Chapter 3

I woke the next day, relieved that no bad dreams had plagued my sleep this time. Dawn light made its way into the room. I yawned and raised my arms over my head in a long stretch. Then I got up and opened the door, heading for the stairs.

As soon as he saw me, Seville smiled. "Morning."

"Mornin'." I muttered groggily.

I staggered into the middle of the living room and stood there, Seville staring at me pointedly the whole time.

Soon, it came down to reminders.

"Get dressed."

"Huh?" I looked up.

"We're leaving. Get dressed."

"Oh," I rubbed sleep from my eyes. "right. I forgot."

"Why?"

"I was reading late last night." I replied flatly, already making my way back up the stairs to get ready.

We walked to a diner that was rather close to the restaurant that Seville worked at. I suppose this was his idea of "eating out". But then again, what we got there was much better than anything we could've made ourselves at home.

I gulped my glass of orange juice thirstily as we waited at our table to be served.

"Jeez, Val," Seville chuckled. "you're gonna need a refill before the food even gets here."

"I didn't drink much yesterday." I explained breathlessly, having forgotten to breathe in between gulps.

"Still, don't choke." He leaned back in his chair, keeping his eyes watchfully pinned on me.

I continued drinking, keeping Seville in the corners of my eyes.

Why was he staring at me like that?

He acted as though there was something wrong with me.

There wasn't.

Was there?

I was so lost in thought because of him, I didn't even realize that the waiter had just spoken to me. The feeling of a plate sliding in between my arms jerked me from ponder.

"Here you are, ma'am."

I looked up at the young man with a sheepish smile. "Thanks."

Seville face-palmed. "Yes, yes, she wants a refill."

"Oh, very well." He picked up the glass and carried it off back to the counter.

"Sorry." I muttered lowly to Seville.

"What's wrong?"

I shot him a warning glare at that question, but just as I was getting ready to tell him off again, the smell of maple syrup made me look down.

"I ordered waffles?"

"You said you wanted them." Seville stared at me oddly.

"Oh," I rested my forehead into my palm. "Right. I forgot."

"You've been saying that a lot lately, Val." Seville remarked, grabbing his fork and digging into the pancakes that he had ordered for himself.

I let out a tiny groan, rubbing my eyes again. Then I started on the waffles that I apparently ordered (I wasn't going to tell Seville that I still didn't remember ordering them). They did look good, after all, and

I was pretty hungry.

As much as the food brought me back to consciousness, I hardly looked up when the waiter returned the glass with a fresh pouring of juice. Seville had to tap my arm a few times to get my attention.

"Oh, thank you," I looked up at the young man with a pleasant smile. "your services have had no flaws, sir."

Yeah...I tended to add on words that I didn't really need an awful lot.

The waiter casted me an odd stare, then turned away to head over to another table.

Seville shook his head ruefully. "What's going on with you, Val?"

"Alright, alright, fine...I'll admit, I haven't really been feeling my best." I confessed. "Not in a sick sort of way, though. I've just been feeling...I don't know - weird."

"Do you..." Seville hesitated briefly before going on. "...do you think it has something to do with that dream you had?"

"The one with the creepy song and the straight razor?"

"...Yeah."

"Uh...I don't know. Why would it have to do with that?"

"No reason." Seville replied a little too quickly. He nearly snapped the words out.

I stared at him suspiciously, my eyes narrowed.

Puh! Am I okay? I was starting to worry about him a bit!

We were walking home, and even though we stayed at the diner later than we had planned, it was still pretty light out. The sun was starting to kick in. I wanted to get inside.

"Say, Sev," I spoke up without thinking better of it, and as much as I had a feeling I'd regret it, I went on. "are you feeling okay?"

This caught my brother off-guard. He was back to normal since I hadn't been mentioning the dream. How strange...

"Why would you ask that?" He answered my question with a question (I hate when people do that! Almost as much as I hate when they ignore me completely.).

"You've just been giving me funny looks lately." I replied calmly, hiding my annoyance. "I mean, ever since I first mentioned the-"

"The whole idea was just...weird, Val. Okay?" Seville stopped to glare at me, and my legs suddenly ceased to work as well.

"I'm not crazy." I murmured, steadily glaring up at him. I had meant to raise my voice...but for some reason, I just couldn't bring myself to.

Seville froze.

My heart skipped a beat.

"What?"

He gazed down at me, and I could have sworn I saw thoughtfulness playing in his eyes. Then his expression softened, and he rested a hand on my shoulder. "I know you're not crazy, Val."

I breathed a sigh of relief, but still felt anger bubbling in me again. He scared me just then!

Why did he stiffen so abruptly like that? One would think he'd've been petrified!

Taking an uneasy glance backwards, so's to make sure there was no basilisk slithering after us, I broke into a shaky walk again. Seville didn't say another word after that, and he did the same. He wasn't keeping anything from me, surely? We never kept secrets from one another.

Was this, perhaps, just the beginning?

*Ducks* I totally slacked off on this chapter. I was having writer's block (and way too soon).

So yeah, not much happens again. But don't worry. Things are going to start picking up in the next chapter.

Oh, and in reply to reviews,

Demolition . Lover . 14 - My brother and I do the exact same thing. :D We're currently more in Sweeney Todd mode though. We're memorizing "A Little Priest" right now, so we can eventually reenact it. Good fun. So I guess I'll say that I do take my life as reference for this story at some points. Oh, and also, not to spoil any ideas for a more complex plot, but what Valerie meant by "familiar" when referring to the cop was that: She and Seville see many cops, whenever their neighbor calls the police on them. She just remembers this one in particular as one she's seen before. Lol. Thanks for reviewing!

Thank you to TheBrightsider and Bellatrix Nellie Le-Lovett, also!

I'm hoping to get the next one up soon, as well. I just hope this writer's block goes away.