Hi all! This is chapter three of my first fanfic ever, and I want to thank the reviewers that have commented so far for their time and attention. Notes on this chapter: There is a dream scene, so have fun reading into it however you like. Also, there is some breaks in time, which to be honest I did not enjoy writing -- I prefer to keep the moments in time separate, because each has an individual purpose...but that's beside the point. So just FYI, the next chapters may be extraordinarily short, but I'll post multiple ones at a time to make up for it. Thank you!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Vampire Knight. I only own Asraella, and now the other person that is mentioned briefly in a large paragraph later on, of whom I cannot elaborate just yet...

The bell rang for the end of economics, and Asraella didn't move. To be honest, she wasn't even aware the bell had rung. Her head was still down on her desk, and everyone started to walk by her in the direction of their next class.

"Um, Asraella, are you alright?"

Asraella lifted her head to see a small short haired brunette gazing inquisitively at her, with concern evident on her face.

"Oh, I'm fine, thank you."

"I'm Sayori Wakaba, but everyone calls me Yori. I've been asked to hang out with you today and help you around campus. I think we have the same schedule, and that's why I was picked and not someone else."

Asraella was astonished by the simplicity and untainted goodwill that she thought Yori was expressing. You don't see that in many people. She's probably going to be really nice to work with for a while.

"Ok, so does that mean that both of us have Early European History next?"

"Yup! Let's go. The breaks between classes are never long enough here." Yori gave Asraella a smile and stepped to the side of the aisle so that she could get out. Together they proceeded out of the lecture hall and towards the rest of the day.

"I'm so sorry about the way the econ professor treated you," Yori stated during lunch. The morning had gone well, after the near disaster of economics, and now she was discussing the events that occurred in detail during classes. Asraella was finding out that Yori was a wonderful person to be around in general, and was greatly enjoying her company.

"Oh, it was nothing. I didn't hear him and made him repeat himself. I probably deserved what I got."

"Not really. He enjoys picking on new students. I'm glad you put him in his place though. How did you know how to do that problem so quickly? I couldn't even follow your calculations and graphs while you were up at the board."

"I just had a great teacher at my old school, is all. I learned most of the topics in that class back in September." Just the teacher, I had an awesome teacher. Breathe, Asraella, breathe!

"Are you okay? You have a funny look on your face. You didn't look too good after Econ, either. Do you want to not go to your afternoon classes? I don't think any of the teachers would mind."

"No, that's okay. I'm fine. I was just thinking of something. If you didn't understand the problems in Econ, I'd be more than willing to give you some help, if you'd like."

"Really? That would be great! Here, on this part of the short answer number 2…"

Asraella's afternoon was spent with Yori, going to classes and learning the layout of the buildings. As the day drew to a close, Asraella followed her back to the Day Class's dorms, looking forward to moving into her room. Since she was a transfer so late in the semester, she had a single room, but she didn't know where it was. As they walked closer to the girls' dorm entrance, she queried Yori as to where her room was. "Um, Yori, could you tell me the best way to get to my room?"

"Sure. What's the room number?"

"474, I think."

"Ooh, you're so lucky! The fourth floor is the top floor, and it has the best view. Your room is an even number too, so you'll face the school. I'm sure it's so pretty at night. Could I come up and look out your window sometime?"

Asraella laughed, and truly felt it. She hadn't really laughed at something in a while.

"Sure. What, don't you have a window?"

Yori smiled back. "No, I have a window, but I'm only on the second floor. I can't see anything from there! Anyway, to get to your room you go up the stairs on the other end of the building to the top, and it will be on your right somewhere along the hallway. I go up to my room from the stairwell on this side. Have fun moving in! Maybe Yuuki and I will drop by. Would you mind?"

"Not at all. Come up whenever."

"Awesome! Okay then, bye!"

Yori went forward into the large foyer first, and Asraella followed. Yori went straight towards a large central staircase, and Asraella took a left down the hallway leading to rooms on the ground floor. She went to the end of the hallway, and found the stairs that Yori mentioned. Well, it's nothing like the nice central staircase! The stairs were narrow and dim, but because they were all the way on the end of the building, windows let in light to them. In the fading twilight, they were bathed in a pale glow. She started climbing, and reached the fourth floor quickly. At the top, she realized that she was breathing heavily. I guess I'm not as fit as I thought I was! She started down the hallway and came upon her room almost immediately. Hers was the corner room of the building, on the top floor. Man, what did I do to luck out like this? She put her new key into the lock and it clicked open with a little effort. The lock was evidently older, or at least needed some maintenance. She opened the door farther and stepped into her new room, her new sanctuary.

The first thing she noticed was the windows. She stood amazed in her doorway, looking out of the paned glass toward the main school building, which was almost something out of a story. The top of the walls and main hall were lit up by the sun, and it reminded her of a Disney castle, beautiful and in harmony with the land it rested on. She had never seen anything that struck her as so…picture perfect. She left the door standing open as she moved in the direction of the window, stopping as her outstretched hand touched the cool glass. The sunset threw golden yellows and reds in her direction from behind the school, and her room stood in the school's long evening shadow. Asraella leaned against the window, and stumbled forward as it moved. Whoa! I didn't expect that! She let the window fall open even more, and the combination of the open door and window created a draft that pulled the chill evening air across her face. It was perfect, simply perfect. She wanted to tell someone, anyone. She wanted to share this experience. With a jolt, she was brought back to the reality that there was no one to share it with. Tears sprang to her eyes and she fought them back, struggling against them as hard as any knight. How May would have loved to see this! With that, her composure failed, and alone in a dark room, her knees gave out and she crumpled to the floor, sobbing. She stayed there as the last vestiges of light vanished below the horizon.

She was running. She knew she had to get to someone, help someone, but she didn't know who or where they were, only that they were important. She sprinted blindly ahead. "Hello? Who is it? Where are you?" There was no response, only this desperate feeling that someone was crying, someone was in need. She wanted to help! Where were they? She kept running, her chest burning from the exertion and her legs shouting at her to stop. She slowed to a walk, upset with herself that she couldn't keep running, but preoccupied with her own needs. She was panting. "Please…give me…a second…I'm coming…" Still, there was no answer, and no decrease in the intensity of feeling she was picking up. Lights struck her face, brilliant and focused on her. She looked up to where she thought they were coming from, only to see a bar of stage lights above her head. Screaming brought her head back down, and she started running again, straight ahead, toward the sound that seemed to rip out her heart. After only a few steps, she felt nothing below her front foot, and fell back hurriedly to the ground, anxious not to fall over, into nothingness that seemed endless. She yelled out to the voice that was still screaming. "Please, please, what's wrong? I can't see you! I can't make it to you! Please, stop! Please, I want to make it better! PLEASE!" By the end, she was screaming, and she had drowned out the other being's voice. Abruptly she realized that the other person had stopped, but the pressing need to get to them hadn't ceased. "He-hello?" What was this sense of foreboding? She was filled with dread. She hauled herself to her feet, and called out again. "Hello? Are you okay?" The stage lights swung away from her, towards a spot only a little ahead. They came to rest on "her". She was lying in a pool of blood, her blond hair soaking up the red liquid streaming around her. Asraella launched herself over the edge in front of her, unaware of the drop she was so worried about before, with a knowledge that something was horribly, horribly wrong. With a thud, she hit the ground close to the girl. She reached the prone figure, and threw herself to her knees, pulling the girl into her arms. Her face was not visible, covered by her hair. Asraella looked over her, and stopped at her wrists. It became clear then. The blood was hers, from wounds she inflicted upon herself. With shaking hands and tears in her eyes, she pulled the hair from the face of the girl in her arms. Familiar eyes stared sightlessly at her. She started screaming.

Asraella woke up sobbing, just as she had fallen asleep.

Oh God, why? Why again? Why show this to me as often as you do? She ran her fingers through her hair as she regained her composure. It's time to go to school. The return of a routine was welcome, and she forced herself off the floor, over to the boxes that she hadn't noticed when she walked in the night before. She opened one of them, and found her bedding and towels, one of which she grabbed to wipe the moisture off her face. She tried another box, and this time found her extra uniform. She then turned and shut her door. She changed quickly and picked up her book bag that lay discarded on the floor, untouched since the last class yesterday. She stumbled out and headed to class, even though she would be more than an hour early. She knew that Yori would be waiting for her in the dining hall, but she couldn't bring herself to go. She wasn't hungry, and she wanted to stay by herself. Normally she'd be a little worried about Yori and how she'd feel about being stood up, but this morning, after a repeat of the dream, Asraella was emotionally dead. Her emotional consciousness was hibernating, and she couldn't even work up the necessary feeling to care about her lack of feeling. Her analytical side knew that it would take her most of the day to process and become "normal" again, as normal as she was anymore. She walked to the main building as fast as she could without running, leaving the rest of her classmates behind her.

She reached her classroom only to find out that the door was locked. Why would the front door be open if the classrooms weren't?! She knew she was being needlessly vindictive, but she didn't care. She just wanted class to start. She leaned against the wall next to the entrance and let her head fall so her chin rested on her chest.

"Asraella, what are you doing here so early?" Yuuki sounded mildly scandalized. Asraella thought that it probably seemed very odd to the girl why anyone would be at school so early, but it wasn't weird to her at this point. She raised her head to look Yuuki dead in the eyes. The pair of brown eyes widened.

"It's not that early". She was blunt, and delivered the line in a monotone. Yuuki took a small step back, and Asraella immediately felt some regret at distressing Yuuki, but she didn't stop staring at her or give her any more of an answer than that. A dark clothed figure stepped in front of Yuuki and Asraella looked farther up, seeing that it was Zero. His face was granite, and anger was evident in his unmoving features. "What?" she delivered in the same monotone.

"Cut it out."

Asraella didn't answer; she just laid her head back against the wall. "You mean, 'be nice'. I'm sorry, but this morning wasn't so great. I'm finding that 'nice' is hard to summon right now."

Yuuki poked her head around Zero, and shoved him aside a little. "What happened?"

"It's nothing. I'm sorry."

"But—"

"Yuuki, she obviously doesn't want to talk to you. Leave her alone." With that, Zero walked away, leaving Yuuki gaping open-mouthed at Zero's back. "And just leave..." She gave Asraella one last searching look, and finding nothing there, not one crack to work her way into, she turned and ran after Zero. Asraella sighed as Yuuki left. Great. Good work. You've pissed off more people. Goddamn it.

She used the encounter as something to think about, to pass time until the door was unlocked. Yuuki had seemed tired. There were bags under her eyes, and her uniform was wrinkled. Was that part of being a prefect? Zero, on the other hand, actually looked like he was on the ball. If not for the anger she'd evidently caused, Asraella would have been willing to say that he looked almost chipper, with the tiniest spring in his step, an uncommon shine to his eyes. Maybe Yuuki was on duty and Zero got a full night's sleep? That might make sense. Now that she thought of it, she also noticed that Yuuki had a bandage on her neck. Weird. How did she get that?

Asraella focused on random things around her, trying to pass the time and not let her mind wander. The sun was climbing up the walls, slowly warming the stone around her. She could hear the almost constant breeze whistling through the trees and pillars outside, but no birds. In fact, she realized that she had never heard birds around the building. She moved on to her next thought.

After a couple of minutes of this she started to sense that someone was looking at her. She stood up from leaning against the wall and looked around, peering down the hallway on either side of her. The feeling disappeared, and Asraella thought no more of it. About ten minutes later, a janitor came to unlock the door to the room, and Asraella went in and sat down. She put her head down and prepared herself for another day at school.

Okay, that was it! I hope it was alright. Thank you for reading, and if you feel pulled to do so, please review! TTFN Slomiti Andeo