April was not always how she was.

She remembered a time when she would laugh happily with her brothers and their friends, shrieking with laughter as her oldest brother seized her and rubbed her into the snow until her other brother poured a bucket of powdered snow on all of them. It would be worth it, shivering and quaking as they made their soggy and cold trek through the manor, leaving grey footprints trailing after them. Her father would shrug his shoulders before winking at the three troublemakers when her mother would scold them, always swooping in to curb her wrath with the same words.

"They're our spawn, Evelyn. What do you expect from them?"

He would kiss her mother's sweet cheeks and she would calm her bristling, giving one final glare at her two sons and youngest, yet pampering them with hot milk later on to make sure none of them got sick, encouraging them further with sugar cookies. Her mother and father would take turns kissing each of their children's cheeks to sleep.

It had happened too quickly, a blur of movements and screams meshed together. She still doesn't understand fully what had happened, only that she woke up to the screams and found herself in the middle of nowhere, feeling lighter than ever. It took her five years to find a way back to her home, and when she went back, only ashes existed with draped rooms and black tarps scattered throughout the home, her home. She'd heard a weird snap and had run to the back of the manor where a large oak tree existed, swings created by her father and brothers hanging limply along with the figure of her father. She had screamed, trying to bring life to him, to hug him back and hug his pains away, yet her arms had gone through and shocked her away, punishing her for even attempting to touch him. When she followed her two surviving brothers, the only ones left of her family, she discovered her potency of walking through figures and walls without being flung across the room, unless they were dead. Try as she might, she could not stop her eldest brother from drinking himself to death, and she could not stop her second older brother's abuse from his adoptive family. She could not stop him from screaming her name in a trapped nightmare, and she could not do anything more than quietly watch and follow.

Time weathers down even the greatest of buildings and trees. How could a mere girl even dream to withstand its force then?

She lost track of time, trapped in a world she wanted to escape from. She'd seen death before, patiently waiting for her brother who grew old and frail and died surrounded by a new family he'd made. She'd been able to see her brother peacefully greet death like an old friend before glowing and disappearing, most likely to heaven. She wondered if this was the new hell that had been created for her, stuck for eternity in a world where she knew no one and no one could see or sense her. She hunted down death, begging for them to take her, yet they'd only shook their heads and said the same thing over and over each time.

"Tis not thy time, young one. Thou shalt wait till thy purpose hath been fulfilled."

"When? When will be the time? I have waited for decades, almost centuries, yet I am still lost and trapped where not even other wandering souls can see me!" she would scream, only to receive slow shakes of pity.

Only one angel she'd come upon had given her some insight.

"Your purpose has not arrived yet. You will be summoned to the location of your purpose and they will see you. Only when they speak to you should your purpose start, young one."

He'd disappeared with a shy smile, kind blue eyes glowing before he disappeared to fulfill his duty. Something about two brothers.

So she waited, floating through time, growing with it and harnessing it, finding a family in the lull of it. Despite all the centuries she drifted through, preparing herself for the purpose at any moment, she was still surprised. She would never be prepared for the spiral she'd be thrown into.


Neil Perry was loved by his family.

If they didn't they wouldn't have even looked at him. It was because of his father's sacrifice that he got to comfortably laugh with his friends and fulfill his academic intents.

So why did he feel like he was being suffocated, drowning? He wanted to tell his father what his dreams were, what his opinions were, what he wanted to do and be, yet whenever he tried, it felt as if he was screaming in a soundproof cage, trapped inside and shrinking further in on himself.

The signal came for the start of the new year, with a new roommate, and a new teacher. He would be okay. He could survive this, he could make it to Harvard and fulfill his father's purpose and dreams for him. He could do this, yet why did he want to run away so much?

Cameron stiffly grabbed his banner as the bagpipes uttered their first wails, Neil quickly following suit and dropping into his place. The loud wailing procession made their way to the church, stiffly and proudly stepping up to the front and diverging from there, turning to face the room filled with strange faces, old and new, familiar and familial, yet his eyes caught on the girl standing in the middle of the pathway to the dais of the church, looking lost and hopeless. Neil frowned in confusion, wondering just how it was that no one else noticed her staring around the room with a frown. Her head turned away from their left, onyx hair rippling like ink on a fresh sheet of paper to stare at him, making eye contact, brown meeting black and clashing. Her face paled as her lips parted in shock, eyes wide and suddenly filled with something that threatened to overwhelm them both.

"Gentlemen, what are the four pillars?"

Her lashes fluttered over her eyes and her pale sallow cheeks, evoking beauty even in her frailness. Neil's lips moved on their own as he stared at the girl who had captured all of him.

"Tradition, Honor, Discipline, Excellence."

She shone like no other, surely drawing eyes, yet no one, not a single soul, even acknowledged her presence, except himself. He stood there robustly, cheeks flushed and eyes latched onto hers like a moth would to a flame. She wondered if this was it, her saving grace, her mercy, and her peace after all this time. He wondered if he was going insane, hallucinating beautiful goddesses out of thin air. Perhaps his dreams had grown too vivid. They blinked in unison, trying to clear themselves of this haze that overcame them both. Perhaps they were hallucinating? Yet lashes whispered against their cheeks and brown clashed with black once more.

"Neil, come," his father's quiet hiss broke him out of his reverie, making him realize that the ceremony had ended. The boy obediently stepped down, eyes flickering back to the dark-haired wraith, only to find her eyes trained on him as well. It sent shivers up his spine, his very own foundation, yet he played the role of the perfect star, Neil Perry, and greeted his headmaster.

"Hello Mr. Nolan," he grinned as the headmaster smiled back not unkindly.

"Neil. We expect great things from you this year."

Always the same words, the same yoke around his neck. Neil's smile never faltered from his eyes as he agreed politely.

"Well, he won't disappoint us. Right, Neil?" His father's hand came upon him, firmly melding his clay once more.

"I'll do my best, sir," Neil affirmed, trying not to let his gaze be drawn to the other set of eyes trained on him from across the room.

Neil and his parents parted, as he ventured toward his dorm room, only to run into his new roommate.

"Hey, I hear we're going to be roommates," Neil grinned, always eager to expand his social circle. He stretched a hand out to the new boy who seemed shy, yet grabbed his hand and shook it. "I'm Neil Perry."

"Todd Anderson," came the shy voice, eyes darting here and there in nervousness. Neil swore to himself then and there that he would stick to the boy and never leave him be. Yes, he liked this boy very much.

"Why'd you leave Balincrest?"

"My brother went here."

"Oh so you're that Anderson," Neil grinned, teasing him lightly and trying to bring levity to the conversation. He saw her over the boy's shoulder again, staring at the two with a strange expression. Todd did not notice, simply awkwardly waving to go get his stuff again and find his way to the room. He'd left the two souls alone on the school grounds, staring at each other.

"Who are you?" Neil whispered, unsure if she was real or just a side effect of his stress these days. She perked up at his voice, her small figure standing up straighter and gliding toward him. "Are you even real?"

"Do you want me to be?"