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Her dorm is packed.
For the past four years, the room had become a second home.
A place she could come back to after a hard day.
Tonight, the sheets are bare and there is one blanket and one pillow. They will be packed tomorrow morning.
Her graduation gown and cloak hang in the closet. She has heels but has already decided to wear her running shoes instead. Just in case. Cedar's half of the room looks about the same. Boxes strewn about with very few things left about. Makeup for the morning, a singular box left for the odds and ends, an empty bookshelf. It doesn't look like a room that girls have lived in. It looks like one being left to the next generation of fairytales.
Without anything on the walls, the room echoes a little more than usual. The reverberations tingle her ears when a sound is vibrated throughout the room. It tickles, ever so slightly.
It's eleven thirteen. The sun has set and graduation starts at eleven tomorrow on the dot. After the chime of the last bell.
Cerise does not want to go.
It's not like she hasn't thought about it.
It's not like it's been her whole life.
It's not like she hasn't even said it aloud. Raven knows how she feels. She fears for her future too. But Raven is more likely to live. Even if she is the daughter of the Evil Queen, she's also the daughter of the Good King. Perhaps it is her destiny to take his position. They remembered not too long ago. It gave Raven hope. Hope for a future that she can thrive in.
Cerise doesn't have a hope like that. She has nothing to cling on to.
"I'm going to take a walk." She says to Cedar, who is not asleep but not awake either. Conscious enough to remember, not lucid enough to care how late it is. She slips on her running shoes, grabs the dorm key, and leaves.
While she walks the halls, she is reminded of the good times she has had. She passes Baba Yaga's office and remembers when Raven drove it into the Dark forest to help her friends. She passes by the theatre where countless students have shown off their other talents besides ones relating to their destiny. The dances, the musical performances, the student office election.
She passes the gym and remembers Thronecoming. Remembers dancing the night away with her friends and Daring Charming. He could be a true prince if he had to be. She passes the cafeteria where she'll have her last meal at school. Maybe her last meal ever. She passes her dads classroom. Her hand hovers over the knob to go in. Realistically, he's probably awake. Packing his classroom away for the next school year he probably won't get to teach.
Cerise does not have many memories of her father. Despite being a good dad, he took Ramona soon after she was born and left to live elsewhere. Somewhere safe. He would only come around on holidays and birthdays, but even those became increasingly scarce. The more he was around, the more scared the village was. The more he entered the Hood house, the more suspicions would arise. He would always come and go at night. Cerise would wake up and Ramona and her dad would be there and then the next morning, they wouldn't be.
It was more dangerous to go to their house. She and her mom only ever made the trip once. It was dangerous, especially since they lived around creatures who typically lived in the darkness. It's been almost ten years since she visited the other house. She doesn't really remember much more. It's easier for Ramona and her dad to look more human anyway. It's hard to be animalistic when you are a half blood.
She does not enter the classroom, even though she wants to. She's only been in a handful of times, mostly at night during after-hours. Once to bicker with Ramona. She knows if she steps in there, she will burst into tears that will not stop. Her father will hold her and comfort her in the way he wasn't able to when she was young. He will tell her that it will be okay, knowing it's a lie. He knows she knows it too. She knows she will probably fall asleep in there and her father will shake her awake before dawn to get back to her dorm.
It's not like Cerise remembers the last time she cried anyway.
As she walks past his room, she can hear the faint sounds of a podcast playing but cannot pick out the words. Perhaps it is a story. Perhaps it is to drown the thoughts that he does not want to think. Something to fill his head before he does.
She pulls out her mirrorphone.
Cerise: r u up?
It's probably not a longshot. Cerise knows Ramona is likely awake and staring out her window at the forest. Or she's out roaming the halls or the forest. It doesn't really matter. She knows she's awake.
Ramona: unfortunately
Cerise: meet me outside?
Ramona: alr there
For the record, she does not run outside to the track. The halls are simply too short and Cerise is too fast. However, she finds herself walking with more purpose. Faster. Desperate.
Ramona is on the bleachers staring at the moon when Cerise arrives. It is not a full moon. That is tomorrow night. But they can feel it. Full moons feel good. They are stronger, faster, and hungrier. The few days before and after are always the best. She's more alert, and stays up later, no matter how tiring the day was. In a way, it's exhausting. But it's the most thrilling feeling. Especially when she runs.
She sits next to her sister, taking her shoes and socks off. The metal under her feel is cold, ridged and raised. The chairs and stage are already set out for tomorrow. The breeze rustles the trees in such a way that it knows more than it should. It is just wind; it does not know destiny. It cannot tell them the future.
It's Ramona who finally breaks the silence. "Hey." Is all she can get out.
"Hey." Cerise responds back. She has no idea how long they've been sitting out here for. She has no idea how long Ramona's been outside for. "Are you all packed?" She asks reluctantly. There's so much she wants to say, there's so much to say. And not enough time.
There was never enough time.
"Justine thinks I'm crazy. Leaving my room the way it is." Her gaze has shifted, her nose no longer upturned to the moon. Instead, she stares straight ahead. Looking towards the track and just further. Cerise remembers their staged rivalry when Ramona first got back. Even if she forced herself to fail a grade just so she'd graduate with Cerise. She doesn't see a point in packing her school life in boxes that won't be taken home.
It hits Cerise that while she's been packing, doing something to try and keep her mind off of whatever looming fate awaits the family tomorrow, Ramona has been living in the past. Relishing in her last few hours in the only place she's ever felt at home away from home. Ramona has always tried to delay the inevitable, hasn't she?
She remembers trying to stay behind with her mother when she knew she had to leave back to her home with dad. How she begged and pleaded for another day with her. How she probably cried all the way home, or at least until Cerise couldn't hear her anymore. She's frequently late to class and leaves early when she decides she's done. Perhaps on the outside, it looked like she was a rebellious teenage girl, following in the steps of her destiny. A hungry wolf with the freedom to do as it pleases, to eat as it pleases and to run as it pleases.
Ramona had the ears and the tail when she was born, so it was decided in that moment who she was going to be. Cerise, despite the ears, had more subtle animalistic traits. Something easier to hide. Even if Ramona go the soft, more human-like thin hair that her mother had, Cerise got the wild, unruly scruff from her father. The hair that Ramona teases and doesn't brush in the mornings to make it seem as wild as possible. The thick hair that Cerise straightens every morning to try and tame it down.
From birth, their destinies were already decided.
Ramona files her nails to a point every few weeks. Sharp and pointy like claws instead of just pretty long princess nails. She doesn't shave much, the hair on her arm being only a more 'normal amount'. Cerise got the sharp claws and the thicker body hair. She also got the sharper canines. They both put something on their nails. Cerise will coat them in a layer of black polish to draw away from the fact that her nails are unusually thick and almost never break. Ramona coats her nails in both nail growth oil and nail strengthener. They still break more often than her sisters.
"You have a bag ready?" Ramona asks. It was an idea the two of them came up with a few weeks ago. Before they started packing. If all else fails, they'll run. As far as they can. Their last hope is Monster High. Somewhere they'll be normal. If they can't get there, they'll run until they can't and just disappear, never to be seen again. The bags don't have much. Two changes of clothes, a refillable water bottle, and as much money as possible. Any form of identification will be left behind.
"Yeah." Cerise replies. They don't really need food. They'll eat a huge breakfast, and they can find food on the road and in forests. It won't be hard.
The clock tower chimes twelve. Twelve rings for the twelfth hour of the second half of the day.
They sit on the bleachers until all twelve chimes have passed.
At some point the girls have gotten up, shoes abandoned at the spot they were sitting. They walk the track four times. One whole mile. It's after when they start heading towards the enchanted forest. It's just where their legs end up taking them.
"Wanna race?" One of them asks, looking at the other.
"Duh."
By the time they are done, it's a little brighter and the clock tower has chimed ten times in total. They head back to the bleachers to grab their shoes.
They're a sweaty, exhausted mess as they walk back to school.
They'll be back in just a few hours.
But they won't be back here tonight.