The Decaydance Wizarding Academy.

Light.
That’s what it was, light. Everything was a light color, as if I was in some dream land, being swarmed by something that made me feel, ironically, light-headed. My jaw hung slightly, my eyes squinting, and trying to blink several times, to see if my sight would re-adjust and true colors would come back to sight.
But they didn’t.
I was in somewhere I didn’t recognize at all, somewhere completely new. It looked like what people would imagine heaven to be like. All white and calm, with barely anything except for a few plants and flowers, like lilies. People were walking around aimlessly, heads and bodies swaying as they did so, making noises like contented infants. Where they start high pitched, and slowly sink into something deeper, as if they’d just finished some challenging task and were finished with the outcome.

These people were insane.

I felt like sobbing hysterically, but I know crying never helps the situation. I was so fucking confused.

I stood up and dusted myself down, but there was nothing to dust off. Nothing at all. Even though I was sat on the floor, there was no dirt, the floor was like pure white linoleum. My normally tanned skin was sheet white, decorated with goosebumps as snow started to fall from what would be classified as sky, but I didn’t even know anymore. The freezing form of precipitation fell to the ground, disappearing milliseconds before it actually hit the floor, but once it reached my skin, it didn’t melt. It just layered up on top of me.

And somehow this caused my memory to come back.

This wasn’t a dream land, I’d read about this place before, but oh, how I wished it was a dream land.

I must have been cursed. This is where you come, or rather, your limp body but full soul comes, when you are cursed. In reality you’re body lies limp until you are cured, and you temporarily live here. If after three weeks you are not cured, then you collapse in this world, too. You die, just like that.
And whatsmore, as their skin becomes darker, not as in they change race, as in they change from a pure, innocent white to a gray, to a black. Midnight black and you know you only have a few hours to live. I’d seen three midnights walk past, and I couldn’t help but well up. These poor people, wizards, were going to die, and they were too insane to realize it; too cooped up in their cursed brain, the thoughts being mangled by the monochrome surroundings and death running through their veins.

“Tiffany!” I shouted, outstretching my arms, glad to see a familiar face. I smiled and walked towards her, placing my hand on her shoulder. She was a light gray, so couldn’t have been here long. “Tiffany.” I said again, quietly.
She didn’t say anything, just furrowed her brow and tilted her head to the left, making yet again another infant-esque noise. She hummed and flailed her arms, screamed, then fell to the floor, writhing around like she was swimming on the floor.

But there was no water.

I wanted to help her, to try and get her talking some sense, but I knew it was of no use. She’d sunk far too far in to insanity for me to help her. Josh Franceschi walked past, tripping over Tiffany, his face slapping the floor violently, but he wouldn’t feel it. He was a darker gray than her, and I can only pray he gets better. I know how much he loves Tiffany. At least they were together now, even if they didn’t know who each other was.

Sally, Jay and Jordan were laying down on the floor, in a triangle, Jay doing snow angels in the snow that never actually hit the ground. I wanted to shake them, bring them back into reality.

Please, listen to me, you’re not crazy, you’re names are Jay, Jordan and Sally, and you go to The Decaydance School of Wizardry. You’re boyfriends are Jack, Bob and Chizzy, please, wake up. Please.

Ellie floated, too. Her blonde hair whipped around her shoulders, her head lolling around like the only thing it was attached to was a single string, no, something thinner, like dental floss. One little snip and it would fall from her body entirely. She always had a lost look about her when she was fully conscious anyway, unless she was with Miyavi of course. Just being in the same room as him lit up her whole face, and they were that couple that you just knew would be together for as long as they both shall live.

She continued walking into the distance, her semi gray body floating, floating, floating.

I saw him. I saw him and his graying cheeks were tear stained, his arms irritated as he scratched and scratched at them, sobbing and walking a lot more quickly and steadily that everyone else. Perhaps he had some semblance of sanity, perhaps he could help me. Perhaps, perhaps.

He saw me and gasped, clasping his hands over his gaping jaw. I tilted my head to the side and tried to look aimless, so he would think I was in the same state as everyone else. Maybe he would talk to me, if he could, and be nice. I knew that he talked to me when he thought I was asleep because he needs to vent sometimes, and needs someone to talk to. We all do, otherwise we go crazy. I found it a little sad that he couldn’t talk to me when he wanted to, when he needed to, and had to rely on me when I was unconscious. I didn’t know how frequently he did it, because sometimes I may actually be asleep, but sometimes I’m not and I can hear him clearly.

He walked over to me, sobbing a little more uncontrollably, removing his hands from his jaw and holding my shoulders, steadying me as I swayed from left to right to left again. It was all forced, I wasn’t insane.

Not yet, anyway.

“Jenna.” he choked out. “Jenna, it’s Brendon. I know this is probably pointless, as no one here can understand me, but I need to talk to you.”
I let my eyelids flutter shut, then back open, trying my best to look convincing. It obviously worked as he pulled me into a tight hug. I almost hugged back.
“I talk to you a lot, anyway. Every night I come in and I talk to you, and you’re asleep, but that doesn’t matter, because I know that you’re the only person who would want to listen to me. I’m going to die, Jenna.” he sobbed, taking in deep breaths, but it didn’t stop his cries.
“I never meant to be an ass to you, I swear. But I’ve been horrible to you so much, and now I won’t get a cure because you’d never choose me, would you? I don’t deserve your blood, your extraordinarily special blood. That’s not what makes you special, though.” he whispered, stroking my hair gently with one hand, the other snaked around my waist to hold me to him.
“You’re the only one who ever bothered to talk to me. The only one. I talk to you more than I ever have my parents. I just, I don’t know. Sometimes I wish I could talk to you when you weren’t asleep, or in a cursed state, and just come out with it.”
He took in one deep breath.
“I care about you.” he mumbled, pressing a single, moist kiss to my cheek. “I’ve said that I don’t care, I don’t give a fuck, honestly. But I do, I really do. That’s why I got mad at Smith and duelled with him, because he’s known for being a player; I didn’t want him hurting you, because I care about you. And you care about me, right? I don’t know why you do, but you do! It’s crazy!” he exclaimed.
“Why? Why are you so nice to me? Do you know what I go through, do you empathize with my consistent pain and hypothetical death? Is that it? I mean, I know that you know about my strain, because of my blood, but it means that sometimes I put myself under so much pressure that I am dancing on the line which separates death and life. The last time I did that was when I duelled Smith.”
He pressed another kiss, to my forehead, letting it linger.
“You’re so cold.” he muttered. “So cold. It’s the snow, isn’t it.”
Brendon sighed again and let go of me, putting me carefully down on the floor so I was sitting down in a pike. He took off his blazer and put it around my shoulders, me trying not to smile as I warmed up. He sat next to me, arm around my waist, sighing yet again.
“But our, well, my, talks have reduced the stress level. Professor Hyslop said that I was healthy, almost. A little stress won’t kill me anymore.” he smiled widely. “So I guess I better thank you for that. He wanted to know what I’d done to stop it, to make my levels drop drastically, but I couldn’t tell him, y’know? What was I meant to say? I sneak into my friend’s room and talk to her every night while she’s asleep, because there’s something about her that makes me feel better. And she’s so beautiful and calm when she sleeps; it’s rubbing against, I mean, off on me. I d-don’t rub against you, that’s not what I mean.” he blushed furiously, the red of his cheeks contrasting with his gray skin.
“You know what I mean.” he smiled.

And I couldn’t hold it in any longer. He was just, just.
Lovely, I think the word would be.

“I know what you mean.” I smiled, leaning into him.
He gasped and recoiled. “J-Jenna? Did you hear all that? Have you been conscious this whole time?”
“Yes.” I nodded and he sighed, pushing his hands through his hair.
“Why didn’t you say?” he whispered. “I just poured out what I was thinking to you because I didn’t think you could hear me, but you did, and now, and now.”
He began crying again, his head in his hands. I rubbed his back soothingly.
“Brendon? What’s wrong?”
“You’re g-going to stop me from going in your room, but I need it Jenna, I need to be able to talk to you, I just need it!”
“Hey, it’s okay! I’m fine with that, Bren, totally fine. And you’re not going to die, I promise. I would choose you to be cured, you know I like you, even though you don’t like me.”
“But I do.” he said, looking up at me, the tears stopping. “I care about you.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know.” he mumbled, shaking his head. “Because you don’t think I’m a freak. Because you’re not scared of me like everyone else. Because I think you care about me too.”
“I do.” I confirmed, smiling. “And if you knew Spencer was a player, you could have just told me, rather than me having to hurt you, and you having to hurt him.”
“I didn’t know how to do it without making it seem as if I was jealous of him.”
“How often do I take things the wrong way?”
“That’s a point, but that’s also what scares me.”
He sniffed, rubbing his eyes hard. I wiped away his tears gently with my thumb and he smiled lightly. I held my hand in is, placing them on his thigh, his gorgeous brown orbs quivering as he stared down at me.
“You’re little.” he said and I laughed a little, confused.
“What?”
“As in, y’know, you’re quite a bit smaller than me.”
“I can’t help that, it’s my genes. And you’re not exactly big foot.”
“But I’m taller than you.” he smirked.
“Well I’m… damn it. You’re both taller and older.”
“Yes.” he said, gulping nervously. “But you’re more beautiful.” he said, just before his gray lips graced my pure white ones.