Always Raining

As Madison allowed herself to be swallowed into the deep depths of darkness' stomach, Nicola slumped onto the door side, her fingers restlessly drumming on the floor as she waited. Time was crawling by at a snail's pace, and what was about five minutes or so, felt like hours upon hours and she was almost ready to get up and leave. There was nothing wrong in the end as the other girl came back triumphantly with bright green eyes at her success, and Nicola let out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, yeah. You didn't d---" Just as the corners of her lips were about to turn into a smile, her eyes narrowed towards the creature forming behind Madison, materializing and fabricating itself into the world as it weaved its way through the planes. This was a hallucination, huh?

It was disgusting, reeking of the foul smell of death, curled and twisted like a sewer rat. Grimacing, Nicola forced herself to stay calm, grabbing Madison back into the light and forcing the woman to unlatch her fingers from her friend's shoulders. Were these hallucinations close enough to demons? Could she use her powers and get it over with as soon as possible? What would happen if this illusion managed to break through and kill them both? What would happen to the school? Too many questions rushed into her head, and Nicola's hands twitched in tension as she tried to think. Think, think, think... What should she do?

Madison just stood there at first. An overwhelming terror flooded through her limbs, turning them to stone. It was that thing again; before she even saw it, she knew. It was the smell. It was like garbage, petrified and crude, like a plague over the dorm. It was her mother, her new mother, New Mother, New Mother was real.

When her hand found movement, It shot up to meet the head of the beast, shaky and unwilling, but it was too tall. It casually pushed her down with its weight, it's neck slightly bent as its head met the ceiling.

A normal hallucination would have taken the chance to kill Madison. However, black diamond eyes settled on Nicola, the bigger threat, and it bent down, to the level of Nicola's face, opening a mouth of daggersharp teeth. It hissed. Then it rushed, lunging at Nicola with the clawed yellow nails of its five-snaked hand.

She barely had any time to blink, any time to move as the humming blow came up in front of her, leaving a red incision straight across her cheek as she swerved to the side, the hallucination's saliva dripping down and sticking to her clothes. Taking a deep breath, Nicola let out a small 'tch', her hands reaching back for something, anything that would be of any use. There was only empty air, nothing to grab onto, not a single fucking thing. Her mouth hung open, and out of instinct, her fingers reached for the crook of her elbow, pushing down as a sword ripped its way out of her skin, blood red gathering in front. The blotches of red drifted and stormed through the air, weaving like a thread stringing together before the weapon materialized herself and she snatched it out, and gripped hard.

Her face twisted into something between 'apprehension' and 'determination', and the blade was held, still as stone, as she waited for the next attack. She just had to parry for awhile, right? Madison would know how to deal with her hallucination and Nicola just had to stall for awhile to give her time to think. Hopefully... This wasn't a great situation, but she had to trust her friend for this. She wouldn't freak out or break down again. Madison had training now. She wouldn't just start crying again or anything. She wasn't that weak.

"You have five minutes. I'm not going to try and fight this any longer than that," Nicola muttered under her breath. Shifting her leg, she got into position before dashing back towards Madison's creation, her sword slashing diagonally, aiming for any lethal points possible.

Her sword slashed across the thing's narrow body. It was like butter, a shady mulch falling from the spot, contorting over the spot. Mending the spot. New Mother seemed unphased, and looked at Nicola with a wretched scowl. It's clawed hand rushed forward, grasping around the girl's throat, throwing her into the wall with a force that would confuse many in the building. Enough force to throw up dust. New Mother looked at the girl in the eyes, narrowly, and gripped harder, choking at her.

"Mother stop!" Like she did in her evaluation, Madison let out a desperate plea, a fist-clenched plea, and out of the darkness that consumed the room behind her, figures sprinted out, tapping Madison's back as they entered tangibility, entering the light with a growl, wicked disfigured humanoids and quadrupeds, snarling and jumping on the New Mother. And she released Nicola from her deadly grasp, long bony arms flailing to throw the hallucinations off. She exceeded with some, throwing over the couch, a lamp or two. But the creatures overwhelmed her, dragged her, and she backed up, further and further, gripping at a neck that was being squeezed tightly by contorted figures. And they pulled her, into the darkness, and themselves too, and they disappeared into nothingness.

Madison breathed. Her face was stone. It seemed like she was entranced, out of it a little, her blue-green eyes gazing forward. Distantly. But she got out of it, and her eyes flicked down to Nicola, wordlessly.

A triumphant smile flashed over Nicola's face when she managed to impale the hallucination, driving her blade further in before she forcibly drew it out, red dripping throughout the already crimson blood, sticky and plopping onto the floor like rain on a dark grey day. Blue eyes glanced up with victory shining through them, Nicola spun on her heel, huffing out, "These aren't so bad. I don't see why you had trouble with them." With her hands on her hips, she began to offer her hand out so that they could leave the room, but she tensed immediately when she heard a whirring movement from behind her. Her head turned over her shoulder and her eyes widened before nails dug into her neck, tightening their clasp around her as she was lifted off the floor, her legs swinging feverishly to no avail.

Fair, slender fingers reached up, trying to pry the clawed hand away. Her heart suddenly felt constricted, like a snake was wrapping around and making each pump weaker and weaker, and a strangled gasp escaped. The small body shook and suddenly, her vision started to slowly blacken itself and Madison's words barely processed themselves in her ears. Mother? This was her mom? Nicola bit down on her lip, hard, forcing herself to stay conscious. A storm of footsteps sounded throughout in their staccato rhythm, and she dropped onto her hands and knees, breathing heavily as she managed to roll away from the heap of hallucinations on top of one another. Heavy breaths turned shallow, contorting to coughs and hacking fits.

White noises entered her mind, and as suddenly as it came, it stopped. Nicola let out a sigh of relief, slumping against the wall before her eyes turned towards Madison. Her throat felt dry like sand paper, and weakly, a smile crossed her features. "Never... mind... They're... pretty... strong." Eyelids heavy, her eyes were half-closed, and she leaned back, tempted to just pass out. "Does this... normally... happen?"

The blank faced girl continued to look at her friend, until there was a quiver on her mouth, and tears came down her pallid cheeks. She threw herself at Nicola, wrapping her arms around her neck, the weight of the situation passing over her. It was horrible, seeing it almost kill Nicola. That'd never happened before; hallucinations never hated her so much as to risk touching the light just to kill her. And any hallucination would have killed her before her friend. Why did New Mother go after her friend? "Are you okay...?" she managed to get out.

The burning sensation swelled up at her throat, erupting like a volcano as the magma spewed out. It was rash, sore, completely red, and her hand reached up, wrapping around it a bit as though it would help free her airway. Nicola tried to clear it, conceding in defeat with a small sigh before glancing back at Madison, who had wound up breaking down and crying anyway. As the other girl sharply pulled her into a hug, her body relaxed for a few moments before she let out a small groan. "I'm seriously... going to die... if you don't loosen... your grip." Okay, she got it. She nearly died. But it wasn't that big of a deal. Madison knew enough to realize that she was pretty much in danger all the time, right? There were demons that wanted her head spiked through a stick and driven through the ground.

She was going to die? Madison immediately jumped back and brushed the tears away from her eyes, replacing it with panic, panic and sniffles. "Dying, no, um, y-you can't, um...you may need to go to the infirmary, can you stand...?" She couldn't die. Madison saved her, that usually meant everything would be fine and dandy. She wasn't going to be the reason her friend ended up killed. She wouldn't be able to live with herself.

"Just kidding." Nicola shook her head with a hoarse sigh, her hand reaching for the wall as she slowly got to her knees. That was something, right? She could stand if she just planned this carefully. One palm rested on the wall, grasping the flat surface as though she could support herself with it, blindly getting up. Her legs buckled, splitting like lead, and she fell back down in defeat. "I think - yeah - I'll just stay right here." It was too much work to get to the infirmary anyway. She might as well get comfortable sitting in this corner. It couldn't be so bad if she just fell asleep right there. Should be fine by tomorrow, most likely.

Madison watched her try and get up with hopeful eyes, eyes whose color faded as she slinked back to the ground. It was that bad, huh? The girl crossed her arms, before hatching an idea, walking over to the girl and squatting down beside her, her back to Nicola. "You can't stay there the whole night. Well, you could, but..." Her hands curled upwards from her lower back, as a support for her friend's legs. The bleach-haired girl was small, it would work. "Put your arms around my neck, I'll, erm,...lift you..." Madison thought about bringing her to the couch, but she'd feel guilty leaving her injured friend there. She'd bring Nicola to her bed instead. She'd live for one night; it was her fault anyway.

Her first reaction was to refuse Madison's generous offer and tell her to forget it. It wasn't like she needed anything to get into a decent position to breath. Nicola shook her head, forcing herself to try and get back up again. She didn't exactly need the help. No. If she tried hard enough, it shouldn't be a problem to just get back to her dorm. "Nope, I'm good... Yeah." As if to prove her point, she managed to straighten up and keep her balance without the wall. A wide smile appeared on her face as her hand readjusted he cap. "Yup, no problem."

"Should be fine..." Maybe she was trying too hard to prove that she'd be fine. Maybe it would've been better to just accept help and get the whole thing over with. Her pride would take a good slap though; she'd rather take the risk of failing than receive assistance for something as menial as walking.

When she tried to exert herself, Madison flinched. She was too stubborn, and would manage to hurt herself if she continued. “Come on…,”Madison persisted, lifting Nicola onto her back with a little more force. “...and stop talking. That can’t be good. Of course I don’t know, but...” She trailed off there and began to walk, trying her best to not appear burdensome. Nicola was light for a person, but people were still heavy. She took each step with a slow fluidity, keeping a consistent but slothlike pace, removing her hand from under Nicola’s thigh only to flick on the light to her room. She half-expected the hallucinations to be waiting there, her mother waiting to attack. There was no one, though, and there was an ominous peace to her quarters. Madison felt watched.

“Sorry it’s a mess, um, I wasn’t expecting...company.” It wasn’t that bad, and Nicola’s room was worse, from what she had seen. She leaned backwards over the bed, carefully placing Nicola down, feeling like a mother. Or maybe a mother koala. “Just breathe or...something, um...sleep, you breathe when you sleep, do that.” She was quite the soother. “Goodnight, and, um, sorry for...this.” She stood there for a moment, and she didn’t know why.

Nicola was lucky that Madison had snatched her up from the air when she did - if she stood any longer, she might as well had kissed the floor, face-first. Once Madison began lecturing her, the corners of her lips turned downward into a small frown and she was about to retort back or hop off the other girl's back until she saw the logic behind it. It made sense. She shouldn't be talking in the end, should she? Goddamn, when she looked back on this scene, she'd shoot herself personally for being so absolutely childish. Her cheeks turned red slightly and an incoherent phrase mumbled out of her throat, something along the lines of 'thank you' and 'sorry'. No offense to Madison's help, but the ride wasn't necessarily smooth.

By the time they got to the bedside, Nicola couldn't help but be relieved. Blue eyes drearily glanced around the room. A few things were out of place here and there, but trash didn't litter the floor like rain puddles after a storm. Madison didn't seem like the kind of person to get everything to be disorganized into utter chaos. Her friend's voice reached her, and Nicola wound up laughing a bit, only stopping herself when a shot of pain stretched through her chest. She cleared her throat, "'ya know, people who think about breathing... usually forget to." Her arm came up as she stretched for a few moments before a sudden realization hit her. "Oopsie. My brother's going to... actually kill me."

What did she mean? A chill went up her back. Was she hinting that she could die or something? Of course, if she didn't die from this, her brother would apparently do the job instead. "Stop it, go to sleep." Madison fought her habit of trailing her voice, an urgency and solid tone on her mouth. With a hint of stammer, of course, because Madison was still Madison. The girl walked out and made sure to flick off the light. Now to decide where she would sleep.

It would be hours later that Madison decided to sleep beside Nicola, in a chair she usually used to throw clothes over-top. An orange nightlight was plugged into the wall, enveloping her softly. And in the morning, when Nicola woke, she would find Madison slouched in that chair awkwardly, asleep and stupid looking, but there.