The next few days went surprisingly well. She didn't get lost even once and her classes were easy enough, though very dull. The only class she liked was music, even though she didn't have Odd and Ulrich's banter around to help keep things lively, or Jeremie to explain things she didn't know, or Aelita's fascination with everything that seemed to make the dull lessons important and interesting. Music class didn't need any of that. There was a wonderful peace she found in this class that she'd had yet to find anywhere outside of her room.

Mr. Simmons came to check on her every afternoon. He never pressed her, or asked any hard questions, which was more of a blessing than he could have known. The talked about school, her classes, and her friends. Her answers were always short, but he seemed pleased with them none the less.

Gradually, she started to relax. Maybe she could be ok here, across the sea and far far away from her old life.

Then, the Thursday after school started, the nightmares came back. It had been two weeks since she'd had one and Elie had hoped that they'd gone away for good. She had never been that lucky, and as she woke up gasping and panting she cursed herself for being so foolish. Only months of trying kept her from screaming or rolling over and bawling into her pillow. Only months of training kept her rolling stomach from heaving up everything she'd eaten over the last few hours or so.

It didn't stop the shaking, the anger and revulsion. Or the shame and fear. She felt his hands on her, the bitter musky taste in her mouth. The sight of blood that fallowed the roar of gunfire as she pulled the trigger.

Once she had calmed down enough to push the memories far back in her mind, to lock them up in the darkest part of herself, she stood. There would be no more sleeping tonight, and she knew she would need at least one knife before she was ready to even try again. For now she would settle for a long hot shower.

As she got her things ready, even making sure to put in her contacts just to be safe, she heard muffled fearful groans in the room next to hers and knew that Aelita was having unsettling dreams as well. She grabbed the last of her things and slipped out of her room, then checked Aelita's door. It wasn't locked -Elie made a note to talk to her about that- so she slipped in just as Aelita woke up. The pink haired girl was drenched in sweat and shaking, though she seemed to be recovering quickly.

"Hey." Elie said softly, making sure the bit of light coming in from Aelita's window fell on her.

Aelita jerked her head to Elie's voice. "Elie, what are you doing in here?"

"I heard you moaning in your sleep and your door wasn't locked. Come on, I know what will help calm you down. Get your bath things."

Aelita hesitated for only a moment before she got out of bed and got her things. Then the two girls went to the showers. At this hour, 25 minuets past 2 in the morning, they had the whole room to themselves. Elie flipped the lights on and got the water turned on to warm up.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Elie asked.

Aelita shook her head. "No. At least not yet."

Elie nodded and got her things lined up on the shelf.

"Why were you awake this early?"

"I couldn't sleep." Elie definitely didn't want to talk to Aelita about her nightmare, so this was the safest option.

"I would have thought you'd be on your computer."

"Not this time." Elie said, smiling at her friend. "I was reading. I'm almost done with Midnight Ally."

"Maybe I can borrow it when you're done?" Aelita asked, walking into one of the shower stalls and closing the curtain.

Elie got into her own and stripped, letting the hot water fall over her. "Sure, though I'm not sure you'd like it much. It's about vampires, and not friendly ones ether."

Aelita laughed a bit. "Yeah, maybe you're right."

The two girls were quiet for a bit longer as they washed the traces of nightmares from their bodies and minds. Aelita was the first to break the silence. "Thanks Elie. You were right, this really helps."

"Any time."

"How did you know this would work so well?"

"I'm no stranger to nightmares. Showers always help. It doesn't mater if it's a horrid one or one that's not to bad." Elie said, looking up into the spray of water, letting it wash the soap off of her face.

"Do you have nightmares a lot?"

"Not anymore."

"What made them go away?"

For that, Elie had to dig several years when she'd had nightmares the first time. "I came to terms with what was bothering me. Once I accepted what was bothering me and learned to deal with it, the nightmares went away. Do you know what's upsetting you?"

"No." She could hear the hesitation in Aelita's voice.

"Do you want to talk about your nightmare yet?" Elie asked gently. "If you don't want to, or think it's something you can't talk about, then don't. But when you're ready, I'll have an open ear for you, ok?"

Aelita was quiet for a moment, then spoke. "There's an elf running threw the woods, getting chased down by a pack of wolves. The elf hides in a hallow tree, but the wolves find it anyway and..." Aelita trailed off sadly. "Do you know what it could mean?"

"Maybe it means you're running away from something? The wolves are probably what you're running away from. Maybe XANA, or something else, I'm not sure. If we can figure out what the wolves are, I bet you'll stop having nightmares."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Aelita said with a smile. "I'll talk to the others about it too. Maybe they can help too." Elie finished and shut her water off, then dried and got dressed. "Good idea. With you and Jeremie both thinking about it I'm sure you'll have it figured out in no time."

"Thanks, Elie." Aelita said, coming out of her stall dressed and dried.

"Any time. Now try to get some sleep. Tomorrow we're going to the woods to draw flowers, remember?" Elie cleaned the steam off of the mirrors, then left the bathroom. After dropping Aelita off at her room and making sure the girl locked her door, Elie went to her own room and flopped down on the bed to finish her book.

The next morning she got ready for class, getting to skip the shower this morning. Maybe she should do that more often. No other girls trying to rush you, and no fear of cold water. It was much more relaxing.

She met Aelita in the hall and the two sent down to breakfast together. "How did you sleep?" Elie asked.

"Fine. Did you get to sleep at all?"

Elie shook her head. "No, but I did finish my book."

At the cafeteria, Elie wasn't surprised to see Odd was on his second plate of food, and Ulrich was laughing about something Jeremie had just said.

"What was the joke?" Aelita asked, putting her stuff down as Yumi entered the building. Elie went to get her food, so she missed what Jeremie said. When she came back though, she was telling the group about her nightmare.

"It might be nothing." Ulrich said. "Let us know if you have it again, ok?" Aelita nodded and got her food.

After breakfast, the group split up to go to the woods. Jeremie and Aelita were working as a team, as were Ulrich and Odd. Yumi went with a guy named William. Elie, sadly, was stuck with one of Sissie's fools. Nickolas clearly wasn't happy with the match ether. "Why not go fallow her around? I'll do our pictures and say you helped out." This made Nickolas smile and run off. Elie was just happy not to have him around.

She fallowed the rest of the class to the woods, getting to work on drawing and taking pictures of the plants around her. It didn't take long for her to finish, so she wandered around. Surprisingly the first group she found was Odd and Ulrich. Kiwi was the firs to see her and ran over.

She bent to pick the dog up, "Hey guys."

Odd looked up at her from his place on the ground. "Hey Elie. Got much done?"

Elie nodded and leaned against a tree. Ulrich seemed fixated by something on the far side of the bushes. "What's over there?"

"Yumi and William." Odd said. "Ulrich's been watching the the whole time. We haven't even gotten any work done yet."

"You know, you could take some pictures or something." Elie pointed out.

"Ulrich's got the camera."

"You could draw something."

"Nah."

Elie laughed a bit. "You are so lazy." Elie let Kiwi go and went to see what Ulrich was looking at. Yumi was sitting against a tree. On the other side of that tree was a fairy cute guy who was trying for the 'rebel punk' look and failing. He had the clothes right for the look, but his attitude was wrong, and from what she could hear from this far away, he wouldn't shut up about himself and how he wasn't really a rebel, just a little rebellious. She already didn't like him. Moving away from the bush she waved. "Try to get some work done?" She suggested. "And get Ulrich away from that bush before he grows roots."

This comment earned her a glare before Ulrich turned back to his camera. She just smirked and went off to find Jeremie and Aelita.

What she found surprised her; Aelita was alone on the red path and seemed to be really freaked out about something. "Aelita, are you ok?" she asked.

Aelita turned and ran screaming. "Wait!" Elie called, running after her friend. Eventually, Elie fallowed Aelita to an old house with a sign outside that said 'Hermitage'. The place gave Elie the creeps and something told her she needed to get Aelita out of there quickly. Inside, she found Aelita in what looked like a living room, and strange smokey slime was drifting out from a broken light bulb.

"Aelita, look out!" Elie called, running to protect the girl. Elie was to late, the slime knocked Aelita out cold, then turned on Elie. There wasn't much she could do short of run, but she couldn't leave Aelita with this stuff. She dodged and tried to grab her friend's arm, but the slime attacked and Elie felt herself slip into oblivion. As the dark surrounded her, a single image flooded her mind: An old man with glasses standing next to a lanky younger man with brown hair. Then there was only black.