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T h e   H o l l o w s   O f
H I R A E   T  H
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Of course, that didn't happen, it never does. I felt a sudden pain in my stomach and I opened my eyes. It was the same black figure. My lips parted as I forced myself to ask the ultimate question—why are you back?

But I couldn't, of course I couldn't. The black figure struck me in the stomach and I screamed out. This is so similar to the first time, I cried out for Jameson as I fought around in the black figure's stronghold.

I shot upright and heaved and heaved. There was cold sweat on my body and my mind was clouded up with horrific memories. It wasn't real.

Gulping down about half of my water bottle, I figured that I wouldn't get any sleep until I've relaxed. I paced around my room, biting my nails and contemplating what to do.

Normally, reading a book would be enough to relax me. However, I was sure that I was going to need more than just relaxation—I'll need a really good distraction.

I looked over to Jameson's room. The light was still on, of course it was. Jameson never seems to sleep so this isn't a surprising occurrence. Something about Jameson's sleeping patterns calmed me a little; at least something was still normal.

I walked over to his room and pushed the door open slightly. It wasn't closed, because that was never allowed, instead, it had merely been left ajar.

I slipped into his room but stopped short when I saw Jameson sitting at his desk with his head down on the table. Is he asleep? If he was awake then he would most probably have looked up at my arrival.

Since Jameson was asleep, or what I assume to be asleep, I began to tiptoe out of the room. But then I found myself pausing for a second—maybe watching him sleep would be comforting? Or just downright creepy.

I could at least try and move him to his bed so he doesn't get any back problems. I shifted back over to Jameson and made it about two steps behind him when a floorboard squeaked and Jameson jumped.

He immediately bolted up, off his chair and turned around to face me. His hair was messy and he looked half asleep, nonetheless, he stood in front of me ready to fight down the intruder.

I rolled my eyes at him and Jameson eventually clocked and dropped his arms to his side.

"Sky?" My name slurred with sleep when Jameson spoke. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and I weirdly found it cute. This was the first time I was seeing Jameson haphazard. Why on earth am I not filming this?

I took a step towards him, "What were you even doing before you fell asleep?" I asked Jameson and leaned around him observe the papers on his desk. My body pressed against his as I reached for them and my eyes widened as I realised what I was doing.

I coughed awkwardly and came to the conclusion that Jameson was way too groggy to remember this. Though, however much he remembers in the morning, he certainly doesn't have much trouble reacting to it right now. He tensed up and I backed up before I did anything that was even more stupid.

I frowned as I flipped through the papers. I saw the words 'security' and 'extra protection' quite a lot. I pulled a sheet from the bottom of the pile and was faced with pictures of people. Scary people. They looked like murders. Okay, Sky, calm down.

But I couldn't calm down, not with the man in the fourth picture staring at me. He wore a psychotic smile and his eyes pierced through and into mine. I shuddered and held the sheets up to Jameson.

"What are these?" I asked him and he frowned. Apparently, with me pressed up against him, he hadn't realised I'd snagged the papers. The flushed tone on his face told me exactly that.

This is the first—and probably last—time I've seen Jameson flustered, excusing the time he actually blushed when I was eating pizza. He is usually more closed off and so doesn't really get into many embarrassing situations. Me? Well, that's a completely different story. And sometimes, I wished I had Jameson's control to keep me afloat.

Jameson took the papers from my hands without a second thought, "You weren't  supposed to see those." He told me forcefully. I rolled my eyes—always uptight.

I plucked the sheet from his hand and my eyes met the eyes of the psychotically scary man.

"I feel like I've seen this man before." I murmured, more so speaking to myself than anyone else. I sensed as Jameson came behind me to look over my shoulder at the paper.

"Which one?" He interrogated and I turned around to face him.

"Why does it matter? What are these?" I gestured to the sheet. Jameson looked between my eyes and the sheet then sighed.

"These people are being questioned," He told me seriously, "They're the bad guys?" My eyes wandered around the room as I pondered this new information. "They are the people that we protect you from." Jameson concluded.

I pursed my lips and shrugged, "Maybe I don't recognise him then." I gave Jameson the page back but he shook his head at me.

"If you recognise him, Sky, then you're in much more trouble than we ever knew." He told me, the grave tone of his voice catching my attention.

"What do you mean, 'much more trouble'?" I quoted him. I'm finally getting answers about this whole guarding malarky—it certainly didn't take long.

Jameson ran a hand through his hair, his fingers combing out the mess. "The guardians were watching you a lot longer than you may think," He started.

"So basically I've been perved on, great." I joked, sarcasm dripping from my tongue in a bittersweet annoyance. Jameson's lips barely turned upwards but it was still there.

"They were concerned about you—the guardian government—or whatever they call it nowadays," I snorted at his improper speech as it wasn't a normal thing for Jameson. He gave me a weird look but continued.

"You were one of their special cases, the ones we have to be careful about. If we took you too early something bad would probably happen to you, and vice versa," My eyes widened.

"So, of course we still kept a look out for you, but the guardian government were becoming wary and wanted you safe as soon as possible," Jameson shook his head and frowned.

"And you think that was a mistake?" I asked him.

"Sky, you were stabbed." His voice almost reached a level of loudness past 'inside voices', but of course Jameson never loses control. I could barely hear his next words out of shock. "I think that pretty much sums it up."

My eyes had slowly widened after what he had said, but before I could talk about the fact that Jameson just admitted what had happened to me, which I thought he would be sensitive around, he began talking again.

"After you barely spoke to me on our way back from the hospital, I figured that something had you spooked, then when you asked about the window, I knew you suspected something." Jameson told me and I awkwardly nodded.

"Angela slipped up." I told him with a smile and Jameson returned the favour before leaning against the back of his chair.

"You're tired." I pointed out after I acknowledged his sloppy actions, and Jameson scoffed.

"When am I never tired?" He retorted but then looked up at me immediately to spot my reaction. I didn't know he seriously never slept, this was definitely news.

I took the papers from his hand and pushed Jameson towards his bed. He slipped and fell down onto the bouncy mattress.

"Go to sleep." I ordered then put the papers on his desk and started to walk out.

"Sky?" Jameson called out as I reached his door. I turned around and he was sitting up on his bed.

"Why did you come in here?" He asked me, most probably worried that I had seen another crazed person who was coming to stab me.

"To tell you to go to sleep." I lied and switched off the lights. It was quite the lie really since I had come to tell him that I couldn't sleep.

When I slipped back into my bed I was feeling sleepy and totally exhausted. A chat with Jameson will do that to you.

I tried hopelessly to fall asleep but every time I closed my eyes, I saw the psychotic man's eyes staring right back at me. After a few minutes of discomfort, I resulted to lying on my back and staring up at the ceiling.

Every time a gust of wind blew outside of my window, I tensed and expected to feel the chill myself. I realised after a while that I wasn't just expecting a chill, I was expecting to be stabbed.

I shivered at the thought and started a running commentary in my head.

You're not going to die.

If you do then let's hope you have a nice funeral.

No, you won't die, Jameson's next door.

It's okay.

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Yeah but Jameson was next door the first time and you were still stabbed

Just saying, Sky

She definitely has the feels

SKYSON IN THIS CHAPTER THOUGH THAT WAS HOTNESS

Bye human

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Next update: Wednesday–Friday evening
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE SPOILER:

Jameson gets aggy over a gift that Sky has received.

Sky gets snappy over a seat she wanted in the assembly which covers the scandalous events that happened in one of the first chapters ^^

And then shit goes down.

There's never a quiet day in the academy when Sky's around ;)