Kat, Ace, and Deuce made their way down the front steps of the castle. The afternoon air was full of chatter from the milling students, and she looked around, blinking.
"Well-- we really should get to our clubs," Deuce said, indicating himself and Ace. "What about you, Prefect?"
Kat, still with Grim huddled miserably under her chin, shrugged. "I'm just gonna head back to Ramshackle... Take a quick break before starting to go over my notes from the day. Then I'm probably gonna try cleaning up a little bit..."
"Really?" Ace asked, giving her a surprised look. "What about your club?"
"Uhh... I- I'm not in one," she said, shrugging again. "I don't really know how I'd even enroll in one... Plus, with this guy..." She indicated Grim. "I don't even know how that'd work, to be honest... I mean, what if we couldn't decide on a club? We're technically one student, so..."
"Ahh..." Ace and Deuce nodded.
Stepping down onto Main Street, they started walking towards the library.
A glint of crimson caught Kat's eye, and she looked up, eyebrows raising. Riddle, with a neat binder tucked under his arm, was striding up Main Street, the crowd parting again to make way for him.
"Oh-- HEY!" She called, rising up on the balls of her feet and waving. "Riddle!"
Ace and Deuce both gave her panicked looks, drawing back. "H-Hey, KAT-- what the hell d'you think you're DOING?!" Ace hissed.
Rolling her eyes, she ignored him.
Riddle paused, looking around. Spotting them, he blinked, looking surprised, then made his way carefully over to them. "Ah, Prefect-- good afternoon," he said, bowing slightly at the waist with his free hand pressed to his chest. "I hope I find you well?"
Kat laughed, brushing her hair behind her ear. "More or less," she replied, shrugging. "How about you?"
"I'm quite well, thank you," Riddle smiled, straightening up. Pausing, he frowned, tilting his head at the morose Grim.
"...Is he alright?"
"Yeah, he's fine," Kat assured him, stroking Grim's back a few more times. "He's just kinda depressed today... I'll get him a snack to help him feel better, don't worry. Are you heading to that meeting with the Headmaster?"
"Indeed I am," Riddle confirmed, nodding. "Very astute of you, Kat."
"Yeah, we were just up there with him," Kat agreed, jerking her head towards the castle.
Riddle raised his eyebrows. "Really? With the Headmaster?"
"Yeah," she confirmed again, nodding. "He wanted to talk to us about-- uhhhh..."
Her brain caught up to her about halfway through the sentence, and she trailed off, wincing. "N-Nevermind. It's-- not important..."
"Not import-- oh," Riddle murmured, realization dawning on his face. "Oh-- yes, I- I see... That."
Shaking his head, he coughed politely into his fist, stepping back. "Well-- it was very nice to see you, Kat... Feel free to visit the stables again, if you like. I'm sure Vorpal would be just as pleased to see you."
"Yeah, I will," Kat smiled. "It was nice seeing you, too... Hope the meeting goes well!"
"Thank you," Riddle smiled back at her, bowing slightly again. Then he looked around at Ace and Deuce, taking another step back and folding his arms.
"...Ace. Deuce. Is there anything you two would like to say?" He asked flatly, raising an eyebrow.
Kat looked over at them, too.
"Snrkt--" Choking, she turned away again, pressing a hand to her mouth at the looks of utterly panicked bewilderment on their faces.
"Uhh..." Deuce shook his head, looking back and forth between the two of them stupidly. "You two are-- uh-- y-you seem... Uh..."
Forcing down the laughter, Kat shook her head, grinning. "What? We're friends. Is there something wrong with that?"
This time, even Grim looked shocked, untucking himself from under her chin and gaping at her.
"FRIENDS?!" Ace demanded, jaw dropping open. "You and the dorm head?!"
"Yep!" She confirmed. "Right, Riddle?"
"That's correct," Riddle agreed, smirking a bit. "Why? Is there something WRONG with that?"
"Well-- n-no! Of course not, sir!" Deuce said quickly, shaking his head and raising his hands. "It's just-- um..."
"When the heck did THAT happen?!" Grim demanded, putting his paws on her chest and pushing back to look up into her face incredulously. "An' WHY?!"
"What do you MEAN, why?" Kat retorted. "Why not?"
"BECAUSE--" Ace began. Then he took several steps back, grimacing and looking at Riddle nervously. "Because," he hissed. "He's-- he's... Just-- I mean-- HIM? Seriously?!"
"I don't have to--" Kat began.
Then she spotted something... Odd. She paused, frowning.
...A small figure was making it's way up Main Street, towards the castle. It was a little ways away, so she couldn't make out many details... But it was small. Like, VERY small. Possibly not even at five feet...
But it was kind of hard to tell, since it was... Hovering. And it had fiery blue hair.
She turned her head slowly, watching as it-- or they?-- passed. The other students on Main Street didn't seem to pay them much notice...
And, she realized, they weren't alone... At least, not exactly. Hovering at their side at about eye-level, keeping pace with them, was a black rectangle.
"...It's that iPad again," she muttered out loud, watching as the... Pair? Entourage? Whatever?- floated up the castle's front steps. "The flying iPad..."
She'd almost forgotten about it, what with everything that happened... But, now that she saw it again, it really was pretty weird.
"Hm?" Riddle asked, looking around. "The flying-- ah..."
Catching sight of the weird duo-- or person and object?-- he nodded. "Yes, that would be the head of Ignihyde... And my sign to make haste to the Mirror Chamber. Good day, Kat-- and..."
Stepping back, he gave Ace, Deuce, and Grim, still in her arms, his signature disapproving look. "...Others. Farewell."
With one last bow, he turned, heading up the front stairs as well and out of sight into the castle.
"Bye," Kat called, waving as she started walking again herself.
After a second, Ace and Deuce caught up with her, still staring in shock. "Hey-- what the hell was THAT?!" Ace demanded, flinging his arms out.
"What, the flying-- person? Or the iPad?" Kat asked. "I have no idea..."
"No, not THAT! You and the dorm head!" Ace snapped. "Since when are you two FRIENDS?!"
"Since a couple days ago," she replied, shrugging. "Remember when I asked you guys to watch Grim so I could go talk to him? Since then."
"O-Ohhh," Deuce said, nodding. "I see... Well-- it was a little surprising, but... Hey, good for you! I mean, I definitely couldn't do it... Like, I respect the housewarden a lot, but--"
"But WHY?!" Ace interrupted him, flinging his arms out even wider. "WHY,though?! Why the fuck would you EVER want to be friends with that-- with that... Little TEAPOT TYRANT?!"
Kat stopped in her tracks, giving Ace a long, displeased look. "I do NOT have to explain myself to you, Trappola," she said flatly. "And I don't recall asking for your opinion, either."
"But he tried to KILL us!" Ace protested. "And YOU, specifically! You really don't feel some type of way about that?!"
"He already apologized for that-- SEVERAL times," she replied. "And I can tell he actually means it... And, also, he's pretty cool."
"COOL?!" Ace protested, but Deuce elbowed him hard in the side, glaring. "Knock it OFF, Ace," he ordered. "The Prefect can be friends with whoever she wants... And-- well... Honestly, I- I think the housewarden needed more friends, anyway."
He smiled at Kat. "Okay-- well, I have to get to the Track Field club... See you guys at dinner, I guess?"
"Yeah, sure thing," Kat agreed, smiling back. "See you later, Deuce."
Nodding, Deuce jogged off, giving a final wave as he headed towards the fields.
Sighing, Kat turned to Ace, who was still looking at her in disbelief. "...What about you? You gonna go to basketball, or are you just gonna stand here gawking at me for the rest of the day?"
"Uhh..." Ace shook his head rapidly. "Yeah-- right, right... But this conversation isn't over, Pre-K!"
He pointed angrily at her as he started to jog off himself, back towards the castle. "You and I are gonna have words about this later, you got that?!"
Rolling her eyes, she flipped him off, hoisting Grim up onto her shoulder as she started walking back towards Ramshackle.
Sitting on the unmade bed, Kat tapped the tip of her pencil against the notebook on her lap.
Open textbooks were strewn across the crumpled sheets, bookmarked by scraps of paper. Her other notebooks were stacked haphazardly next to her, covered in her scribbly, chicken-scratch handwriting.
...It was no good. She couldn't concentrate.
Sighing, she flopped onto her back, draping one forearm over her forehead and looking up at the ceiling.
...Overblot, huh...? Negative energies...
Guess she was right-- Riddle was really sad.
...Maybe she should talk to him again? She'd had a lot of other things she wanted to say to him...
But-- ugh...
...
...A great, terrifying shadow. Black, churning 'flesh', a head like a glass bottle...
She felt her skin prickle again, hair along her arms standing up straight.
The spot on her cheek had healed over a few days ago... But for a second, she could have sworn it started burning faintly again, a brief echo of phantom pain.
...That thing in the mines. It-- it was the same. The same as that monster... Riddle's 'shadow', or 'dark Stand', or something.
Well-- okay, Riddle's was probably a lot more powerful... But he WAS a really powerful mage, so that wasn't too surprising.
But-- What had happened to the mine monster's mage?
...She knew. She knew, but she didn't want to admit it.
Rolling onto her side, she wrapped her arms around her torso, pulling her knees upand closing her eyes.
They were probably dead.
Were they one of the ghosts in the mine? Or were they just-- gone?
...What had happened to them? Why had they-- they... Overblotted? Was that the right conjugation? And how long had it been there, wandering the mines? How long could those-- those monsters or whatever exist after the mages-- after they...
...Oh, god. He really DID almost die, didn't he?
Jesus, that's-- that's so fucked-up. That's super fucked-up...!!
Closing her eyes, she let the shivers overtake her, crumbling into a... Not a panic attack, exactly, or even an anxiety attack. More like a... Dread attack? Horror attack?
When it was over, Kat took a deep breath in, then out. Opening her eyes again, she sat up, rubbing her face with a fist and yawning.
...She needed something to eat. And some caffeine. Even though it was a crapshoot whether the caffeine would actually perk her up, or just make her more sleepy... Or just make her heart speed up, with literally no other effects.
Getting up from the bed, she stretched, shuffling over to the door and pulling it open.
"HEY! Grim!" She called, walking out into the hallway and starting down the stairs into the lounge. "C'mere-- I'm going to the cafeteria for a snack! If you wanna tag along, better hurry up!"
"FNYAGH!" Came the little splutter, and paws scrabbled across the hardwood as Grim jumped off the couch, pelting towards her. "Hang on, Kat-- I'm comin', I'm comin'!"
Author's Notes:
SHROUD CAMEO SHROUD CAMEO SHROUD CAMEO
...And the realization/existential dread. Again. No shade to the game MC, but... Come on.
Suffer, Ace. LMAO.