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[sub]A [@metanoia] & [@HaleyTheRandom] Collaboration Post
Featuring [color=#4682B4]N[/color][color=#4B89B4]i[/color][color=#5191B5]c[/color][color=#5799B6]h[/color][color=#5DA1B7]o[/color][color=#63A9B7]l[/color][color=#69B1B8]a[/color][color=#6FB9B9]s[/color] [color=#7BC9BA]&[/color] [color=#87D9BC]B[/color][color=#8DE1BD]i[/color][color=#93E9BE]l[/color][color=#8DE1BD]l[/color][color=#87D9BC]i[/color][color=#81D1BB]e[/color] [color=#75C1BA]J[/color][color=#6FB9B9]e[/color][color=#69B1B8]a[/color][color=#63A9B7]n[/color] [color=#5799B6]G[/color][color=#5191B5]r[/color][color=#4B89B4]e[/color][color=#4682B4]y[/color][/sub]
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[i]”They’re fighting again,” I say, leaning against the wall. 

My door is cracked so it is to allow both the light from the living room to penetrate the darkness of my room and the screams from down the hall. And it wasn’t difficult for sound to reach my ears. Every night it’s been like this. Every night for a straight week I’ve heard him scream, yell, wail against the wall, continuously direct all of his ire at someone who met him with every bit of it and then some.

“So it’s my fault!” He yells to her, the tone of his voice with a surprising amount of shock in it, which was something he always had. Pretended that it wasn’t his fault when it was. I knew that and my siblings, they knew it too.

“Yes! You better take some responsibility! When it’s your fault, damn it--” The name, I couldn’t hear it. But it was a woman speaking. Her voice wasn’t soothing like it normally was. She was angry too. One thing I haven’t heard from her in quite some time.

It has to be his fault that she’s like this. The relaxed voice he remembered. She always was there for him. Even when her job demanded a lot of her attention, there was always something about REDACTED that made me feel safe, feel not like I was a burden to him. To feel like I wasn’t unwanted. I don’t understand, though. What was it about them? I know them. I know who they are, but their faces…

“Avi… Riel...Ona…” I say, whisper almost as I try to pinpoint it.

The door is cracked and I still can hear their violent outbursts. 

And then suddenly…[/i]

[i][b]SMASH![/b][/i]

A pulsating surge of unmeasurable agony began to flow through Nicholas’ left arm as his eyes, which were still full of crust and only half-open, bore witness to seeing his fist half-submerged into the drywall. Blood wasn’t gushing out rapidly but he did see the crimson liquid stream out slowly from the sides of his fist and paint the wall with his blood.

[color=steelblue]“Well, that’s just fucking fantastic!”[/color] Nicholas rarely cursed. He found it to be uncivilized, but when the moment called for it, sometimes saying fuck was the only recourse he had.

After he grabbed a nearby shirt to firmly wrap his hand up in, he started to reflect on the intense dream he just experienced. 

That wasn’t the way he wanted to wake up, but more importantly, exactly what kind of dream was that? Nicholas has had some weird ones lately. Ever since the scavenger hunt, those odd visions of seeing people he thought he knew (or what felt like he knew them) were starting to be more of a frequent thing. Before, it was one every other week, seeing flashes of events that felt like memories but clearly weren’t. But now, they didn’t stop at just being flashes. He was having intense, lucid dreams that were telling full events as though he lived them, as though.. 

[color=steelblue]“As though they were my mem--”[/color] Nicholas was interrupted mid-thought, blood dripping down onto his lap. Nicholas stood up and was wearing a pair of blue sweats. 

Pounding on the wooden door with every bit of strength she had, Billie was liable to wake up the whole floor of sleeping students. Fortunately for everyone involved, Nicholas decided to answer his door at the first knock this go around. Hair still in a messy bun, not a smudge of makeup on, Billie stood in the doorway of her brother's room with a serious expression. 

When he opened the door, he wanted to say he was shocked, but his sister never did like to notify him whenever she stopped by. [color=steelblue]“Of course, it’s you,”[/color] he chuckled, [color=steelblue]“isn’t it a bit early for you to be conscious?”[/color] He asked, half-joking.

[color=93E9BE]”I haven’t slept in [i]days[/i] and when I finally do --”[/color] growling, the young woman lowered her voice so that no one other than her brother could hear her. [color=93E9BE]”Nick,”[/color] she said, her voice as fake calm as she could muster [color=93E9BE] “- can you please let me in. I really need to talk to you.”[/color] 

[color=steelblue][i]You don’t usually ask for permission.[/i][/color] He mused, looking at her with a rare show of concern for his sister. She normally acted wild and unhinged, but something about the way she spoke was unnerving. One might even say she was starting to worry him. To think, she actually asked for anything of him. She never did that. 

Nevertheless, he walked back into his dorm, holding his injured left hand close to him, though a trail of blood followed where he stepped. [color=steelblue]“By all means, enter my domain, sister!”[/color] He called out to her, singing alone as his uninjured arm waved above him in the typical dramatic Nicholas Grey fashion.

Lost in her own swirling thoughts and emotions, it took a few extra moments for Billie to notice Nicholas’s injured hand. [color=93E9BE]”Okay my shit can wait. What happened with your hand?”[/color] 

Nicholas looked down at his uninjured hand. [color=steelblue]“Looks fine to me,”[/color] he said, raising it up so Billie could get a good view of it. [color=steelblue]“See? Just an ordinary hand!”[/color]

Rolling her eyes as she flopped down on the foot of his bed, Billie glared at her brother. [color=93E9BE]”Don’t be a smartass. You’re bleeding.”[/color] 

He shrugged. [color=steelblue]“It’s nothing for you to worry about,”[/color] he said, dismissing her concern. He, of course, appreciated it, but what he spoke was the truth. A simple cut on a few of his knuckles wasn’t anything for anyone to concern themselves with, especially Billie and how worse for wear she already appeared to be. [color=steelblue]“I just cracked it against the wall over there when I woke up.”[/color] Nicholas gestured towards the literal hole in the wall behind Billie with his shirt-wrapped hand.

Turning to look at the wall, Billie pursed her lips and nodded her head approvingly. [color=93E9BE]”Not bad.”[/color] Crossing her legs, she took a deep breath while trying to figure out what to say. 

[color=93E9BE]”I had another dream last night. And it wasn’t like the other dreams. It wasn’t even like the other dream that wasn’t like the other dream. It was like… Nick. I don’t think the family we remember is actually our family. I don’t know how to explain it but the picture on my nightstand of us and mom and dad i-is… Nick, it’s fucking fake!”[/color] 

And suddenly the stinging pain baby of a cut on his hand seemed to pale in comparison to Billie’s current train of thought. [color=steelblue]“Okay, slow down there.”[/color] He raised up his hand, trying to process everything she was saying and attempted to dissect it in a way that he could digest it. [color=steelblue]“So, you had another dream, which now makes you believe our parents aren’t our real parents?”[/color] Yeah, like that was the craziest thing he’s heard or flat out seen in the past hour alone. [color=steelblue]“You do realize how insane that sounds, right?”[/color]

[color=93E9BE]”I [i]do know[/i]. Thanks.”[/color] Taking a second to compose herself, Billie looked her brother in the eye before continuing to speak. [color=93E9BE]”I don’t know how to explain it. All I know is that the other day during the interview with Ms. Lincoln, she got me started on the subject of you and that stupid ass redhead you’re infatuated with.”[/color] Seeing the expression change on her brother's face caused her to stop speaking for the second time. [color=93E9BE]”If you defend her or give me the ‘she’s a good person speech’ I will kick your ass. [i][b]BUT ANYWAY[/b][/i]. I was ranting and I was going on and on about how you deserved someone perfect for you and I was looking for someone to compare this imaginary person to and it… Her name’s Fiona. We have a sister. Her name’s Fiona. She’s the same girl from the dance class dreams and the pancake dreams and she was in my dream last night helping me poke fun at the adults in the room down the hall because they were arguing over something and apparently they’re our parents.”[/color] 

After her ramble, there was an awkward silence. [color=93E9BE]”So yeah! I have no actual evidence but these aren’t dreams. They feel like--”[/color] 

[color=steelblue]“Memories,”[/color] he interjected without thinking. It just came out and now some missing puzzle pieces were starting to fill in.. [color=steelblue]“You were going to say they feel like memories, weren’t you?”[/color] Deep in his gut, Nicholas felt it twist and contort unto itself. It was like the bottomless pit was getting deeper the moment he started to piece his own dream with hers. Or maybe he should just call it a memory. [color=steelblue]“Tell me about the dream you had. Was the room dark with some light peaking through the cracked door?”[/color]

[color=93E9BE]”Yeah. It was like… I was on my bed and the girl - Fiona, she walked through the door and she didn’t close it back all the way. So it was like a light from the kitchen or something was shining through and --- yeah. There was a light. Why?”[/color] 

His response was a thoughtful hum and he bit his uninjured thumb, pondering both what she described and what he saw no less than an hour ago. [color=steelblue]“It’s just,”[/color] he began, stopping himself to ponder for a half of a moment longer, [color=steelblue]“what you’re describing is nearly identical to what I just dreamt and why I have this lovely crimson hand. I drept I was in that room, hearing two people who I feel like I knew, shouting at each other, blaming each other for something. I thought maybe you were just on one of your wild goose chases, but now…”[/color]

[Color=93E9BE]"Did the guy sound like he was begging for forgiveness but kinda blaming it on her? And she kinda sounded heartbroken and pissed?"[/color]

As he shrugged, Nicholas thought about it for a moment. His dreams typically didn’t linger about like this one was. [color=steelblue]“I suppose that’s one way of interpreting his tone of voice,”[/color] he said, adding another shrug of his shoulders for good measure. 

Sighing again, it was now Billie’s turn to shrug her shoulders. [color=93E9BE]”Does any of this make any sense to you? Like at all?”[/color] 

He shook his head, heavily sighing out a frustrated breath. The preferable answer would be yes, but Nicholas couldn’t make heads or tails of any of this. Both of them tended to be very lucid dreamers (more Billie than Nicholas), but for the twins to have the same dream and for the details to sync up around the same time -- [color=steelblue]“I wish I could quell both of our growing anxiety, but I earnestly have no clue about any of this.”[/color] 

[color=93E9BE]”Yeah… it’s kinda weird.”[/color] Pursing her lips, Billie hopped down off of her brother's bed. [color=93E9BE]”I’m gonna go take a nap and pretend this didn’t happen!”[/color] With a little extra excitement in her step as she went, Billie opened the door before turning back. [color=93E9BE]”Oh, Nick? What do you think I should wear to the party?”[/color] 

[color=steelblue]“Party? What party?”[/color] Nicholas knew feigning ignorance was unlike him, but as far as he knew, only those who were on the small invite list were supposed to know about the party. And as much as he loved his sister, he knew for damn certain she wasn’t on said list, especially given who was going to be there.

[color=93E9BE]”The one that She Who Must Not Be Named helped orchestrate, obviously.”[/color] Looking at her brother, it was easy to see that he wouldn’t be giving any information up - but that was fine. She knew the location and the time that the party started, and that was all that Billie needed. [color=93E9BE]”I’ll see you there,”[/color] she said, winking at him as she closed the door. 

Nicholas didn’t quite understand what just happened. How did Billie find out? And why didn’t he just tell her not to come? [color=steelblue]“No use worrying about that, I guess. Besides…”[/color] Nicholas looked down at his injured hand. As far as immediate concerns, he had to get those cuts patched up, which meant he’ll be spending the next couple of hours getting looked after by the nurse, which also meant Nicholas might be fashionably late to the party.

Shrugging, he knew it couldn’t be helped.

A few minutes later after finding his shoes and a decent enough shirt, Nicholas left for the health center and all the while he wondered if it was in his best interest to let TJ and the others know that word about the party reached one of the few people they didn’t want there or if playing ignorant was his best play.

[color=steelblue]“Eh, I’ll make up my mind on the way.”[/color]

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