Eva's head slammed against the floor as she was dragged from her bed by her leg, and bright spots floated across her vision. A warm sensation was spreading across her calf; claws had broken the skin. Yet she felt a surge of adrenaline, because she had her mechanical pencil in her hand.

She clicked it three times, feeling it transform into a dagger, longer and longer with each click until it was about as long as her hand. She slashed out, feeling it slice through whatever had a hold on her leg, like a knife through cheese.

"Fucking half-bloods," the monster hissed as it released her leg. It ran a clawed hand over the gash on its wrist, which leaked golden dust.

Eva got herself into a crouch. Her vision had cleared, but not without leaving her head with a fuzzy feeling. Her attacker had been one of the "popular" girls in her class; she still had her white-blonde straightened hair, but her laser-whitened teeth had elongated into fangs, and her eyes glowed red. Brown batlike wings sprouted from her back, bony with skin stretched tight.

"Yeeugh," Eva mumbled. "Props to your makeup skills. It must take ages to cover that shit up."

The harpy tossed her hair. Her claws were painted a sparkly red color, Eva noticed.

"I'm tumblr famous for it," she scoffed proudly. "But like, you're not even going to live to look up my blog or whatever." The harpy crouched to spring. Her lips pulled back into a snarl.

Eva clicked her pencil a couple more times. The blade lengthened even more until it was the length of a normal sword. The metal was strong, celestial bronze, but the blade itself was thin, and depending on the enemy, prone to breaking. That could be solved with a click or two, but like a regular mechanical pencil, it was running out of lead (though in this case, it was bronze). And the rest of her refills were across the room.

Better make this fast.

….

Dakota couldn't sleep. It wasn't that she was having weird dreams again. She'd started having them a little while ago. They always had weird… things in them, shadows of monsters and things that she didn't even know she could dream up. But not tonight. Tonight she was getting a weird feeling.

Like something bad was going to happen soon.

She lay in bed for a long time, trying to will herself asleep, but it was no use. She stared at her alarm clock. 1:42, it read in bright blue letters. She started at it until the numbers changed. Then she tried to fall asleep again. Frustrated, she got up and stood at her window. Outside, it was dark, except for the schools outdoor lights. It was drizzling, and the thick layer of clouds covered up the moon. Her mother used to tell her to be careful on moonless nights, because on those nights it wasn't there to protect you. As if the moon was a person.

With that thought, there was a small flash of lightning followed by a low rumble. The flash echoed in her vision, and Dakota blinked curiously. She felt oddly comforted, as if since the moon was gone, the lightning was to protect her instead.

"Thank you," she whispered, not sure who exactly she was talking to. There was another flash of lightning, and the drizzle turned into a rain.

Instead of the following thunder, Dakota heard a crash from a few rooms down.

...

Eva panted as she stared at the monster across the room and admired her haircutting skills. The harpy's hairstyle was drastically improved, in her opinion. The right side had been hacked off below the ear.

"Oh. Seems like I nicked your ear," Eva said disappointedly. "Does that mean you won't leave me a tip?"

"Bitch, I paid twenty dollars for those extensions!" it hissed, lunging for Eva. It hit her like a linebacker. They landed in a frenzied tangle on the bed. The harpy had gotten ahold of her hands and pinned them above her head. Eva's sword was still in her hand, and she frantically tried to twist her wrist around to cut the harpy somehow. "You're going to pay for that!"

Then there was a knock at the door.

Eva and the harpy stared at each other in bewilderment and ceased struggling for a second.

"You gonna get that?" Eva mumbled awkwardly.

"Wasn't planning on it," the harpy answered through her fangs.

…

Emon finished climbing through the window and shook out his hair. Little water drops landed on the windowsill and quickly dried from the cool breeze. It smelled like asphalt and rain. Bad enough that Eva ditched the meeting with Alec. Then of course, it had to start pouring on the way back. He could feel the water squish through his socks.

"Your hair is long when it's wet," a smooth female voice said behind him. "I like it that way."

He felt a cold shiver go up his spine, but he didn't even attempt to locate his voice. That was his mother's way; just be a creepy little shit all the time and screw up literally everything. He began walking down the hall, trying to ignore her.

The voice purred. "Oh, don't be like that."

Emon began walking faster. Leave me alone, he thought forcefully, as if he was trying to will the words out like bullets. In his peripheral vision, he could almost make out a woman's silhouette creeping across the walls. Or maybe it was just the dimly lit hallway. All he knew was that he had to keep her away. From Eva. From everyone.

"If that's how it's going to be, fine." The vague shadows darkened and swirled even more violently, just barely in his range of sight.

Emon closed his eyes and waited for the shadows to go away. Once the shadows went away, he was safe. Everyone else would be safe. He felt his heartbeat gradually slowing down. He hadn't realized before that the pounding in his hears had been his heartbeat. She is leaving. The very thought calmed him. Until he heard words that turned his veins to ice.

"See you soon."

His eyes shot open and he spun around to see the fleeting image of the shadows shoot toward one singular dark spot on the wall. Panting, Emon stared at it, waiting for something terrible to happen, but it stayed completely still.

It was only when he turned to head back to his room that he realized the dark spot was his own shadow.

Emon forced himself to keep walking, even though he felt as if he were made of ice.

He'd barely even realized that he had walked into the Dakota girl.

"Oh- oh my god-"

"Gods," Emon corrected, not even realizing.

"What? Anyway, I'm sorry- wait, how did you get to this side of the dorm? And oh, you're all wet-" Emon put a finger to her lips, not even fully aware of what he was doing. He felt like he was sleepwalking or something, and just noticed that his finger was trembling. Her eyes widened. They were electric blue, which Emon never thought could be a real eye color, but hey. Gods and everything.

Dakota pulled his hand down and held it in her own. "You're cold. And really pale. Are you okay?"

Emon searched for words, and excuse. "Bad dream. I went for a walk. It was wet."

Dakota looked at him and chuckled softly. "I can tell."

"Why are you out here? If I'm correct, both of us being outside our rooms is against the rules. Especially if we're together. Is this your room?"

Dakota blushed scarlet. "I would never- not with you- I mean boys in general- oh-" She bit her lip and looked at him apologetically. "And this isn't my room. It's Eva's. I thought I heard a noise, so I went to check on her, but she hasn't answered."

In the back of his mind, he felt a fleeting terror that he had ended up outside Eva's room unintentionally, but he stowed it away quickly. "A noise?"

Dakota shrugged and fiddled with her pajama shirt. "Sounded like fighting or something. I don't know."

"Fighting, huh?" Emon scrambled in his head for something to say. "That would make sense, I guess. Um, Eva's a bit on an insomniac, and she sometimes does crazy things when she can't sleep. She's probably trying to rearrange her room or something."

"Quite violently, it sounds like. Are you sure she's alright?"

Emon looked her in the eye and grinned, though after his confrontation with his mother, the last thing he wanted to do was smile. But hey, he was a good liar. "I'm sure."

Dakota looked at him skeptically, but seemed calmed. "Okay then." She turned to walk back to her room, but paused. "Are you two related?"

Emon's eyebrows rose. "No, why?"

She shrugged. "You look alike and act alike… kind of like you're the same person. You sure you're not related or something?"

He gave her another smile. "Just old friends."

She nodded, though it seemed to him that she wasn't entirely sure. Emon wasn't sure which part would make her skeptical- the "related" part or the "friends" part. Either way, she slipped back into her room.

Emon stood there for a second. She might be catching on. In that case, we're out of time. Then he knocked on Eva's door. It opened a crack, through which he could see Eva's eye peering at him. For a second he didn't think she was going to let him in, but after a few seconds the door opened just enough for him to slip inside.

The room was a mess. There were tears in her bedding, and half of the furniture was either cracked or covered in claw marks. There were shards of what Emon recognized as her breakable sword scattered across the room. On top of that, everything was coated in a fine layer of gold dust, including Eva herself. She was shaking out her bed, sending clouds of dust billowing across the room.

Emon coughed and covered his mouth with his sleeve. "Rough night?"

"Fuck you," Eva grumbled. "Also, we're running out of time. The monsters have started to notice something big is here. We're just lucky they took a bad guess."

"Dakota was just coming to check on you. Said she heard weird noises."

Eva closed her eyes and sighed. "Fuck. Well, this is turning shitty. I'm thinking we should just tell her and get it over with quickly. Like a band aid or some shit."

Emon stared at her and blinked. "You're getting blood all over your bedsheets."

Eva looked down and saw the stains on her bed, coming from the long scratches where the harpy hand presumably tried to shred her flesh. "Goddammit. I hate when this happens."

Emon couldn't help but scoff. "You know, some would be blessed to have the same problem as you. If you could call it a problem."

"Oh, shut it. Why were you in the girl's wing anyway, you perv?"

"Well, after you ditched Alec and me-"

"-Shove off-"

"-I was um, wandering, and ran into Dakota."

She gave him a deadpan stare. "Wandering."

He narrowed his eyes, half annoyed and half amused. "What do you think I was doing?"

She shrugged, frustrated, and violently beat her pillowcase on the bed, sending more dust flying. "Oh, I don't know. Canoodling. Doing creepy things. I don't know."

He gave her a half smile. "Don't you trust me?"

She looked at him truthfully. "Not really."

On the outside, Emon gave her an easygoing smile and slinked out of the room without answering. And on the inside, he was happy. Happy that she didn't really trust him. Because she shouldn't.

Sorry that took forever. Chapters should be coming sooner, hopefully.

Please review, let me know what you think! Yep. Do that, please.