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Eda tried her best to ignore the silence that struck the halls of Hexside when she stepped in the doors. It had been a week since the… incident… and of course, everyone in Bonesborough knew by now. Great. While she’d been hiding out at home to ‘recover’ (according to her mother), everyone had been developing conspiracy theories on exactly what had happened to her. Taking a deep breath, she fought to keep her expression cool and collected. She wasn’t going to let this get to her.
She’d been blocking out a lot of things in her life lately, what was one more? Her sister was too scared to look at her, barely exchanging a few words while hiding her face behind long locks of curled red hair, Raine hadn’t talked to her since that night in the woods, her parents were being overbearing and her mother was on a hunt for a ‘cure’ that Eda wasn’t sure she’d ever find… .
Yeah, there was a lot going on.
So, let’s just add social ridicule to the list. Her ears twitched as she heard some of the whispers, not bothering to try and make them out. She knew what they would be, there was no way it could be worse than the things she’d been saying about herself. A girl of confidence she may be but there’s always something that can throw someone completely off balance.
She rushed to her locker, shoving most of her books into its mouth before finding the nearest hidden passage. Screw going to classes today, she’d hide out and secretly multitrack until it was time for lunch.
—
Noisily dropping her tray at the table, Eda sat down before her tablemates could protest. Everyone else had already arrived, Eda having waited until the halls were mostly empty before making her way to the cafeteria. Alador, Darius, Lilith, and Perry were in their normal seats, leaving Raine’s empty. Because of course. She’d tried peeking in on the bard classes and hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her mint haired partner, but she’d hoped she’d just missed them.
“Sup,” she asked, trying to play it cool. Nothing had happened, right? Nothing. “Where’s ‘dalia?”
There was silence for a moment before Alador spoke up, “She said she didn’t want to sit by ‘that creepy owl beast thing’ so she’d see us later. Ow- what?” Alador rubbed the arm that had just been elbowed by Darius, confusion etched onto his face.
“It’s cool,” Eda replied with a shrug, honestly not caring what Odalia had to say about her. “Nicer to have lunch without her, anyways.”
She let the group sit in silence for a moment before speaking up again.
“Has anyone seen Raine?”
“We were kind of hoping you’d heard from them,” Perry admitted. “No one’s seen them since they ran after you after the… you know.”
Lilith only seemed to hide behind her hair again at this. Definitely scared of her then, okay, this was great.
“Actually, people are saying you’re the reason they’re not here- Will you quit that?” Alador rubbed his arm again, shooting a glare at Darius, who had a frustrated look directed at his best friend.
“Can you have any tact?” the abomination user asked, tilting his head in Eda’s direction. She hadn’t noticed, but her hands had begun shaking. She quickly moved them to her lap, hoping no one had noticed.
“Oh yeah?” she asked, faking a laugh. “And what are they claiming?”
She was scared to hear the answer, for once.
It was silent for a moment before Darius answered, no one else looking at her. “Well, most people are saying you must have… attacked them when they chased after you.”
“And that their face is hideously scarred now,” Alador butted in. “They’re too scared to show their face anymore.”
“Well, I can assure you that didn’t happen,” Eda said, holding back a sigh of relief. Okay, so that wasn’t the reason Raine wasn’t talking to anyone. But still then, what was ? Because even if they were mad at her - which they hadn’t seemed to be when she’d left - why would they ignore the rest of their friend group? And now her mind was spiraling to all the worse things that could have happened to them.
“Well,” Eda said, standing up and grabbing her still full tray. “This place is a drag without them, so I’m out.” Lilith looked like she was going to protest, but Eda wasn’t going to hear complaints from a girl who wouldn’t even look at her, so she tossed her lunch - plastic tray and all - into the trashcan and headed out of the school.
—
The flight from Hexside to the Whisper’s home was always a fairly soothing one. It was fairly short, which Eda had never been more grateful for than today, where she was racing Owlbert to his limits.
“Come on, buddy,” she whispered, patting the side of the staff, “get me to them and you can take a good rest - I’ll even walk home.” Anything to get to their partner faster. They felt Owlbert pick up the pace just a bit more and sighed in relief. She wasn’t sure what she was racing towards, but hopefully some kind of answer awaited her.
Feeling Owlbert slow down, she caught sight of the back of the house and immediately steered towards the middle window - Raine’s. She’d snuck in that window enough times to be positive. Today she wasn’t sneaking about though, and she slammed the side of her fist against the window in the hopes that someone would hear her.
“Raine!” she cried out. “I know you’re in there!” She didn’t. “Stop ignoring me and tell me what’s wrong!”
Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the window opened.
“Eda?” Raine asked, eyes squinted. They didn’t have their glasses on, but could obviously recognize her voice. “What are you doing here?”
Eda didn’t answer right away, instead taking in the rumpled state of her partner; her best friend. Aside from their eyes being squinted, Eda could tell that they were red-rimmed and had dried tear tracks falling from them. Their eyes had large black bags under them and seemed hollowed in a way she’d never seen them look before - and she’d seen the bard after sleepless nights before finals week. Their clothes were rumpled and without the usual care put into them that she was used to seeing, and their hair hung limp and lifeless instead of the usual, styled perkiness.
“What happened?” she asked, instead of an answer. Raine just blinked at her and turned to face the inside of their room, crossing their arms.
“You know what happened, Eda,” they muttered, not looking at her. Okay, so maybe it was her fault then. “I transformed into some kind of monster. And if that wasn’t enough, it happened again.”
“What?” she asked, surprised. Eda herself had yet to have anything else happen yet, and if it weren’t for the occasional sprouting of feathers, she’d think it was a one-off.
“After I got home,” Raine began, “my parents weren’t happy I’d been out so late. Especially after they heard…” they trailed off, not wanting to put any blame on their girlfriend. “Well, they heard what happened that day, and I guess they were scared something happened to me, but, well, you know how they are.”
Oh boy did she. She had no doubt that Raine’s mothers loved them, but they were a bit… overprotective. Overbearing. Forceful. There were a lot of words that could describe the two women who raised the young teen. Perhaps because they were their only kid, or maybe they were just slightly overbearing as people, who knew, but what Eda did know was that it seemed to cause a rift in their relationship. Raine was constantly worried about doing something that would displease them, and they were constantly finding things that Raine needed to do better. If only they’d be less nervous, they could perform at grander concerts and make a better name for themself, if they hadn’t wasted their time galavanting off with Eda the night before, they wouldn’t have missed that note in last night’s performance. Things like that.
So yes, Eda knew how Raine’s parents were, and she didn’t like where this was headed.
“Well, everything had already felt too loud that night. It was fine, while it was just us in the woods. But the yelling just… bounced around in my head, and before I knew it, I seemed trapped in my mind. I could still hear the yelling though, but I also wasn’t alone in my head. I could see the… the bat beast, or whatever it’s called. It was chasing me,” Raine admitted, hunched in on themself and refusing to look at Eda. Eda shuffled off of Owlbert and onto the windowsill at this point, reaching a hand out to place on Raine’s shoulder. She worried that they’d just shrug it off, but instead, they seemed to lean into the touch. They unfolded their arms, and placed one hand over Eda’s, rubbing their thumb against her hand. But still, they wouldn’t look at her.
“My mom told me what happened after. I turned into the beast and tried to attack the both of them. Mother pulled out her flute and played a sleeping spell which seemed to work, at least until I could take control again. I’m pretty sure it knocked out both myself and the version that was chasing me, too, because next thing I knew I was in my bed and told I wouldn’t be leaving the house until they could fix… whatever’s going on.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Eda asked, not knowing what she could do to help.
“They took my scroll,” they admitted, finally looking over at Eda. “They always thought you were a bad influence - you know that.” That she did. “Well, they just used this as another excuse. They think you got me cursed somehow.”
And oh boy did that hit hard. Because that’s exactly what Eda worried about since it happened - was it her fault? Why her and Raine? She couldn’t think of anything they’d done recently that could have gotten one of them cursed, let alone the both of them. But if one of them was going to get cursed, Eda knew it would be her, not Raine. So it had to be her fault, right?
“Well, maybe it is my fa-.”
“Don’t even finish that sentence, Calamity.” Raine looked at her with the most serious face she’d ever seen on their face. “It’s not your fault unless you cursed me yourself.”
They sat in silence for a moment, the tables now turned to where Eda wouldn’t look at Raine, but Raine watched her with a soft look on their face. Slowly, they let a smile grow.
“But hey,” they said. “They don’t know you know your way into the house.”
Eda smiled softly at that and chuckled. “We’ll just have to sneak you out to freedom.” Raine chuckled in agreement and leaned their arm on the windowsill, resting their head in their hands.
“I missed you, Calamity,” they admitted, soft smile never leaving their face.
“I missed you too, Rainestorm,” she admitted, letting a smile tug at her lips as well. The two just looked at each other for a bit before Raine moved out of the way.
“My moms are at work if you want to come in for a bit,” they offered, biting their lip.
“Pass up on time with you?” she joked, hopping off the windowsill and into the room. “I’d be crazy to pass up on that.”
The two sat together on Raine’s bed quietly for a moment, just enjoying being back in each other’s presence. Raine began to hum a piece they’d been working on and Eda sighed, closing her eyes and resting her head against their shoulder.
“Everything’s gonna work out, Rainestorm,” Eda muttered softly, not wanting to interrupt Raine’s song. Raine just put their arm around Eda and pulled her closer, continuing with their tune.