The only light in the room was from her phone, which was sadly lacking any kind of notification. It was becoming depressing at this point. Bloom hadn't really spoken to Brandon since he'd checked in to make sure she was okay after the incident at Cloud Tower and even that hadn't been very in-depth past how she felt.
She'd even listened to Stella's advice, calling him rather than just texting but it had been a short-lived conversation since he'd had to get back to training for the upcoming Red Fountain exhibition. He had been particularly tense because he'd been drawn to fight Riven in several one-on-one matches. After all the arguments and Darcy's influence, Bloom didn't need to be reminded of the feud and the amount of pressure that on Brandon.
With some effort, Bloom put the call from her mind and she shut off her phone, putting it on to charge next to her bed. If she wasn't going to talk to anyone then she was going to follow the snoring Flora's example and get to sleep.
Her eyes closed, her breathing slowed and became more regular, occasionally her fingers twitched but otherwise there was no movement. Bloom drifted off and entered incoherent dreams that she wouldn't remember when she woke up.
It was a hot night. Even during February, Magix had a balmy climate and the girls had their windows open to try and coax some airflow through to no avail as the night was still. The curtains on the common room windows barely moved as they were watched intently.
Hanging outside, just off the balcony rail was a small clay creature with bat-like wings and two long claws curling out from its thumb joints. Its bulbous head had huge, wet eyes that moved independently of each other as it surveyed the suite from its perch. With its oversized face and clinging hands gave it an infantile appearance.
Silently, it climbed past the balcony and up the wall to where the window was hanging open. It left a muddy palm print on a pane as it squeezed its misshapen body through the gap and flopped down onto the floor on the other side. Once it was able to feed it wouldn't have to worry about moving around obstacles anymore. A long, brown tongue slid out of its mouth to moisten its eyeballs as they started to glow a dull red like hot coals. It knew it had a purpose and so it got to work fast.
The first door the strange golem chose to look in was ever so slightly ajar. It crept in silently and then scrutinised what was inside the room: many musical instruments were stashed away in their cases, carefully laid out against the far wall; a selection of appliances, half taken apart, were on a bench jutting out between the two beds; and two bookcases were stuffed full of textbooks and magazines. The creature reached a hand up the doorframe and started to climb, ascending to the ceiling and slithered around until it had a good view of a girl sleeping below in her bed. It had chosen her because, out of the two in this room, she was not the heavier sleeper. This might make some noise and it wanted the best odds of no one waking up.
It dropped down with a soft thud to squat on her chest, her eyes opened momentarily before she slipped back into sleep, and the creature pushed back her lilac hair so that it could pull its sopping tongue across her forehead. This fairy had power, and that was what the golem needed.
Probing her mind it could see what terrified her and subtly it began to weave a dream together for her, interlacing her fears with the fabric of her subconscious. In her nightmare this girl was on a morgue table, covered only in a white sheet, and she was paralysed there as faceless doctors surrounded her. They had their scalpels at the ready as one of them marked her flesh with dotted lines in a black pen. The creature watched its handiwork as the doctors started to cut her open, their fingers plunging into her viscera and pulling out organs.
Underneath the golem, the girl was struggling to break free from the nightmare as she was autopsied alive, her blood drained and her ribcage cracked open. As the fairy tried to fight back in her dream, just to move even, the creature on her chest started to feed on her magic. As it sustained itself with her power the creature was able to grow bigger. Wings receded and were replaced by a thick comb of spines protruding from its back, a tail grew from the end of its backbone, its feet moulded to become more reptilian and the fairy went still, drained of any excess magic. It decided that it was time to move on, letting the nightmare fade from this girl as it stalked over to the room's other occupant.
The golem prowled to the other bed and slid over the covers to pin this fairy down. Again, bleary eyes opened for a moment before they closed under its influence and it gave her face a long lick. Her fears were foreign to it, but it didn't have to understand the terror she felt as another person wasted away before her. It just had to work its magic and knit a bespoke nightmare for her.
There were similarities in the facial features between this girl and the older woman lying in bed next to her, but the clay creature had little concept of family. The longer the woman lay there, staring across at her daughter with blank eyes, the thinner and gaunter she became. Her skin turned a papery grey that split when touched and her dark hair was falling out in clumps, leaving raw bald patches on her scalp. Eyes sunk back into their sockets and bedsores began to fester with pus as her heart weakened, blood slowing in her veins. The girl gripped onto her mother's hand, six years old again, and wept in despair although no sound came out. She was able to say nothing as her mother disappeared, leaving nothing but a skeleton covered in a tightly stretched layer of skin in her place.
Her power gave the gargoyle enough energy to transform again, a chitinous exoskeleton covering its body as it retracted its spines and a third eye sprouting on its forehead as it grew large still. Its body became segmented, with many pairs of legs each tapering to a fine point. It had taken all that was available here and it skittered away from her to skulk in the shadows under the bed. The girl it had just left gasped awake and ran over to wake up her friend. They were crying together but their words had no meaning to the creature so it passed through the wall as if it was not there, leaving them in their misery.
It snuck across the common room and passed the coffee table supporting a large pumpkin plant, before it reaching another room. It was disappointed that this girl was alone, but the starving creature would take any meal offered to it.
The golem found it harder to pin this one down because she was asleep on her side but it managed to roll her over so that it could access her face with its tongue, and then her mind. There was a dream already in progress. An extravagant ball filled with people in expensive clothes and dripping with jewels, and the dreaming girl looked the finest of all as she danced with a boy. He held onto her waist as they moved together and whispered sweet things into her ear, showering her with love and attention.
Subtly, the strands of the dream were warped. The girl's balance was disturbed as her feet no longer obeyed her and she fell to the ground. Her limbs folded awkwardly, ripping her beautiful dress and exposing her body. Laughter filled the huge room punctuated by the flashing of cameras, as all eyes were on her. She desperately tried to cover herself to no avail as the material that had been her clothes disintegrated. She whimpered, tears falling down her face as her dance partner stepped away and started to berate her.
From across the room two figures came forward, the man as bright as the sun and the woman soft like moonlight. They started yelling at her and then at each other. Spit flew, drinks were thrown, and the woman flung a diamond ring at the man. He grabbed her hard, shaking his wife by the shoulders and all the time the girl was crumpled in a heap on the floor, naked and unprotected as everyone stared on.
This girl's energy helped the golem grow a long, crocodilian snout with jaws filled with irregular and pointed teeth. Once again it grew longer and taller, with barbs bursting from the end third of its tail. As it moved off her, this fairy sat bolt upright, calling out in horror and the creature narrowly avoided detection as the others in the suite came running. The bulk of its belly only just fit under the bed and its tail had to curl around to stay unexposed. It waited patiently for the talking to finish and the prey to go back to sleep.
The three that it had terrorised sounded shaken and beside themselves with fear causing the creature to be pleased that it was doing its mistresses proud. The final two were wary now though, suspicious of its work. But they could neither see the monster haunting them nor comprehend how or why it was doing this. Eventually they returned to their rooms and the golem waited until all the fairies were asleep again before it moved, creeping out from under the bed and moving silently back into the main room. Once again it passed the potted plants, taking care that its tail was incorporeal as it swished through them.
The last room was filled with life. More plants decorated the room, and even a small furry animal lay sleeping, having its own dreams. But it was the two fairies that the golem was focused on. Once again it loomed over the face of a sleeping girl, painting her forehead with its drool, and started to weave a new nightmare. The threads of her fears were woven together to make the shape of a young girl, an infant, caught in a snare around her chubby upper-arm. The child cried out and struggled against the wire as it got tighter and tighter as the girl stood motionless, unable to help or call out. The snare started to draw blood, cutting into her flesh and exposing the yellow fat and muscle under the skin.
The creature allowed the fairy to move but before she could get to the child a pair of women in suits appeared. They looked at her with disgust and repulsion as they kept her away from the infant, holding them apart. The women amputated the arm above the snare roughly, hacking away at it until it severed and the infant passed out from shock in their arms. The girl was crying and sobbing and pleading with them, but their faces were devoid of pity or mercy as they took the toddler away from her. She screamed and wept on her knees as the golem drank away her power.
When it pulled itself away it had grown so large that it almost filled the entire room. Wings had reemerged from its back but there wasn't room to unfurl them, yet. Turning carefully, it loomed over its final victim.
It was time to alert its mistresses that the task was almost complete. A bulging tumour erupted from its shoulder, muddy pus oozing out as it burst open and a smaller gremlin with four wings crawled out and fled through the open window. It would take barely a minute for the tiny messenger to reach their overseers waiting beyond the gates. The gargoyle, wound still seeping, extended its tongue to lock the last fairy in place and start to pry inside her head to find out what scared her.
As its saliva made contact with her neck a burst of magic pollen blew through the open doorway and hit the other girl, waking her instantly. Upon seeing the creature standing above her friend, her screams echoes throughout the dorm.
Bloom's eyes opened to Flora's earsplitting shriek and it took her a moment or two to comprehend the slathering abomination on top of her. She'd heard the other three describe their horrible sleep paralysis experiences when Stella had woken everyone up, but she hadn't understood what that would feel like until now.
She couldn't move, couldn't speak, she couldn't even tear her eyes away from the horrific staring face hovering above hers. There was a clamour of shouts and the others poured in. The noise startling the creature and it gave a bellow. The guttural sound shook Bloom back into movement and she clamped her hands over her ears as the creature turned from her and fled through the wall into the courtyard outside, fazing through the brickwork and taking flight. Tecna rushed over to help her up while Stella ran to the window to look outside.
"It's still here!" Stella said, pointing frantically at the creature as it beat its wings to stay aloft. They didn't have to say anything to each other; all of them were terrified, but they knew what they needed to do. Bloom was able to achieve her fairy form with ease but it looked like it took the others more effort ti transform. Flora was breathing heavily and Stella looked like she was close to fainting. Nonetheless, they all flew out over the balcony.
"It's drained us!" Musa gasped as she hovered in the air, keeping her distance from the circling monster. "I barely have any power left."
Stella sent a solar flare at the creature, but it didn't seem to do much. Flora summoned vines from the ground to grapple its legs but it just seemed to phase through them. The creepers fell impotently to the ground.
"I don't understand it," Tecna said, balling her fists in frustration as her attack, too, failed to have any impact on the creature. They might as well have just been creating a light show in the night sky.
"I'm not surprised you don't."
The Winx looked around to discover that they and the monster were not the only ones out in the night.
It was Darcy that had spoken, calling to them from high up where she and her sisters were floating behind the circling gargoyle, all of them with their arms crossed. Darcy descended towards them, leaving her sisters several feet behind her. She was taking the lead on this one, letting Icy standing back and glaring imperiously at the Winx. Bloom flew up to be in front of the rest of the Winx, to get closer to the witches so that they would focus on her. That monster, that was looking to the witches for instruction, hadn't got to her so she was the only one with enough power to face off against the witches in this fight.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Bloom demanded. She actually sounded angry and authoritative for once and she tried not to let her surprise show. Darcy's expression didn't change from her bored scowl as she sent a shimmering pulse of her purple energy towards the fairy. Bloom dived out of the way and the spell collided with the courtyard, causing the ground to violently shake for a second or two. Bloom sent a streak of flame towards the witches in retaliation.
Down below, the rest of the fairies were trying to hide their fatigue as they watched the fight and eyed the circling gargoyle.
"Musa?" Tecna tried to speak as quietly as possible so as not to attract attention from Icy or Stormy.
"Yeah?" Musa was close to passing out on the wing.
"I'm going to cast one of my spells, do you think you could create a Sonic Boom for me?"
"It's not going to reach," Musa said. The witches had chosen to stay a liberally safe distance away, and Musa didn't have the energy to propel a spell far enough. "I just don't have the power to get it there."
"You don't have to cast it at them," Tecna said, and winced. It was taking all of her concentration to weave the aura into what she needed. What she was attempting shouldn't be hard, it was something she could have done blindfolded if she hadn't had the magic sucked out of her, and she resisted the urge to curse in case she was too loud. The spell wouldn't be anything devastating, even when combined with Musa's spell, but it didn't need to be. She held out the sphere she had crafted from her pale green light. "Here, cast the Boom in here."
Bloom had been manoeuvring away from yet another blast from Darcy when a noise so loud that it made her teeth hurt echoed through Alfea's courtyard. In pain, she gripped her ears and was reassured to see that it was affecting the three witches too. Even Stormy, who was used to booming thunderclaps, was flinching away from the sound. Bloom didn't understand what had happened until she heard Icy's vicious tirade of verbal abuse at Tecna and Musa.
Frost enveloped both of them, ice shooting up to cocooned them from their feet to their torsos and pulling them out of the sky with force. The collision with the ground caused Tecna to toppled forward and slam into a shard of ice that punctured just under her collarbone and she gasped in pain. The blood ran a few centimetres down the ice before it froze solid.
But they had been successful.
All around Bloom could see lights turning on and students running to their windows. The fairies were shouting and calling for the teachers when they saw what was going on outside. Stella flew up, extending a hand that clasped onto Bloom's as they hovered together, she was grinning at the three witches.
"Did you forget that you came to our school? You don't have any sway over anyone else here so there's no one to fight your battles for you like in Cloud Tower."
Their classmates were pouring outside, some already transforming so that they could join the fight. Palladium was the first teacher to emerge onto the courtyard, and he yelped when he saw what was going on. Behind him were DuFour and Bittersmoke in their pyjamas.
There was a scream of frustration as both Icy and Stormy launched attacks at them, Darcy swerving out of the way so she didn't get hit with the friendly fire.
Bloom shrieked and dropped out of the way in an effort to avoid being hit, but she needn't have bothered. A cool lilac barrier surrounded both her and Stella, and as she looked around she saw a blur of white frills and purple lace soar past.
Faragonda had never looked so furious. Bloom was suddenly very glad that she had never done anything to incur that kind of wrath from her headmistress. Sure, the Winx had broken rules and generally been a pain as a collective, but it looked like they had got off easy with the punishments they'd been set. Down below them Griselda, in a particularly unflattering floor-length muumuu and grey nightcap, was working to reverse the spell that was slowly freezing Tecna and Musa solid. The creature that had been tormenting them in their dreams was disintegrated by a stream of pale purple mist sent from Faragonda's fingertips. It looked like the spell was near effortless for her.
Darcy made the poor decision to try and push back the headmistress in her advance on the Trix and Faragonda was ruthless in her response. She was knocked out of the sky by a blast of purple light to her face and only avoided impact with the ground because Stormy caught her. Bloom was able to alight on the ground with Stella as she watched their headmistress chase the witches around the sky before sending them running for Cloud Tower.
"Holy shit," Stella said, half in amusement and half in fear. "Remind me to never disturb Faragonda when she's sleeping. She hasn't even transformed."
"What the hell happened?" Griselda demanded once both her charges were free of ice and shivering on the ground.
"That monster…" Flora shivered in horror and dropped her fairy form. "It was inside our suite feeding on us."
"Something to do with nightmares," Musa agreed.
"I only woke up because Mirta was able to signal to me with her pollen," Flora said. "I can't imagine what might have happened if she wasn't there…"
"I will talk to Ms Faragonda," Griselda said, her face hard and her frown deeper than usual and Bloom wondered if this was something that the deputy head had seen before.
They were sent back inside with the rest of the students and told to go back to sleep. Griselda firmly reminded everyone that class wasn't cancelled the next morning and there would be no excuses for missing any schoolwork.
They all trudged back to their dorm and flopped into bed. Bloom was worried for a moment that she would be too nervous to fall back to sleep, but the mattress was too soft and her pillows too fluffy for her to think about what had just happened or to keep her eyes open any longer.