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Post by Headmistress Adeline Darcy on Jan 27, 2007 15:23:01 GMT -5
Nowadays, the outside pool was the only place that you could get peace and quiet. Students milled about everywhere else, almost all of them trying to avoid their dormitories. The dorms were becoming suspiciously more empty; students didn't want to sleep in them anymore. Not after the attack... they were pretty depressing places now.
Adeline just wanted to get away sometimes. In winter, the pool outside was always deserted. Today it was a little warmer, and Darien - who was gradually getting better - was sleeping, so Adeline had just come to... well, to have a little time by herself. She had been really, well... involved with people lately. As she spent almost all of her time at the hospital rooms, she had grown even closer with Emilia, and she had someone to talk to when Darien was out.
But it had been stressful. She had dodged the Fina attack, having been with Darien again, but more students had been hurt. She didn't know if they'd pull through, and if they didn't, it fell on her to tell their parents and guardians. One girl had died... Adelle Dario. She had quite a large family, and Adeline had been forced to tell her seventeen year old sister and two brothers, one her fifteen year old twin and the other an twelve year old. It had been... well, it had been pretty damn awful, if she could say that much.
Sighing, the Headmistress wandered into the pool area. She had a sweater dress on over jeans, and her blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail. The woman flopped onto one of the recliners and lay back, closing her eyes. Oh man. The peace and quiet was...
Worse than she expected.
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Post by Alec Edwards on Jan 28, 2007 15:08:49 GMT -5
Alec felt like horse poo on a freaking stick lately. No, actually, worse. More like a chicken being roasted on top of an erupting volcano? Nope. That didn't cover it either... Well, he felt awful. Darien was recovering, but he wasn't exactly... Well, he wasn't doing so great. He still had pains, and he had lost the better part of the usage of his wand arm, so he was having to use his other hand for most things. There were days when he couldn't even move his fingers. On those days, half of his body slowly went numb, and he had to stay in bed and drink a potion Emilia made for him. It was terrible, but eventually it was supposed to get better. The attacks were getting fewer and farther between, so that was a sign of improvement...
Still, it wasn't so great. Darien was in constant pain from some part of him, and he was still determined to keep up with his classes. He had a cane now... It hurt Alec to see his brother reduced to walking with a cane. Well, on a good day. Some days, if it attacked his legs, he was reduced to crutches or even a wheelchair. It was bad. And it wasn't getting better fast... He wasn't sure how Adeline was taking all of this, but he knew that seeing his brother like this and seeing students dying and being put into comas... It hit him hard some days, and today was one of those days. He had woken up sweating from a nightmare, tears pouring down his cheeks, and it hit him like a ton of bricks... Man, it hurt like heck, too.
He had gotten dressed, though it was just a simple pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, and had reached for the alcohol. The wine, to be exact. He sat at his piano and played, singing, with the wine sitting on top, drinking from it a lot as the tears came. Last night... Darien had another attack. Today, he was in bed, and Alec wasn't sure just how much more of this he could take. After emptying the wine bottle -- and a few bottles of beer -- the professor was a little drunk. Okay, well, he was a lot drunk. He grabbed his leather jacket and his wand and stumbled to the door, nearly collapsing against it. He finally managed to open it, slip outside, and close it again. He tried to stifle the giggles that threatened to erupt. Okay, maybe a little too much, aye?
Then he headed outside, staggering a little. Man, it would be great if he ran into a student now, huh? Ah, jeez. Shouldn't have said that. It seemed that at that exact moment a student appeared -- an Aimee Reynolds to be exact. She blinked in surprise at the Charms professor stumbling down the hall, and he paused. She came up to him and asked,"Professor Edwards? Are... you okay? You don't look so good..." He nodded and smiled. "I'm juss fine, dear... You run alon'... Ge' upthairs..." She stared at him and said,"Are you sure? Do you need some help?" He paused and said,"Actually, yeah... I do... Could you, uh, point me in the direcshion of th' pool?"
She nodded and took his arm, as he held onto her for dear life, and led him slowly out the front door. She then walked him near the pool and said,"It's just around the corner. I'd advise you didn't get into it, though..." He smiled and said,"I just wan' some peace 'n' quiet, an' it seemed like th' place..." She nodded and smiled, saying,"Well, be careful, Professor. See you in class." He nodded and muttered,"Thankee, Aimee..." She nodded and disappeared, though she didn't head back inside. Instead, she headed towards town. He shrugged it off and turned to head to the pool area, stopping when he saw Adeline. He walked over to her and said,"Hey..." It was about all he could manage right about now...
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Post by Headmistress Adeline Darcy on Jan 28, 2007 15:27:01 GMT -5
Well, if Alec hadn't been sure how Adeline was taking this, he'd sure find out if he saw her often or they started talking. The times that she had broken down and just sobbed her eyes out - most of it caused by something small, just to set it off - was almost uncountable now. She cried so much more often than she used to; before the attacks, she saw crying as expressions of weakness. She was strong, then. She hadn't been through things like she had now.
Nowadays, instead of sniffing at tears like before, she simply wiped them away as the ran down her pale cheeks, dripping off her chin.
Almost everyone had suffered from nightmares since the attack- even those who hadn't been involved in it. Emilia had vivid bad dreams, and she had tried potions, spells, everything to stop them. To stop the images that she had seen in the hospital wing replaying over and over again. Nothing worked, though. Nothing ever worked, and eventually, she had just learned to deal with the sleepless nights just like Adeline and everyone else had been forced to do.
Adeline was bought back to reality, a place that she didn't want to be anymore, when she heard clumsy footsteps. Looking up, she saw Alec. Alec Edwards. He was the... the... Charms professor? Yes, that was it. And not only was he the Charms professor, but he was the extremely drunk Charms professor- though Adeline couldn't tell that from his small greeting. She sighed.
"Hi, Alec."
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