[prp] missed appointment (eve + melany)

[shibrogane]

Melany did glance around to see if anyone was eavesdropping when Eve mentioned magic. (Hehe. Evesdropping.) Then she shrugged, and said, "There's an open classroom on the first floor of the music building that's usually empty around this time. I used to do homework there when I was dating Ezra and didn't have practice."

She led the way, ponytail bouncing behind her.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve wordlessly followed, with Clover keeping pace close by.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany took the ramp up to the music building, which was a low-slung sort of thing with a roof that curved. The rightmost end of the curve ended just above three banks of double doors, which she opened with a tap of a student ID card (kept in a sparkly pink ID holder on the back of her phone). "I just don't know what I did," she said as they walked. "I was reading about trauma and how I guess sometimes when really bad stuff happens, people react by pushing the people they love away, but he hasn't even talked to me a little. We used to talk all the time! Even Shiloh when he was being weird talked to me more than Ezra has..."

She sighed and held the door to the empty classroom for Eve. "I must've done something awful, but I don't remember it at all!"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

This was the girl who'd been -- Eve didn't want to even think the first word of that knowledge. It was as difficult as ever to keep up the maternal demeanor that came so easily to her among people she liked. Melany seemed so normal, with such normal problems.

"It sounds like you did nothing," she said, evenly and assertively, as she entered the room. "I understand wanting to be responsible, though... the alternative is feeling powerless."

shibrogne

 

[shibrogane]

"I'm never powerless," said Melany, flexing. She hit the lights and tripped across the space to the desk, where she hopped up on top of it. "You know what I mean? I must have done something. Maybe I was too much in his space. Or not enough! It's got to be something."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Why's that? Why does it need to be you?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany shrugged, uncomfortably. There was something a little empty in her eyes. "Because it's all on me, isn't it? On my shoulders?" She shuddered.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Oh, no.

Eve reached her hands forward to gently take hold of Melany's shoulder... arm... something, anything. "I'm not following you, dear," she said. "But that's fine. You're starting to look stressed out..." Not quite the right descriptor, but it would do. "How do you feel? Do we need to leave the room?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Do you hear someone calling me?" Melany's hands crept up towards her throat, slowly, in jerks and starts. "I need my phone." She couldn't stop to grope for it where it poked out of her backpack. "I need to tell Shiloh, I promised I'd tell him, why is she calling me?"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve shook her head, but stayed as close and available and she could from her chair. "Your phone's right there, Melany," she said, while pointing at the surface of her desk. The device would suddenly be there instead of poking out of the purse the instant she looked. "I can also text Shiloh's boyfriend for you, if you have any trouble."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Melany's eyes went vague. She looked, the phone was there, but all that came out of her mouth was, "Why won't she shut up? I'd rip out her tongue if I thought it would help..."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Do you know who's calling you?" Eve asked. She went ahead and texted Jamie. It was taking a lot of willpower to keep her voice level.

saedusk

message to: jamie snowhare
Please tell Shiloh Melany is relapsing.
She's with me, in the music building.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"The one who hurt Shiloh," said Melany, and it was like speaking to two different people: I'd rip out her tongue couldn't come from the same mouth, the same voice, as The one who hurt Shiloh. "Drive stakes between her fingers, twist her until she stopped screaming, I can't stand her whining--"

Time began to slow, falling in dribs and drabs.

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Someone hurt him?"

She couldn't -- she needed help. This was some kind of crisis.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"It was me!" The words came out like Eve had torn them with her claws, "I did it, I don't remember but I did it, I don't--"

Time stopped.

Melany stopped. And when she lifted her head, there was something awful and eldritch in her face. A cold, reptilian thing behind those gray eyes that had, only moments ago, looked up at Eve as someone to trust and confide in. "Oh, no no no," said this awful other-Melany, this very familiar Spinel Lady. "This won't do at all."

cibarium