That night I have nightmares about my experience. Now that it's been resurfaced, my dreams unlock the rest. I was beaten. Stripped. I struggled home that night and passed out in my backyard. I wake up with a sudden realization.

My parents took me to have the memory hidden. They took me to a mutant in town, a psychiatrist. It was buried, the doctor paid, and a hatred for mutants developed in my parents. They kept it subtle. For me. They didn't want to seem vengeful. But their distrust of mutants went so much deeper than I thought. No wonder they never called me back.

I can't fall back asleep after these thoughts rush through, so I stand and try not to wake Blanc as I leave. The hallways seem longer in the dark, and I'm lost in thought at I follow them around the school. I stop when I turn a corner and see a winged figure standing near a window.

I stay still. I don't think she's noticed me.

"I can hear you," she whispers. In the quiet of the hallway it's loud. I approach her. Her wings are outstretched. Every feather is still and silent. Her eyes open and she turns from the window.

"Oh, hello Lapse." Douma says.

"Hi." I stand still beside her, watching the dark yard.

We stand quietly, thinking each of our own problems.

"How was your day?" she asks me. I can tell she wants to change the subject on her thoughts, so I tell her about the memory Xavier unearthed.

She doesn't respond, only knowingly nods her head. Moonlight breaks through the clouds, illuminating her waxen skin.

"Have you ever wished that this was normal?" she asks.

I contemplate.

"Like," she continues, "if the humans were just something in history books, a sort of theory. Extinct. And we were the normal ones. With wings. And lapses." Her pale lips lift at the edges, so little that it could barely be called a smile.

She suddenly pulls her wings in, the whipping snap surprising me. With intensity, she struggles to open the huge window then jumps out. I watch her dive to the ground below, then up until she's a speck against the clouds, the moonlight barely separating her from the gray night sky.

I watch her for a few minutes, then continue down the hall. The kitchen is dark except for a light above the oven. I open the fridge and find nothing I want to eat. When I close it, there's a boy standing there. It takes my eyes a few seconds to adjust and recognize him.

"Coleton!"

"Hey Lapse." His voice is rough.

"Can't sleep?" I ask him, sitting on the counter.

"Actually, I was asleep. My roommate is a loud snorer." He rubs his face. I can hardly see him in the dark.

"How have your classes been? You got in ok?" I ask.

He shrugs. "I guess. I think I'm in all the classes I need to be in. I wasn't really a part of the process."

I try to look closer at him. It's hard for me to talk with someone without being able to read their reactions. I can hardly see the outline of his facial features. I suggest we go to the library. There are lamps there. He declines.

"I'm just in here to get some earplugs." He pulls open a drawer and rummages inside. "I am hoping to get some more sleep tonight."

I nod. Of course. That's understandable. He finds some and leaves as quickly as he'd come. I wonder about him. I couldn't see him, but he sounded something more than tired.

I wander the halls until three AM. I go to bed and try to sleep again, but the memories haunt me. After an hour lying in bed, I finally fall asleep. Blanc wakes me up at the crack of dawn asking for an escape.

I squint in the low morning light. "Sure," I groan, sitting up and quickly ruffling my hair. It's getting long. I usually keep it below an inch.

"But, you are all right, yes?" She says, taking a close look at my face, "You didn't pass out yesterday or anything?"

I laugh. "No." I get out of my warm blanket cocoon. "I definitely did not pass out again yesterday."

"Well, I didn't know. With the tests and all."

After we get ready, we clasp hands and go into the hallway. It's still mostly empty. We're very early to rise today.

I snap my fingers. The lone occupant of the hallway is caught mid hair-flip. I start our adventure by braiding her hair and taking a rubber band from Blanc to tie it up. Blanc and I hide in a closet and I release her. The momentum of the hair flip continues, and her braid almost seems to pick up speed. It whips her in the eye. She swears, holding the braid and her eye. She swears again, cursing the school, and hurries down the hall. She looks suspiciously around her as she goes.

Blanc laughs, but I feel bad.
"Now let's go mess with my sister!" she exclaims, exiting the closet and running down the hall before I have a chance to freeze us again. I freeze and run up to her, unfreezing and refreezing again as quickly as I can. It's too late. The girl I braided is looking at us with disdain. I unfreeze again and she walks away, shooting spiteful glances in our direction every few seconds.

"Bugger," Blanc says under her breath, "You forgot to freeze."

I laugh once the girl is out of earshot. "You forgot to let me!"

We reach her sister's door and I snap my fingers. We open the door and let ourselves in. Elizabeth has her face smashed into her pillow, deep asleep. Blanc starts moving stuff around, but I just stand and watch. I don't want to interrupt what seems like careful planning on Blanc's part.

She sets up various traps. Elizabeth's makeup she sets up as a sort of game of dominos, one thing knocking over another until the last falls off the dresser. She turns her sister's mirror around. She ties Elizabeth's hairbrush to the ceiling fan and her comforter to each side of the bed. She roughly takes her sister's hair into two pigtails and leaves them hovering above her face.

I turn and look at her sleeping roommate. To her, Blanc does nothing. I take her by the feet and leave her under the bed on her face. I put a pillow above her head so she doesn't hit it on the wooden bed frame upon waking.

I take her blankets and put them under there with her, tucking her in. I notice a stuffed rabbit off the left side of her bed, and I put this on the windowsill.

Giggling, Blanc and I run like little girls out of the room and lean against their door. I picture them both waking and snap my fingers. I hear a muffled shout and another, clearer one. There's yelling, but we can't hear it. We're too busy trying not to make noise ourselves. Despite my efforts, I bark out a laugh and immediately snap my fingers.

We run back to our room and I unfreeze again. We get ready, acting casual. Elizabeth never comes to our door.

"It seems we're off the hook," Blanc tells me at nine thirty. We smirk at each other and go to breakfast.


It looks like I'll be able to post weekly, but I am going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, so you can expect me to take a break from Lapse in November. I'll try to stock up on a few extra chapters so maybe I'll be able to post then, but I don't know what my plans look like. Love you all!

-flutterbye