The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023

72| Displaced Angels

Justin rubs his eyes when his spotty vision begins to blur, holding onto the shelf of books in the school's library until the episode of deteriorating strength lessens.

At this point he feels indifferent to his ailments since they don't last too long, summing it up to the stressful regime of the school and the late evening probing from the Professor as they work together to understand his powers.

But he can't help but notice the time in-between each episode has been shortening at a rapid pace, especially with the whispering colours that only he can see getting louder by the day.

Without his friends he probably would have gone crazy by now so he's just grateful to have them around, even if they think he's beginning to lose it too.

A whispering voice snaps him out of his daze, forcing him to turn around. "Are you going to move?"

The first thing Justin's eyes notice is her white hair and how it draws all attention to itself in a dimly lit room filled with dark covered books.

He apologises, shaking his hair out of his face as he steps away from the bookshelf to give her room to search freely, using the time that her sharp grey eyes aren't on him to smack himself awake.

"What's your name? I don't think I've seen you around before."

"Everyone calls me Sage."

He thinks about giving her a compliment on her name but she strikes him as someone who wouldn't like that. "You look a little young to be enrolled here...how old are you?" Justin inquires, awkwardly clearing his itchy throat as he tries to distract himself from the spinning of the room.

"Are you saying I look like a baby?"

"I, uh, no, that's not-"

"'I'm only messing with you," she replies, briefly glancing over her shoulder as she considers giving him the rest of her answer. "I'm still sixteen, I'll be enrolling next year but for now I'm crashing with the others in Eden."

"The others? You mean the Orphans?" he asks, noticing the grip on the book in her hand tighten, immediately figuring he said something to upset her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean...I'm an orphan too, or at least I was."

"What happened?"

"Car crash," he replies, surprising himself with his own Candour. "You?"

"My brother." she utters, shifting her weight from her right hip to her left. "Were you there?"

Justin hums, his eyes flicking towards his feet. "I was in the back seat."

"So how'd you survive?"

Justin looks up from the floor to meet her gaze, pulling the corners of his mouth into a polite smile that sours the longer he thinks about it. "A friend, Freya she...she...uh..."

"Are you okay? Do you want me to get you a doctor?"

"No, it's nothing, just, every time I think back to the moment where I lost everything...the very first thing I remember is the snow."

Saga tilts her head, tapping into Justin's mind against her better judgement, crafting an illusion from his thoughts using his hidden emotions.

Justin looks up at the snowflakes gently cascading upon himself and the bookshelves, wondering how the tiny sparks of ice feel so real when melting on his forehead. "I hated the snow even before it happened...hated it even more afterwards."

"That's understandable."

Justin feels himself back on the ground, laying on his back over a fresh pile of snow with only the thin layer of his coat to protect him from the elements. "I remember the smell of fire, the car...I remember being wet."