Disclaimer: I don't own the House of Anubis.
Set in Season 2.
Patricia is a ghost haunting everyone that goes to Amun Boarding School in their dreams. Especially the new student, Eddie Miller.
He was standing in the school corridor, it was unusually empty, but he wasn't alone. He could sense that someone was with him, before that said person notified him of their presence. He breathed in and out, in and out, actually having to force the air in and out of his lungs. What was going on?
He stood on edge, on guard, waiting for something bad or scary to happen. He knew that it would happen as if it were printed on the walls. Maybe it was.
So that was why he wasn't surprised when everything went ice cold, and he started shivering, whether it was from the cold or anticipated fear though, he didn't know. He started to sweat nervously, just because he wasn't surprised, didn't mean that he wasn't scared. Fear was inevitable in this case.
He stood still, not daring to move, not daring to breathe, just waiting for the person, the person who haven't made any move to notify their presence, yet he knew that he or she was there because he felt their presence, to make their move.
The lights went out then, and he let out a little scream as something or someone grabbed his wrist, in their icy cold grasp. He trashed and kicked, yelled and screamed. He landed hard on the ground, crawling away from whatever that thing was, and when he dared to open his shut eyes and face the real darkness again, he was met by... his bedroom ceiling?
He shot up in his bed and started gasping for breath. He looked over at his roommate, who was still asleep. He tried to get up to discover that he was knotted and twisted in all the sheets. He was sweaty too.
It was just a nightmare, he told himself. It wasn't real at all.
Eddie Miller hadn't had a nightmare since he was ten years old, seven years ago, except now there was no-one to comfort him. Not his dad, who had walked out on him, not his mom who was back in America, while he was stuck in an English boarding school in Liverpool.
Eddie looked back over at Fabian Rutter, his roommate, and was relieved that Fabian was still sound asleep, seeming unaffected by whatever trashing Eddie had clearly done during his sleep. He was thankful for that, the last thing he needed was his roommate to think that he cried in his sleep and stuff. Fabian seemed like a pretty good guy, and Eddie wanted Fabian to think the same about him.
He looked at his alarm clock, that was set for half six since school started at half eight - and that was being just barely on time, and sighed. It was half five in the morning, could he get up and go into the kitchen, and have an early breakfast? He knew that there was no way that he'd be able to actually sleep after that dream.
He tiptoed quietly out of his room, just incase that Fabian wasn't as deep a sleeper as he seemed, and walked down the corridor into the front room, and into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and decided that he'd just have a bowl of cereal - he'd ask Trudy if he could make pancakes later.
He had only been here a week, but if he were honest he didn't think that he'd last here very long, what with the nightmares that tinged his dreams now, being away from his mom, and trying to rebuild a relationship with his father, who had been missing from his life for over seven years? Yeah, it was unlikely that he was going to stay.
He sat at the kitchen table, munching on his cornflakes, and thought back over his nightmare. Empty cold corridor from the school... It was only his second time having this dream, but he was irritated, he hadn't been able to catch a glimpse on the 'presence' again this time. His fear just swallowed him up both times.
He doubted that last night would be the last time that he had these unpleasant dreams. Both times the dreams had happened on a Monday, maybe they would keep recurring? But at least it wasn't every night... right?
. . .
He had dozed off at the table, but quickly woke up as he heard Trudy whistling happily as she entered the kitchen, preparing to cook breakfast, for the no doubt hungry teenagers.
"Eddie," she greeted the young boy in surprise as he snapped his eyes open. He had been resting again the back of the chair, half a bowl of cereal in front of him. She didn't know him that well, since he had only been at Anubis House, and England, for a week, but he didn't seem the type to get up early on a Monday morning.
"Uh... sorry Trudy," he apologised. "I was hungry, and I came down here for something to eat... and I guess I fell asleep." Trudy could sense that there was something more, but she wouldn't pressure him to tell her.
"How about I make pancakes for breakfast today, while you go and get dressed?" It was a known fact already that Eddie Miller was a big fan of pancakes. "And you can have as much whipped cream on them as you want." Trudy watched as Eddie's face brightened up.
"Thanks so much Trudy!" And he gave her a quick, and out of character hug, before exiting the kitchen and making his way to the room he shared with Fabian. Trudy just smiled.
. . .
Eddie stumbled into the room where Fabian was stretching and groaning something along the lines of "I don't want to get up!"
Eddie closed the door, and Fabian's head snapped up towards him. "Where were you gone?" He asked curiously.
"Umm..." Eddie stuttered. "I woke up earlier so I went down to get some breakfast before rush hour." Fabian cracked a small smile at the weak joke, but it made Eddie feel better none the less. He stared to change into his uniform, taking off his plaid pyjama pants and ratty white t-shirt. He put on his gray pants and tucked his white shirt in sloppily. He pulled on the red tie, and pulled on the dark red blazer, and his shoes. He muttered a goodbye to Fabian, who was stumbling around the room, still half asleep and had his shirt buttons all mismatched, waving awkwardly in return before flopping himself back down on the bed. Eddie made a mental note to check on Fabian in half an hour if he wasn't in the kitchen - incase he went back to sleep.
He walked into the kitchen, sitting on the chair that he had fallen asleep on (the bowl with cereal removed by Trudy) and was greeted by her shoving a big pile of pancakes under his nose and a can of whipped cream. He stared at Trudy in amazement.
"I sensed that you were upset," she gave a sad smile. "We've five minutes before anyone else comes down, do you want to talk about it?" Eddie tore his eyes away from the pancakes, that he had been previously mesmerised by.
"Umm... I had a nightmare," he admitted. "I guess I'm just a little bit homesick." Trudy reached over and rubbed his arm sympathetically.
"Tell you what? I'll show you how to use the cooker, and then you can make pancakes whenever you want." She smiled at him. And it made him feel a little bit better.
. . .
He sat on the couch staring at his phone, as his fellow housemates were sitting down to breakfast. Half an hour until school started. He kept staring at his phone, as Jerome continued to call, and call, and call his name.
Eddie snapped his head up quickly. "Sorry Jerry," he smirked. "What were you saying?" Jerome rolled his eyes and told him that it didn't matter.
Eddie stopped staring at his phone for a bit and examined the people sitting at the table. You had Jerome and Alfie, Amber and Joy, Mara and Nina all eating breakfast at the table. Fabian was chatting to Trudy about something or other, his hair sticking up as if he'd just rolled out of bed - probably forgot to brush it, Fabian wasn't the kind to do hair styles, and Victor was probably in his office, whispering to his creepy stuffed crow...
Eddie went back to staring at his phone. Waiting, always waiting, for the text or call that never came.
Maybe his gut instinct was right, maybe his mother didn't want him anymore.
. . .
Eddie strolled into the school corridor where his locker was. This time it was full and buzzing, it was warm and there were certainly no weird presence looming around. The bell went off in perfect timing as he slammed his locker shut. He wondered what class he would skip this week, he'd made a rule for himself to skip at least one a week, and decided that it would more than likely be Geography on Thursday - he didn't care much for the landscape of Britain.
. . .
It was the end of the school day, and non-surprisingly Eddie had once again been landed in detention. It seemed that it was his second home really. All he did this time though, was forget to do his homework - no biggie, but the teacher definitely blew it out of proportion.
He exited the classroom, and entered the hall. He decided that he should go to his locker, actually do his homework this time. But really he just felt a gravitational pull towards the corridor. It was empty and cold, and the presence... it was there...
Eddie immediately shivered, and his heart stared pumping. Adrenaline was rushing around his veins, and he wanted to get out of there but he couldn't move.
"Who are you?" He called, looking around. "What do you want?" He tried. There was no answer, but the feeling that someone was there, didn't go away. The lights went out, and something cold wrapped around his wrist tightly, and-
"Mr. Miller, I do not appreciate you sleeping in detention," someone said, shaking him awake. Eddie blinked, relieved upon the realisation that it was just a dream, and that nothing was coming to get him.
"Sorry," he muttered as the teacher glared at him, and returned to sitting at the table. He looked around him, there was only him and Alfie in the room. He wondered why Alfie was here and not Jerome. It was an unusual occurrence to see one in detention without the other.
He looked back down at his hands and sighed. No matter how much time he spent in detention, he would never get the point of it.
. . .
That night Eddie was relived. The nightmares only occurred on Monday's. He would get a peaceful night's sleep until Monday rolled around again. He lay on his pillow and shivered, thinking of his evening nap. He wondered what would have happened if he hadn't been awoken. He didn't want to think about it.
He started to shiver under his bed clothes, as Fabian started to snore lightly. Eddie breathed deeply, unable to phantom why he was feeling scared, and squeezed his eyes tightly shut. And when he opened them, the bad feelings were gone. But he was in the school corridor once again. And this time, there was no presence, but the room was trashed. Locker doors and books strewn everywhere, padlocks smashed, posters ripped, and there was no-one there except him.
. . .
The next morning Eddie stumbled into school - surprisingly on time, if not a few minutes early, and was greeted by a crowd of people outside the corridor where his locker was. He pushed his way through, ignoring the whispered chatter. And went he got to the very front, he stopped in surprise. The locker room was messed.
Just like it had been inside his dream.