(outfit is the same as last chapter)
After helping the boy, Dane, Crystal ended up taking a walk around the campus. On her way back inside she bumped into Aisha and Musa. They both looked fairly worried, which in turn made Crystal worried.
"Hey guys. What's wrong?"
"Have you seen Bloom?" Aisha asks suddenly, ignoring Crystal's question. Crystal turns to Musa with a look, as though she is asking her to explain.
"Bloom's sort of missing. We're trying to look for her." Musa explains.
"I'll help you. Have you checked the dorm?"
"We're heading over there now." Aisha tells her before stalking away. Crystal raises her eyebrows at Aisha's attitude before brushing it off, thinking that she's probably worried for their new friend.
"Why are you worried that she's run off anyway?" Crystal questions, unable to hold back her curiosity.
"Aisha thought it would be a good idea to tell Bloom that she was a changeling, obviously Bloom didn't like that." Musa says, catching up Crystal on what she missed.
"Well, I knew that. You don't see me telling her." Crystal says, making Musa and Aisha turn to look at her.
"Wait, you knew? How?" Aisha asks, bitterly.
"When I met her on the first day, I kind of figured it out when she told me she had only learnt about our world." Crystal states, making Aisha rolling her eyes at her. 'Well, she's being rude.' Crystal thinks.
"If you did know, then why didn't you tell her?" Aisha asks, crossing her arms and raising one eyebrow.
"I didn't tell her because I wasn't completely sure about it and if you haven't noticed Bloom is having a hard time fitting into our world right now. She just left her whole reality behind to come here, obviously that's gonna be stressful enough. I didn't think she needed the extra stress of wondering whether or not her parents are her real parents." Crystal explains with a slightly raised voice.
"Bloom needed to know and you withholding that information from her was the wrong thing to do." Aisha exclaims, making Crystal scoff and roll her eyes.
"I'm not gonna argue with you right now because I would rather spend my time looking for my friend." Crystal states before pushing past Aisha and walking to the dorm, the two other girls following behind closely.
"She's blanking my texts." Aisha states as they all walk into the suite.
"Strange. I wonder if it's because she poured her heart out to you and you called her a freak?" Musa replies, making Crystal discreetly smile.
"Took the words right out of my mouth!" Crystal exclaims with a grin. Aisha is the first person to notice Stella and speaks up.
"Have you seen Bloom?" She asks Stella.
"Not recently." Stella replies in a nonchalant manner. Crystal rolls her eyes, seeing right through her best friend, while Musa just studies Stella.
"Yes?" Stella asks, obviously annoyed at Musa's staring.
"Your face looks so calm, yet you're racked with guilt." Musa states, worrying Crystal before she realises something.
"You're a mind fairy." Crystal states.
"A mind fairy?" Terra says, coming out of her shared room after hearing voices. "What's your connection? Memory..." Terra continues, intrigued by Musa's powers.
"Not a great time." Musa and Crystal say in sync.
"Is everything OK?" Terra asks in a worried tone.
"Not really." Aisha says.
"There's a bit of a problem." Crystal continues.
"We're looking for Bloom. For some reason, Stella's feeling guilty about it." Musa finishes.
"Could everyone save the drama for drama club?" Stella exclaims in an annoyed manner.
"Wasn't she talking to Sky?" Terra asks aloud.
"Yeah, she was. I saved her ass." Crystal adds on.
"And?" Stella states in a bored tone.
"And I know what happened to the last person who was talking to Sky." Terra tells her.
"Crystal and I were here last year, remember?"
"Stella, where's Bloom?" Aisha demands.
"She was feeling homesick, so I did a nice thing, and I lent her my ring so that she could go back to the First World." Stella says, giving in.
"Doesn't it only work outside the Barrier?" Terra asks.
"Yes, and there's a gateway in the old cemetery." Stella says, making Crystal's eyes widen dramatically.
"That's deep in the forest, Stella." Terra states.
"You know what's out there, right? A fucking Burned One, that will not hesitate to kill Bloom." Crystal tells Stella, annoyed at the fact that her friend could be so stupid. "Were you even thinking, Stella?" Crystal finishes before turning on her heel and starting to walk towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Stella exclaims loudly.
"I'm gonna save my friend from your stupid decision. If you're gonna come with me then please do keep up." Crystal says angrily before stalking out of the suite and moving towards the headmistresses office with Musa, Terra and Aisha following her quickly.
✼ •• ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ •• ✼
After talking to Miss Dowling, they all ran to the gateway in the old cemetery as fast as they could. Luckily they got there just in time to see Bloom run out from the gateway.
"Are you OK?" Aisha asks.
"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think so. What the hell was that thing?" Bloom states.
"It's called a Burned One. They're like super dangerous." Crystal explains.
"Wait. Where... where's Stella?" Bloom asks.
"She's at school. Why?" Terra says.
"That thing just took her ring." Bloom shakily replies.
"Shit." Crystal whistles out. "Come on, let's get you back to the school." Crystal continues, gently wrapping an arm around Bloom's shoulder.
✼ •• ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ •• ✼
The girls eventually ended up back at the school and had led Bloom to the suite.
"The headmistress will take care of the Burned One, Bloom." Aisha tells Bloom. Bloom just nods slightly before starting to walk to her room. "She won't leave it in the First World. Don't worry. Your parents are safe." Bloom just nods and smiles sadly.
"Thanks." Bloom states before turning away from everyone and going to her room.
After Bloom retreated to her room everyone started to get ready for bed. Musa is in the bathroom, Terra is watering her plants and Crystal is laying in her bed reading. Crystal looks up as she sees Musa walk in but looks back down at her book. Out of nowhere Terra starts talking, making Crystal look up again.
"So I know you want to listen to your music, and I, uh, I totally get that, um, but we are...stuck together for a while. So..." Terra turns around to grab something. "I borrowed this off my brother. It's a speaker, so we don't have to talk. You can be in your world. You just...won't be alone in it. Or not. It's no... It's not a big deal." Terra states before turning away. In the corner of her eye, Crystal sees that Musa huffs quietly before getting out of bed.
"Don't be angry." Musa states.
"I'm not." Terra squeaks out.
"Can you stop with the fake happy bullshit for one second?" Musa says, making Crystal's eyes widen.
"I'm a genuinely happy person." Terra explains.
"And I'm an empath. I can feel everything that you feel. Your anxiety with me, your insecurity with Stella, and your anger right now, all of it, if not worse than you. That's my gift, if you can call it that. I put my headphones on so I can take a break from everyone else's emotions and just focus on mine." Musa explains in a desperate tone. Crystal looks at her sadly.
"We will leave you to your music. Also, if it helps I'll try to feel less emotions around you. Less bad ones, I mean." Crystal speaks up, looking at Musa with smile. Musa weakly smiles back before getting into bed with her headphones.
"Terra?" Crystal calls out softly, making Terra turn to look at her. "That was a nice thing to think of, but sometimes people just need to be alone. Goodnight." Crystal says before laying down and closing her eyes.
Crystal opens her eyes to see she is laying down in the middle of the courtyard. Confused on how she got there she gets up and calls out to see if anyone is there. There's no reply. Crystal starts to walk back to her dorm when suddenly she hears a weak and raspy voice call out to her.
"Crystal..." Crystal spins around at the voice, only to see no one nearby.
"Hello? Who's there?" Crystal calls out in a shaky voice.
"Crystal....help me..." The voice calls again.
"Who are you?" Crystal calls out.
"Crystal...follow my voice..." The voice states while fading away slowly.
Crystal sighs unsurely before following the voice, her curiosity getting the best of her. She follows the voice through corridors and passageways before reaching a set of stairs that only lead upwards. Crystal falters, unsure of what awaits her at the top of the tower.
"Crystal..." The voice calls out again, making her surge forwards up the stairs.
Crystal makes it to the top of the stairs before coming to a stop in front of an old, rusty, metal door. She pushes on it only to find that it is locked. She looks to see if she can find a lock to pick, but she sees that the door has no lock.
"Hello? Are you in there? I can't get in." Crystal calls out to the mysterious voice.
"Crystal..." The voice calls out from behind her.
Crystal spins around to find nothing there, before suddenly she feels a chill run up her spine and can feel someone's breath on her ear. Crystal doesn't dare turn around, she's petrified.
"Find me..." The voice quietly rasps into her ear, before pushing her down the stairs.
Crystal gasps awake and sits up straight in her bed. She continues to breathe heavily before she notices that she has broken out in a cold sweat, she looks down at her sheets only to find that she has produced a frost in her sleep. She runs a hand through her hair, calming down slightly while staring out the window at the stars.
"What the fuck?" Crystal whispers out, confused about what the hell just happened.
✼ •• ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈ •• ✼
A/N:
What do you think of Aisha's attitude?
What was going on at the end there?
Don't forget to vote and comment.