"Holy water, cannot help you down."
Juvia jolted up from her bed, freeing herself from the pool of sweat she had drowned herself in. She sat up, breathing heavily. After a few pants, her breathing cooled down. Juvia ran a hand through her bangs. She could feel sweat dripping down her neck... probably the long t-shirt she had worn to bed was even soaked. But Juvia couldn't blame herself for this mess. It wasn't her fault, it was themagain. The dreams.
"Shit..." She cursed to herself, "It happened again."
Each time they get intense, the more Juvia felt suffocated when she awoke from her dreams. They take time, energy, and some pressure to shift out of the hell she sees every night. Juvia can remember each one of them. She wakes up in a hotel filled with rooms from one up to ten, each room she goes into begins to be emotionally and physically suffering, for every one room Juvia wakes up, not entirely.
Sleep Paralysis blocks her freedom. As much as her body wants to wake up, it does, except her mind is still trapping her into these devilish nightmares.
Juvia looked around. She's most definitely alone in the apartment... that's what frightens her however. She didn't prefer a roommate because she wasn't the best with people. Matter of fact she used to hate fitting in, she wasn't normal, she could admit to that. That fact angered her and she began having those dreams, they were messages unknown to her. Messages possibly from relationships? Her mind may never decipher.
Juvia spotted her phone at the night table.
Six a.m
Oh, classes are in an hour. Juvia sighed frustratedly slipping out of bed and not bothering to make it up, remembering the phone alarm wasn't even set. Thanks, dream. For attempting to be her alarm for the five hundredth time.
She went into the bathroom to splash water in her face. Water is the miracle of existence. When the cold hits her face she's immediately refreshed and rejuvenated.
Juvia got herself dressed, by the time it was half passed six, oh the professor's going to be pissed. Going back into her room to grab her bag, on a rushing overboard because she's late, her phone just had to ring before her shuffled mind can even think about it. She picks it up, the environment on the line was loud, and once's Juvia heard the voice she had an idea of who it is.
"Hello? Juvia?" Lucy.
"Hi Lucy, what's up?" Juvia spoke into the phone, proceeding to leave the apartment unit, she speed walked through the hallway jamming her finger on the elevator arrow director multiple times.
"The damn time is what's up! Where the hell are you? You just missed the six fifteen bus!"
"I can take the M Eighty Five that comes at six fifty."
"Yeah but," Lucy was coming out of the six fifteen bus that was at his next stop, "You're gonna be late at this point!"
The university building just blocks down. Students were coming in cars, cabs, whatever transportation, there was even a subway in Magnolia University's downtown. Juvia was now outside at the next bus stop waiting patiently for it to arrive.
"Don't worry about me, you're at school so just go." She tells Lucy calmly.
"But Gildarts is super tough on latecomers. Juvia, this isn't the first time you came late but this is later than all the lates, I'm worried."
Juvia smiled to herself, Lucy always shows worry when Juvia is not herself. She isn't aware every night Juvia is screaming loudly after days on end of night terrors, the sleep paralysis in between, and what starts it all, the nightmare.
"Something happening Juvia? Stressed lately? Maybe the girls and I should come over when classes are over, you've been coped up in that apartment for so long I bet Gray and the neighbors wonder what you do in there."
"She's always screaming in the middle of the night." Muffled voices are heard audibly.
"Only in the night? How occasionally?"
"What's that scream in room three twenty one?"
Welcome to the endless house of release. Juvia was standing in front of a tall building. The sign had been printed in bold.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Juvia recalled what Lucy just said shaking her head.
"Yeah, it's just stress. I've been feeling out of it lately, nothing too serious, no need to worry yourself Lucy." Juvia watched the bus pull up at the stop.
"So...the neighbors are not complaining?" Lucy stopped at the courtyard, students passing by.
"I'm not sure what you mean. Besides isn't Gray in one of the units on the second floor?" She chuckles.
"He needs to keep an eye on you. Remember all of us go to the university and he's the only one who lives at your complex. Even if you don't know him like that, you don't want people noticing that you come out of your house late everyday. And I don't want to hear you've been bringing boys up there. Anyway, I gotta go. Get your ass to History."
"Alright alright! See you there. I have a bus to catch." Juvia hung up, staring at some of the patiently waiting people going into the bus, she does so too, but stops in her tracks digging in her sling bag, and in all the pockets. Her transportation card. It's gone. Juvia slapped her pockets, people stepped in, she was the only one panicking as the bus driver looked at her. Juvia fished out her wallet, the card wasn't in there. She remembered leaving it in her drawer after using it to drive it to the pharmacy to pick up prescribed pills.
"Oh no..."
"Hey, do you have it on ya or not?" He asked concerned.
"N-No I mean, yes I had it with me at my house but I might have left it there and... sorry I was in a hurry, I don't have it-"
"Just get in." He ordered.
"I-I... w-what?" Juvia asked blinking.
"Get in. Don't you have a class to get to? There's that university a few stops down."
Juvia looked at her designer watch, stuffing her things back in her bag and strapping it back over her shoulder. Its seven a.m, she's going to miss the class, so she steps in the bus and takes the nearest seat by the door. The door was about to close when two hands pried it back open, some heads stared at a man with a transportation card in his hands and he handed it to the driver. Onyx hair popped into view, Juvia stared at him as he walked in and stopped at the seat Juvia was sitting at in a hurry as the bus began move. There was an empty space next to her.
"Sorry. Anyone sitting here?"
Just my paranoid self.Juvia wished to say. However over her dead body.
"No," She simply responded invitingly, "No one that I know of." No one who's like me. No abnormal human as I. No weird being.
The man gives her a warm smile. Juvia knows him all too familiar, that's Gray Fullbuster, the one that just sat down next to her - the one who lives in the same complex - the one who can possibly be closest to hearing her screams at night.
Too bad they both are only acquainted. That could be... a good thing.
"Are you late, too? Saw you head out in a hurry." He asked. Juvia nodded.
"Class doesn't start in now... forty five minutes. I learned something, never go to class when you're recovering from a two day hangover." Gray sighs.
Juvia cracked a smile at that comment, just a little.
"You used to this late thing?"
"You could say that. Classes already started for me."
"Figured. What's your reason?"
Juvia paused for a moment, and just shakes her head, "Nothing too serious, just stress-related with sleeping-in and stuff, my alarm never helps me."
"Simply don't trust them. They can't help you if you're a dark sleeper."
The bus stops at a next stop, "I need a cup of coffee..." Gray gets up, leaving an empty seat by Juvia again who furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, supposedly he's going to be skipping or some sort. No. Lucy knows him and says he does not skip classes. Well he's lucky as hell to have time to spare. Juvia stared down at the floor eyeing a green card on the floor. That's a gift card... A $25 Starbucks one. He must've dropped it, Juvia quickly picked it up and the bus doors folded closed, moving again. And to think she was going to get up and give it to the guy who may know about her nightmares. She can't let out this secret to anyone.
More importantly, she's gotta let herself out of this bus soon. She has class.