^ she is art, she is beauty, she is queen ^

"Misted, that's what it is. Some kind of smoke; a fog. It sweeps across our vision, smothering the pathway, until we can no longer find what we were once looking for."
—I made something
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H o l l o w s I n
T I M E
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I stared at the map, long and hard, and soon believed that my mind was playing tricks on me.

I sighed in frustration, "I can't see anything new!" I called out to Jameson, who was trying to fix my window that decided to spontaneously come loose in the middle of the night. I woke up with a chill and a moth the size of a bat as a new pet.

Our dorm door opened and I frowned; we weren't expecting an visitors. There were a few gruff word exchanges, and then our guest made their way into Jameson's room, where I stood a metre away from the wall, pouring my eyes out onto a map.

"Where's our next holiday?" She asked, obviously trying to make a joke. I gave her a deadpanned stare and she clamped her mouth shut.

"What are you doing here, Alexi?" I asked, not interested in small talk.

She shed her jacket and draped it over Jameson's desk chair, making herself very much at home. "I'm here for our little map-meetings." She said, waving her hand around to gesture to the investigation board which had become an investigation room.

"That's what we're calling them now? And who invited you anyway?" I asked.

Lexi raised her eyebrows, "Okay, okay, I know I forgot to RSVP but that was harsh."

Uninterested in her banter, I turned my attention back to the map.

"If I say that it wasn't me, will you forgive me?" Jameson asked, popping his head in the room, hinting to the fact that he invited Lexi to what I thought would be a private meeting.

I didn't reply, and instead threw a glare at him.

Lexi sucked in a breath, "Run, right now, whilst you still have time." She told Jameson, who chuckled in response. Then he was gone again.

"So," Alexi announced, leaning against the wall, "how's my best friend after things got hot and spicy on Halloween?" She asked.

That incident was actually a few days ago now, in fact, three days ago, since it was the evening of the fourth of November. Tomorrow was fireworks night, though Jameson currently did not want me anywhere near anything that has to be lit by a fire. Which is the whole point of fireworks night. In fact, I've pretty much been home bound—or rather dorm-room bound—ever since the accident. I haven't even been on my phone. My only source of communication has been Jameson.

Sounds rather eventful, right? Well, the only thing that was really interesting that we have discussed over the last few days has been our conversation about the flavour in the chicken that he got us for dinner. The discussion got pretty heated.

I dismissed all of this, not wanting to talk to her about what happened, nor about the dark truths that I had admitted to Jameson after. Instead, I raised an eyebrow at her use of 'best friend'.

Seeming to know what I was referring to, Lexi rolled her eyes. "Okay, calm down; I said that you were my best friend, I didn't say that I have to be yours." She flipped her hair back. Not knowing how to respond, I gave the room side-eyes. Sometimes her idea of logic scared me.

"Okay," Jameson announced, walking into the room at exactly the right time, oblivious to what had just transpired. "That should be fine now." He told me. I thanked him as he passed me and flashed me a small smile.

"Right," Alexi announced, standing up so that she could walk over to the map. "Shall we continue talking about this?" She asked.

"Actually," I interrupted, "I think I have a more pressing topic of conversation." I declared. Then I had two sets of eyes on me.

"That other time I almost died." I said.

Lexi laughed. "What other time? There have been many." I glared at her and her grin fell. "Proceed." She said, gesturing to me.

"The time I nearly drowned–"

"–you what?" Alexi no longer seemed in the mood for jokes.

"You didn't know?" I asked, throwing a pointed look at Jameson, who just shrugged in response.

Alexi shook her head, "No, I haven't been given your report yet–"

"–wait," Lexi looked at me expectantly, "'report'?"

Lexi nodded. "Well, yeah. How else do Guardians find out about their Special One?" She asked.

"Twenty one questions?" I joked, taking on her comical form. She gave me a glare that quite clearly resembled mine.

"Jameson got one when you came to the Academy last year." Lexi said.

I rose my eyebrow at Jameson. "What did it say?" I asked.

Jameson shrugged. "Just that I should never make fun of your name because you'll start a storm." He said. In a split second of a movement, I reached over and hurled one of his pillows at him. Instead of catching it, he moved his head and it soared straight past him. Well, I'll take the points for effort instead.

"Anyway. You drowned." Lexi said, trying to stimulate the conversation.

I pulled a face, "Well, technically–"

"Forget the technicalities, what's your new subject of conversation?" Lexi asked, sounding impatient. I glared at her, but continued nonetheless.

"Bria mentioned something to me last month–"

"Bria? And last month—seriously, Sky?" Alexi crossed her arms over her chest.

"A friend." I didn't reply to her comment regarding the time frame between when Bria and I had this exact conversation to now, when I'm finally telling my Guardians what my brilliant light bulb moment was.

"Anyway. She said something about security cameras, and witnesses." I told them first. "There was no one out at this time. At least, I didn't see anyone."

"Obviously." Lexi muttered.

I narrowed my eyes. "Okay, we're not doing this. I have no idea how I ended up in that lake drowning." I retorted.

Lexi rose an eyebrow. "And you really think that you'd voluntarily just take a quick little dip in a lake when you can't even swim?" She replied haughtily.

"Wait, you can't swim?" Jameson asked, which was one of the first things he had said inside of this room.

I waved him off. "It doesn't matter, what matters is that there were no cameras or witnesses to what happened." I explained. Lexi paused, her fingers running through her hair in thought.

I sighed. "Why were there no witnesses?" I asked, trying to prompt them.

"Because they don't want to be seen." Alexi said triumphantly, as if she had just solved a murder mystery. Well, if I had drowned, it would be a murder mystery.

"Ah, but why? What don't they want us to see?" I said again when no one filled the silence that trailed after.

Jameson appeared out of the shadows of his room. "It's someone we'd recognise." He said, deep in thought as he considered the effects of this.

"Exactly." I said as they finally figured out what I was trying to say.

"You know your attacker." Lexi said with astonishment, as if I just presented her the holy grail of life.

"I know who tried to drown me." I corrected her.

"Has it been the same attacker this whole time?" Jameson asked, though sounding as if he was still deep in thought and not present in the moment.

I shook my head, "I don't think so. Remember that most of my attacks were done by people who I either saw or heard." I told him. Jameson considered this with a frown for a few moments.

"Your attacker has changed." He observed.

"Or," Lexi said, taking steps forward so that she was both physically and figuratively in the conversation.

"Maybe there isn't one attacker. Maybe there's many." Lexi said. I ducked my head, considering this. How would this change things?

I stood up. "I think it's time to question the loyalties of some of the people I know." I said.

I eyed Lexi. "Including you." I retorted, watching her scrunch up her face.

She sighed. "Fine. If it makes you safe, then fine." She said in reluctance.

Jameson stepped forward, an aura of leadership shimmering around him. "Let's go solve this mystery." He said.

Well, we can only try.

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If you try but don't succeed, don't try again, you're probably already dead

–me, 6th of January 2018
Nice one

Mystery mysteryyyyyy

That's all that happened in this chapter to be fair lolol

Apart from our trio banding together 🤔

Noice

-can you even spell ??

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Next update: Wednesday
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CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE SPOILER:
(we're so close to the end omggg; I'm going to have to start counting down soon !!)

The world continues to move as it always does, despite the new mission that our trio have planned to endeavour on.

But some things don't change.

Bad habits in love are bad habits in life.

And our bad habits always seem to creep back, even when we tried to lock them away.