Skye made her way down the dark dorm hallways, ignoring several girls who had poked their heads out into the hall to see what the commotion was about. She stopped for a moment at the stairs and looked back down the hallway. Laxus and Makarov watched as she took a step back towards her room. But she lowered her eyes and went downstairs to the lobby. The staff desk was still lit up and Shiva was still working behind the desk. She looked up as Skye walked past.
"You should be in bed. Where are you going?" Shiva asked.
"I need some air..."Skye replied.
"You can't leave in the middle of the night, you don't have any more orders tonight."
"I'm just going out to the courtyard for a bit....I won't leave the property..."
"Fine, but I'm going to have to sign you up for detention hall tomorrow for the school records." Shiva started writing something down behind the desk, and handed Skye a blue slip of paper. Skye nodded and headed out the door. Her cheeks and nose turned pink the moment she stepped outside. The green, well kept grounds had been covered with a foot of snow for months, and icicles hung from the buildings like stalactites. She shoved her hands in her pockets as she walked down the path lowering her eyes once more.
"Shit...the hell's wrong with me? Why'd I do that?" Skye muttered to herself. Her breath hung in the air like a soft mist. It was cold and quiet. The only sound was the snow crunching under Skye's boots. The courtyard was dark and the fountain was shut off, leaving the angel and cherubs covered in snow. She sat down on the edge of the fountain and looked up at the cloudy night sky.
"What are you doing now, Dad....Laxus? I miss you, but I can't come home," Her voice quivered and a tear ran down her rosy cheek, "Would you hate me if you knew what I've done? I know this isn't me, but what else can I do...I can't run." She looked over in the direction of the girl's dorms, "I should go apologize. Crap...how do I apologize for that?" Skye stood back up and brushed the snow off her pants, and set off back towards the dorm building.
Shiva was gone when Skye re-entered the building. She went directly up the stairs to the third floor. The hallway was silent once more, and every door was closed. When she reached her room, she paused for a moment, then went inside.
"Hey, Heath-", She started to say, but Heather was not in the room. Skye sat down on her bed, and unlaced her boots. The room was silent except for the ticking of the over large pink alarm clock on Heather's desk. She fell back and stared up at the underside of Heather's bunk, then the memory faded to black.
"And don't be walking on the grounds at night again. Do you understand Miss Sionis?" Mr. Kinsley scolded Skye as she exited the detention hall. The sun reflected on the snowy ground and she held her hand up over her eyes. She shivered slightly as a cold gust of wind crept down the collar of her dark blue Augustine coat. Many students stared at her as she passed through the courtyard, but she didn't seem to notice. The only thing that caught her attention was Heather. She was on the far side of the courtyard and was starting to walk down the driveway of the school. Skye followed her at a distance to the end of the driveway where it met up with a busy street.
"What's she doing?" Skye mumbled. She narrowed her eyes as Heather stopped at the end of the driveway, and stared into the traffic. Skye's eyes widened as Heather stepped forward.
"No...NO! Heather, stop," Skye charged forward. Heather stepped into the street as a bus sped toward her, "Heather!!!!" Skye screamed as she grabbed the back of Heather's jacket and yanked her back with all her strength, barely avoiding the bus as it rushed past.The force that Skye used to pull Heather back was so great, that it threw them both off balance and they fell on the ground together. Skye immediately got to her knees and pulled Heather into a sitting position, and then proceeded to slap her across the face.
"S-Skye?" Heather looked bewildered, but it was obvious that she had been crying moments before.
"What were you thinking? Why would you try to walk into traffic?" Skye scolded.
"You're right...nobody likes me. I don't have any friends here. No matter how hard I try, wherever I go people don't like me. I tried to fit in with the students here, but they don't think my family is rich enough for me to even be here. I tried to make friends with you, but you wouldn't even look at me...and last night...Why did you save me?" Heather's eyes filled with tears, and she looked away from Skye, as she helped her up.
"I'm sorry...about last night. I didn't really mean to be that mean to you. I just....We should talk. Lets go back to the dorm..." Skye's eyes softened as she spoke. They walked side by side in silence through the courtyard and down the path to the girls dorms. Shiva cast Skye a suspicious look as they entered the lobby. Skye ignored her and led Heather up the stairs.
Only when they got inside their dorm room, did Skye speak.
"I'm sorry...I know rooming with me hasn't been the most enjoyable experience in the world. I didn't mean what I said last night, I just had a hard night. I do like you...I just haven't had someone I can call a friend in a while. I guess I kind of forgot how to be nice." Skye sat down on her bed, while Heather sat down beside her.
"You like me? Really? Why didn't you even try to tell me?" Heather asked.
"Because you put me on edge....I'm not used to people being nice to me. You're the first one the be genuinely nice to me in over two years, and I didn't trust you to stay that way. But I never thought of ending it, no matter how hard things got for me. And you shouldn't either. You have too much to live for, even if the world around you grows dark, and you lose your way. You've just got to keep going." Skye replied.
"If you don't mind my asking, what did you go through?" Heather tentatively asked. Skye stared at her for a few moments before answering.
"I was taken away from my family over two years ago. Roman Sionis is not my father, he's my employer, and captor. And, as crazy as this is going to sound, I'm not even from this world." Heather looked shocked.
"Ah....what?" Heather lifted an eyebrow.
"I'm serious. I'm from a country called Fiore, in my world that's called Earthland. It's quite different from this one. Magic is pretty much the source of everything in Earthland. But I don't know any magic...I'm a Bender." Skye started to ramble on and on about Fiore, and Fairy Tail. Heather sat and listened intently to every word Skye said.
"You do realize how crazy you sound?" Heather interrupted Skye in the middle of explaining how guilds work. " Yeah, I guess I probably do sound a bit crazy. But, I can show you some bending. Watch this." Skye snapped her fingers and a small flame appeared just over her thumb. Heather clapped a hand to her mouth and stared at the small flickering flame in awe. Skye then made a circular, waving motion with her other hand and a small gust of wind blew in Heather's face.
"I can bend the four elements to my will. I've had this ability for as long as I can remember. Sionis doesn't know about it though. And he won't ever know about it." Skye smiled slightly.
"That's...holy crap! That's amazing! But wait...You said that Roman Sionis is your captor AND your employer? What do you mean by that?" Heather cocked her head. Skye looked down and shifted uncomfortably.
"You can't tell anyone."Skye said seriously. Heather frowned and nodded, and Skye continued.
"You know all the killings that have been in the papers for the past couple years? The ones where the murderer is still on the loose?" Skye asked. Heather looked confused, but then the light bulb clicked on. She stared at Skye in disbelief and pointed at her.
"It's you?"
"Yeah...it's me. It's not like I want to do it. I don't have a choice. If I defy Black Mask, he'll kill me. He's punishing me for accidentally killing his right hand man when another person and myself stumbled upon this world. I didn't mean to do it. But it was like I was controlling him....it was scary. But the way it works, is he gives me a call, tells me a name and address and I go and do the job. Then I come back here and assume the normal school girl charade. I want more than anything else in the world to go home, but I don't think that's going to happen." Skye leaned forward and looked down at her feet. She jumped at feeling Heather's hand on her shoulder.
"Don't say that. There may be a time where you can go home. You can't give up hope. And even though I could easily go call the police with all that you just told me, I'm not going to. You won't have to go through this alone anymore. You can lean on me when you need to. That's what friends are for right? Heather smiled kindly at Skye, "You're not a bad person. If you were, I would be dead, and we wouldn't be having this conversation." Skye smiled back.
"Thank you, Heather. That sounds like something Laxus would have said." Skye blushed slightly.
"Who's Laxus?" Heather looked confused.
"He's my best friend. He's always there for me. Even if he acts like he doesn't care, he's one of the most caring people I know. When we were little, we'd get into so much trouble together, but he'd try to take the blame every time. It didn't work, but it was sweet of him. I could always count on him for anything." Skye smiled sadly, "I miss him so much, it hurts like crazy." Her eyes softened and grew moist. Laxus walked over to Skye and knelt down so he was face to face with her.
"I missed you too...more than you know." He whispered. Heather looked at Skye with empathy, and hugged her from the side.
"You will see him again. I'm sure of it," Skye wiped her eyes and smiled at Heather. A large growl coming from Heather's stomach interrupted their hug. Before she could stop herself, Skye let out a laugh.
"Sorry!" Skye said quickly, but Heather laughed back.
"It's okay, lets head down to dinner. I think it's chicken tonight." Heather stood up and held her hand out to Skye, who took it. The two girls left the dorm room together as Skye's memory faded out once more.
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