The morning was quiet save the chirps of the song sparrows that had yet to migrate south for the rapid-dropping temperatures. Dawn sported a wine-colored quilted vest over her long sleeve uniform. If there was one thing she thought worth the price of a private university education, it was the uniform that made it difficult to be considered different. With a black scarf around her neck, she walked outside in the brisk air. It was immature, but she preferred to walk than sit next to Sebastian in awkward silence for the eight-minute drive. The previous evening had gone all but right. Sebastian had declined Dawn's invitation to her body as they laid in bed, kissing like two hormonal adolescents keeping their amorous rendezvous a secret from their parents.
Four classes later, she had changed her mind about her approach. Avoiding Sebastian would hardly solve the problem or end the awkward situation. She marched on to Sebastian's last class of the day and stood at the door reading the unexpected announcement posted on the door. "Professor Jones' 1408-MYTH classes canceled today." She re-read the words and wondered if she had somehow been the reason behind his sudden absence, or if some ailment had befallen him. Without wasting further time, she started home.
Sebastian's SUV was parked in its usual place, prompting Dawn to worry for him. She rushed in through the front door to find a dark-haired woman sprawled on the living room couch. She looked up at Dawn through large honey-colored eyes. She had soft and delicate features and two charming dimples that formed on her cheeks as she gave Dawn a big smile.
"You must be Dawn, the roommate! Sebastian is out, but I'm sure he's told you all about me." The girl sprang from her seat and greeted Dawn on her feet. "I'm Isabella," she stated confidently.
Dawn gave her a forceful smile. Sebastian had not once mentioned an Isabella, and it upset Dawn more than she ought to let it. "I'm Dawn, yes, and I've heard nothing but good things," she managed to utter through her gritting teeth. Isabella chuckled. Even her laugh was endearing. That upset Dawn further.
"Did you just feel a tremor?" Isabella asked quizzically with a look of concern on her face.
"No," Dawn fibbed. "It was nice getting acquainted, Isabella, but I have homework to catch up on." She walked away without waiting for a response from the stunning stranger. 'At least he didn't divulge my secret,' Dawn told herself to keep her composure. Her concern over Sebastian had vanished and was replaced by deep frustration. It all suddenly made sense to her. Sebastian had Isabella all along, normal Isabella, human Isabella, beautiful Isabella. She broke down in her bedroom feeling the fool. She had worn her heart on her sleeve, and he had played her like a fiddle. Now, she dried her tears with the sleeves of her uniform. Listening to the high winds outside her window, she pulled the covers over her head and pressed her hands to her chest – attempting to keep her broken heart together. 'I had trusted you Sebastian,' she cried. 'I had trusted you.'
༻❀༺
Sebastian ran against the heavy winds, letting his thick black fur shield him from the elements, something his human flesh could never do. 'This is your real nature,' a voice screamed to him from within. 'Stop fighting it. This is what you are. A beast.' Sebastian ran on all fours, feeling the lashing of dense brush against his beastly body. He dashed through the forest and darted for his favorite, private river. He let his paws sink through the soft soil as he walked further into the water until his head was completely submerged.
Sebastian gasped as his head rose above the water. His lungs filled with oxygen while his skin goose pimpled. He was freezing. 'Stop fighting it,' the voice reminded him. Sebastian hurried out of the river in response. The clothes he shed before the transformation were still on the ground, covered in mud and loose dirt. He briefly allowed the wind to air-dry him before impatiently dressing. Enough time had been lost for the day, and he was determined to make the most out of what was left.
Isabella greeted him with a sigh of relief. She looked at her watch and rushed to Sebastian, embracing him with her thin long arms.
"How long?" Sebastian questioned her, wriggling free from her embrace.
"The whole morning and part of the afternoon. Ten hours," she responded.
Sebastian pinched the bridge of his nose with concern. "That's longer than the day before." His curse was getting worse, there was no denying it. "Has Dawn made it home?"
Isabella nodded. "She's in her room. She's been there a while."
"Does she know I—"
"No," Isabella declared at once. "I think that's up to you to divulge. Although if you ask me, she's bound to find out sooner or later. You can't control it any longer, Sebastian!"
"Shhh," Sebastian clutched Isabella's arm to remind her to keep her voice down. "Dawn has enough on her plate."
"And you on yours! You can't add hiding your day-time transformations from your roommate to the mix. It'll stress you out and maybe the stress is what triggers the transformations in the first place," Isabella attempted to reason with him. "Either tell her or ask her to move out."
'No!' Sebastian wanted to yell at the top of his lungs, but he swallowed the words and considered the consequences. "I'll tell her. Soon."
༻❀༺
Dawn rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and held her throbbing head. It was a reminder of Sebastian's betrayal. She heard her stomach rumble, demanding dinner, but going out to the kitchen was out of the question. Through her door, she listened to Isabella and Sebastian preparing dinner with laughter and merriment, as if the latter hadn't just carelessly broken Dawn's heart. 'He lied to you. He had Isabella all along,' the voice in her head taunted her, and she felt the ground tremble.
There was silence in the air, until Sebastian's voice called out from the hall. "Dawn." he spoke her name as if he had the right to make her feel so hurt and not feel anything in turn. Then, the knock on the door came. "Is everything okay in there?"
"Fine," Dawn called out without thinking. It was a second nature response, something she had learned to do from a young age.
"Can I come in?" Sebastian asked from the other side of her bedroom door. "I just want to make sure you're okay."
Dawn shook her head as if he could see her from behind the natural birch door. "No!" her voice did little to mask her frustration. "I'm getting ready to shower."
"Can you please open the door?" a persistent Sebastian pleaded with her as the locked door's knob turned left and right.
"I said no, Sebastian! We both know the last thing you want to do is see me naked, so please just stop insisting and leave me alone!" Her words had a double meaning that only she and Sebastian understood. 'Isabella is just as in the dark as I was.' Dawn almost felt sorry for the girl, but it was not her responsibility to keep the relationship of those two in check. 'I'll be out of their hair by the end of this week,' Dawn had decided. Relieved that Sebastian had ceased his knocking, Dawn shed her clothes and wrapped a fleece bathrobe over herself. She pressed her ear to the door and cracked it open slightly. Her narrow field of vision revealed an empty hallway and living room. With slow and methodical steps, she made her way to the hall bath, locked the door and ran the water. She sat under the showerhead, letting the scalding water hit her back. The small room filled with steam as Dawn used her hands to control the vapor's direction. She formed orbs of the fog between her hands and stopped the showerhead's water flow, making a mesmerizing 3D rendition of the movement of water. Her powers were fascinating, and it hurt to think Sebastian had been part of their discovery, as much as it hurt to admit she wished she could share them with him – even now. Dawn wanted nothing more than to be with Sebastian, but he was not hers to have. She couldn't even muster the strength to forgive his omission of his relationship with Isabella. She had kissed him, and he had responded to her lips with the same fervor. 'He lied to you,' the voice repeated. She rested her head on the shower's natural stone tile, closed her eyes under the scorching waterfall and sweltering steam, drowning out the unwelcome voice; in its place, a peaceful and ethereal melody comforted Dawn like a warm blanket, and she let it take over without a fight, losing all notion of time before she lost consciousness.
༻❀༺
Sebastian and Isabella kept their voices low in the home office. She sat on the futon and Sebastian on an armchair across from her with a glass of whiskey on ice in hand.
"You were right, I should have told her," he admitted bitterly. "Now she's off thinking the worst."
"She did sound very..." Isabella quickly sorted through the words in her mind. 'Defensive. Angry, Upset.' She found it hard to find a comforting one. "Flustered."
"It's all my fault," Sebastian conceded. "Yesterday she...well, I wanted it too. She pulled and I followed. I shouldn't have followed. She was just so beautiful, and now I've made a mess." He explained through a series of jumbled sentences.
"Sebastian," Isabella interrupted. "You're not making any sense." She flashed him a worried expression. "What happened with Dawn yesterday?"
He took a sip of his whiskey and reconsidered his words. "Never mind."
Isabella gasped. "Are you two hooking up?" She questioned. "Is that why things are so weird between you two?"
"Izzy, let it go," he rose from the armchair to pour himself another glass of whiskey that he quickly downed before tipping the bottle over to pour yet another.
Isabella pulled the bottle out of grip. "What you need is water."
"I don't need my little sister to babysit me."
"Then don't act like someone who needs babysitting." She walked out of the office with the bottle in her hand and toward the kitchen. "You've got it bad for Dawn," she teased. "Admit it."
"Shut up," Sebastian commanded. He followed closely behind his sister. "She'll hear you."
"The water is running. She can't hear anything," Isabella retorted before letting out a louder call. "Daaawn," she sang the roommate's name. "Dawn, Seb—"
Her brother muffled her scream. "Isabella!" He said her name with a frustrated tone while managing to keep his voice down. "Stop trying to meddle. This is between Dawn and me."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, but without my help, you'll never do it right."
"I don't need your help."
"You called me because you needed help," she reminded him.
"With my unpredictable transformations, not my love life!"
Isabella furrowed her brows. "I know you, Sebastian. You'll only end up pushing her away like everyone else." She spoke callously but truthfully. "And I just don't want to see you hurt. I know this is different. I can feel it."
"You are not responsible for fixing my love life," he stubbornly responded.
Since their parents' death, Sebastian had taken on the responsibility of being her guardian and even assumed her curse. She felt responsible for his misery despite his numerous reassuring words throughout the years. The least she could do was to help him have a chance at happiness. She didn't know Dawn, but Sebastian loved her. He needn't say it, it was written on his face when Dawn had refused to let him in her room. Sebastian had always been a caregiver; it was the way he demonstrated how much he cared despite his abrasive exterior. He cared for Dawn, and she was sorry Dawn couldn't see that herself. "I'm sorry," she muttered under her breath. Sebastian reached to embrace her, wrapping her tight in his arms like her father used to. Her brother had been a parent and a friend, she wished he'd allow himself to reach for more, to find love for once.
With Isabella wrapped in his embrace and her head under his chin, Sebastian opened his eyes and stared at the hallway bathroom door, listening to the running water before his eyes caught a glimpse of the clear gleaming liquid seeping under the door. Sebastian quickly let go of Isabella and rushed to the hall bath, knocking on the door relentlessly as he called out to Dawn.
༻❀༺
Dawn could hear the cascading water, but all she saw was black. The sea of darkness had enveloped her once more. The obscurity frightened her, but the voice that sang was familiar, like a welcome lullaby. She trudged through the darkness and walked toward the song. With every step that brought her closer to the melody, the dimness of the sky faded. The black sky changed to gray and from gray to a deep purple. 'Dawn is looming,' she knew, and she followed the song once more.
"It's you," voices around her whispered, drowning out the soothing song.
"Be quiet," she screamed but her voice was lost in the vastness of the dark sea. 'I need to find the song. It's the only thing that is familiar. Perhaps the song is safety,' she though.
"It's you, Dawn." The voices made it impossible for her to hear the melody she searched for. She could no longer even hear the water cascading. "It's Dawn," their whispers grew louder and louder. "Dawn," they called out. "Dawn!"
Dawn woke up, startled and gasping for air. Her eyes slowly focused on Sebastian, noting his proximity to her. 'A dream,' she considered and looked around her before becoming aware of the rest of her body that rested in Sebastian's arms, covered in only a short towel. She quickly pulled away from him and tugged at the towel around her to secure it in place, concerned over how much Sebastian had seen.
"Dawn, we were so worried about you. The water started running out the door because your body blocked the drain, and you wouldn't wake up. Are you alright?" Isabella inquired.
"Was it that dream again?" Sebastian asked her with worry plastered over his face.
'How dare he express concern? How dare he speak of my private dream?' Dawn looked at him through wounded eyes. "I'm fine," she responded once more.
Sebastian analyzed Dawn from head to toe before turning to Isabella "I need to speak to Dawn privately." He only uttered the words before the young brunette disappeared into the hall. "What is going on with you, Dawn? Please talk to me," he pleaded. "Look, if it's about last night..."
"It's not!" She retorted. "I'm tired, Sebastian. I just want to go to bed."
"We tell each other our troubles, remember?"
"Do we?" She countered. Dawn could see a sense of guilt on Sebastian's face and took the opportunity to make her exit.
That evening, her mind played games on her as she came close to sleep. She heard her name being called out in whispers, causing her to lay awake throughout the night. In the morning, her eyelids were heavy with the sleep she lacked. Dawn pulled a robe over her long cotton pajamas and slowly creeped out her bedroom door and into the hall bathroom. She freshened up and brushed her long straight lilac hair. When she heard Sebastian's vehicle reverse onto the dirt road, she finally stepped out of the bathroom and rushed to her bedroom where she kept Sebastian's Mythology course textbook. Determined to find different accommodations, she grabbed the book and headed to his home office with the intention of returning the course material she no longer cared to master. With a quick movement, she pushed the door open to find Isabella sleeping on the futon with a pillow under her head and a thick comforter over her.
The brunette rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and gave Dawn a drowsy smile. "How are you feeling?" she inquired.
"I'm doing better," Dawn's lips moved without matching her sentiment. "Why are you sleeping in here?"
Isabella sat up on the futon and stretched languidly before answering. "Well, you've kind of got the only other bed available." She chuckled.
"Why didn't you sleep in your boyfriend's room?"
The brunette shrieked. "Sebastian is not my boyfriend!" she covered her audible gasp with both hands. "Dawn, who do you think I am?"
"Isabella, Sebastian's girlfriend."
"Ew!" Isabella exclaimed with revulsion in her tone and disgust on her face. "He's my brother!"
Izzy was Isabella. Dawn couldn't believe she hadn't realized it sooner. She had let her emotions cloud her judgment and had been cold with the only person who had ever understood her. She had treated him unfairly and now she had amends to make.
★ ★★★★
Don't forget to vote by clicking the 抖阴社区 star ⭐️ It encourages authors to keep updating and writing.