Subconscious
1: existing in the mind but not immediately available to consciousness: affecting thought, feeling, and behavior without entering awareness, subconscious motives, a subconscious reflex.
2: imperfectly conscious: partially but not fully aware. The persistence of subconscious dream activity for several minutes after waking.
-Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Chapter 1: Nightmare
Rosette tossed and turned in her bed. She was in the middle of a nightmare, one she wouldn't remember in the morning, but was currently all too real.
"Rosette..."
Rosette buried her face in her pillow, trying unsuccessfully to drown out the voicethat was echoing in her head.
"Rosette..."
In the dream Rosette was standing in a forest. It didn't take long for her to recognize it as the forest that was on the outskirts of the Seventh Bell Orphanage.
"Don't you want to see me again?"
Dream Rosette spun around trying to find the owner of the voice. Not that she didn't already know.
"You know I want to!" She yelled, trying desperately not to cry. "Joshua, please..."
"Then why don't you come?" The question was dripping with anguish, causing Rosette to lose her battle with her tear ducts.
"Joshua..."
Rosette flipped on to her side, facing the window in her room, silently crying. In her dream she had collapsed onto the ground, gripping the grass with her clenched hands.
The window wasn't completely closed. A small hand wedged its way through the opening, the windowsill rising even more.
Two eyes stared inat the tormented sleeping girl. Then they closed, and a sigh of pleasure was admitted as the being wedged its mind into the nun's subconscious.
In the dream, Rosette looked up. The scenery had change. Not the place, but the atmosphere. Everything was darker. The grass she clutched had turned brown and prickly.
"I wish things could have been different..."
The voice had changed also. It was still Joshua, but the pleading tone was gone, replaced by wistfulness.
"Maybe if I had never had those powers..."
His powers...Rosette thought bitterly. Without them Aion would never have bothered with Joshua. If he had just been a normal little boy...
"Without my powers no one would have payed attention to me...Father Remington would never had bothered us..."
Bothered us? Dream Rosette stood up, pondering that. She hadn't liked the Father back then, before Joshua'sdisappearance. She had thought he was going to take her brother away from her.
"He took me away from you."
In her room Rosette frowned, her brow creasing. In her dream she tried to pierce the gloom with her eyes, searching for her brother. "What are you saying Joshua? It was Aion who took you away..." But in a way, Remington had caused her brother to leave her.
She had feared that the Father would take her brother, leaving her at the orphanage alone. When ever Remington visited she tried to escape with Joshua in the forest. She didn't want her brother talking to him. Joshua might decide to leave her, and live at the monastery.
"If we had never gone to the forest that day, to get away from him...things would be so different now Rosette."
Yes. They would have been different. If Father Remington had never showed an interest in Joshua, everything would have been fine. They would have been together right now.
Rosette's body rolled over, the sheets becoming tangled between her legs. "No," she whispered, "that's not true..."
The being at the window concentrated harder on the girl. Rosette stopped thrashing. Dream Rosette nodded her head, agreeing with the voice.
"If he had never came..."
"If he had never came," Rosette repeated, in her sleep.
Suddenly the voice grew rougher, angrier. "It's all his fault!"
Then a figure came out of the woods, walking towards Rosette. He was smiling cruelly.
Dream Rosette narrowed her eyes at the figure. The shadows obscured most of his features, but she could tell it was Remington.
"It's all his fault!"
"It's all your fault," she hissed at him as he drew closer.
Remington stopped, just a foot away from her. "Yes. I took your dear brother away from you," he smiled again, then laughed. "What are you going to do about it?"
There was a knife in her hands. Dream Rosette didn't bother trying to understand how it had arrived there, all that was filling her mind was hatred, and rage.
"It's all his fault!"
"You're going to pay," she hissed, before lunging forward, driving the knife into the Father's chest.
Outside, the sun was just started to show. The being hissed, it's eyes opening, as it immediately scurried down the monastery's wall in search of somewhere dark to hole up in until nightfall.
x x x
Rosette woke up to the sound of pounding on her door.
"It's not time yet," she groaned, pulling the sheet over her head.
"Rosette, are you awake?" a timid voice asked on the other side of the door.
"Rosette! Wake up!" a more forceful voice yelled, accompanied by another pound on the door.
Pause.
"You're going to be late for breakfast!"
"Ngh," muttered the nun, pressing her face into the pillow.
On the other side of the door Chrono and Azmaria stood; the little girl quietly watching the boy as he put his hand on the doorknob.
"Hmm. That usually works," he muttered. Then louder "Rosette, we're coming in!"
Chrono cautiously opened the door, half expecting the semiconscious sister to throw something at him. All he saw however was Rosette twisted up in her sheets like a caterpillar in a cocoon. This was somewhat odd, as the restless blonde usually had kicked all coverings off of her by morning.
"Rosette?" Chrono crept forward, still thinking that it was a trap of some sort, and that when he got close enough she would clobber him with a pillow. Azmaria trailed after him.
Chrono stopped about six inches away from the silent bundle. He slowly reached his hand out, and poked what he assumed was Rosette's head. "Roooosette."
"Whadda wan'?" was the response.
"It's time to get up," Azmaria said, chipper voiced.
"Past time," muttered Chrono, only to be shushed by the little white haired girl, as she gently took hold of the sheets and tried to pull them back.
Rosette wasn't giving in so easily. Her tenacious grip on the sheets wasn't going to be defeated by Azmaria's gentle tugging.
"Geez, Rosette," Chrono said, grabbing hold of the sheets and pulling on them, "Father Remington wanted to see us after breakfa-"
Chrono didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. Rosette had abruptly sat up, causing the poor demon to lose his balance and fall onto the floor, still holding the sheets.
Rosette didn't know what had caused her to jolt up so suddenly, but now that she was fully awake she took stock of her surroundings. What was Azmaria doing there? Rosette tipped her head to the right and saw Chrono sitting on the floor, wincing.
"Chrono! What are you doing with my sheets?"
Chrono ducked as Rosette chucked a conveniently placed pillow at his head. Azmaria quickly sat down in front of Rosette, peering into her face. "We were trying to get you up, you over slept again. Are you all right Rosette? You don't look so good."
Chrono's head popped up from the foot of the bed. Eyeing his contractor he asked "Have you been sleeping well?"
Rosette rubbed the back of her head, messing up her hair even further as she did so. "Yeah, why? I don't look my normal beautiful self?" she joked, pulling down the skin under her eyes and sticking her tongue out at Chrono.
Chrono rolled his eyes but smiled. Azmaria looked concerned, as the older girl stretched and yawned. "Are you sure? You have dark smudges under your eyes, and..."
Rosette stopped stretching, and looked down at Azmaria. "And?"
"I don't know, there's just this look in your eyes."
Rosette slipped off the bed and staggered over to the small mirror. Holding her bangs up with her right hand she examined her eyes. "I don't see anything Azmaria."
As she drew away from the mirror she started to stumble. Chrono rushed forward, grabbing hold of her shoulders, steadying her. Azmaria quickly leaped up and took one of Rosette's arms, helping Chrono lead her back to her bed. Rosette mumbled, "Okay, so maybe I'm a bit sleepy..."
As soon as she touched the bed she was asleep. "That was fast," commented Chrono as he picked up the sheet from the floor and draped it over the recumbent nun.
"Why do you think she got so tired all of the sudden?" Azmaria asked, concern adding a quiver to her voice.
"I don't know," Chrono said, staring at Rosette as she slept. There didn't appear to be anything wrong, she was breathing evenly, and if she was dreaming you couldn't tell from her eye movement. "I don't think we should get her up again though."
"Should we tell Sister Kate that she's sick?"
Chrono nodded, "Yes, that would be best. Could you go do that, and I'll meet the Father and tell him why Rosette couldn't be there?"
Azmaria nodded eagerly. "Of course I will. Right away!" With that, the diminutive angel left the room, almost running in her wish to be of use.
Chrono looked down at his friend, and then turned towards the window. He sensed something, but it was only a whiff on his demon aura senses. The window was open, letting in the air and sounds of the city, right outside the convent's walls.
That could be it, he thought, New York's been so infested with lower class demons lately, I could be sensing something from outside the convent, drifting on the wind.
Chrono shut and locked the window. With one last look at Rosette and a wary glance at the window, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
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Okay...I don't know if I'll continue this or not. It really depends on if people like it, and if I can get a better grasp of the characters. I don't think I'm tapping into their personalities very well, and it's annoying me. I'm usually good with that. Sigh. Well, if those things occur this should be around 3 chapters.
About the rating: Umm...I'm being cautious (knife in dream thing, and maybe stuff of that nature in coming chapters). Yeah. This could be rated k+...I might lower it later.
Thanks go out to Auramistealia for beta reading this. :)
Please review. I really want to know if this is worth continuing. I'm actually kinda disappointed on how this chapter turned out.