Daydreams and Disasters

Fear Magic

Fear Magic

She can't sleep. She paces the lobby of the library with all the tired anxiety of someone who wishes Hypnos will come to them but knows it will be futile. She is beyond the reach of gods, real and imagined. Terror is starting to set in, terror that everything will be ending soon and that life as she knows it will never be the same. Part of it is politics. The world is always falling apart. Part of it is responsibility. There is always more of it. And part is just the intrinsic nature of a human stressed beyond what her all too mortal capabilities can take. So she paces, the books whispering secrets old and new in the dimness. She can't bring herself to turn on the lights. It will make her plight a reality. No she'll take this, the darkness of her thoughts at home in the street lamp lit night.

The night can be comforting.

Her phone rings and it's telling that even in the midst of a breakdown she carries the thing, makes herself available to others who might need her. She doesn't want to answer the airy tune, "Han Solo and the Princess", set a long time ago in a fit of whimsy. She loves the man on the other end of the line but sometimes you need the peace of your own scattered, neurotic thoughts, not the well meaning care of others.

She does not answer.

The shadows creep closer and she wonders if it would be alright to lay down right there, on the marble, to let the coolness consume her slowly. There is a comforting patch of street light through the high skylights hitting the marble gently and she knows that it isn't warm but she still wants to lay there. Wants to let the world absorb her. It's done far worse to stronger souls.

Her phone rings again, it screams into the stillness, "A Phone Call is Here! A Phone Call is Here!" For a heartbeat she considers not picking up, pretending to be asleep, but she answers and the alert "Sis, are you okay?" is too much. The dam breaks but the shadows recede.

"No," she chokes out, "I'm not."

"Just talk to me. Ben says you got hit with some crazy fear magic by Arcana earlier who called him in a panic when she realized how strong it was and he's been worried because you weren't answering your phone."

"I," the words pour out with her tears. "I just really need a hug." She talks for what feels like hours and is unsurprised when the voice at her ear suddenly echoes in the darkness.

"I'm here, sis." She accepts the hug gratefully, "I'm here."

The darkness is an easier burden for two.