Katrina had been battling nightmares since her parents died in a fire her first year. Everyone else she knew that had major loss in their life weren't very affected by it anymore, but Katrina was still struggling with it immensely. Everything seemed to stem off of her loss, eating habits, lack of sleep, haphazard appearance, acting like someone else, social awkwardness, and a handful of other things. She did her best to focus on other things and live her life like a normal person, but everything circled back eventually.

That night she journaled until late at night. Her writing wasn't the best, but it was nice to get things out of her head and onto paper. Her coping needed serious work and this was working so far. Well between journaling and jogging, she had been able to avoid most nightmares, going to sleep tired and with a mind at ease. But this night, she had brought up the topic of her brother and unearthed all of the things she had been suppressing.

When Katrina had finally fallen asleep. She found no refuge in it. Scenes her mind made up of the house fire and her parents screams. Her brother begging her to stay and help him, but she was too far away to do anything. Her room going up in flames and her sobbing on the ground. An owl appeared and swooped down with the letter from anonymous. The scene changed and it wasn't an owl swooping down but a mosp, her arm and ear began to sting and burn again. Suppressed memories of that night erupted, on the broom with Adonis, being trapped in the Hospital Wing. Red on her teal dress. A giant snake. Fire again, the fire from the Masked Ball, the Blossomball, duels, candles. Everything was too much, too much.

Katrina wasn't in control of her body. She was running through her home on fire. She was trying to find Liam, trying to save him. She ran through the wall, but it was light and fabric, like her tent. It was cold inside the burning house, not hot. Tears were streaming down her face. The room was empty, she could see flames licking at the walls, but her brother wasn't there, she was too late.

Katrina collapsed onto the ground, her dream still going. She had managed to sleepwalk out of her tent and collapse on the ground.

Tears and anger and everything was too much. Flames and pain and mosps. Fire, so much fire. The dream no longer made since, it was simply all of her mind's fears mashed into one horrible continuing nightmare. Katrina was able to stifle her tears enough that she wasn't loud enough to really be heard. Who knows how long she had been out there, crying. Perhaps it was only a minute, perhaps hours. But it didn't stop.

And the moments that the nightmare paused, it was oppressively dark.

Sleeping wasn't exactly Cecily's strong suit. She had a particularly poor habit of staying up until the wee hours of the morning before collapsing into her dream world, and waking up groggy and annoyed in the morning. Should she fix this problem? Likely. Would she? ...Likely not. This was often because she simply wasn't tired, but it was usually because of whichever book she had her hands on. That was perhaps the one stereotype she lived up to in her House-- she was a vivacious bookworm, reading chapters and chapters hours after she should have by all means been asleep.

But not tonight. No, tonight she simply laid in her bed, eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling of her tent. It was unfamiliar. Tan, canvas, sloping. Nothing like the dark, majestic ceiling in her dorm or the small, rustic roof of her own home in Clonmel. No, this was new, and different, and unsettling. And the quiet sounds of her team sleeping around her-- the soft breaths, the quiet rustles-- were no more comforting than the strange view captivating her field of vision.

And so, because of unfamiliar roofs and strange company, Cecily lay awake on her cot as a strage sound hurtled past her tent, seemingly only centimeters from where he head lay near the wall of the tent. Cecily froze, lying still under her blankets, trying to make sense of what she had just heard. It sounded like footsteps, but students weren't supposed to be out of their tents after dark. It couldn't have been a professor, though-- the steps were too light, like they came from a child. But as her brain replayed the sound, another noise drifted through the thin fabric of the tent-- a soft sound, a muffled sobbing. She would never had heard it if she hadn't been lying awake just inches from whence it came. Oh, shit.

Cecily squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore it. Not tonight, nope. She was not getting fired for being outside after curfew, not at summer camp. She was just going to go to sleep, get a good night's rest, and--

Oh, for God's sake. Her eyes snapped open, and she took a deep breath as she gazed once more at the roof of the tent. The sound continued, just on the other side of the wall. Cecily felt a sinking feeling in her chest as she realised that her conscience was not going to let her out of this one, not easily. She lay, frozen for another minute as she steeled herself for a confrontation, for imense awkwardness. She had no goddamn clue of how to comfort someone that was crying, and yet there she was, throwing off her bedsheets and silently stepping out of the opening of the tent, checking once over her shoulder to be sure that she hadn't woken anyone. She took a left out of her tent, walking slowly, silently around the corner. The soft sobs continued.

Her eyes adjusted to the blackness of the night, and there sat a girl, swallowed by darkness. A shock of red hair was caught in a sliver of moonlight, a teal streak in bright contrast with her fiery hair as it fell in a curtain over her face. Cecily had seen this girl before-- the highlight was particularly unforgettable-- but when, she couldn't say.

The blonde took a halting step towards the girl, discomfort apparent in her posture. She took another step forward as the girl continued to be seemingly unaware of her presence. As she neared the crying girl, she knelt down next to her, pausing for a long moment. She extended a hand to put on the girl's shoulder, but thought better of it, recoiling her hand in a fist. She sat next to the girl for a long moment, unmoving, before opening her mouth.

"Hey," she whispered uncertaintly. It came out as a breath, barely audible. She hadn't intentionally been so quiet, but the darkness had that effect. Silencing the loudest of voices, and amplifying the quietest. Everything felt small in the darkensss, insignificant. Cecily looked around, noticing still only tents as far as she could see. She felt small compared to the extensive campgrounds, enshrouded in pressing darkness. It seemed to engulf everything it touched, leaving Cecily feeling as though she was shrinking into the black of the night.

She looked back at the girl. Had she even heard her? "Are you alright?" Even Cecily winced at the poor attempt at comforting the girl. She was way out of her depth here, but dammit, if she wasn't going to make her best attempt.

@Katrina Walker

A tiny part of Katrina's mind was trying to wake her up. Reassuring her that it was all a nightmare. Telling her to wake up and go back to her tent. It is all a dream. But the rest of her mind was spewing lies. Trapping her in the nightmare of her own creation. Refusing to let her mind return to consciousness. It was like she was having a panic attack inside of a nightmare.

There was a blinding flash of darkness and Katrina was awake. Something had disrupted her enough to wake her up. Flashes of the nightmare pierced the darkness, but she was awake now. And, sitting on the ground? Katrina looked around frantically, mind slowly returning to normal. There was somebody. Older, perhaps? Kneeling in front of her. What was going on?

As her mind put together the pieces, she couldn't help the shivering that was making its way down her spine. She had sleepwalked and sleep-- cried? Managed to have a panic attack while still being asleep. Well, that's new. Katrina realized that she was awake now, and her mind was doing weird things, but she was still crying, softer now, the sobs morphing into little hiccups of sadness. She sounded pathetic, and the part of her that always helped her hide emotions was broken.

It was so dark. It was like everything was pressing down on her, but she was also suspended in the darkness. The night sky that she usually longed to watch seemed oppressive and clouds covered a majority of the sky. Darkness laid down like a blanket, snuffing out everything in it's path. The darkness contrasted the fire from her dreams, but it was just as terrifying.

Katrina realized that the girl was still in front of her and was probably concerned by her drastic change in mood. Was she alright? No, no she was not. But what to say? This girl seemed nice enough. Or at least she was annoyed of hearing Katrina's sobs and wanted to make sure she wasn't dying or something.

"Nightmare..." Katrina said, in more of a whimper than anything, "And a panic attack, and sleepwalking and sleep crying," She knew that the words were disconnected. But that was the way her brain was working right now in its half-asleep state. Hopefully she could understand enough.

Katrina wanted to return to her tent. Her legs weren't working though. It wasn't like she'd be able to stop crying and go to sleep. Besides, she didn't really want to wake up her tentmates. So instead she sat awkwardly on the ground, battling her nightmares ignoring the oppressive darkness.

Cecily nearly fell backwards as the girl snapped awake, frantically taking in her surroundings. Cecily hadn't even been aware that the girl was asleep in the first place, but as she explained what was going on, the pieces started falling into place. The redhead's sobs had tamed, now, into pitiful hiccups and tears. Her words were weak and disjointed, but managed to get her point across. Nightmares, panic attacks... sleepwalking and sleep-crying. The Ravenclaw winced, a sympathetic expression falling over her face. The girl looked to be in such pain. She wished she knew what to do, but Merlin, she was so incredibly out of her element here.

As the other girl still lay on the ground, unmoving, Cecily shifted her legs from under herself to sit down, drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. She might be here for a while, so she might as well be comfortable-- or, as comfortable as one could get on the cold, hard ground in the middle of the night. She was just glad they weren't at the top of a tower. After all, the last time Cecily had helped someone with their crippling nightmares after curfew, the two of them had fallen down the stairs. With no stairs in sight, the Ravenclaw was confident that at the very least, this would go just a little better than it had in the past.

Cecily sat next to the girl, staring into the darkness, for what seemed like forever. For all of the Ravenclaw's wit, words wouldn't come. The silence bore down upon the two, feeling to the blonde like it might crush them had it not been held at bay by the occasional whimpers from the other girl. As the moments arrived and flew past, one after the other, Cecily couldn't help but wonder what could possibly have brought this girl to the middle of the path, in the middle of the night, drowning in her own tears. Sure, she knew that there was no shortage of trauma at the school-- the Blossom Balls alone instigated many a nightmare-- but this... this seemed different. This wasn't because of a mosp, or a giant, or even a fire. This was deep, intense, and Cecily wished she could do more to help besides sit near the girl and keep her company.

Finally, after what had felt like a whole lifetime come and gone, Cecily took a breath. Start at the beginning, right? "I'm Cecily." The night felt so cold, and lonely, but her words moved like a blade, ripping through the heavy curtain. They were a hand extended to rest on the girl's shoulder, although Cecily's arms still held her knees. She hoped it was enough.

@Katrina Walker it only took me three months!

When the hiccups faded away and the tears were no longer streaming down her face, Katrina managed to compose herself somewhat. She dragged herself up and into the same position as the other girl. Her arms holding her knees. The shaky breaths continued a constant reminder of the nightmare turned panic attack... or whatever that had been. The silence was suffocating, the night, usually a refuge for the graduated second year was now bitter and lonesome.

The girl introduced herself as Cecily, Katrina didn't automatically recognize the name, that didn't mean too much, but it still made conversation a bit harder. "I'm Katrina," Katrina said, thankful that her voice didn't break. There were a few moments of silence until Katrina thought she couldn't bear it any longer.

"It was a nightmare, like I said. My-- uh, my parents and brother died in a house fire two Springs ago. And then the school Balls in between didn't help too much. It has... been a while since I've really dealt with it all, I suppose," Katrina spoke slowly, trying to formulate the words in her head before they came out her mouth. It was hard to say the truth out loud, hard to get the words out. There were only a handful of other times that she had disclosed parts of the truth, and only once had it backfired. Maybe, if she could deal with it all now, she could find refuge in sharing the truth and grow from it all.