Slightly Manic PV Kae Finished

Kaegen was in the library. He was reading a book, hunched in a chair, with eyes that stared flaming holes into the pages as he struggled along with the confounded words that never seemed to easily reveal their tantalizing secrets to him. Looking to his left or right, he could see fellow students, albeit ones that looked slightly more presentable, flipping pages every few minutes, while he had spend upwards of thirty minutes on his and still wasn’t finished with the first chapter. It was so annoying to him, frustrating even. And he was constantly about to nod off to sleep, but kept himself awake through the sheer determination that, although somewhat his trademark, was rapidly running out.

How long was he going to have to keep moving forward? A day, a week? He knew what he was now, that had been made clear by the professor. But how much did it even change? He was too tired to think clearly, and had more or less blocked it out. The title of his book was “those among us”, and it was a pretty hefty looking leather bound book, which was a large part of the reason why he was struggling so much with actually digesting it’s contents.

When the girl with the weird glasses passed by, looking at the books, he began to notice a pattern. The first book she picked up started with a “L”, the next one was right above a book that started with “O”, and the one after that was next to a second “O” Lo and behold, just as he was about to predict, the fourth book she casually looked at was only three books away from a book that started with a “K”. He knew it. A secret message, a way to warn him about something that he didn’t know about.

What didn’t he know about? His eyes cast about for something to explain the clear message the girl with glasses has sent, but found nothing except a few shifty looking students. To look through the eyes, or more accurately, the mind of Kaegen was something not many people will ever experience. Most people will never experience anything close, but there are a few who understand. Seeing the world through a dark, smoggy filter. The bright sun, with it’s cheerful rays, looked like a potential hazard, something to get in his eyes. The friendly looking boy laughing over with a few friends looked like he was plotting something. The books had instruments to his demise, or theirs. And everything held a life in the balance.

So when the little, skinny boy crawled out of his chair, landing on the ground on his feet with a careful spring to his legs that made the small thump all but vanish, he was as serious as his lack of sleep would allow him to be. Moving behind the girl with the oddly smooth walk that denoted someone not quite right, and when he was right up next to her, he whispered to her what he needed to know to survive the next five minutes.

”Look where”

The girl was just putting back the last book she had picked up when she heard a voice behind her. Inside, she had a minor freak out, but on the outside, she thankfully didn't make a fool out of herself. She turned around, to see a boy, about a year older. He had messy black hair and eyes that kind of felt like they were staring into her soul. She tried not to get completely unnerved by his stare and looked over the rest of him.

He wore a scarf on his neck. Tal liked scarves, scarves were good. There was a large leather-bound book in his hands, titled Those Among Us. It sounded pretty interesting, honestly, or at least better than any that the girl had picked up. Was it about conspiracies? Tal couldn't help but wonder, but she decided it wouldn't be the most kind thing to just ask what the book they were holding in their hands was written about.

He said something about looking somewhere. Tal wasn't quite sure what he meant or how to respond. It sort of reminded her of one of those knock knock jokes, you know, where they'd say Who's There? Yeah, like one of those. But not one of those, it seemed, as the boy was quite serious.

"Uh, not sure?" Tal said, really quite confused as to what was going on. "What's wrong?" she added calmly, smiling. "Anything I can help with?"

Maybe that was how desperate Tal was for some good social interaction - she'd do pretty much anything for it. Either way, introductions were in place, weren't they? Or at least wasn't that proper etiquette? Eh, either way, she supposed it was something to say.

"I'm Tal, by the way. Talia, I guess. Talia Piper."

Why did she look confused? Why did she say she wasn't sure? What was going on, what was he missing? He had said it quietly, discreetly, she should be able to answer. Were they being watched more closely than he had thought? She asked what was wrong, if there was something she could help with. And each word stung like a bee. He was a horrible judge of character, but she looked genuinely confused, as if he was just being stupid. That couldn't be it, he refused to let that be it.

She introduced herself, but the words rang hollow. Everyone he talked to in this school seemed so deaf, so blind. Death witches everywhere. He had almost died so many times. He had bled, he had been bruised and beaten and degraded to something worse than pulp. He had fought, he had lashed back. But nothing he did made a dent, they always came back. And worst of all, no one helped.

That bothered him more and more as the days went on. He wasn't a social person, but he was a little boy, only 12. And he desperately needed something to cling to, but nothing happened. Nothing changed, no one came, no one helped. Everyone just pretended to not know, pretended to not understand.

"No. You know what I mean."

The boy's pupils started to twitch. They grew and shrank in an amorphous mass, but just a little. Enough to notice if you really paid attention. He was already slipping, and didn't care.

To be completely honest, this whole situation felt quite similar to the situations Talia had been in with her mother. The times when her mum, pretty much proven insane, would be paranoid and uncomfortable, over-analyzing anything and everything.

She could remember one day especially, one of the last days before Tal had left for Hogwarts, and one of the worst days, when her mum's schizophrenic behavior was really at its peak.

"Penguins, Penguins! They're flying and they're everywhere and they have my credit card number, Talia! Look out for the penguins!"

She could recall her mother shrieking those words at the top of her lungs while she jumped up on the couch, swinging a pillow around, supposedly aimed at the imaginary flying penguins, causing the feathers stuffed inside to fly everywhere.

Yeah, that sort of thing. But not that extreme, thankfully.

"Right, sorry," she said quietly, looking him in the eye, still trying not to crumble under the intimidating gaze, and repeated his question, her voice still extremely low in volume. "I-uh..."

"I don't think there is anywhere to look. Unless there is, but if there is, I don't know about it. Or maybe I do but it's a subconscious thing?" she mumbled, more to herself than to the boy. She felt frozen in the moment. She wanted to help the boy in any way she could, she really did. She just needed more information, desperately needed. And she hoped that her eyes could communicate that for her, because she certainly couldn't with her voice.

His pupils started to expand farther, black dots that were supposed to remain small and black reaching further and further out towards the edges of his eyes in an amorphous blob. His heart beat started to quicken, and one of his slender, long fingers with the dull claw like fingernails at the end started to twitch. He was very much afraid, and very much frustrated. She had seemed so nice, she had even tried to warn him of something. But now what did that all amount to? Nothing, nothing and again. Nothing.

The girl apologized to him, but the apology sounded hollow to the boy whose entire world was dark and tangled, the only lights taking the form of promises and names. Her apology meant nothing to him. She didn't think there was anything to look at, unless either she didn't know about it or it was a subconscious thing. What even was a subconscious thing? Was that something that lived below the ground and tried to eat you when you least expected it? How was he supposed to find out, anyway?

"Are you an expert on sub conshus things, then? How do you maybe know something. You do, or you don't."

Honestly, Tal had suggested that part about something subconscious happening lightly, as sort of a joke. But the imaginative girl couldn't help but wonder if that was actually the case. What if there was something controlling her, using her to accomplish something. Though it was fun to think of the many possibilities, Talia strongly doubted any of them were the case. Unless it was? Oh, Tal didn't even know anymore. Maybe she was possessed, but even if she was, there wasn't anything she could do about it, so why bother worrying?

"I mean, no. I'm not an expert on anything, really, I guess. I'm pretty good at, uh..." she paused. What was she good at? "I actually don't really know what I'm good at. People say I’m good at being nice, but I dunno."

Tal watched as the boy's pupils began to expand, growing and expanding. She noticed a little twitch in his hand, and sensed that she herself was beginning to tremble ever so slightly.

"I don't know. I don't think knowledge is something that's black and white like that. I think that sometimes you can do something without even knowing what you’re doing, and maybe that’s what’s happening?”

What even did any of that mean? What the heck was she talking about and why was it this hard to understand? Who said she was good at being nice? She certainly wasn't being very nice now, was she? No, she definitely was not. Sub conshus messages and feigning ignorance about something that she had clearly spelled out for him. That didn't seem nice, that seemed unhelpful, and confounding.

And what did she mean by saying he could do something without knowing that he was doing it? Then it wasn't him doing it. He knew what he was doing, so did she. He knew what he was doing because he was doing it, what was she talking about? Was this some kind of bizarre magic he had yet to learn? Was she a third year with access to secret arcane dark magic that she was using to lord over him and confuse him so that he was easier prey?

"What are you trying to do? Is this a trap?"

The boy looked around, then started backing up. He wasn't sure if she was going to tell the truth or lie, but either way he was going to be prepared. No trap was going to end his life today. Not today.

You know, this was a library. Talia wished one of the books would tell her how to handle social situations properly. She'd obviously messed everything up with this boy, too, and now she had no chance at all of getting a friend. She was definitely losing her mind at this point, there was no hope. Looking down sadly, she accepted her social defeat, deciding that she would go back to her dormitory and hide under her blankets and never leave.

Tal smiled weakly. "No, it's not a trap. I promise," she said softly to the boy, still not really sure what was going on. "And I'm not trying to do anything. Unless you count trying to become friends with you. In which case, I'm trying to become friends with you." she said shyly.

And failing, she added in her head. But she clung desperately to the last shred of hope that she'd be able to be friends with him. Tal wanted to be friends with anyone and everyone she possibly could, she was far too weak to make any enemies. Plus, she just didn't like not being liked. It was much better to stay on everyone's positive side.

And all she wanted at the moment was someone to be her friend.

A lightning bolt striking the boy at that moment could not have caused more confusion or shock. He knew what a friend was, but this girl wanted to be friends? It made no sense at all, it didn't follow logic. He had been questioning her, she had been trying to warn him, she had tried to deceive him, or something like that. He wasn't sure what was going on and the offer of friendship just seemed like so random. Had they been having a good time? Would be have noticed if they were having a good time?

The ravenclaw started backing away, moving from offense to defense in a matter of seconds. His hands raised up to shield himself from something, anything, the girl and the confusion she brought with her. No one just casually offered friendship if they didn't know exactly what they were doing. Did she know what she was asking for, what she wanted? Did any of this make sense?

"I- don't know..."

And then he turned completely and ran as fast as he could. He was too tired, too worn down and broken up to accept a offer for friendship as anything other than something unrecognizable and alien. Something that shouldn't exist but did anyway. Something that clashed with how he viewed the world, like so many other things that robbed him of the little sleep he allowed himself. As he ran out the library, he turned, and headed for ravenclaw tower.

left thread, unless prevented