Chapter 4:

Another Day

In his dreams he often visited the abandoned insane asylum at the edge of Lake Oblongata. He would be walking through the murky twisting hallways, as his ears prickled every once in a while at the sound of rats scampering about, awaiting the chance to come out of the shadows…their tiny eyes red pin points of light. He would turn sharp corners…sometimes walking on the ceiling or the walls or on staircases that twisted upside down or that broke off in mid air.

Sometimes he'd be in one of the dark rooms on a rock hard bed…his arms oddly bound as they crossed his chest in an uncomfortable manner, listening to the sounds of crows calling in the night outside his window…and the distant sound of a troubled man muttering frantic thoughts to himself.

And then for a moment everything would change and the bed would become solid ground and the mist would thicken…and out where the fog grew thick and dark, he would see the faint lines of something coming towards him…in the night…tires squeaking at a slow pace…dark and glowing windows like eyes and the world would fill up with water and there would be no escape.

At this point, he usually woke up bathed in sweat, as was the case this time, although, it was probably because of the bump in the road that he was shaken from his slumbers rather then the nature of his dreams.

Raz ran a shaky hand through his sweat soaked hair and stared around the tiny room with the barred window. By now he was used to living inside of the small wooden trailer and slumbering on the worn bed while the traveling circus rode over bumpy dirt trails and abandoned roads. Of course adjusting to his surroundings was one thing and did not necessarily mean the same thing as actually liking them. He didn't think he would ever really ENJOY living like this…but certainly he could put up with it for the sake of his father and the rest of the circus.

Raz swung his legs off of the mattress and stepped onto the dark wooden floor. Outside, he heard the sound of some of the circus people having entirely too much fun at seven o' clock in the morning. They often did this after the last night at a location…because while traveling, the circus people were not required to practice…so…as logic would have it when one was a poor performer with no responsibility for at least another 72 hours one would either get very drunk…or would have entirely too much time to think about where their life was going. Needless to say…many of the performers chose to spend the time under the bottle.

Raz attempted to drown out the sound of both men and women laughing and shouting obscenities (All of which, seemed to be coming from just outside his window.) by stuffing a pillow between the bars. After a moment when it didn't seem to be helping at all he gave up and sat down at a small desk in the corner of his tiny room. (Although desk was kind of a poor word…it was more a hand crafted table like thing made out of a splintered piece of drift wood and a fold up chair with a faded rainbow of colors across the back.)

He sighed and pulled out a small wooden box with his name carved roughly on the surface. He removed the lid. Inside was what appeared to be a very ugly necklace…Which was either full of meaning which hopefully…gave it inner beauty that surpassed it's dreadful exterior or…more likely was made by a young man who had no idea that a girl wouldn't be caught dead in something so completely awful. As it were…it was a bit of both in this situation.

Raz reached into his pocket and pulled out a very tiny golden charm…which seemed to have faded and perhaps been charred a little over the years that it had lain abandon after falling off of what might have been a lovely charm bracelet at one point. Raz added it to the tiny golden chain…taking another few points off of the necklaces appearance and worth. He hooked the ends of the necklace together and examined it for a moment…his face contorted into something like distaste. He squinted a little (Perhaps to see if it looked any better when he did.) then seemed to give up and put it back into the wooden box.

"Man, this thing is ugly…" He said below his breath as he stored it back on the shelf just a little above his desk. He pulled out a piece of paper beside it, along with a pencil and scribbled something down on it hurriedly. When that was finished he sat back in the chair and eyed the piece of parchment wearily, reading the last couple of lines to himself while his mind wandered.

Fargone, Chaintown.

Weird shaped pebble…kind of shaped like a heart or something…I guess.

I dunno…I TRIED to find something better.

Cort, Timber Falls.

Went to the sea…Found a weird black stone…I think it might actually

Be a pearl. It took me forever to get it out of the water…

I thought I'd drown trying to get the stupid thing.

LessVille, Hollow City

It's a charm…looks kind of like a woman or something…whatever

It was…I think it might have caught fire at some point.

Without really paying attention, he stuffed the notes back onto the shelf and stood up…outside; the circus people seemed to be growing quiet (Not because the party was over…of course…but because by then…most of them had passed out.)

Raz headed back to his bed, despite the now bright sunshine glaring in his window. He had had a long night and thought he might be able to sleep for the rest of the day. (Which was one thing that was nice about moving from place to place…plenty of resting time between locations.) Besides, with the sunlight, perhaps his dreams would not aim towards dark corroded hallways and gypsy caravans, which came out from the gathering fog.

He rested on his bed and closed his eyes, falling into a light half sleep almost instantly, resting between wake and sleep, in a place where even normal people could hear far away voices crying out from the darkness (Although they could convince themselves it was only their imagination.) But unlike the haunting voices he heard in his nightmares…the voices that muttered curses over and over or those from the insane asylum that went into winding conversations with themselves about their paranoid delusions…the voices he heard as he fell into a deeper and pleasantly dreamless sleep were comforting.

Sasha had once said that all minds were linked together in the mental world. He had said this when he had presented to Razputin a tiny chain of connected doors that he had called the collective unconscious. If Raz had been thinking of that at the time, he might have convinced himself that the familiar thoughts he was hearing in his light slumber were in fact real thoughts coming from a real mind…maybe thousands of miles away. As it were…he just dismissed them as being hallucinations found in a place between sleep and wake…and let them fall into the darkness as he drifted off to sleep.

Demure Academy

Lili felt someone shaking her lightly as she slept. She tried to ignore it (For she was having a very pleasant dream.) But was unable to for long as a streak of sunlight hit her face and burned into her closed lids. She opened her eyes. It was Tessa who had been trying to shake her from her slumbers.

"Finally." She said, with something that could just barely register as a smile on her face. "Must've slept well…personally I thought Zoe's bubble gum pop alarm clock could awaken the dead…not necessarily because it was loud…but because the terrible sound would be enough to enrage them from their slumbers." For a moment it seemed as though she was rather taken with this idea…then she shook it off and turned to head back towards her own bed. Lili sat up and rubbed at her eyes.

"Great…morning already." She said, her voice edged with sarcasm. "Figures…Night always seems to have enough time for my nightmares, but good dreams always get cut off." She hopped from her bed and began pulling clothes out of her suitcase.

"I like nightmares." Tessa said absently. "You know…after there over." She added a little awkwardly. "What were you dreaming about?" She straightened and tossed Lili a distracted look. Lili's eyes seemed to glaze over a little.

"Nothing…just stuff." She started to head towards the bathroom to change.

"What sort of stuff?" Tessa asked, while giving her friend her full attention. "Because if it really as a good dream…oh like…Lester bursting into flames or something…I want to hear all of the details."

Lili shrugged as she pushed open the door.

"Nothing like that. It was just about…" She seemed to think for a moment. "The circus I guess." Tessa rose her brow.

"The circus?"

Lili nodded and closed the door.

"Kay…sounds more like a nightmare to me." Tessa muttered to herself.

Zoe came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and when she saw the chubby blond girl, bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"How does this look…and be honest?" Zoe asked. She raised her chubby arms clothed in a sweatshirt that seemed to be savaged by a large pink animal…

"Umm…honest?" Tessa said, regaining her composure. Zoe nodded.

Tessa seemed to suffer and ultimately loose a small inner conflict within herself.

"You look like a small fluffy pink meatball…perhaps digested…" She thought this over for a minute. "At least once." Zoe's face turned a bright red as her brow contorted into annoyance and slight anger.

"Don't know why I asked you. YOU have no style." She turned with a huff, which would have been more effective if there hadn't been tiny white fluff balls on the back of her sweatshirt. Tessa turned away and stifled her laughter, deciding that she'd rather not make the small girl too mad.

At this moment Lili came out of the bathroom.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked, examining Tessa, who was biting her fist. The girl shook her head and nodded towards the door.

"Better get going." She said while taking a deep breath. Lili nodded and grabbed her bag. As she passed Zoe on her way toward the door she eyed the girl.

"That looks really childish." She said without changing her face. "The hats dumb." She opened the door and headed out into the hallway, turning her back on the blonde girlwho was looking at her with a mixture of shock and anger. Tessa followed her out.

Lili turned towards the direction of the cafeteria and just about collided with Angus, who was standing patiently outside their door. She stopped abruptly and was nearly knocked off her feet when Tessa ran into her.

Angus smiled an embarrassed and apologetic smile.

"Sorry." He said quickly. He threw his arms out to keep Lili's books from falling and was devastated when he accidentally knocked them out of her hands instead. Lili watched bemusedly as they fell, along with her brand new pack of notebook paper which came undone and scattered all over the floor. After a moment of shocked silence, Lili stooped down and began to gather her things.

Angus, who was turning a bright red color, bent down and helped her. Behind Lili, Tessa shook her head.

"Angus, you're the biggest klutz I've ever met." Tessa voiced. (Not particularly in an unkind way.)

"I know." He said, his voice full of apology. As both him and Lili stood, he handed her stuff to her quickly. "I'm so sorry, I…"

"'s alright." Lili said absently as she walked past him. He turned and watched her, feeling slightly disappointed at her utter lack of interest. He spun around and gave Tessa a bewildered look. She shrugged.

"She's been out of it since yesterday." The girl said. Angus nodded.

"I've noticed…" He said. He thought over his next statement, making sure it didn't sound like anything that crossed the border of friendship. "I'm starting to worry about her." He finally said, his blush coming back a little. Tessa didn't seem to notice.

"Well…you know how Lili gets around her birthday. It's probably nothing to worry about." She started to head down the hall. Angus, who seemed to think about this for a moment, nodded distractedly and headed after her.

To manlady: Umm…if ur asking if this is a Raz/Lili fic…then the answer is yes. It is…just not yet. If not, then I apologize…but I'm not sure what ur asking.

Hope u like the update.