TriNymphs - Chapter Thirteen - Floating Heads (Disclaimer on my profile)
They saw a crisp set of footprints in the midst of the dust leading to the opposite corner of the room. Their ears were ringing with the sound of screaming. At the end of the trail there was a clear spot, completely devoid of dust, under the desks. Against their better judgement, Katie and Lyssa got down on their knees and started to crawl under the desks, like it looked like someone else had.
As soon as they got to their knees and the lamp lit the area under the desks, they saw the trail stop suddenly. The screaming stopped. They started to crawl forwards, they hadn't made it past the first desk when they heard the door burst open, rather noisily, behind them. Both Lyssa and Katie bumped their heads on the gum ridden bottom of the desk. Light was streaming into the room, and right in the middle of the doorway, there stood McGonagull.
They started to retreat from their task of finding the screamer, as McGonagull looked pissed off, and the screaming had stopped so it wasn't likely she'd believe anything they told her.
She didn't, and they spent the next twenty minutes being lectured then forcibly placed in their common room, which was entirely unnecessary as they had suddenly gotten tired when they found out it was three in the morning.
Lyssa and Katie were exhausted. When they got back to their dorm room it was four o' clock and classes started in four hours. They were desperate to get any little bit of sleep they could.
Lyssa fell asleep the minute her head hit the pillow. She was greeted in her dreams by a somewhat irate looking woman. She was standing in front of a fountain that spewed water from the eyes of a sad looking woman made out of concrete.
Besides this fountain, there was no sign of civilization having been anywhere near. The irate looking woman was dressed like a Grecian goddess, and was tapping her foot -clad in Grecian footwear- impatiently. She had been waiting for hours.
The impudence, she thought, of this girl to keep her waiting here so long.
She handed her a leather bound book, the cover was dark green except for a triangle in lighter green. It was upside down and, unbeknownst to Lyssa, represented the element water.
As she took the book handed to her, the water in the fountain shot toward the sky in a violent turret. It swirled around then started to shoot towards her. The dream ended when the water hit her and blasted her into the trunk of the old willow tree swaying gently behind her.
She woke up with a start, but was too exhausted still to keep her eyes open. She fell back asleep, only to be tortured all night when the very same dream started again ten minutes later, though this time she kept sleeping when the water hit her and the dream went on infinite loop. She didn't get any rest that night.
Eight floors down in the Slytherin common room, Alex was also having an odd night. It had started with a spot of light on the wall. It was slightly ovular, but had two darker patches just above the middle. Alex stared at this spot as she tried to sleep. She was having difficulties, and had been lying there for hours when she finally started to drift off. But before she could completely leave the conscious world, something started to happen.
The spot on the wall, which had remained exactly the same throughout the hours, started to shift. The edges became sharper, like a picture being put into focus. A woman with long, sleek, hair came into focus. It was now a, quite clear picture of a woman, who looked to be in her twenties. And as Alex stared, unable to look away from the spot, the woman turned and looked back at her.
Alex had always been afraid of something coming to get her in the dark, and so ran over to the light switch once she discovered the fact that she did, indeed, have the power to move.
Holly bolted awake immediately. "Goddamit Alexandria! Turn off those damnable lights and get to sleep," Holly glowered at her. She was not the type of person to be woken up in the middle of the night, under any circumstances.
Alex gave herself a quick scolding in her head, it was just a spot of light, nothing would come of it.
She turned off the light and jumped back into her bed, but was unable to stop herself from checking if the face was still there.
She calmed down when she saw the wall was bare. Then jumped backwards when the face suddenly appeared again, clear as ever.
She wrenched shut the curtains around the bed, which she usually kept open so it wouldn't be as dark. She almost fell out of her bed when the head appeared right next to her own head on the curtain.
She heard the woman's voice in her head, "Beware the Green Man," then the head blinked out of existence, Alex never saw her again.