Author's Note: The story is building up. This installment was changed a great deal (a few things I saw in it when I reread it - they went by far to quickly). There's a bit more of Kaname in this chapter as well, and Reverie may be in denial. Well, she is in denial - hello, cannibals.

R&R

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Rating: T

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For seven days, Reverie tossed and turned in a fever-induced comatose. Yuuki was by her side, worried and fluttering around her like a mother hen looking after her chicks. Zero and Chairmen Cross where regular checking in, the Night Class slipped in from time-to-time, to ensure her wounds were healing. If she stirred from her slumber, it was for a short time only. More than once had Zero kicked Yuuki out to ensure she would eat, that she would rest, and he would take her place as guardian.

At the end of the seventh day, Reverie stirred.

There were no lights, and her eyelids fluttered. Gray orbs peeked out; her sight blurred as a pale hand brushed her bangs from her face. It stroked her cheeks lovingly, warm against her skin as she laid there. Two rings of crimson peered through the darkness, as intense as the heat washing over her.

"Wake up, little raven…" What paralysis that held her was broken, and Reverie bolted upright with a scream. Hands pushed her down, restraining her, as she struggled. Her screams increased, limbs flailing as she tried to free herself.

"Nightingale-san, calm down!" In the background, a door burst open. "What the hell happened?"

Another set of hands press against her, pushing her deeper into the bed. She couldn't see, couldn't stop them – breathing was strained, the air finding her lungs with difficulty.

"Shit, she's hyperventilating!" Reverie kicks the person away, scrambling out of the bed and hitting the floor. Voices blur as she presses into the corner of the room, the darkness still clouding her sight as she curls into herself. Falen was here. He was here, he was here…

She lashes out when someone touches her, an unseen hand catching her wrist and lifting her struggling form off the ground. She's pressed into the bed again, her panic rising when her legs are restrained but a force she cannot see as a hand gently presses against her forehead. Warmth settles there, the owner of the talker fading as that warmth spreads. It's almost a suggestion, a gentle whisper to calm and relax. I'm safe…

Her breathing evens as her body relaxes.

"Kaname-sempai," Yuuki's voice breaks through the haze, awe and love mingling in the tone. The one who calmed her – Kaname, why is Kaname here? – keeps his hand on her. One strokes her hair; the other rests on the dip of bone on her hip where the thumb brushes gentle circles into her skin.

The room stills as he questions her, and she tries to remember the answers.

Do you know where you're at, Nightingale-san? She's someplace warm, she tells him. She leans into the hand brushing her face, slipping into a deeper state of relaxation.

What do you remember? Her brows scrunch up, her mind cluttered as image after image slams into her mind. Then she remembers Falen, and him attacking her – she tells him this. She remembers so many things, all of them jumbled together.

"She's not fully here yet, Kaname-kun," She recognizes Chairmen Cross's voice as her mind is swallowed. "We'll get the chance to question her once she's up."

She drifts in and out of sleep, questioning why so many people would be fussing over her. Her neck was cramped, sore, and at times she was cold. She was awake, and alone, when she fully came to.

Staring up at the ceiling, exhaustion pulling at her, she frowned. She lies there for a while, in silence, before the door opens. She feels someone check her pulse, and the Chairmen's face comes into focus as she gazes up at him. He pulls the blanket up to her shoulders, and asks if she would like something to dull the aches.

She answered with a dull yes.

He disappears from her view for a few moments before he's back with a glass in hand. He sets it on the table next to her, and he helps her sit up. Chairmen Cross is silent as she swallows the pill dry, and then it is followed by the water – and, lastly, his voice.

"How do you fell, Reverie-chan?" She blinks at him, her mind mulling over what the attachment to her name meant. An endearment, she remembered. Friends call each other that in Japan or boys call girls they like that as well.

"Like shit. What happened to me?" Her voice is hoarse, and she swallows another mouthful of the drink he brought to her. It runs down her throat, cold and a pleasant relief from the burning itchiness.

She leans into the headboard, one hand playing with the end of the white button-down she was wearing. She keeps the glass in her hands, fingers tracing patters in the cold surface. She could feel Chairmen Cross's eyes on her, watching her as she sank into herself.

"What do you remember?"

Her gaze jumps up when she sees Kaname enter the room. He shuts the door lightly behind himself before approaching them. He sets on the bed, next to the Chairmen, and is silent as she runs his question over in her head.

She worried her lip in thought. Images drifted in her mind, dancing together with splatters of blood and mind-numbing terror. She recalls Falen, his pink-haired and insane smile, when she first met him in the town. She remembers why he had been so familiar – he was at the bookshop when she first skipped classes. She also recalls how he had hunted her down again, and found her by the end of the week. She can remember fleeing and the sharp pain when he bit her.

"Falen," Reverie breaths in as his red, red eyes appear in her mind's eye. "I remember Falen."

"What do you know about him?" He has her hand now, the palm facing up and his thumb stroking the delicate skin of her wrist. Her pulse beats under it, steady and at east.

"He tried to eat me."

"Do you recall where he came from?" The question brings the bookstore to mind, the one with the café built into it. She tried to explain, to explain the one day she skipped school and got lost. She talks about how he went after her and left shortly afterwards, promising to get food. She goes on to explain how he ended up in the school – she doesn't bother saying her dorm room, which would sound crazy.

She took another drink from the glass, casting a look at the people around her. Kaname, for some odd reason, has blackened skin along his neck, vanishing along the inside of his uniform.

"Did you…kill him?" she asked, uneasy that they might have done that.

She had seen Zero's gun, and the staff-like thing Yuuki held.

"He managed to escape." Zero had one hand propped on his hip, eyes narrowed in badly repressed anger. Yuuki patted his arm, and smiled up at him.

"Do you know what he is?" Kaname looked her dead in the eyes, demanding an answer without words.

"Hell, Falen is a cannibal that tried to eat me! What else is there?" a couple of sighs came from the people in the room, and Kaname looked at her for a long moment.

"Okay, Door Hinge, don't look at me like that. It's creepy." She shifted, tried to pull away, but his grip on her arm tightened.

"A cannibal, you say?" his voice was low, probing her for answers.

"That's what I said. A person who eats raw meat? Often insane, creepy - will you let go of me?" she tugged her arm again, scowling.

"Kaname-kun," Chairmen Cross fluttered about with a look of worry on his face.

The President of the Night Class cast a look at the man, and released her arm. He stood, a frown marring his features, and asked one last question.

"You escaped him the first time, Reverie-san. How did he find you?"

He turned and left, and few of the Night Class students in the room trailed after him. One of them, a blond with green eyes, sat in the place his Dorm Leader was seconds ago.

"I hope you are better now that you've rested." A brilliant smile was on his face, one that was out of black in the dark atmosphere of the room.

"I feel fine. Thanks for asking." She returned the smile. This guy is one she has an imminent liking for, someone who is easygoing and happy. He reminded her of Carmen.

"I'm Ichijo, Takuma – Vice President of the Moon Dorm." He shook her hand, a large grin beaming off his youthful face.

"Reverie Nightingale, Reverie being my first name." A gentle flush of red crept across her cheeks, so much brighter looking compared to its darker surroundings.

"Ah, here you go, Reverie-san." He handed her a group of notebooks, and she turned them over in her hands in thoughtful wonder.

"You've missed a lot of your classes. I managed to get these from your teachers, and most of your homework. It's a relief today is Friday, isn't it?"

She nodded as she hugged the books to her chest. Behind him, she can see the scowl on Zero's face and the come-off-my-face grin that Yuuki was sporting. As he stands, he says, "If you need anything, feel from to ask. I'll see you around!"

He practically ran out of the room.

"That was fucking weird." Zero breaks the three-minute silence and Yuuki giggles.

"You're just jealous that she likes him more than you."

Zero snorted as he turned away. "As if."