the dark's not taking prisoners tonight
Harry Potter Next Gen AU
Words: 1,032
OCs: Caelus Calixto & Mohini Basu
Warnings: Night terror/panic attack
If you wanna know more about these characters just ask! The title’s from the Twenty One Pilots song Ode to Sleep.
Caelus sat on the edge of his bed, watching the walls shiver with light and shadows as moonlight spilled through the velvet-draped windows. The emerald water of the Black Lake refracted the light, causing it to dance and shimmer. Thunder rumbled in the distance, and Caelus twisted his ring, deep in thought.
Everyone else was asleep. Across the room from his own bed, Caelus could see the slumbering form of his cousin Piers. He twisted his ring harder, and accidentally pinched the skin in between his middle and ring fingers. Caelus swore under his breath and frowned.
Through the thick stone walls resounded a muffled scream. In an instant Caelus was on his feet, wand in hand. The sound had come from the common room. He listened intently, his limbs stiff with apprehension. A minute passed, but nothing more followed.
Caelus made his way across the dorm and opened the heavy mahogany door that led into the common room. The door shut solidly behind him, the noise dampened by another roll of thunder. When the thunder subsided, a new sound filled the dimly lit room.
It took Caelus a moment to find the source of the sobs. Papers were strewn across the floor in between the smoldering fireplace and one of the green button-tufted sofas. On the sofa itself, her legs stretched across the length of the cushions, sitting upright, was Mohini. Oddly enough, she hadn’t changed out of her school clothes, despite it being past midnight. Caelus stepped closer and saw that her eyes were wide open, staring fearfully across the room at nothing. Her jaw was slack, her breathing quick and shallow. A blanket was draped across her legs, and her hands were fisted in the woven fabric so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. Her entirely body was trembling and tears streaked down her face.
Caelus cast his wand aside and knelt next to Mohini. She didn’t acknowledge his presence. He touched her arm lightly in an attempt to get her attention, but she didn’t even flinch. “Mohini? Mohini?”
She didn’t so much as blink. For the second time that night, Caelus swore under his breath. Mohini was still asleep.
He cupped her cheek with one hand and shook her shoulder with the other. Guiding her gaze to fall on him, Caelus gently tapped the side of her face in an effort to wake her up. He had noticed the perpetual bags under her eyes before, but now up close he could perceive their severity and how her skin was mottled with differing shades of purple and red. Somehow, her skin was simultaneously slick with sweat and stippled with goosebumps. Caelus could feel her pulse against his fingertips, and his own heart sped up in response. He had never felt a heart rate that rapid before. Worry tightened his chest, tying his ribs into knots, and he shook her harder.
“Mohini, wake up. Wake up!” Caelus took a deep breath, and was surprised to hear it shudder. He had never even spoken to Mohini before—so why did his voice sound so desperate?
With a sudden gasp, Mohini’s eyes locked into focus, meeting Caelus’ concerned gaze straight on. The fear that had filled her eyes was quickly replaced by a disoriented confusion, and she slumped forward as though too exhausted to sit up. Caelus caught her before she slid to the floor, and moved so that he was sitting next to her on the sofa. Mohini let out a choked sob and clung to him, and Caelus wrapped his arm around her shoulders. They sat there in near-silence, Mohini sobbing against Caelus’ chest, for what felt like hours. When her cries finally subsided, Caelus spoke.
Even though she had stopped crying, Mohini’s body was trembling so violently that Caelus barely noticed when she shook her head.
She didn’t move, didn’t speak, for several minutes. Caelus began growing restless; the prospect of there being a problem he couldn’t solve, a force he couldn’t face head-on or fight, agitated him.
Caelus stood up, his hand resting on Mohini’s shoulder. “I’ll go make you some tea.”
He began to walk away, but Mohini caught his hand. “Wait, Caelus, please—don’t go.”
Caelus hesitated, but obliged, sitting back down next to her. Her hands were tiny compared to his own, her nails unpainted and bitten to the nub. She squeezed his hand tightly, as if making sure he was really there.
“I can’t—I don’t—sleep,” Mohini began slowly. “Because of these. This.” She gestured at nothing in particular.
Caelus watched as she began fiddling with his gold ring, twisting it around his finger in a way that mirrored his own pensive habit. “Nightmares?”
“Night terrors. They’re…they’re worse. It’s like…” Mohini twisted his ring one, two, three times before continuing. “It’s like sleepwalking while having a nightmare. Kinda. But, when I wake up, I can’t remember anything. I just feel this…this overwhelming fear. Panic. So I don’t sleep.” She took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m too scared to sleep.”
Caelus didn’t know how to reply, and so simply brushed his thumb across her knuckles comfortingly. Mohini relaxed a bit at his caress.
She peered up at him with a sad smile. “I’m sorry if I woke you up.”
“I wasn’t asleep,” Caelus admitted. “I don’t like thunderstorms.”
“Well, that makes two of us,” Mohini said quietly. She rested her head on his shoulder. Her hair smelled like ginger and water mint. It reminded Caelus of the herb gardens the servants tended to behind his family’s home. He used to escape to the neat green rows beyond the topiaries when the dark halls of the manor began to suffocate him.
“Y’know, I think this is the first time I’ve ever talked to you,” Mohini said softly.
Mohini laughed, the sound light but hollow. “Not the most subtle icebreaker, I guess.”
After a few minutes of silence, Mohini twisted his ring one more time. “Caelus?”
“That tea is starting to sound pretty good right about now.”
