A/N - This is a weird little idea I came up with when I was about to go to sleep. Heh, stories really do come from anywhere and from anything.
Baz was doing it again.
The room was dark, only lit by the moonlight coming in through the window. Simon was propped up on his elbow, staring at Baz's laughing form.
It was their eighth year at Watford. There was still much to do before Simon was ready to face the Humdrum, but he wasn't thinking about that at the moment. And not just because it was the last thing he wanted to think about, anyway. He had other worries to think about.
He was staring across the room. This had been happening every night for about a week. Baz would start laughing in the middle of the night and wouldn't stop for hours. He wouldn't react when Simon called out to him and never gave a sign that it had been happening the next day. Simon had only questioned him about it once, but that had been enough to know that Baz had no idea what was going on. Or at least, was pretending not to.
Simon was on the verge of telling someone; it was getting worse and worse every night. He couldn't sleep at all and it was making him cranky and tired in the mornings. Penelope had already started to notice that something was wrong, and it wouldn't be long before somebody else did, too.
Baz was facing away from him, laughing hysterically. Simon could see him shaking as the laughter wracked his body. Finally he rolled over and continued laughing.
Simon hated it when he did that. Watching him in his fit was not pleasant. Baz's gray eyes were half open and glittering with tears forced out from his constant laughing. His mouth was open too, allowing those dreadful noises that made Simon's hair stand on end to erupt from him in a mad fit of laughter.
"Baz!" Simon hissed, trying to ignore the fear that was clawing through his skin and threatening to take over his voice. "Basilton!"
Baz didn't seem to hear. Just continued to laugh at something that didn't appear to exist. Was this some kind of joke? Was he trying to scare Simon for some reason? Well, it wasn't working. Simon would not-could not-take this anymore.
He stood. "Baz!" he said louder. Still nothing. Not even a blink.
Simon crossed the dark room, flinching over almost everything he stepped on, even though almost all of it belonged to himself. Whatever, it wasn't because he was scared or spooked.
Yes. Simon did find Baz attractive and in any other setting he would have been uncomfortably turned on by Baz's laughter. He'd be all apple-red cheeks and darting blue eyes, while Baz probably would have laughed even harder at Simon's discomfort. It was just the way Baz worked.
When he got to Baz's bed he stopped. Baz hadn't done anything except continue his fit, eyes almost sparkling in the moonlight. He was grinning darkly, his white teeth showing. Was it just Simon, or were Baz's canine teeth disturbingly long?
Right. The whole vampire thing... Simon still wasn't used to that. How long would it take before he stopped being surprised by it?
"Baz!" Simon shouted, making himself jump.
Baz suddenly stopped. The room was filled with an eerie silence.
"What... are you doing, Snow?"
Simon wanted to smack the boy in front of him. "Nothing," he muttered and turned to go back to his own bed.
Baz didn't ask again, and luckily, he didn't laugh anymore that night. Simon slept for a lot longer than he had in a week.
But should he tell someone?
# # #
Simon watched as Baz paused the buttoning of his shirt to quickly tie his purple and green tie. How did he do that? Simon could do it now without looking. But he still found it difficult and normally just looked in the mirror anyway to save time.
# # #
"Don't you think so, Simon?"
He looked up. Oh yeah, Chemistry was about to start. "Huh? Oh, yeah... sure.."
Penelope and Agatha both gave him an annoyed look. Simon had seen that look quite a bit lately. He still felt sleep deprived and couldn't seem to pay attention to anything.
"What's on your mind now, Simon?" asked Agatha softly.
Simon avoided his girlfriend's gaze. Okay, she wasn't technically his girlfriend yet, but it was close enough. They hung out a lot, and Simon had taken her on a few dates….
There had been a time when he had thought that Agatha was his destiny. Now… that kinda sounded ridiculous.
And there he was, getting side-tracked again.
At that moment, Baz and his cronies all came into the classroom. Baz said something to them before crossing the room to his seat next to Simon. Lately in Chem class, Simon was tempted to drip a bit of a melting potion on Baz. At least that would shut him up at night. Simon needed his sleep, no matter how hot Baz was at times.
"Hey," Simon mumbled, avoiding Baz's gaze.
Baz glanced up at him, unpacking books from inside his bag. "Yeah... Hi."
Simon nodded and narrowed his eyes at the chemistry set in front of them. Having Baz as a lab partner wasn't easy. Baz wasn't the nicest person in the world when it came to being slow out of exhaustion.
When it came to Baz, everything was difficult.
A few moments later Professor Chilblains walked into the room and took his seat at the front of the room.
He started his opening talk. Something about how wonderful it was to see all the young people in his class that morning. Simon didn't believe one word of it but he decided not to give a snide comment today. He just wanted it to be over.
His eyes were so heavy, it almost hurt. If he had to face the Humdrum like this he was going to lose. Baz would have to do it instead, and he knew how that would turn out.
Baz: "Hullo, ice cream sundae! Prepare to meet your doom!"
Humdrum: "How dare you!"
Boom! Boom! Boom! Baz dies. The Humdrum wins. And ice cream gets banished from the world. Yay Baz!
Simon jolted out of his thoughts as Baz sniffed out of boredom. Okay, that was it. Simon needed sleep soon. Like, real sleep. Like, for an entire night.
"Now class," the Professor began. "Today we will be-"
A giggle echoed around the room and Simon blinked in surprise when he realized it had been Penelope! Had the teacher mispronounced something and she thought it was funny? Had he said something false? The class hadn't even started yet. Had Agatha said something funny? Why on earth would she be listening to anyone besides Professor Chilblains? Penelope loved this teacher.
Professor Chilblains looked at her in surprise. "Is... something amusing, Miss Bunce?"
Instead of answering, Penelope started to laugh harder. The intense giggling shook her shoulders and made her face go as red as her hair.
"Penny?" Agatha asked.
Suddenly, Simon froze as he heard Baz start to snort with laughter as well, covering his mouth and closing his eyes. He was joined by Malcolm, Niall, Rhys, Lucinda, and many others in the class.
Dev looked at his friends. "What's so funny?" he demanded, but was ignored by the others as they began to laugh harder and harder.
Ralph and Elspeth both looked at Simon at the same time. "What's going-"
Simon stood and started to back toward the door. Something was wrong. He needed to get out of there.
He reached the door and grabbed the handle, turning it and swinging it open.
Laughter echoed through the halls, eighth year students in the halls and in other classrooms were laughing uncontrollably, while the other students and the professors appeared to be on the verge of panic.
Simon stumbled back. This had to be a nightmare, there was no other option. This couldn't be happening. He was losing his mind. Hadn't Baz been bad enough?!
"Everyone out," said the Professor. "Where's the Mage?!"
###
The hall was normally filled with tables and chairs, food and students, talking and chatter. Now it was empty and the room was silent. The only sounds were the distant laughter that drifted in through the closed doors.
The Mage had called everyone that wasn't in a laughing fit to the dining hall. Now they were all seated in the middle of the room. Barely daring to breath. Listening to the sounds outside.
Finally, the silence was broken by Professor Glyph, the history teacher.
"What in Crowley's name is going on here?" she demanded, her usual low drawl was gone, replaced by a high shriek that made everyone jump.
The Mage sat there for a moment. Stroking his short beard, his small eyes narrowed at the bolted doors.
"It appears," he began slowly, "that something has gone terribly wrong."
"I think we've figured that much out!" snapped Professor Somnia, teacher of the Dream Reading class. "But how in blazes did it happen?!"
"I think," growled Professor Psych, he taught the Arts of Dark Magicks class, and liked to show it in his deep voice. "That if the eighth year students can't even manage to keep a giggling hex away, then they clearly aren't ready to be done with school."
"We have a catastrophe on our hands!" shrieked Professor Glyph. "And you're mumbling about their grades! Have a heart, man. For all I know, you did this."
Professor Psych straightened in his chair and glared across at the old woman. "Madam, I assure you that I did not do this... most horrible crime. It may even have been you!"
Simon watched the two bicker, Professor Somnia would try and get them to stop but his attempts were feeble. Most of his tiredness had disappeared and been replaced with panic. But it was still there and he was starting to drift.
Professor Somnia was very mouse-like in some ways. He had a thin layer of snow white hair on his head, and a thin voice that squeaked at the end of sentences. When Simon had first met the Dream Reading teacher, he'd thought he might scare the little man away if he moved too fast.
Professor Glyph reminded Simon of a vulture. She had a long, crooked nose, a long neck which she held forward most of the time, as if her head were weighing it down, white hair that she usually wore in a bun on the top of her head, and a pair of those glasses with those long gold strings leading behind her ears that sat on the end of her nose. Simon didn't know how she could stand that, whenever he tried on Penelope's glasses and let them slide to the end of his nose, it always bugged the crap out of him.
Professor Psych was more like... a goose. He was a tall man with black hair and piercing, dark blue eyes. He always stood over people in this looming way, with his neck going up and his head tilting down. Normally he had a look of sharp disapproval on his face that gave him the look of a goose.
Finally, Professor Somnia shouted. "Well, how about we ask the Mage about what he thinks is going on!"
His high pitched voice echoed around the room a few times before Glyph and Psych finally stopped arguing.
There was silence in the room.
"Maybe it was all just some practical joke?" Agatha tried. "They were teasing us."
Simon and Elspeth shook their heads at the same time.
"Lucinda and Penny wouldn't do something like that," said Elspeth. "And why would they only do half the school?"
"It was just a thought," Agatha snapped.
Ralph sighed and looked at Simon. "You seemed more scared than surprised that it was happening. Know anything about this?"
Simon bit his lip. "No. All I know is that Baz has been laughing in his sleep for about a week now." He looked back at the Mage, hoping to get a reaction from him.
The Mage, however, said nothing. Instead, he blinked slowly at the doors, as if trying to sort something out in his head. Simon had worn the same expression many times.
"I sense trouble," he said at last, straightening up in his chair and lacing his fingers together under his chin. "It's possible that we are about to be attacked, and with half the school in a laughing fit..." He trailed off.
"Attacked by what?" Simon demanded. "The Humdrum?"
"Vampires?" asked Ralph.
The Mage shook his head slowly. "Vampires don't work like this. This is something unlike anything we've dealt with before."
The room went silent again. Every noise that was made came bouncing off the walls in an explosion of noise. Simon seemed to be having a hard time breathing, his heart was pounding in his chest. He was surprised that they couldn't hear it.
But they couldn't hear anything, it was so quiet. Too quiet.
Slowly, they all turned to look at the doors. The sound of students laughing had been replaced with silence. Leaving a cold feeling hanging in the air.
"They stopped," whispered Agatha. "Do you think-"
Before she could finish, Ralph stood. "I'll go check it out."
The Mage looked at him. "Be careful."
Ralph gave him a weird look but nodded and crossed the room to the doors. There was a pause, then he grabbed the handle and slowly pushed the door open.
He stuck his head out and looked around, then he took a step outside, one hand on the door handle, and continued to gaze around.
"I don't think-" Suddenly he screamed and was wrenched outside. There was a terrible, crunching noise as he tried to keep hold of the door, but whatever had grabbed him was insanely strong and he lost his grip, possibly breaking his wrist.
"Ralph!" Simon jumped up and raced to the doorway, sticking his head out and looking around wildly.
The hall was empty. There was no sign of any struggle or even a shadow coming from around the corner. The hall was completely abandoned. No sign of life, or anything. Only the smell of something like animal.
"Simon." The Mage's voice had a warning in it. "Close the door and lock it."
Simon hesitated, but did as he was told and turned to face the Mage.
"Well?" he growled. "You're just gonna let him go?!"
The Mage closed his eyes. "Simon, listen... I need to-"
"Simon..."
Everyone froze.
"Simon..."
The voice was familiar but different, calling Simon toward it. It sounded close, yet far... so welcoming.
The Mage was saying something to him but Simon couldn't hear him. Why was that voice so... What was the word? That voice was calling his name, stretching it out to make it sound sexy and almost... mouthwatering?.. That just sounded weird. More like… appetizing on the person's tongue... whoever it was.
Who was he kidding? Simon knew exactly who was calling to him. It didn't sound the same but he still knew that voice, of course he knew that voice. How could he not?
After all, he and Baz spoke to each other every day... Even if it was barely a word.
But it wasn't very often that Baz called him Simon. He knew that it was trap, he really did.. but why was it so. Utterly. Painful. To just sit there and listen to it. He needed to go to the voice. To find Baz and... and what? Force him to shut up? Shove him up against the wall and-
Whoa! Where were those thoughts coming from? Something about that voice was doing this to him. That was it. Those... images weren't really his... were they?
"Simon!" Agatha shouted. "What are you doing?!"
He had opened the door, just the tiniest bit, but that was enough to let that voice float into the room, sending it bouncing off the walls over, and over, and over again. Simon felt almost drunk with the noise.
"Simon..."
He was about to close the door again when it lowered to a whisper that made his neck prickle, and his hair stand on end.
"Simon... Simon... Come on, Simon... Come to me..." It was barely a hiss in his head.
Yes! Was all he could think. He needed-desperately needed to go to that voice. Right. Now.
"Simon, NO!"
He heard them yelling behind him as he jumped into the hall and slammed the door behind him.