A Dawn Walk

Madison would wait by the window every day. She'd stand there in the infirmary, in the dark of blueblack morning, hand on the glass, feeling the cold seep through the thick pane like medicine. She was happy to feel it. Looking into the room on the night of her fall, standing on that sill, she was sure that surviving would bring her paralysis. She thought she would wake up not feeling anything at all. In that moment, Madison hoped she would die, that she could not face her delirium with no way to run. Delirium. Was that what she was calling it now?

Dawn was a blossom, an ink dilution through the watery sky. The wait was always agonizing, and countless times she'd find herself cursing to herself, looking at the ticking clock above her and wondering of she had gotten the time of dawn wrong. She looked it up. Was it wrong? Did she read the time incorrectly? Should she go back to sleep? Should she even bother? These questions were a daily thing, a little annoyance, as the estimations got a little too close. The sun would always come to alleviate this. She would always smile, call herself stupid and an idiot under her breath, and get dressed in the bathroom. How long had she been away from her room? It felt like a year, but it was just a week. It had to be, the formal was a few days ago. That certainly felt like a few days ago.

Madison had a cane, one she found in a closet, late at night when no one was there. She figured she'd need it, with the soreness in her ribs and the healing of her back. She felt like an old lady, and this only heightened it. It was one reason she went walking so earlier, through sideway paths and weaving forest scenes, through places where the few earlybirds would not go in their bleary-eyed disapprobation of life. She was on a campus of teenagers, after all, who when tired wouldn't be up for anything nice. It was straight paths in the morning, a bee-line to class or the cafeteria for muddy coffee. For someone who slept all day, however, a morning stroll through the forest was nice. Madison waited for morning each day. She just wished she could go earlier, before the rise of the sun or in the nighttime altogether. She couldn't run, however. Not like this, not if things got bad.

The girl stepped out of the infirmary, feeling the breezy cold across her face. It was awfully frigid, but she was not going to let this deter her. She put the cane to the ground, supporting herself with each step, a limp leaving her with an offbeat footstep. Ga-chip, ga-chip. It sounded like the crows sending sirens through the trees above.

A sharp turn and a wobbly walk to the forest, and she was there, among the trees, talking the path with cautious and drawn-out steps, getting more accustomed to independence from the cane. Once in a while she tripped, kicking a rock and almost falling, but she held up with a wince and a disheveled sigh. It was still nice. The birds were happy to see her.

The lake was the sky, a mirror of its tranquil fire, and Madison walked out to it, accepting it as a final destination to her painful journey. By now the sun had further welcomed itself to the day. Thursday, December 20. Christmas was coming up. She wondered if Nicola or Owen were expecting a present. She had no time to get a present! Would they hate her if she didn't get a present?

She sat down calmly on the stony shore of the lake, breathing to dispel this stress. The lake was pretty. The wind blowing through her hair was cold, but she didn't notice it as the sheer cold it once was. It was sweet. She was alive.

Myles knew it was too recent after the big accident, the stitches running down the left side of his face still hurt for Christ's sake, but he was already getting stir crazy just sitting in that hospital bed, he almost asked for the VIP treatment from one of the healers.  But he just shook his head, his new casts on his left arm and leg both a pleasant turquoise.  The cast on his arm was full length, so all of his weight was being supported by his right leg and arm in a singular forearm crutch.  It was a pretty slow and heavy gait and pretty much everything hurt like a bitch, but it felt good to feel the fresh air in his lungs.  He usually went to the stables for air, to see the horses and keep them spoiled and happy as the place seemed pretty neglected, but it would just remind him of what he couldn't do.  So he started walking, or sorta hopping around the forest, looking at the sights, listening to the sounds and smelling the moist, slightly mildewy air.  It was only really chance that brought him upon the beautiful lake, with the morning sun reflecting off of the still water, a small smile spread on his face, what a sight.  His blue-grey eyes scanned the surface, when they stopped on a teenager, sitting on the shore, looking about as bliss as he felt.  The lake must have been contagious, he hopped rather loudly out of the forest and into the clearing, he might as well go say hi, even if the noise his hopping probably greeted her miles away.  When he finally hopped to his destination, he adjusted his hat slightly, offering up his signature smile, feeling a slight strain on his stitches as his facial expression changed and speaking out, kinda low and strained for his usual confident, happy self "Quite the view, innit?"

There was a slight vocalized start in her voice, a jump at the suddenness of the voice. She tried her best to hide it, however, looking up at the boy who had approached. "Oh, um." She turned back to the scene, almost as if to prove she was admiring it. "Yeah, it's great, um, thanks, er, or, no thanks, um, who are you?" Maybe that was too accusative. Why did she say thanks? She wished to stand up to greet him, preparing to offer her cast-covered right hand before realizing the only way to go was left. Standing would be quite the production, though, and so Madison instead reached as well as she could with her left hand for a shake. "I'm Madison, I, um, go...here. I mean the school, not the lake, er, I don't see how you could go to a lake like...a...school."

Myles raised his stitched eyebrow, a slight bitch face coming on as she raised her hand to him.  He looked down at his full arm length cast and back up her, offering a small chuckle and a shake of the head "Thanks, but I can't really move my arm right now, and relax, I'm just Myles a kinda new guy, I just recently got put in the Autumn house, I had a bit of a...fall, to say the least." With that he hopped a couple steps to stand a little bit staggered back from the girl to her left.  "You sound kinda nervous, everything alright? Sorry if I took you by surprise, I thought you heard me freakin' hoppin' here." he chuckled as he adjusted his footing.  It wasn't a fun occupation but it at least now he had someone in a similar situation to complain with.

"N-no, and yeah, you took me by surprise." She lowered her hand slowly and unenthusiastically. "Sorry, I'm just like that, this, my friend likes to tease me for it, she's a jerk, I love her though, like, that's weird..." Autumn. She'd never known anyone from Autumn. Madison had heard of Autumns, often bombastic or lively or artsy. The opposite of her; save for that last part. It had been a while since she'd last drawn something, however, and she wouldn't count herself as very good.

"I had a bit of a...fall too." She raised her cast. "I kind of fell out a window. Well, jumped, but only because I had to. That must...count as falling."

Myles shook his head again with a smile "Wish I could say I did what I did on purpose, but I overused my power and pretty much passed out, and fell six feet to the concrete, which doesn't sound like much, but when you're in a stupor flailing around, it can mangle up your arm, fracture your leg and put a slice down your freakin' face."  She was certainly different, she seemed to be scared of wording something incorrectly, and was afraid stuff would be taken the wrong way.  She was timid and certainly seemed uncomfortable to be pushed on by a new person, but maybe with a warm smile and even warmer words he could bring her to like the newcomer and maybe just help her out with new people in the long run.

Madison shivered, half due to his graphic imagery and half due to the cold breeze that arched over the half-frozen lake before them. If he was smiling at her, she definitely couldn't see it; she kept her face forward, hugging herself with her left arm. "What kind of power does that?" There was a strange late emphasis on 'does,' as she reworked how she said that. She didn't want to sound judgmental or anything, only curious. A part of her was busy trying to find a reason to leave, or a good time to leave, all the while aware of the pain moving caused. She didn't want to hurt herself dodging away from basic social conversation. Gah, why was she so pathetic?

Myles shrugged, which seemed to send a sharp pain up his arm, a wince later and he remarked "This cool slo-mo vision stuff, I can pretty much just slow time at will, and hear really well, makes for great huntin' or fightin' but if I use it too much, I get migraines, and I used too much of it...I kept myself from the V.I.P treatment to remind me that I need to work on my power and not overuse it. a lesson learned fast..." a slight adjustment of his crutch and leg and he was standing a little straighter, his smile never waning though the pain of movement didn't either, he felt aged, he decided to add in a little light-heartedness into the last part of his statement as he still wanted to seem positive "Plus, chicks dig scars." a small chuckle later and he was back to looking out at the view, to be honest he needed someone to talk to, even if she seemed to be uncomfortable by it.  But he knew he was probably good enough to help make her feel a little better and put smile on her face.

Time control. It certainly was interesting. Madison listened as his little tangent went on, nodding and trying her best to look interested, because she was interested. Of course, at the mention of 'chicks,' she realized she was part of this category. "Oh, um, yeah, or, um, sure." She laughed along, less of a chuckle and more of a dry giggle. "Your power sounds cool, definitely useful." She closed her eyes against another stab of wind. "Mine, on the other hand, is...um...," she watched the rising sun with regret for mentioning her power, which made her head ache when she thought about it. "It's nothing, not worth talking, um, about, it's a long story, you wouldn't like it. I surely don't, eh heh..." She looked off into the darkest part of the trees surrounding them, the coldest recesses she could scan, and thought of mother watching her.

Myles turned his head, raising his stitched eyebrow once again, what was going on inside her head?  He knew he probably seemed kinda overbearing standing as tall as he did above her, so he decided to tough out sitting.  He slowly began bending his right knee, leaning onto the crutch and sticking his but towards the ground.  Once he got far enough past his arm he would let his arm free of the forearm cuff and slowly bend his arm until he made it to nearly the bottom, groaning as he'd let his hand go and let the crutch fall, his butt hitting the ground softly letting out a breath of air, his left arm and leg already throbbing "Well, now you got me all curious, if you don't mind, I'd like to know, it sometimes tells you about a person, their power, you know?" He didn't want to seem too intrusive but he was sincerely curious and so he asked, he looked back out, as he slid the crutch a little closer and realized it was going to be a lot harder to get up than down.

Madison tensed, flinching as she saw him lower but easing into the erratic movement. Fuck, fuck, fuck. When she explained her power, there was always an uncharacteristic nonchalance over her, uncharacteristic to both what she was saying and herself. She didn't want to make it seem like a big deal, but people always treated it like a big deal, and it was a big deal. She never knew how to begin to make it sound best. "I hallucinate things, and, well, they sorta kill me, or try to, but it's only in dark places, which is why I'm not dead right now," she laughed to juxtapose the macabre statement. "I'm getting better at commanding them, though, and maybe I wouldn't be dead right now if it was...night...and stuff, though I don't know why I would be out here in the night, they are really scary, or not really that scary." Deep breath, she'd begun to ramble. "But there is one that keeps appearing, she really hates me, and she made me jump out a window when she tried to hur--,um, kill me. At least that's what people tell me, um, I-i don't remember the whole...thing very much, it's very much a blur." Her mouth retained a stiff smile, a half-smile, and for what seemed to be the first time her eyes flicked to him, if only for a moment. "I'm kind of crazy, if that, um, doesn't scare you or anything, I'm not going to kill you, I would never, it's not that kind of crazy, or, i-it's not even clinical. I was just trying to end it on a cool note, is all..."

Myles listened to her ramble, he knew he'd go off sometimes too, so he just listened with interest to what she had to say, hallucinations, complicated.  He assumed that it could somehow be controlled to be used offensively or defensively, but it seemed only bad right now...almost deadly.  He was looking at her so he smiled at the tiny gesture, even a small willingness to look at him meant she was opening up, he'd just need to keep chipping away.  He realized she was done after that panicked jumble of statements he offered his warm smile and put on his most sincere voice, "Hey, relax, don't worry about what you say, I understand what you say, you don't need to explain yourself darlin'.  And trust me, everyone's got a bitta crazy in 'em, some are just better at hiding it than others."  He pondered on this for a second, looking back out to the water, some people could hide it, but hid it so well, when it came out it was uncontrollable, craziness or something of the like was almost like a monster, who only pretends to be tame, and eventually gets sick of pretending, but he needed to quit being a philosophical tweedle-dick, he was just trying to explain the situation and make the girl feel a little better.  He shifted the blue-gray eyes back to the back left side of her face, his warm smile still holding almost waiting for her to look back and see he wasn't standing there with a knife or something

And she did look back, and fought with a rigid neck to keep it there, for at least a second. She inspected him for the first time, and blinked, opening her mouth for a second to really plan out her sentence. She didn't want to annoy him with her gargled speak. "You don't seem to have any of that...crazy." It didn't really comfort her that much. 'Crazy' was all she'd ever thought of herself. It was all people would think of her when she secluded herself in her room. Only her mother would call her something different; she wasn't crazy, she was just carrying on the family business of mediumship.

Myles shrugged once again sending an ounce of pain, a wince later he told himself he had a habit to break. "Like I said, some people are just great at hiding it..."  He looked out to the water, this girl really made him think, or maybe it was the view, he couldn't tell.  It was probably just thing after thing, less thinking was done when you're under the influence of painkillers and knocked out half the day, maybe he was just compensating with his lack of brain usage for the last couple of days.  His mind shifted to thoughts of his particular brand of crazy.  Was it his tendency to always speak too much, or was it the fact in certain situations he lost his temper at the drop of a pin.  He couldn't tell and was going over this scanning the water, maybe it was how different he was, he never thought too deeply before about it, he didn't want to seem soft or anything, all this whiny pansy shit, he always pushed out.  It was always filled with drinking and hunting and having a good time with what he had, but now he had it all...and he didn't know what to do with it.  His eyes just kept scanning the horizon, distant and deep in thought.

Madison thought about replying at first, but he seemed to enter some kind of psychological trance, his eyes resting over the water. She watched him, considering he obviously wasn't watching her, and could tell she had made him think about something. She couldn't tell if it was good or bad, however, and was beginning to lean towards the latter with each passing second.

It was when the tension got too high, the duration of the silence treading into awkward territory, where she began to stretch, careful in her bandages, and slowly went to rise. It hurt from her front and her back. Perhaps it was good he was there in the first place. "Can you help me up...?" She knew he was injured as well, and maybe they could help each other. "It's getting cold, let's go back to the infirmary. I assume you're from there, um, though I haven't seen eer, noticed you. You can stay out here too, I'm just...going back."