Figment of Dreams
Chapter 41: being followed into the darkness

I had not been in Kai’s dorm in a while. We usually met at mine and whenever Sky was with her new boyfriend he would just stay in my room.

I did not announce my arrival but just barged in. I should have knocked.

I spotted Kai and Aria sitting on his red couch in the far right corner. They were just watching TV and were not even sitting close to each other at all, but something felt wrong and off. I could not exactly place it.

Aria glanced up and her eyes darkened when she saw me. Her red hair so vibrant, it completely blended into the red couch, making it seem like she was just a floating face in a sea of red.

‘Lux?’ Kai asked, surprised. He jumped up from the couch as if somebody had poked him up his asshole.

‘Yeah, hi. I thought I’d swing by but if it’s a bad time….’

‘No no… come on in. Aria and I were just watching Ant-man 2.’

Off all the things he could have been doing right now he choose to watch the new Ant-man with her? It was the last one ever made, considering earth and these actors were gone now and Marvel movies had always been our thing. I would have rather found them kissing than found them doing this.

He noticed.

‘You want to join us?’ he said and pointed to the middle seat of the couch. I just stared at it like it was about to catch fire. Maybe it would by the rage I felt bottling up inside me. I had texted him last night to ask if he wanted to do a movie today but he’d said no.

‘Look…’ he sighed and ran his hand through his hair. ‘Maybe we can talk tomorrow or something?’ he was clearly not wanting to get into this right now. But I felt like I had just discovered him cheating on me, or at least emotionally cheating.

I swallowed deeply. Pushing the anger and the hurt down.

‘Yeah, let’s do that.’ I really wanted to talk now, because I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all tonight. But he was clearly wanting to continue watching.

So I turned on my heel and stormed out.

I was not going back to my room and I wouldn’t bother Olive and Sky who were at Helix training tonight so I just figured I might as well go to the library to read some more history books. I needed to fix my grades anyway and Jax clearly needed me to learn more about Fae.

The library was open till ten so I had about one hour to still read as much as I could and afterwards Sky would be home from training. So I started walking towards the big building that housed the library. I had only been here twice, which was not nearly enough.

Suddenly a creepy feeling came over me. Similar to the sensation I sometimes got in my dreams involving the Dark Stalker. I glanced behind me quickly and increased my pace. But there was no one else in sight. Yet, I felt watched.

My hand was still a little sore from slapping Ash again so when I clenched my fist it made a tremor of pain shoot through my palm.

Again I heard footsteps behind me, but nobody was there when I glanced backwards.

I started running, needed to replace a safe space to hide from whatever this feeling was. Because I’ve always had strong intuition and I could not ignore this. Something was wrong.

I ran passed the library, to the dorm rooms where I was staying. I couldn’t risk running towards a library I barely knew and get stuck there. I reached for my Telvice mid strut and was vaguely aware of someone running behind me. I did not dare to lose a few seconds to glance behind me again. So I just increased my tempo, making it harder to dial a number. Any number.

‘Little bird, I was not expecting a call from you tonight?’ the heavy accented voice of Sebastian sounded from the other side. Fuck, I had misdialled and his freaking number was still in there. I had no time to change it. The footsteps were getting closer and I could hear heavy male breathing accompanying it, adding to my distress. I was being followed.

‘Sebastian, send help!’ I cried out of breath. ‘I’m being followed.’ Was all I said before I put the Telvice on speaker back in my jacket.

It must be enough, I was running out of time, literally. The dorms were a long way to go still and even though I had been intensely training, I felt my body giving up slowly.

From my right I saw movement and I was grabbed by my jacket sleeve and janked into the science building I had just ran by. The heavy wooden doors were slammed shut and the person in front of me was barricading the door.

‘Sebastian?’ I said in disbelief. Because here he was, hair still wet from swim practice. The Olympic pool was in the building next door, so somehow I had dialled the right number. He would have been closest to me, closer than all my other contacts could have been. Just my luck I guess.

Someone was slamming full force on the door now. It rattled in its frame and Sebastian and I both flinched from the sound.

‘Fuck, who is following you love?’ Sebastian growled. ‘Why?’

I just shook my head, still heavy panting and wheezing from the fear and effort.

‘Can he get in?’ I whisper screamed.

‘It’s a solid door, I don’t think he can. Unless he is…’

‘He is what?’

‘Fae…’

That made me even more scared. Sebastian’s shoulders dropped. ‘Let’s go… if that’s a fae, we don’t want to be here Lux.’

‘Thank you.’ I added while we ran towards the back exit.

‘Don’t thank me, I was here by accident and I’m helping you out because of that fountain thing at the Neverlake. I don’t want to owe anyone anything.’

The Rainer way. Of course it was.