The silence in the dorms was heavier than it had any right to be.
Not the peaceful quiet of a building at rest, but the suffocating stillness of a place holding its breath. Every creak of settling pipes, every distant footstep in the corridor outside, every hum of the fluorescent lights seemed amplified, charged with the kind of tension that made sleep impossible and wakefulness unbearable.
Seraphina lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling.
Her pink hair fanned across the pillow in a mess of tangles she couldn't bring herself to brush out. The oversized sweater she'd worn to the aquarium still hung from her shoulders, sleeves swallowing her hands completely. She hadn't changed. Hadn't eaten. Hadn't moved much at all since Edward had dropped her at her door with that careful, measured look he always wore.
[Get some rest] he'd said. [We'll figure everything out tomorrow.]
[Easy for him to say. Edward always had a plan. Always had contingencies. Always knew exactly where to stand, what to watch, how to position himself so nothing could touch him from an unexpected angle.]
Dominic.
His name echoed in her skull like a bell that wouldn't stop ringing.
The way he'd looked at her in the shark tunnel. The softness in his crimson eyes when he'd said I never wanted to hurt you. The warmth of his presence beside her, close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from his skin through the cold aquarium air.
She rolled around in her bed, hugging her pillow like a teenage girl in love, she buried her face into the cold surface of the pillow, smiling wildly.
"Stop it," she told herself.
Her smile faded.
"He probably doesn't even like me back, he only sees me as a friend, he doesn't care, does he? He only sees me as a friend. I'm such a fat chud."
A knock at the door.
Three soft taps.
Seraphina's heart lurched into her throat. She sat up too fast, the room spinning briefly before settling back into focus. Her voice came out as a croak. "Who is it?"
The door opened without waiting for permission.
"Humans say the most interesting thing when they believe they're right, even when they know nothing. Instead of taking in different perspectives, they choose to process information that only supports their view."
Sarah stood in the doorway.
"You humans are more often wrong than right yet your pride and ego gets in the way, the Dunning Kruger effect suggests that ignorance leads to baseless confidence, the only things you humans should know is that you all know nothing."
The light from the corridor behind her created a halo effect around her silhouette, making her seem almost to glow.
Her brunette hair fell in perfect waves around shoulders that showed no tension, no fatigue, none of the weight that pressed down on everyone else who'd survived the invasion.
Her crimson eyes gleamed in the dim room, catching what little light existed and holding it like treasure.
"Seraphina," she said. Her voice carried that strange resonance, that layered quality that made it feel like someone else was speaking just behind her words. "We need to talk."
Seraphina's hand tightened on her blanket. "How did you get in? Hoshimi said everyone's supposed to be monitored. Lucy should be-"
"Lucy is resting." Sarah stepped inside, letting the door swing shut behind her with a soft click. "She's a rather... trusting individual. A few kind words about her brother, a suggestion that she rest while I use the facilities, and she fell into a slumber." A pause. "People see what they wish to see. They hear what they want to hear. It's one of humanity's more useful qualities."
Seraphina pulled her knees up, hugging them to her chest. The oversized sweater swallowed her completely now, just a pink-haired head poking out of a mountain of fabric. "What do you want?"
Sarah moved through the room with the casual grace of someone utterly comfortable in any space. Her fingers trailed across the desk, the dresser, the windowsill, leaving no trace but seeming to absorb information from every surface she touched. She stopped at the window, gazing out at the darkened courtyard below.
"Loneful, isn't it?" she murmured. "All those students. All those lives. Vanished in a single instant, and the world barely notices, witches are livestock, and so they are treated as such."
Seraphina's jaw tightened. "Is that supposed to be comforting?"
"Comfort?" Sarah turned, her amber eyes gleaming. "No. I don't do comfort. What I am is honest. And the honest truth, is that you're wasting what meager time you have on this pitiful planet."
"What are you talking about?"
"Humanity's greatest fear. It isn't the fear of death, it isn't the fear of darkness. It's the fear of the unknown, humans are scared of what might happen after death, what might lurk in the darkness. Humans are afraid of things they can't control, that's what happens to Witches, they're scared, frightened by abilities so far out of their reach, so they force their control on you all."
"Again, I don't kno-"
Sarah crossed the room in three fluid steps, settling onto the edge of Seraphina's bed with the ease of someone who'd been invited. The mattress dipped under her weight, and Seraphina found herself leaning away instinctively, putting space between them. Sarah closed the distance, pinning her down onto the mattress, Sarah leaned in close, whispering into her ear.
"You love that boy," Sarah said. "Dominic. You've loved him for years, haven't you? Since before you left the Shaw estate. Since before everything." She got closer to her face, Sarah's warm breath warmed up her face.
Seraphina's face went red. "I don't-that's not-"
"Don't bother lying." Sarah's voice softened, became almost gentle. "I can see it in every glance, every blush, every carefully casual word. You've constructed an entire world around the hope that someday he might notice you. Might choose you. Might love you back."
Seraphina's hands curled into fists beneath her sleeves. Her throat tightened.
"That's not-." she started, then stopped. Swallowed. Tried again. "It's not like that."
"No?" Sarah tilted her head, that gesture that seemed to involve more neck than it should. "Then what is it like? Tell me. Explain to me why you can't sleep. Why you can't eat. Why every thought circles back to him no matter how hard you try to focus on anything else."
Seraphina's eyes burned. She blinked rapidly, refusing to let the tears fall.
"I don't know what you want from me," she whispered.
"Nothing you're not already desperate to give." Sarah's fingers brushing against Seraphina's cheek with a touch so light it might have been imagined. "I'm here to offer you a present. A chance at everything you've ever wanted."
"I don't understand."
"No." Sarah's backed away, her smile was radiant, terrifying, beautiful. "You wouldn't. That's why I'm here. To explain."
She withdrew her hand, settling back on the bed with the patience of something that had waited centuries and could wait centuries more.
"Let me ask you something," Sarah continued. "When you look at Dominic, when you watch him move through the world with that smug grin, do you ever wonder why he doesn't see you? Why he can spend hours beside you, talking to you, laughing with you, and never once look at you the way you look at him?"
Seraphina's breath caught. The question was a knife, sliding between her ribs with surgical precision.
"I've thought about it," she admitted, her voice barely above a whisper. "I've thought about it a lot."
"And what conclusion did you reach?"
Another pause. Longer this time.
"That I'm not... enough," Seraphina said finally.