Indigo

There’s only so much you can say without saying a word. Amarantha was silent the rest of the evening until Tyrell walked her home. He was trying to think hard for something, anything, that would keep her mind away from whatever was troubling her. They were sitting on her front steps and Tyrell picked up one of her jet black, hip-long strands of hair and played with the little curl. Amarantha didn’t stir.
“Hey, my graduation is this weekend...would you....would you come with me?”
Amarantha continued to gaze straight ahead, not turning and barely breathing. Tyrell rested his hand on her shoulder then and shook it gently.
“Huh? I...I think I’ll go inside now. Thanks for the pie, Ty.”
And with that she quickly went up the stairs and into the house. Tyrell stayed where he was, and then he heard a soft, delicate song on his ear.
“I know, Blaze. She’ll talk to us someday.”
Amarantha went to her room, her head about to explode. It was like the psychic controlling classes all over again where she had to analyze the amount of brain waves she had to use and the direct them to the object she had been asked to. At first it was only moving the object, but then when transfiguration came all of this massive migraines had gotten her in bed for weeks on end. Her teachers said it meant she had much more potential that needed to be worked upon. The training hours intensified and she went to bed too tired to make any protection against nightmares. She collapsed on bed and the black fog came over, she could feel the cold silver against her chest, the edge just about to open her skin apart and stop her heart from beating. And then she woke up sweating and screaming.
Whenever she didn’t ‘protect’ herself against nightmares as she was trained to, they became more vivid. She had talked this matters with her teachers but they thought it was just her body’s way to train her. Amarantha begged to differ but decided against prodding the subject. But every time the nightmares became more vivid the feeling of being followed intensified. The last time she didn’t protect herself which was a couple of days ago there had been a robbery at one of the neighbor’s house. The delinquent hadn’t stolen anything he had just raced to the second landing and gone straight for the room that was located just where Amarantha’s is. The pair of twins sleeping there screamed their lungs out and said the villain disappeared right in front of their eyes in a mass of blackness and smoke.

* * *

He sat cross-legged on the floor, his hair plastered to his face due to the colossal amount of sweat.
“I swear, we were so close to catching it tonight, Two!”
He heard his partner rant behind him as he collapsed to the floor.
“He went to one of the neighbor’s houses...to the same bedroom Indigo sleeps in...If that bastard had only laid one finger upon her I-“
He was cut off by his partner who snorted,
“I don’t understand why you don’t just sit beside her window like a good old boy and defend her from the entire world if you care so much.”
He passed a hand through his hair and glanced at his partner, his mouth twitching.
“I woul-“
He shook his head then, as if he was changing his mind.
“Our task is to go after the Nightmares, and clean our kind's name. Not looking after petty humans.”
His partner laughed a long, hoarse, sarcastic laugh, clutching his sides with his hands, his tail turning, his wings folded.
“You think I can fall for that piece of bullshit, Two?”
“Mind your own business, Four. I’m going to sleep.”
He announced, turning on his side and curling into fetal position, tightening his eyes shut and trying to even his breathing.
“For crying out loud...”
Four mumbled, crawling to the place where they kept the sleeping bags and throwing one towards Two’s stiff body.

* * *
“Amarantha, sweetie, Tyrell is here to see you...”
Her mother called from the first landing.
“Coming!”
Came Amarantha’s answer from the bathroom as she finished tying her hair up in a ponytail. She jogged down the stairs just as her parents were leaving for work. They waved goodbye at her and she returned it, heading for the living room where Tyrell was flipping through the channels in a nonchalant way.
“Hey...”
“Feeling better?”
He asked instantly, as they half hugged in an awkward greeting. She turned her head to the side like a small boy who doesn’t understand all of the words of the question he’s been asked.
“Yeah, you were kind of off yesterday.”
“Ugh, yeah...Nightmares....they have that effect on me. They’re always messing with my head.”
She explained as she stared at the screen showing ditzy girls with terrible bleach jobs and not much clothes talking about nothing at all.
“You didn’t answer me you know...”
“Answer you what?”
She asked after rolling her eyes in an annoyed matter at the generation of morons and whores.
“I asked you to come to my prom...this weekend?”
Her ancient eyes fixed on his hazel ones as her mind processed his words and analyzed if she did, in fact, want to go or if she’d rather decline. And then she thought about how she had been yesterday and it that it wasn’t fair with Tyrell. So she gave him a small smile and answered coolly,
“Sure. I hope the committee did a good job organizing it.”
“Any other girl would just say ‘I hope its fun’...”
Tyrell commented, chuckling slightly. Amarantha’s eyes widened,
“Well I’m certainly not like the other girls...”
“I know that.”
Tyrell’s face turned into an expression Amarantha had only seen once before and it scared her. It brought painfully blurry memories she chose not to think about too much. And then Tyrell closed the space between them and placed a soft hand on her cheek, closing his eyes as he did so. Amarantha stiffened instantly, his lips gently pressed against hers. He sensed there was no reaction from her so he opened his eyes slowly and went back to his place on the sofa, acting as if nothing had happened. Amarantha could feel the color rising to her cheeks, turning her otherwise pale complexion into crimson.
“I’m in the mood for ‘Casablanca’....”
Tyrell commenting, walking to the movie rack searching for it and then gingerly placing it on the DVD, pressing play as soon as it read the CD. Amarantha’s shoulder relaxed as the familiar scenes started and she forgot everything around, focusing on a life that wasn’t her own...