lights. And it turns out that Autumn has put up some of the mood lightings, which turn with your mood. The whole night, the room was lit up with yellowish orange lights and represented excitement and happiness. It was what she told me.

Next difference was that we can change the colours of the barrier anytime. Autumn even offered me to change it but I loved the room how it was so I refused to do it. The white room was awesome and something I can totally get used to.

The barriers can even play any music I like and Autumn even taught me how to do it. Apparently barriers in the rooms are accustomed to our magic and can feel it and therefore, we can make it do anything we want. This was so exciting. Everything was new and different.

She even told me about the other two souls who live in our suite. One is Rhiannon who is in her second year and has a strong affinity to the element of air. Autumn told me that she is a cute and sweet soul and is very helpful. Autumn also told me that she had the affinity to water. Our fourth suitemate was Teagan who had affinity to earth and was in love with plants. Figures! She was the one who decorated this suite with different kinds of plants every day. Also, she was in the first year so we might have some classes together and if I had earth magic in me, then we would have all classes together.

Listening to Autumn talk about them, made me more and more excited to meet them. They did not come back to suite last night till very late because they were in the library, according to Autumn, so I did not get to meet them.

Last night was fun with Autumn and today is saturday and we made plans to go and explore the city of Ellesmere. She said that most probably Rhiannon and Teagan will join us as well and we can have a girls’ day out kind of thing. I was more than thrilled to explore this new world I have landed in, but that was not until noon and judging by the sunrise, it was only 6 in the morning. With nothing else to do, I throw the covers to one side and get up from the bed.

I take out some fresh clothes and head for a quick shower. Since it is early, nobody is up and I get into the bathroom without any hustle. I come out to find that everyone is still sleeping. So as quietly as I can, I go inside my room to throw the clothes into the laundry bag that every cupboard has. The clothes from this bag are taken every two days, and clean ironed clothes come back to you.

Awesome, right? This was one of the many things Autumn taught me last night. After stuffing my clothes in the bag, I gaze around the room in hopes of finding something to do. Suddenly, my stomach grumbles reminding me that I am hungry.

This means that I have to go down to the dining hall to get some breakfast. Last night, Autumn lent me a map of the school she used in her first year to get around. I take it out and spread it out on the bed. The suite is marked in red on the map and I find that the dining hall is pretty close to it. I memorize the route to there and then fold the map and put it in the back pocket of my jeans.

Then I exit the suite quietly and head out towards the dining hall. The hallways are luckily empty and I easily find the hall. I thank the Gods when I see that even the dining hall is almost empty with only two or three round tables occupied. I make my way to the podium on the other end of the hall, where the food is kept.

I pick up a plate and go through the choices only to pick up a veggie sandwich with a cup of coffee.

Caffeine is my best friend. I cannot function without it even for one day. Picking up both the things, I go sit on the first table I find empty and then attack my sandwich. I can't help but moan when I take the first bite of the sandwich because it tastes perfect.

"Are you always this happy when you eat food or today is something special?" The question makes me jump and my sandwich falls down on the plate. I look up to see Adeel standing there dressed in all black. He looks awesome.

"God! You scared the s**t out of me." I say as I put my hand on my heart to steady the beat. He laughs and takes the seat across from me and places his plate in front of him.

"You know you are lucky that my sandwich is safe or you wouldn't have been." I say when I am calm enough.

"Territorial much for your food?"

"Oh you don't know me. I can kill for food this good." I say as I pick up the sandwich again and take a bite. He laughs and eats his food as well.

"So how was your night?" He asks me.

"It was awesome. My roommate, Autumn, is lovely and wonderful. She taught me a lot of basic things about the dorms and school and today we are going to Ellesmere to do some shopping and have fun." I reply with eagerness evident in my voice and on my face. I am kinda astonished to find myself being open to Adeel even though we met yesterday. I talk a lot but only in front of those people whom I trust and those who know me inside out, but I am not much of an extrovert. And Adeel was practically a stranger since we barely knew anything about each other, but his presence is so calming and his expression is so serene and inviting that I can't help but be my true self in front of him. This is something that happens rarely with me.

"That's wonderful Nyra! I hope you enjoy the city. It is perfect" He beamed, seeming genuinely happy for me. I smiled back. "And Autumn is an awesome person from what I know so you lucked out in the roommate area." He adds.

"I am so glad that I did." I admitted. Then we get to talking about all the things I learned from Autumn and he adds on to the information. The conversation flows smoothly between us and I am surprised that I did not make a fool of myself because I am a social spaz. We finish our breakfast and get up together to leave the hall. We talk all the way to my suite.

"Thank you so much Adeel for all your help. Both, yesterday and today. I don’t know how it would have been if you would not have been with Chloe." I say as we reach my suite.

"It is no big deal. Besides, helping a beautiful girl is never a waste of time." He winks and I chuckle to hide the blush that is creeping on my cheeks.

"Thank you. If you want, you can come with us to the city. Even though it was planned only for us girls, we can accommodate you if you want to." The invitation comes out without any warning but I find myself hoping that he would say yes. What is going on with me? I am blushing and I am asking him to come with us.

"Oh! I am sorry Nyra, I would not be able to join you today. I have a lot of pending work to complete but next time, we will party hard" he answers. I am really bummed that he refused to come with us but I understand, so I say, "Okay, thats cool. Next time then. Bye." He waves his hand and then leaves. I see him go till he disappears around the corner.

Well, this is new. And I don’t wanna even know what is going on with me. So, I just take a deep breath and then open the barrier to enter my suite.

The suite is in utter chaos when I enter it. The song 'high hopes' by Panic! At the disco is playing at full volume. There are clothes spread out on the floor leaving very less space to move. How long was I gone? There is no one in the lounge area, and voices seem to be coming from my room. So, I make my way to my room trying my best to not to step on the clothes.

When I reach my room, I am shocked to see the scene in my room. Autumn and two more girls are dancing their asses off. None of them is good at it but they don't care. They are doing the goofiest moves I've ever seen. I can't help but laugh when they start jumping on the bed. Autumn turns towards me when she hears my laugh. She points towards me and beckons to join them. Without any hesitation, I walk to the centre of the room as the song changes to shake it off by Taylor Swift and start to dance with them.