Week Eight: Saturday When: Night Where: House away from city/school Who: Cassius and Val
In the dark Cassius sat, a headache pulsing at the back of his skull making it feel as though it would crack in effort to release the pressure. Here to this house far from the city and the school he had been since before the sunrise. Finding his way there as the werecreatures were brought closer and closer to the school as their time to shift back neared. As needed he had gone out with other teachers that night. He had seen to the students, ensuring that none were harmed while they were not fully themselves. Fights were stilled, aggression curbed. But always it wore on him. Emotions ran rampant the week of the full moon. Students so consumed by those primal urges that they lost control and lashed out. Even those well trained in keeping such emotions at bay could not help but be pushed by the onslaught of it all.
Cassius struggled; and because of it he did as he often did when he felt as though his own control was sacrificed. He shut himself away, cutting himself off from the feel of those emotions until he felt as though he stood upon stable ground again.
Control. It was now the center of his life. It ruled all he did, all he spoke, all he even thought. It had consumed him in a way that left him often wondering if there was anything else. There were times when he felt caged, as though the walls put around his mind were instead around him. Locking him in a room with no windows or doors; no way out…no escape. He had felt this way before, when he let chaos reign and gave up all fight against it.
For Cassius the middle ground was not so easily kept. Back and forth he had teetered through the years and still, even with his years, a balance wasn’t kept.
But now was different then all the times before. After the demons something had changed…that control slipped more and more and when it did he got that taste for how things had been. Like a shock through the senses making him feel alive again. Was he forever changed? He did not even know, or even fully recall what had been done. He knew only that the passing of time had not cured all this strain as he had thought it would.
Being here had not solved the damage done.
Alone, not even a clock ticked in the room. Slowly Cassius shifted, lying back upon the perfectly made bed in the pristine room. Arms folded against his eyes, as though blocking out light that was not found in the pitch dark that surrounded him. A silent room and yet it sounded as though thunder were rumbling through it, a drumbeat that made his fingers twitch and his jaw clench. Tension crawled beneath the skin like an animal seeking to claw its way out. He couldn’t keep himself still and yet movement only increased that body consuming ache that refused to cease.
Thudding…pulsing…over and over again.
Still beneath the all consuming sound of that pulsing headache thoughts circled. Questions nagged at the back of the mind, urging him to notice and yet they were ignored. Questions that never stopped, questions that had no true answers. Questions that had been with him for days…weeks…months. Questions of the past, questions for the here and now. Questions that he knew others held as well and yet he could not give them the words they wished to hear. Everything he spoke seemed hollow.
Eyes opened when the presence of another began to tug at his senses. Steps heard that could not be heard but were more felt. A brush against the mind that was all too familiar. She could gain herself no more then that, the wards to the house ensured it. Wards and more but he knew none of it meant anything in the end. A symbol of protection that eased some minds and could not sooth others. Invisible walls to make young hearts feel safe.
There was no knock to the door but he could feel the way her hand had raised, the way it had stopped mid motion to spare him the echo of that harsh rap. Cassius slowly pushed himself to his feet. Moving near blindly through the home until it was to that front door that he stood. He knew she’d not go, that she’d persist until he at least saw her. He knew…because he knew her still.
Cassius took a moment, a second to let those walls down to feel beyond her. To ensure he could not hear the thoughts of others, to make certain she was alone. Why are you here Valeria. the words were a thought against the mind as he opened the door. He knew he should deny her, ignore and return to his bed. But though cold to her he could not turn so completely from his childe.