Turn on some lights

Night had fallen on Beata, its classes retiring for the next morning in a wave of evening chatter and slow student dispersal, people trickling from the many buildings like honey. It was at this drop of the sun, after her final class, that the girl was able to finally transfer dorms. She made sure to hurry for her new keys. She did not want to wait around.

When Madison moved into her dorm, when she packed during what seemed to be an eternity ago, she had brought a small nightlight. It was to protect her, to keep her from the dark that could hide her nightmares. The girl used it before her test, in her nights in the initiate dorms, and almost forgot to carry it with her to the summer dorms. It seemed so natural. She planted it beside her bed, fiddling it into the old socket, to the place where it'd shed the closest and most encompassing glow. She tested it. The room was too bright to hide anything, soft in the auburn glow of darkness accepting light. She smiled in relief. Her new room was small enough.

Madison half-mumbled to herself, but the only word to come away from thought and to her lips was "thirsty." She wanted water. It was late and she was ready to go to bed, even on a Friday. The night was terrible, and so she often retired earlier than others.

She opened her door. A wall of darkness hit her from the dorms' main room. She let out a silent "shit...," squinting through the darkness at the lightswitch across the room. In front of it was some sort of figure. She couldn't make it out.

"Can someone...turn on the light?" Though she was calling for anyone, calling to be heard, her voice came awkward and half-hushed, a shout that took a u-turn and bailed early, petering at the last moment into the wisps of a strong voice. It came out hoarse and wrinkled. She didn't want to shout again; what she wanted was some damn water. Madison squinted into the darkness closer, seeing the figure move closer in a sporadic twitch, a movement of limbs half-invisible in the depths of the night.

Brant was relaxing on the couch in the main room of his dorm, eating a sandwich he had decided to made. He wasn't completely sure where his roommates were - he was sure Inari was hiding in her room but the others? He wasn't sure. His gaze flickered toward the door as he called somebody call out to turn on the lights, causing him to blink.

What?

Forcing himself up from the couch, he headed toward the door and opened it up. He peered into the hallway, his half-eaten sandwich partly in his mouth. He raised an eyebrow when he saw what looked like a new student in the entrance of the dorm next to him, and glanced his way across to where the light was. He wanted to ask why she couldn't turn it on herself but...Perhaps it was better not to ask.

So, with a shrug, he grabbed his sandwich from his mouth, swallowed his bite and headed into the darkened room. Soon he reached the light switch and with a flicker of his free hand, turned it on - casting all the darkness away as he glanced across back to Madison with a soft smile. "Is that better?"

Madison watched a new figure walk through the twitching one, the macabre and transparent monster across the room, and she realized with a start that this one was real. She saw the open door, the light pouring from it, and the boy also pouring from it, the light of the main room illuminating as the creepy shadow disappeared instantly with the darkness. She gave a smile to the boy as well, a shy and embarrassed smile, downcast to the floor in front of him.
"Yeah," she said. "Sorry. I have an...affliction. Well, nothing mental or anything! Some would call it a power, but I don't see it as...powerful." Her half laugh and brushing of the hair from her face showed her discomfort, and she silently floated to the miniature kitchen, taking a bottle of water from the shelf as she stuck her face deep into the cool box.

He shrugged as he took another bite of his sandwich as he headed toward her. "Eh, its fine," he said as he reached her, leaning on the wall by the fridge. He had thought about heading back to his room but he thought he might as well chat. "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to." He then paused, watching her grab a battle of water. "Did you just move into Summer house?" he asked, before taking another bite of his sandwich.

"Yeah." She unscrewed the cap, taking a sip of water. She read the label a little, shooting little glances up until finding a firm one. She peered at him smally. "I'm Madison, by the way." Her words seemed to glide out on their own, and she tried her best to look sure of them.

Brant nodded as she finished eating his sandwich, before giving Madison a soft smile. "Well, welcome to the Summer house then Madison. I'm Brant," he said as he folded his arms over his chest, his green eyes glimmering as he looked at her. New students were always welcoming - they always brought a little light into the dorms...At least he thought of it that way. It sounded cool, so he liked thinking of it that way.