**Hazel Barwicke - Dorsey Hall - Front Lawn**

[Music Reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o10drRI3VQ0)


"I was following the - I was following the - I..."


Hands beat against knees, one, two three four. A simple quadruple beat, quiet and clear as it beat against Hazel's legs and chest. Snaps varied around the beat, and from her mouth came a clear sound. She was singing a rather melancholy song named White Winter Hymnal, and from the blank stare of her eyes and drooping of her shoulders, she obviously wasn't very focused on what she was doing. If one was to listen closer, they might notice that the beat was a bit off tempo, and her voice was obviously being strained as she forced every lyric forward. To be honest, Hazel wasn't exactly sure why she had decided to go outside. Perhaps she had gotten tired from the imagines in her mirror, or maybe the faint whispers from the dorm building's only phone were starting to drive her a bit mental. 


"I was following the pack, all swallowed in their coats, with scarves of red tied round their throats..."


Red. Blood red. Around their throats, blood red. Dead


Ah right. Something else was bothering her. The dream. A while ago, a few months (Weeks? Days? She had forgotten truly) before Hazel had transferred in, there had been a spontaneous death. A girl named Helen Schwartz had been found dead by the lake. Hazel had been naive to this case until recently, after she dug and dug through rumors and gossip until everything seemed clear to her. She had never had the pleasure of talking to Helen, no, she had never seen the girl once in her life. Well, at least, in her waking life. Dreams, on the other hand, showed this Helen Schwartz as an energetic, sweet girl. A girl Hazel might have liked to get to know. The images of the girl while she was alive were brief, lasting a mere hour in real time, and they were blurry and smudged, making it hard to make out the scenes. Then the scenery would change. The sepia tones of the school turned green. She was walking through the woods, towards the lake, blindly wandering passed the trees and bushes. Through the branches the blue lake was visible, glimmering in the half-light of the dream, and as the shrubbery began to thin out she was there.

Mangled. Wet. Dirty. _Dead_

"To keep their little heads - from falling in the snow, and I turn 'round and there you go..."

The picture was like a watercolor painted, uneven and much too heavily mixed. She could make out the body, the redness of blood, the blue of a dress, and the awkward angles of the arms. Helen's face was completely erased, and whenever Hazel attempted to reach down and feel the body she woke up, sweating and panting like she would during a panic attack. The insomnia came after that, and she had only recently managed to quench her stress after discovering Helen's name and story. Even now, though,s he was horribly distracted. Those stupid dreams of her's, why did they happen, what were they trying to tell her? Was it intuition, deja vu, what was wrong with her head.

"And Michael you will fall -"

Her hands slapped her thighs and fingers snapped lightly, her voice tightened and rose as she barely hit notes that she could do naturally if only she was focused. No, her mind was still wandering and worrying, and yet her mouth moved as if it were the only thing she knew.

"And turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime..."

And variety of slaps and snaps came next, a constant rhythm that then persuaded her to 'ooo' melodically. She then repeated the same verse, keeping her voice constant and the beat still slightly off tempo, but this time her eyes began to wander, focusing on the campus of Northwood Academy, or, at least, half of it. The lawn was green, much like the scattered or far of trees, and there was a silence that only a few could experience if they either had a free afternoon or skipped classes entirely. Few students were around, most seemed to be in class or asleep in their dorms, and from where Hazel sat she could just make a few silhouettes from the windows of the main building. Above her, the sky was clear and bright blue in color, and the sun was burning her arms and ears, still not ready to loose its summer intensity. Her voice soon trailed off, the song ending abruptly as she stared up at the pretty sky with dreamy eyes. It was a nice day, almost too nice, and as the warm September air surrounded her and the smell of grass blinded her she let herself fall back, messy hair gathering on the lawn below her. Sleep came suddenly, almost uncharacteristically quick, and she was out in a second, breathing softly as the announcements finally buzzed to life.