Tique: I'm glad you like it! But don't forget, this is before her mutation, but bad stuff hasn't happened yet!
Tasher Taylor: Thank you! I'll keep this going as long as I have people reviewing and enjoying!
d: Hehe, thank you. Here is the next chapter.
Chapter 4The morning sunlight woke Raven the next morning. It filtered in gently through her blinds and brought her drowsy brain to attention as her eyes slowly opened. The covers were not upon her, and again she was still in clothes. As she pushed herself forward off the mattress her eyes happened upon her clock. It was still early morning. With a stretch as she rose she considered going to school today. She knew she had to go back sometime.. and it would take her mind of things surely..
Raven slowly rose and walked across her carpeted floor in an unhurried manner. With a sleepy yawn she pulled open her bedroom door, not surprised by the darkness of the corridor. No one else was awake yet. She quietly made her way across to the bathroom, slipping in through the door and closing it behind her entry. The lock was heard shutting with a satisfied click before Raven turned to the large mirror on the bathroom wall.
This was an occasional ritual, the prod and poke of a sleepy face to try and direct some life into the pale features and droopy eyes. But as Raven directed her fingertips to her cheeks she immediately froze in movement. Widened eyes darted down to the reflection of her hands before she gasped and held them out to be studied warily. The top of each finger adopted a strange blue tint to them, it was barely noticeable in the poor lighting, but to Raven they stood out horrifically. Sheer terror overcame her at the sight. It wasn't normal! Blue skin! Did she have some sort of disease? Raven closed her eyes again and tried to think logically. It was irrational to have blue skin. The light must be playing tricks on her eyes, she decided resolutely. But when her eyes dared to reopen, the very shimmer of her azure eyes had changed to the electric yellow as they did last night.
But this time, Raven did not jump back nor scream in fright. She just watched with an anxious curiosity at the peculiar brightness of her eyes. But within a few moments they had returned to their normal colour. Her brow deepened with a frown. This was very alarming.. what was it that was happening? Her eyes chanced a peek back down to her hands.. they were getting darker.. it was more and more noticeable by the second. With a worried frown she looked into her reflected eyes for some comfort. She sighed a moment glancing to the wall of the bathroom before something made her eyes return to her face. With horror she noticed the same blue tint coming upon her cheeks.
"Oh no.." she moaned softly, pressing herself closer to the mirror, rubbing at her cheeks to try and remove the colour as if it were only a spot of make-up gone wrong. Her fists clenched angrily at the lack of success. Then her eyes trailed upwards, gasping as she saw a lock of red hair be evident in her black tresses. She couldn't go out looking like this.. anyone would think she was a mutant!
..A mutant..
Maybe that's what it was? She was turning into one of those beings that Cass hated. Fighting the urge to allow building tears spill she swallowed, taking a deep breath of consolation.
Raven's eyes suddenly darted madly about the bathroom, they landed upon her mother's makeup bag and she wrenched it from the shelf before rummaging through urgently. Her hands retrieved a small compact powder and she quickly opened it and began spreading it over her cheeks and fingers. It was working. The more she put on the more the blue faded into the plush shade of cream.
When the blue shade had gone, Raven finally lowered her hands and carried the powder case with her she crept quietly back into her room to change for school. She'd leave the house alone.. preferably avoiding Cass too if she could..
The front door was closed quietly behind her as Raven left the house for school. Her parents were still asleep, again not working that day. Raven wasn't expected to be either.. but she had to do something.. being cooped up was driving her insane and making her ultimately feel worse. Her footsteps were quiet as she walked down her driveway before pressing round onto the pavement to school. Her eyes constantly glanced to her bare hands, nervously checking for any spread of blueness.
When the girl had walked into a busier part of New York's outskirts the most terrible thing happened, and without any warning. The heavens dullened ever so quickly, and the rain began to drift down in graceful showers. Raven normally wouldn't complain, for she liked the rain, the cool feel of it splashing upon her skin was an awe-inspiring sensation – but her blood seemed to suddenly freeze as she realised the implications of it upon her powdered flesh. With a startled cry she hurled herself desperately into a nearby bus shelter, furiously wrapping her coat around her body in a bid to keep her powdered body parts covered, but it was no use.. the trickle of murky droplets trailed down the tops of her hands and along her fingers, the stream of the peach shaded liquid revealed the true oddity.
A small whine escaped Raven's throat as she chewed upon her lower lip nervously at the sight.. no doubt it would be completely washed off eventually. She quickly turned to her schoolbag, sifting through the inner to retrieve specially brought gloves. She thought they'd come in handy in case of emergency situations.. like this one. They were hurried pulled on over his trembling hands, covering the abnormal stains. Her eyes rose up to the heavens at the rainfall, another worry overcoming here. This was near where her cousin was murdered.. what if that man was still here.. She glanced nervously around her for a moment before she hurriedly began to ran through the rain, intending to get to school as soon as possible.
Raven had managed to successfully avoid Cass for the most part of the day, finding that she was becoming exceptionally skilled to diving around random corners when Cass, or even a look-alike appeared. It was still only late morning, the lunch hour coming after this current lesson. Raven quietly entered her classroom, keeping her face down and eyes still to the surprised glances she got and mutterings. It appeared the reasons for her absence had soon travelled around school. Her French teacher, Ms Roberts, instantly scolded the class with a piercing glare before her eyes softened upon Raven and she nodded gently to the girl, "Nice to have you back Mademoiselle Darkholme. Please take a seat."
Raven nodded slowly in reply, slipping into her usual seat and untying her bag buckle, she then grabbed her textbooks and various required items from inside. Her mind was still in another world for the most part of the lesson; she only just managed to reply with a, "Oui madame," to the register before she slipped back into her distant thoughts. Her eyes idly travelled upon the whiteboard for a moment and she noticed the rest of the class writing the notes within their books. Raven quickly straightened in her seat, leaning forward and copying the work into her own book, inside scolding herself for zoning out.
But as the class was silent with the faint scratches of pens to paper, a low feminine voice suddenly came in Raven's left ear. Raven practically leapt in the air with fright as her name was spoken to her, her French papers went flying off the desk and her pencils rolled away noisily. With widened eyes and heavy breathing Raven finally managed to look to Ms Robert who had since adopted a startled expression to the girl's reaction, "Are you alright?" asked the woman in her French accent, watching Raven worriedly as she crouched beside her.
"Yes.. er.. Oui.." mumbled Raven hopelessly, ducking under the table to gather her papers. As she arrived back to sit in her chair she consciously pulled the collar of her jacket around her neck. It had been turned up to avoid anyone seeing her bare neck, just incase the blue shade appeared anywhere else. She had covered up most of her body, the only visible area was her powdered face, and it was summer, albeit late summer.
"Raven.." Ms Roberts said quietly so only the girl would hear her, "Why have you worn so much clothing today, are you feeling alright?"
Raven sheepishly glanced up to the teacher, "I.. er.. have a virus or something," she murmured, "I'm really cold.." she rubbed at the arms of her jacket for effect, nodding her head slowly.
"D'accord," murmured Ms Roberts, rising from Raven and turning back to the front of the desk. She refrained from questioning the girl, she had heard of the happenings with her cousin, Peter. The last thing she needed was nagging. Raven lowered back to her work as the teacher left her side, craning her head down to the papers as she continued to write. But then, another voice came; this was much quieter than Ms. Roberts - it was a vehement hiss from behind her.
"I know the truth, Darkholme," came the low sneer.
Ever so slowly Raven's hand paused in the writing of her sentence. Her head rose worriedly before she turned to look hastily at the person at behind her, "What?" she asked in a coy whisper.
The girl behind her gave Raven a large smirk, "I know why you're covering yourself up so much.. I heard you were feeling under the weather," the girl then gave a vicious chuckle of quiet laughter, "You know.. feeling a little blue.."
A horrified stream of coldness drenched through Raven's insides and with a frightened gasp she threw her hand to the back of her exposed neck. When her head had bent down to her work, her hair had fell either side of her head to reveal her bare neck.. not even her upturned collar covered it all. The laughing girl continued her whispering words, "What are you? Some kind of freak?"
"Raven? Marisa?" called Ms. Roberts to the incoherently quiet commotion, "Is there a problem?"
Whilst Marisa shook her head slowly and quickly lowered back to her work, Raven turned her wide eyed and frightened gaze to her teacher, "I need to go.." she managed to whisper, now flinging a specially brought scarf around the bare part of her neck and dragging her papers and stationary into her bag.
"Raven?" questioned Ms. Roberts curiously.
"No, I must go," cried Raven in a trembling voice, staggering out of her chair noisily. The entire class had now stopped writing and all over the room pairs of eyes stared at the disturbance. Anything but work was fine. "I feel ill," Raven said hurriedly, kicking the chair under the desk and turning out of the row of tables. But as she tried to run out, her foot scuffed another's and she hurtled down with a surprised gasp to the floor. She saw a maniacal grin on Marisa's face as she fell over, Marisa's foot slipping innocently back under the table, the end of Raven's scarf trapped beneath it. As she fell, she felt the scarf unravel from her neck, drifting away before falling to the floor and exposing her entire neck to the class.
The gasps and cries around the room were unanimous and Raven could only glare at the floor beneath her in a silent shock at the revelation that she had just performed. She was shaking so much now she could hardly stand upright, her legs refused to work beneath her, mixes of anger and fear overtaking her limbs. When she finally raised to her feet she threw herself into a run, leaving her scarf under the foot of Marisa, and she fled the school building with a relentless pour of tears over her powdered flesh coloured cheeks.. but the tops of her cheekbones were revealing the telltale signs of blue skin..
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