Enneagon

Chapter 8: Day-mare

Get it? Day-mare, instead of nightmare? Aren't I funny?

*crickets*

Anyway, one emotional hurt/comfort chapter coming right up, so get your hankies ready people. Thank you for the following fabulous people for their lovely reviews:

-Jaspertail

-Guest

-Runereader of the Nightwings

-SavvySpirit

-Caledonia West

-MintyGreenEmbers

-KitsuneStarzzz

-hollyfrost666

::blowing kisses:: Love you guys!

[Hexagon Academy, Briox]

[9.9.2065]

Jayfeather left the classroom as quickly as he could. He threw his backpack swiftly over his shoulder and was out the door within seconds, leaving his friends in shock behind him. The second he stepped into the hallway, the chattering mass of students seemed to swallow him up, the passing-period exodus sweeping him away.
"Hey! Hey, Jayfeather, wait up!" Briarlight's voice rang out over the loud, squabbling crowd. Jayfeather couldn't help but think that it was extraordinary, the way he could hear the shift and squeak of the metal in her prosthetic, even when she was on the other end of the hallway. A tiny voice in the back of his head, one that sounded suspiciously like Yellowfang, informed him of the cocktail party effect.

Jayfeather was standing stock-still in the middle of the hallway as his classmates around him rushed by in an effort to get to their next class. People hissed angrily as they passed, irritated at being held up.

"Get out of the way!"

"Dude, move!"

"Jayfeather!" Briarlight's voice again. He could hear the squeak of her leg, clear as day. He didn't want to talk to her.

He didn't want to talk to anyone, actually, as his mind conjured up the smell of unpleasantly familiar fruity perfume. He could hear the unnerving lilt of his voice as the rhythmic click-click of platform heels marched closer and closer.

"Jayfeather!"

He was touching him. A hand had come to rest on his shoulder, and all Jayfeather could feel was the scratch of acrylic nails.

His hand lashed outwards, catching Hawkfrost across the face and sending him tumbling to the floor with a rumbling crash.

"Jayfeather, what the fuck!?"

Reality came crashing back, and Hawkfrost was gone. In his place was Briarlight, bruised and nursing a fat lip as she sat on the floor. Her messenger bag had fallen open, sending papers tumbling across the floor. The hallway was dead silent, every student standing still as if frozen in place, staring at the scene in the middle of the corridor.

Jayfeather turned just in time to notice two bystanders being shoved out of the way as Lionblaze burst out of the crowd with Cinderheart and Hollyleaf hot on his heels. Lionblaze was staring at him as if he'd never seen him before, his amber eyes round and wide like those of a startled cat.

"Did you just….hit her?", he asked faintly, staring at Briarlight on the floor.

Cinderheart and Hollyleaf moved past Lionblaze and started to heave Briarlight off the floor. But where the two best friends looked affronted, Briarlight just looked shocked. There was an expression of abject surprise on her face, accompanied by what looked like….concern?

"Jayfeather?", she asked again. "Are you okay?"

Around them, the hallway seemed to slowly unfreeze. And while disgusted muttering rippled through the crowds of people, the masses of students began to fall into motion again as they made their way to class.

"Do you mind me taking you to the hospital wing?", Jayfeather asked softly, and Briarlight, with her face set, linked her arm with his and let him take her away.

…

"Explain."

Jayfeather had known this would be coming the second she got him alone. "I care about you a lot, but you'd better have a damn good reason for hitting me in the face."

"I.." The words didn't seem to want to leave his mouth. It was as if his vocal cords had glued themselves together.

"All...all I could see was him. Hawkfrost."

Briarlight stopped walking. There was just silence, and Jayfeather could imagine her eyes fixed on him, watching him intently.

"I don't trust Silverhawk. There's just something not right with him, and the whole time I was with him, I kept remembering Hawkfrost. I could smell him, hear him coming closer and closer on those damn high heels of his, and then you touched me and…."

Jayfeather trailed off, only for Briarlight to pick up on it, "and all you could see was him. And you reacted accordingly."

Jayfeather nodded. There was a long moment of silence, then, "Is your face okay?"

"I mean, I'll probably have a bruise. But other than that, I'm fine."

"I'm sorry, Briarlight."

"Don't worry about it. We all have issues after March. It'd hardly be fair for me to blame you for something you can't control."

As she intertwined her fingers with his and tucked him close, Jayfeather leaned his head against hers and wondered what he'd ever done to deserve her.

…

Hollyleaf was angry. That in itself was nothing new, Hollyleaf was the human equivalent of hydrogen gas and a matchbox and often got pissed at even the smallest of inconveniences. Fortunately for Fallen Leaves, she got over her irritation as quickly as she got mad, so most of her little rants were entertaining to listen to, rather than tiresome.

Keyword: most.

Because unlike most of her rants, this one had her legitimately angry, rather than just amused and faintly annoyed. It concerned Jayfeather and one of her best friends.

"-how dare he hit her! When I find him, so help me StarClan, I will beat his scrawny ass into the ground just you watch-"

"Hollyleaf", he said quietly, "think about it for a moment. Do you really think he meant to hit her?" Hollyleaf fell silent, her green eyes fixed steadily on him. "I fail to see how it was an accident", she said back, just as quietly.

Fallen Leaves shoved his hands into his pockets and turned to look at her. "Did you see his face when he realized what he'd done?" Hollyleaf didn't say anything, and Fallen Leaves knew she must be thinking of the same thing as him: the horrified expression of shock that had spread over Jayfeather's face as he'd registered his surroundings.

"...no. No, it didn't."

Jayfeather's behavior in general made little sense to him. Fallen Leaves remembered the frightened way Jayfeather had seemed to shrink in on himself under Silverhawk's ice-blue gaze, like a turtle drawing its head back under its shell. But fear made no sense, as far as Fallen Leaves knew, Jayfeather and Silverhawk had never met. What would give Jayfeather reason to be afraid?

Fallen Leaves knew his friend, knew damn well that Jayfeather would never lay a hand on his girlfriend. And he knew that deep down, Hollyleaf knew that too, no matter how clouded her vision was by anger.

"I know I'm asking a lot, but please just hold off on killing him until he explains himself, alright?"

From his side came a single, curt nod.

…

For the second time in less than a year, there was an impromptu gathering in Lionblaze's and Jayfeather's dorm room. The difference? It was Jayfeather, not Lionblaze who sat in the middle of a circle, trying to explain himself.

Briarlight sat curled up on a nearby armchair with an icepack pressed to her lip. Even through the pack, Fallen Leaves could see the bruising around her mouth. To his surprise, she didn't look at Jayfeather with anger, or even with a demand to know what was going on. Instead, she was smiling encouragingly at him through the ice, and despite Jayfeather not being able to see it, Fallen Leaves got the impression that it somehow helped.

"There's something…off...about Silverhawk", Jayfeather began haltingly. "Call it a gut feeling or something, but something about that teacher just feels wrong. I-"

Jayfeather grabbed at his hair, wringing it between his fingers. "-all I could see, feel, smell, hear was Hawkfrost. I must have spaced out in the hallway, because it was like Hawkfrost was closing in on me all over again, and Briarlight, I am so sorry-"

It was Hollyleaf who got up to give Jayfeather a hug. Hollyleaf, who just an hour before had been up in arms, strode across the room and wrapped her little brother in the tightest hug she could muster. They stayed like that for a long while. Briarlight, who had taken off her prosthetic leg and was stuck on her armchair, just smiled.

End Chapter 8

Sorry for the shorter chapter! I was going to make it longer, but I felt that was a good place to end in terms of Jayfeather, and I didn't think it was a good idea to start a new thing at the end of a very emotionally charged chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed anyway!

**on a side note: Enneagon will probably be a lot more angsty than Hexagon. You thought I put you through angst before? Just wait! (non-jokingly, I'm thinking this story might go in a more serious direction so please be ready)

Azra out!