David shook his head, shaking out the glimpse of his flash back into the dark corners of his mind.

"What? Not gonna tell me?" Peter asked, still perched on the top of his bed. David nodded and tried to close his eyes, but a pair of dirty fingers pryed his eyelids open.

"Why?" The blonde-haired boy asked.

"Because I'm not ready." David said painfully. He ran his hand through his blue hair and turned the opposite direction of Peter's grimy hands, leaving his friend to stare at his back.

Peter let out a groan of defeat and layed back down on his bed, letting out a creak from his weight.

Under his dark-blue blankets, David's mind swirled once again with thoughts.

"سيضطر المرء للتضحية لوقفه"

He mouthed the words Emma had said a few days ago during the first snow of the year. He felt dread cling to the words as he tried to understand what language she spoke.

"How different are you Emma?" He wispered to himself. He took one last look across the room, his eyes landing on the open bathroom door.

After a bit of hesitation, he got up once more and quietly skittred across the floor towards the bathroom.

He closed the door with the silent click and walked back to his bed, ignoring the deadly state his roommate was giving him from the other side of the room.

Once again he crawled into his blue sheets and starred at the cloudy night sky.

His body relaxed as he layed in bed staring at the sky. Even though he couldn't see anything because of snowy clouds, he could still see the stars in his head.

He sent out a silent prayer out of habit and fell into a comfortable sleep.

°°°

It was the middle of the night when Emma awoke once again. Her back was stiff due to the crappy mattress, and her skin stuck to the plastic mattress protector.

Quietly, Emma sat up and let her legs dangle over the bed. She could still feel the aching feeling of the Dragon bite on her back, but the little magic that she had was doing it's part and slowly healing the wound, but still not at a normal pace as her previous wounds.

She slowly slid down into the ground, her legs shaking from not waking for a while. As annoying at it was, the crinkle from the plastic bed protector was still stuck on her skin, so, with a slight rip, the plastic gladly came off without any pain.

Standing on her legs once again, the brunette was able to see the IV cords stuck in her wrists along with a silver bag of liquid slowly dripping into another one of her veins.

Grabbing hold of the IV holder, she made her way towards the washroom to wash her teeth.

After brushing her teeth, Emma walked out of the washroom and into the silent hallways. No moonlight made its was into the building except for the small one in the end of the hallway that she had crawled through months ago.

It felt like forever when she had first gotten to the academy. The paint on the building was kept nice and fresh every year by the headmaster, and many students graduated and became master's at their elements.

That got Emma thinking.

What will I do when I graduate?

Her mind scrambled to find possible jobs that she could do with what physical strength. Magic jobs were out of the questions so a no-magic job

would do for a few years.

"What are you doing up so late?" A gentle yet familiar voice said.

Emma's head slowly turned to see a man in a hospital gown. One eye glowed in the moonlight while the other faded with the darkness.

"Headmaster." Emma said smiling. The familiar face glowed in the light as he approched, the cold of the room being replaced with a warm cozy feeling. He walked towards the brunette and also carried an IV holder in his hands, only he had one IV bag.

"How the you been?" He asked, taking the seat next to Emma. The girl let out a sight and looked up to the white ceiling.

"Alright, I guess, I have friends now, so that's new." She smiled thinking about her friends. Flashed of her, with a light blue haired boy in her mind, along with red and silver.

"That's great, what else?"

"Ashley has been holding back a bit, but only a little."

"Well, you can't expect someone to stop right away." The man laughed, causing Emma to giggle along. Emma was still smiling when a slight pain crawled through the claw marks on her back, immediately her smile faded and the headmaster looked at her with a frown.

There was a pregnant pause until the top-hat wearing man broke the silence.

"You miss him?" He asked

"I do, too much. I really should be focusing on my studies more, but who doesn't lose focus?" Emma replied with a sad smile

"David." Headmaster joked. The brunette felt her eyes drooping and her brain was shutting down. The Headmaster noticed this and poked her side, holding her awake.

"Sorry." She apologized.

"Don't" he replied. "Get some rest, I'm being discharged tomorrow afternoon so we can play Cards against dragons tomorrow morning with the doctors."

"Emma let out a laugh, and the sting on her back faded along with all the gloomy thoughts on her mind. She slowly got up, with the help of the headmaster, and made her way back to her bed.

Slowly crawling into her bed, careful not to lay on her back, she layed down in the dark room once more, the loud crinkling of the mattress echoing through the silence of the room.

Titling her head back, she closed her eyes, and dreamed of a perfect world.