Chapter Text
She came from the shadows, but when the band of moonlight fell across her face, Laura could see that she was dark, in a brooding kind of way, and utterly beautiful. Her loveliness was indescribable, so much so that Laura was frozen in place, staring at her. Her hair was dark and glossy in the dim light, her eyes were a dark liquid ink and they stared intensely, refusing to let the gaze between them drop. She moved deliberately and silently, catlike. Swiftly she came towards Laura, almost like a ghost, her tapering, slender fingers rising slowly up as though she was pointing at something or someone, her bare arms pale in the silver light.
It took a split second for Laura to realise the girl was moving too fast towards her and by the time she thought to flinch and politely step back from the beautiful stranger invading her personal space, those slim fingers had already somehow, shockingly, tangled in Laura's hair, hands cradling her head, pulling her insistently, and soft lips were kissing hers, really kissing, kissing her all over, frantically, as though they were long lost lovers meeting again after an absence. It felt strangely familiar and alien at the same time.
"Mmmf!" said Laura in sudden surprise, flailing a little at the onslaught, her arms everywhere, before her eyelids grew heavy with want and confusion all mixed up and her mouth opened, panting hard. She felt cold lips sliding over hers and sucking her bottom lip with a tug and a gentle bite, as the strange girl let out a low, throaty laugh. A feeling of terrifying joy was starting somewhere very much below the pit of Laura's stomach and jolted her hips forward, crashing into this body she knew so well yet didn't know at all. She was pinned there by a strong, slender arm that slid along her back until a cool hand caressed the skin there, teasing lightly. Laura shivered and trembled at a desire she didn't understand. She clung to this silent, beautiful girl who held her in her arms, her eyes closed, breathing heavily as though she'd run a mile a minute. It felt safe to be held like that... dangerously safe.
They kissed in the moonlight at first, before the stranger pressed against her body, pushing her closer and closer to the shadow of the trees. Laura took a step back, and then another. The stranger murmured something low and soft and laughed against her skin again, but Laura couldn't make out any of the words. The wanting feeling inside her was growing more urgent, more needy, and a moan escaped Laura's lips, just as she seemed to hear faint bells from a distance ringing over and over. Bells?
Beep, beep, beep.
Laura awoke to a pillow being thrown at her head just as her hand hit the snooze button on her alarm crossly, clumsily.
"Some dream, roomie," said a voice, as though she was hearing it from underwater.
"No, no, no," moaned Laura, blindly hugging the pillow she was thrown and muffling her voice into it. She scrunched her eyes, trying to get back to sleep, back to the dream. But the bells were too loud and distracting.
"'Fraid so, Hollis," said the voice, getting clearer by the second, "You asked me to wake you for your 8:30am class otherwise I wouldn't dare disturb the moaning beast before me. Which by the way, I wanna hear about."
Laura opened one bleary eye to see Betty, mid-yoga pose, with one eyebrow raised, staring at her with amusement. Still the bells rang on. They were getting louder.
"That was some moan, Laura Hollis, don't be holding out on me," smirked Betty. "So how was dear old Danny?"
"Who?" said Laura, distractedly, still thinking of her dream and trying to fix the mysterious girl's face in her memory. That girl and her lips, oh god. She was blushing beet red. She could just about catch it, a glimpse of her face, if only Betty would. Just. Stop. Talking.
"Whoa! Back the truck up, girl!" said Betty in surprise, "You weren't dreaming of your tall, handsome gay TA? You know the one you've been going gaga over all semester? The one you can't stop talking about till you've driven your roommate insane? Which, by the way, I'm sure I'm not your first roommate, just saying."
Laura groaned and turned, dragging Betty's pillow over her face and hiding her red face.
"Shut up Betty Spielsdorf!" yelled Laura into the pillow. She kicked up a leg and let it fall with a thud on the bed in frustration.
"Girl, you got it bad for someone. That was the most - I mean that moan, oooh lady, I think everyone on this floor could hear it. Tell Betty all about it."
"Oh god, I'm gonna be late again, nooo! Why does this always happen to me?" said Laura suddenly, looking at her phone. She jumped out, nearly tripping over, flustered, trying to look anywhere but Betty's amused grin. "And I know Silas likes its traditions and all but why the hell do the carillon players have to play with their bells so early in the morning?"
"Yeah, no kidding, some of us are trying to sleep and get off to some mysterious person in our dreams they won't tell their sweet, lovely roommate about. Spill it."
"Betty, I'm late!"
"Okay, Hollis, but you won't avoid me this afternoon. Wanna have coffee? Roomie bonding time. There's a roommate code that says you tell me everything, every nasty detail, especially when it's sexual and really embarrassing for you. And do not put on that shirt Laura Hollis, for the love of all that's unholy. No. No. Yes, that one."
"Argh!" Rolling her eyes at a grinning Betty, Laura dashed out the door.
Laura so far had managed to avoid Betty that afternoon, who was always forgetting that she'd lined some boy or other up for a study session, and with this distraction, forgot to text Laura about getting coffee. Which was good because Laura couldn't bear to be interrogated about the dream she'd had this morning. It was weird to feel loyalty to a dream but she felt as if the girl in her dream would have hated to have everything out in the open. She seemed so mysterious, though it was not as though Laura had anything to base that on. They didn't exactly do that much talking. Laura blushed suddenly and then felt silly for worrying about a dream.
But today Laura had to get through an 18 hour work day, which she did semi-successfully, until the weird yet highly interesting dream she'd had faded away into the background. It was not until she got home to an empty room before it came to mind again, and even then it was tinged with regret. It wasn't as though she'd have the same dream again, no one she knew could dream on command and certainly not her, who, if she dreamed, usually dreamed of being late with her assignments or getting some question wrong on her exam paper.
Betty was still gone when Laura went to bed. She was tired, bone tired from her day, and dropped off to sleep immediately.
She was staring into the girl's eyes, and the girl was smiling at her, some kind of secret, sultry smile. Okay it was weird, because no one had ever smiled that way at Laura, not even Danny the tall gay TA she'd been crushing on. It wasn't bad weird, just... Laura had never felt this way before. It didn't make sense that some totally hot imaginary stranger would find her remotely attractive like this, did it?
"Hey," said Laura, a little awkwardly, because she could never not be awkward, even in her own dream.
"Hey," said the girl softly, in dry amusement, tilting her head and bending a little to lock eyes with her. Timidly, Laura wanted to look away but the gaze was too intense for her to break away. Laura trembled as those eyes stared back at her, unreadable.
The girl tucked Laura's hair behind her ear, still smiling her secret smile, and moved closer, but more slowly this time, her finger trailing along Laura's jawline, teasing. As she got closer, Laura looked up at her, trying to memorize her features, until she half closed her eyes, expecting a kiss. Wanting a kiss. But when the kiss came, her eyes flew open in confusion, for the girl had kissed the tip of her nose. Then kissed the bridge of her nose, before moving to her eyebrows, forehead, every part of Laura's face but her lips was being thoroughly and gently kissed until the girl took an earlobe between her lips and sucked, hard. Laura moaned again at this, without being able to help it, just as those cool lips started nibbling down her neck, making her shiver, until she felt the light scrape of teeth against her skin, and she froze a little. The kissing stopped then, hesitantly, but Laura could feel the girl's cheek caressing her skin softly, nuzzling. Oh god. Laura's face was burning up with blushing and she shrunk into herself a little. What was she doing here? Freud would have a field day with this second dream. This was not her at all, she would never kiss a stranger she'd just met - and they hadn't even been introduced yet!
"Uh -" started Laura, and even in the dream felt she was being ridiculous. Was now the time to start introducing herself? If Betty was there she'd be egging her on. "Girl, go get some, whew! It's about time," she'd say. There was no room for awkward introductions and talk and learning about each other. That was for real life. "I think you might be missing the point of these kinds of dreams, Hollis," Betty would say.
But the girl was holding her gently, rubbing her tense shoulders and back until she relaxed. Now this beautiful girl with her secret smile was slowly but insistently backing her up until Laura felt the rough bark of a tree behind her and could go no further. Laura froze again. Why did this feel so real? Ow! She'd scraped her palm against the bark and it had snagged against a splinter.
With some concern, the girl dragged her eyes from Laura and pulled her hand slowly up. A thin streak of blood was visible in small droplets on her palm. To her shock, the strange girl slowly pulled Laura's hand towards her lips and dragged the tip of her tongue across the streak, kissing her palm with an open mouth, sucking a little. Oh god, her hand had some connection to some other part of her body, deep, deep inside her. She was shaking so hard. This was crazy.
Laura wasn't sure what she should be feeling about this, but she knew what her body was feeling. Her hands, all by themselves, grabbed this insanely gorgeous person and pulled her body towards her. The girl laughed her throaty laugh then and sunk her body into Laura's till they were almost touching at every point, hips pressing against each other. Finally, finally, the strange, wordless girl bent down and kissed her lips, licking tentatively, nibbling, sliding their lips together till everything was a warm, wanting mess. Laura whimpered and the girl murmured appreciatively, smiling through the kissing. Laura's face was being cupped by soft, cool hands, caressed by a gentle thumb. Laura almost couldn't breathe with all the confusing things she was feeling. Her face, her entire body, had never felt so hot.
She broke away, panting as the girl lay her forehead against hers. She couldn't see her eyes clearly at this close range, but she could hear her.
"Next time," the girl murmured, in a low, silky voice, "you'll have to tell me your name, cupcake."
The bells were ringing by then, louder and louder, insistently, merging in with the sirens, and the loud voices shouting at her.
"Hollis! Yo!"
"Wake up frosh, your hair's on fire!"
"Laura, I don't know how you can sleep through this din, it's amazing but really, you have to get up now."
"Maybe if we tickle her nose."
"You do it."
"No you."
"I'll do it. With my pinkie. I'll be gentle. Laura. Lauuura."
Laura sneezed and her eyes opened to find Danny hovering over her, retracting a pinkie guiltily.
"Whaa-?" said Laura in confusion. "Danny, what are you doing here?"
"Fire drill," said Perry, from behind Danny. "I'm really amazed you slept through all this noise."
"Luckily Danny came by with her pinkie, who knows how else we would have done it," smirked Betty.
"We've been trying to wake you for ages. I was ready to take a bloody sample, frosh, to check if you were alive. Looks like you got an open cut on your palm so I could easily have done it in your sleep. Relax! This won't hurt a bit!" And LaFontaine suddenly waved around an extra large syringe.
"Hey! No! Don't you... just check people's pulses to see if they're alive? Or like, with mirrors? You know, like how they check to see if vampires breathe? Or something?" Vampires, where did that come from? Laura was so confused, she was babbling.
"Yeah, but blood samples are so much more fun." LaFontaine grinned.
"Su - LaFontaine, that's enough, stop scaring all the froshes."
"If they're having a fire drill why are the carillonists still playing the bells?" said Laura blearily, holding her head. The bells seemed to be ringing inside her head.
"Oh well they only have so much time to practise for the jubilee so they have a special dispensation. But you know, for the rest of us the drill is pretty serious, so come on everyone, hurry up. We don't want to keep the Dean waiting."
As they filed out the door, Laura still in her pyjamas with the baby owls all over them, Betty nudged her.
"You owe me, roomie," she smiled wickedly, "I told them you'd been having a lot of nightmares lately. Accounting for all your very interesting sounds. Which, by the way, I'm still waiting to hear about."
"Ssh!"
"Don't ssh me, Hollis. Who was she? Come on, I'm dying here. You know I'm not going to stop asking."
Laura looked ahead to where Danny was walking with Perry and LaFontaine. Danny looked behind her, caught Laura's eye, and winked. Laura stopped in her tracks again, blinking in confusion. Did she really just... ?
"Oh no, come on, you crazy fool," said Betty, dragging her. "Spill it, Hollis. I've got plenty of time."
"I don't know," said Laura, helplessly. "Just a dream person. I'd never seen her before. She had dark hair, a little taller than me, dark eyes. Pale skin. She called me cupcake?"
"Whoa, that's funny," said Betty, frowning a little, "and by funny, I mean super weird. I mean, I kinda had a dream last month with a dark haired girl in it. She called me cupcake too."
"I thought you liked boys?" said Laura in confusion.
"What's that got to do with it?" Betty grinned suddenly, "Oh my god, get your mind out of the gutter Laura. It wasn't like that. Actually it was kinda weirder than that. She wanted to be my friend, or something, kept trying to give me something, or take something from me, I can't remember which, but then I don't remember much more than that. I do remember that there was no moaning. Ahem."
"That is super weird," Laura said slowly. Betty hooted at this.
Laura smiled faintly. She felt too odd to laugh at Betty's teasing. She suddenly felt very strange and brought her hand up to push her hair back, before she stopped short at the sight of her hand. There was a red streak on her palm, a scar of thin, dried blood. Oh. Even now she could remember the way that beautiful, mysterious girl had licked, slowly and languidly, across her palm. She had to stop herself from shivering. The dream had seemed so real, and now there was this. Could she have done this in her sleep without realizing? Scraped her palm on a loose nail on the bed frame or something?
"Does it matter?" Betty was saying, "Silas is all about the weird, I've totally stopped counting how many of the weird coincidences there are. Like I had a study date with Jason the other day and then Dan showed up and apparently I had a study date with him as well and then they turned out to be twin brothers! Who knew?! We probably ate the same expired cupcakes from the dining hall that day. It was just a dream. Just glad you enjoyed it Laura... so very very much...mmmm," she laughed and gave Laura a gentle bump with her shoulder before catching up with the others.