Artificial Night (Open)

[Annette Brim]

The Dungeons were dark, a lot darker that Annette had thought they would be. She never suspected. More shocking, she thought she would go down into the dungeon sooner, but this was her first time she ventured down here in the two years she had attended Hogwarts. Okay, maybe it wasn't that dark, now that her eyes had adjusted. The occasional candle in the occasional candle holder built into the brick work of the dungeon corridor wall provided just enough light to see until the light of the next candle appeared.

Despite the nominal light, Annette took hold of a fat candle with a deep pit of wax to ward away her fears. It was not so much the dark she feared, but the images that her imaginations formed in the dark that scared her most. Once in her walk, Annette imagined a large werewolf hunching over in the corner deep into the hall over a corpse of some large mutilated bloody animal, or possibly even a person. Propped on his haunches, the imaginary werewolf chewed at the carcass, with a fiery, violent hunger. The image was so real, Annette could even hear the rip of flesh and meat, and the sound of the body knocking against the intersecting walls teased her eyes. Upon forming this scene, Annette gasped and froze. Her eyes were wide with terror despite her longing to close her eyes and make the image is appear, yet she feared that the werewolf would attack her behind the protection of her eyelids. She tried to keep her breathe controlled and calm herself down, but she hyperventilated anyways. In her imagination, the werewolf looked up, probably hearing her frightened gasp and her frantic breathing. He let out a quick growl and took the corpse into his mouth and ran off down the hall, away from her. As soon as the imaginary werewolf disappeared, Annette looked away. Down toward the stone floor of the corridor, illuminated by the candle mounted next to her. She started to get control over her breath again, yet the fear still lingered. Closing her eyes for just a moment, Annette tried to convince herself that it was daytime, sometime around three in the afternoon. Werewolves only come out at night, on a full moon(though, she had no clue what the face of the moon was at the moment). But it's dark. The thought came into her head, and that was enough.

Slowly her imagination worked on it's own will formed by her fear and the werewolf came back. Padding his way, back down the corridor, he growled. It was deep and easily picked up by Annette's ears. Looking up, as if the trickeries of the dark were real, Annette found the werewolf glowing the candle light less than two candle lights away from her. Annette's heart began to race. Bracing the wall, Annette debated to turn and run, but the image of the werewolf attacking her in her retreat panged her mind. She wanted to close her eyes again and tell herself that this was just her imagination, but, she could move. Her heart raised, there was a strange heated feeling on the back of her neck, and her muscles ached to from her frozen stance. The muzzle of the werewolf was drenched in blood, the blood from his prey, and Annette was next. Looking away, the image vanished, but in Annette's head she could still see and feel the werewolf pouncing and coming down on her with his jaw clamped on her shoulder. Quickly, she eliminated the idea and illusion by distracting herself.

Still shaking from her experience, Annette pulled out a book from her book bag and sat down again the wall of the hall. From her knitted jacket made of black yarn that reached down to her knees, she pulled out her willow wood wand. Holding the candle in her flat palm, she whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa," while pointing her wand at the candle. Her voice is shaky and not very confident. The charm did seem to work, so Annette muttered the words again. Slowly, the candle lifted into the air where she pointed it. Still focusing her wand, Annette opened her book, and adjusted the light by moving the candle. All over she was shaking, her hand, which held the wand, was unable to hold still. So the candle, that was enslaved by the wand, shook and wouldn't stay stable. Annette was about to sigh in frustration, when the candle jerked and tipped and a glob of hot, molten wax splashed from it wall of solid wax and landed on her hand that gripped her book. Yelping in pain, Annette lost focus and the candle fell and lost it's light. Quickly tried to peel the already cooling wax of her hand, it took Annette awhile to realize her sudden engulfment in the dark. A shroud of fear came over her and the sound of the growling wolf could be heard. Frantic, Annette grabbed the candle that was barely visible in the light and dashed over to the closest candle in the wall. She, shaking, dipped the wick of her candle into the tiny flame of the skinny long one in the mount. The growl grew louder and louder in Annette's head and she could hardly think. She felt the werewolf upon her and she almost screamed. As soon as it lit, Annette flung it around and lit up the dark. The growling faded and she started to become more calm. Sighing a deep sigh of relief, Annette sunk down against the wall, in the dark.

[Celestial Snape]

Splash. Splash. The water from the faucet pooled into Celeste's cupped hands. With an already faltering snicker she loosened her vise-like grip and let the water seep through her bloodied fingers. Go away, go away, she sung to herself. Then, whispered, "It was just a dream. All a dream".

With a trembling heart Celestial Snape looked up from the pink water and gazed into the mirror at the girl she had become. Though no scar could blemish her body now the faint outline of what could have been remained. Three long, angry gashes starting at the throat and trailing down to where you couldn't see under her dress now looked only slightly off-colour in certain light. And others just like it around her midsection, up and down her legs. It was almost as if Celeste had been attacked by a wild beast. But she knew that what had really done this was far worse.

She hadn't noticed until now that she was shaking with unadulterated fear. Her grey eyes had widened as if surprised and were dilated to full capacity. The dark circles under her red-rimmed eyes stood out significantly against her pale white skin making her seem even more like a wraith than she ever could have on her own.

A clatter to the right shattered her trance with a loud splash of the water. Quickly scrubbing her hands to get rid of the evidence, Celeste tiptoed over to the origin of the disturbance.