"Some falls aren't from heights... they're into eyes that unravel you slower than gravity ever could."
Wren's POV,
"Do you think she'll wake up soon?" Piper's voice was a dull blade, sawing through the thick silence. Bored but with an edge like a scalpel waiting to slip.. Detached. As if she were asking about the weather and not whether I still clung to life.
Who will wake up? The question slithered through my mind, but my lips were sewn shut by exhaustion.
"For the 86th time, Piper, for God's sake... I don't fucking know!" The snap of that familiar voice was frayed at the edges, worn thin by repetition. This wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation. How long had I been out?
I tried to speak, but my tongue was lead. My eyelids? Cement.
"Should we bring her water? Or... oh my God, what if she died of shock?" Piper's gasp was sharp, theatrical. A performance for an audience of shadows. But the fear beneath it was real.
"Madame said not to. Leave her to wake up on her own!" The words were a command, a warning. A threat. A chair screeched.
Followed by a squeal, the creak of hinges, the click of a door sealing shut.
Then... silence.
I opened my eyes.
The world swam into focus like ink bleeding through water.. slow, murky, uncertain. My eyelids were leaden, my vision smeared at the edges. The air tasted stale, thick with the scent of old books and something darker, something metallic lurking beneath.
Then, memory struck like a blade between the ribs.
Amber eyes.
A knife glinting in low light.
Valerie.
"Soon."
A gasp tore from my throat, my body jerking upright as if electrocuted. My skin prickled with phantom cold, my lungs burning like I'd been drowning. The red silk sheets slithering off me like fresh blood. My hands trembled. My ribs ached.
I fainted? The realization was a dull thud in my skull. No... dragged under by whatever the hell that thing was in the dining hall. The shock was too much.
But shock from what?
"He is the reason Vermont doesn't need a principal."
The words clung to my skin like sweat.
Vermont wasn't just a school, it was a living thing, a beast with teeth hidden behind polite smiles. And I had stumbled straight into its jaws.
I am scared.
The room around me was too lavish to be real. Too spacious to feel safe. Blood-red silk sheets tangled around my legs, the fabric whispering against my skin like a lover's touch. Dark green curtains swayed, heavy and hypnotic, framing a window that yawned like a mouth. A chandelier dripped crystal tears above me, scattering fractured light across the walls. If I didn't look well the crystals were shaped that of a teeth. A mirror on the desk... had it been facing the bed before?
And the air.. God, the air, was thick with the scent of old paper, of ink and something sweetly rotten beneath.
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, my bare feet meeting cold hardwood. A pair of flip-flops waited, perfectly placed, as if someone had known exactly when I'd wake. The soles were too clean. I slid into them, my bare feet flinching at the cold floor.
Too convenient.
Move. Breathe. Don't think.
Every instinct screamed at me to run.
Instead, I crept toward the window, it called to me.. a stupid, suicidal siren song, my pulse a frantic drumbeat in my throat, every muscle wired for flight. The glass was a black mirror, reflecting only the dim outline of my own ghostly face.
What if something looks back?
I hesitated, my breath fogging the pane.
"Meow."
I jerked back, then froze as I processed.
A sound so soft, so achingly normal, it shattered the tension like glass. I almost smiled.
A cat.
Black fur, blue eyes that glowed like drowned stars. It licked its paw, utterly unbothered by the suffocating dread of the room.
I was a fool for cats. "Hey…" My voice cracked. I reached, fingers shaking. Stupid. Stupid.
I bent, cooing, my fingers trembling as I reached for her. She pressed into my touch, purring, then darted away, slipping through the cracked window like smoke.
"Wait..!"
Panic flared. I lunged, throwing the window open, the night air biting my skin. The cat sauntered along the veranda railing, tail flicking, utterly unafraid of the three-story drop below.
"Come back," I pleaded, my voice thin.
She meowed again, leaping to the adjacent balcony with effortless grace, glancing over its shoulder. Waiting.
No. No, no, no..
Logic screamed at me to stop. But instinct roared. But the cat's cry was a hook in my chest, pulling me forward.
I climbed onto the ledge. The wind grabbed at my clothes. The rail was cold under my palms.
The world tilted beneath me, the ground a yawning grave. One slip, one misstep, and I'd be a broken thing on the concrete below.
This is stupid.
But I jumped.
My fingers caught the iron rail, my body slamming into the side of the building with a bruising force. Pain flared, bright and hot, but I clung on, my breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Almost there," I whispered, reaching for the next rail.
My grip slipped.
Air rushed up. Time slowed.
I was falling.
This is how I die.
My father's face flashed, disappointed. My mother's... relieved?
Wind screamed in my ears. My stomach lurched, my heart a wild, thrashing thing. The ground rushed up to meet me, hungry, inevitable..
No. NO!
I clawed at the wall, nails breaking, blood smearing brick.
This is it.
This is how I die.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for impact.
The sunrise hit then.
Gold spilled over the horizon, so beautiful it hurt. I stared, transfixed...
Warmth.
Arms.
The fall stopped.
I wasn't dead.
I wasn't dead because someone caught me.
A heartbeat against my spine.
Alive. Alive. ALIVE.
I turned.
The sunrise painted the sky in gold and fire, the light catching on sharp dark eyes, golden skin, lips that had once bruised mine with a kiss I still couldn't forget. Those lips now curved at me.
Kai Rivers.
My ex-best friend.
"Miss me, little birdie?"
My stomach dropped all over again.
Oh my God.