Sleepless Swings

"You WHORE!"

Her mother's words still rung in her ears when her eyes flashed open. She was covered in sweat, and the clock was flashing 3:32 AM in bright red letters.

Evelyn sat up, feeling where her mother had slashed her chest in the dream. There weren't any blood though, or gouges. Just the fluttering of her heart. She let out a sigh and fumbled under her pillow, until her hand gripped around the dagger's hilt. She needed a drink.

Her hands were shaking when she crawled out of bed, staggering and swaying. It seems like last night's whiskey hadn't worn off yet, but oh well... Evelyn fell to her knees, still clenching the knife in her hand, and rooted through the pile of clothes by her desk until she found it. One bottle, buried underneath all her dirty laundry. It seemed like her room had gotten so much more messy these days, but that wasn't an issue. It wasn't like anybody visited here anyways, not even Jace. Kimply's power made that much too risky.

There was a half-empty case shoved underneath her bed too, but she had to make that last until she got her little "grocery" stipend from the school. If she ran out before then, God knows what she'd do. A soft smile cracking across her face, she reached out with a quaking hand and twisted off the cap. The faint hiss of the bottle, the sharp smell, the liquid sloshing around in the caramel-tinted glass... Even if she had to live off pocky and cafeteria garden salads, it was worth it to spend what cash she had on this. When she brought it to her lips, her shaking stopped, and she could relax for once.

It was okay. It was just a dream. Evelyn put her hand over her heart, as if to reassure herself that the torture hadn't been real. It was fine. Everything would be fine. She ran her finger over the blade, taking drinks and deep breaths until her heart rate slowed. Right. Right... it was just a nightmare.

She grabbed the corner of her desk and pulled herself to her feet, taking another long swig. Three in the morning, huh? That wasn't too bad. Between Jace and her late night drinking, plus all those nightmares, she felt like she barely got any sleep these days. That was alright, though. It just meant she needed to drink more to get through the day, and lots of tea and water to get through her hangovers. John had warned her that hangovers got worse when she got older, but she didn't have to worry about that yet, right?

Evelyn grabbed her phone off her desk, tossing her knife onto her bed, and flipped it open. Their picture greeted her. It was Jace and her, their faces pressed together, smiling. An unmistakable blush tinted her cheeks. A fleeting smile passed her face looking at him, but it passed just as quickly as it came.

"STUPID SLUT."

Evelyn tapped her contacts. There was only three, listed in bold.

HOME
JASON
KIMPLY

Her thumb hovered over Jason's number, but something nagged at her, and she started feeling the sharp pains in her chest again... Evelyn flipped the phone back closed and pressed the bottle back to her lips. Oh well. It was too late for that anyways, she thought with another glance at the clock. Somehow she knew she wouldn't be getting back to sleep tonight. This room is too dark.

She stood up, drank, flicked on the light, drank, cranked on Sushi's lamp, drank, flopped on her bed again, and drank, drank, drank, drank... Before long, the bottle was empty. Evelyn let it roll out of her limp hand and fall to the carpet with a muted thud. That was it? Evelyn brought a hand to her face to block out the light. She felt so tired all the time, but she couldn't sleep.

"S-su-sushi... hic..." she slurred. "W-what am I d-d... hic..."

Sushi didn't answer. Evelyn groaned and rolled off her bed, crawling to her feet and stumbling like a zombie to the other side of the room. Her teddy bear, bigger than she was, sat in the corner of the room. She cuddled with it on lonely nights sometimes, but then she'd get more nightmares, and she would half to put the bear in the closet so she didn't have to look at it.

Evelyn reached out blindly, knife in one hand, until her fingers found the bathroom's doorknob. She threw it open and stumbled in, blinking the sleep from her eyes. Getting a good look of herself in the mirror brought a bitter smile to her face. Ruffled hair, bags under tired blue eyes, the same plain old face as always and a cotton nightie. "I'm a mess..." she muttered to herself under her breath. Jace's silver snowflake pendant hung around her neck.

Her neck. Was that a hickey?

...

She laughed, rubbing the mark. Well, wasn't that embarrassing...

"USELESS WHORE."

Evelyn clenched her knife harder and stumbled back out the bathroom, and then, as if in a trance, she was throwing on her clothes. A blouse, jeans, sneakers, just the first things she came across. And then she was out of her room, flinging the door open, heading out into 101's shared living space, her knife still in her hand...

I've had some bad writer's block lately, so getting some stuff down feels really good.

Evelyn's character seems all over the place to me these last few months, so I wanted to make something in an attempt to make her seem more consistent in her thoughts, emotions, and motivations... hopefully this accomplished that, to a small extent. This is really meant to be a one post topic, so please no one join without asking me first. Thanks. ;w;

"Oh, no, you can't feel it - no, no... But it really is so precious..."

"We didn't come here for your entertainment."

"Ooh, I know, I knooooow! I won't be long, just go!"

"You're hopeless."

...

There was nothing seemingly out of the ordinary that late / early morning in the Winter dorm. It would seem, in fact, that she was the only one awake in the relative area. With the cold, cruel silent snow outdoors, the only noises seemingly made were by Evelyn herself, stumbling around and creaking the floor boards - which sounded so louder than they really were in the dark quiet.

'If you're hiding in there, I can't say hello...'

A soft knock sounded on the door to dorm 101. It was a patterned echo that, strangely enough, only the drunken girl would be able to hear.

Tap, Tap, Tap...
Tap, Tap, Tap...
Tap, Tap, Tap...

The longer the brunette stood there waiting, the louder, and louder the ominous tapping would grow; ushering, pleading for the Winter to come forward, to answer it for herself, grabbing at her hazy curiosity. It would work. Of course it would. It was so simple, but even when it came to people in better states than she, the bait never ceased to fail. People were so stupidly curious and weird like that.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

Evelyn froze in front of the door.

Tap, tap, tap...

At first she thought she'd imagined it, but no, it was real. It was really real, not just some trick of the ears. Someone was tapping on the door.

Tap, tap, tap...

It was three in the morning. She glanced around at the other rooms, gripping her knife tighter in her hand. Was one of her roommates locked outside...? But... no, why would they knock on the door, especially at this time of night? They had their own keys, didn't they? And even if they'd lost it, why so late? Who else could possibly be up?

Tap, tap, tap...

Her heart was fluttering, and each tap was like a knock on her skull. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap... She knew she had to open the door, had to, if only to calm her fear and soothe her nerves... but something about it made her want to run back into her room and lock the door. Just a primal fear of the dark, maybe, and that nagging fear of ghosts and monsters at the back of her mind. Would it be a bad idea to try and wake someone else up, so they could answer with her...?

But no. That was stupid. Just stupid. It was Beata Academy, who or what could possibly be on the other side of the door that would hurt her? It was probably just something mundane, like a loose door knocker blowing in the wind, or some stupid prank. Right. There wasn't anything to be afraid of, and the alcohol was making her braver by the moment. Finally, with one deep breath, the traces of her nightmare still lingering in the back of her memory, Evelyn crept forward and grabbed the doorknob.

It was just something stupid. Evelyn tightened her grasp on the dagger, turned the knob, and cracked the door open to look at who was on the other side.