“Anything?”

“We’re literally counting seconds, dipshit. Still 11:59.”

The dorm room was pitch-black, the darkness sliced through by Elias’s obnoxious snoring. Katie, in her transparent state, was glowing to illuminate the room in a light they hoped others wouldn’t see, mostly for fear of Elias waking up. Her illuminated skin flickered with the same golden light as her hair, leaving her looking like an irradiated molten light bulb- and for some reason, this form lacked a nose.

“That doesn’t answer the question,” Sebastian noted.

“Dude, I fucking told you, I- oh hey, it’s midnight,” Katie said.

“Okay. NOW do you feel anything?”

“Still. No. Dip. Shit.”

“Well, it’s tomorrow, technically? I wish we could telepathically communicate.”

“At once, Mast-! MMMMF!” Kelectrisa’s louder-than-Katie-expected chirp was immediately silenced by Katie’s hand covering her mouth by reflex, squirming in mid-air like she had a full-body itch. That itch was clearly real, as her radiant body jolted in patterns with glowing light like an EDM dance floor with low lumens. Once the flickering died down, Katie relaxed, willed off her glowing form, and panted to recover her breath.

“You alright?”

“Oh, ‘am I alright,’ shut the FUCK UP!” she snapped. “You’re lucky I- Wait. Did it…?”

“Yyyyep.” Sebastian’s voice rang crystal-clear in Katie’s mind, like she was wearing headphones for him to live in. “So, if I try to scream LIKE THIS-” Katie winced, though only a little bit- “Elias isn’t hearing a damn thing.”

Katie scrunched her face (invisibly so, beneath the veil of darkness) in concentration and shut her eyes. “So…” she tried, “If I… THINK words clearly enough…?”

“Roger roger. Should be useful for when you’re invisible,” Sebastian observed. 

“This… is hard,” Katie forced out. “I keep… having to… prepare a couple words. Short bursts.”

“Eh. It’s late. I’m going to bed.”

“No… help?”

Sebastian had gone quiet.

“You suck.”

- - -

Sebastian woke up with a light yet piercing shiver coursing through his body. Every muscle in his body refused to listen to him but the ones in his neck- barely. After taking a few big breaths, almost to see only if his own lungs still listened to him, he gradually rotated his head to the side; every motion was slow and jittery, like a silly cartoon in an ice bath chattering for warmth. He didn’t feel especially cold, though, only moderately so. His head finally leaning the other way, he saw the time on the faint digital clock.

5:27am.

It’s been a while since this happened.

He didn’t even have enough muscle control left to groan. Hardly an ability to blink, much less an ability to close his eyes and try to go back to bed. He didn’t feel tired at all, nor any arbitrary amount of energy. He just… floated. He floated, sprawled straight out on his dorm room bed. Nothing held him down, nothing kept him elevated. He was hurled a million miles per second towards a destination two centimeters behind him, coasting on that momentum towards everywhere and nowhere.

He briefly wondered if he saw a classroom, one he almost recognized. He couldn’t tell for certain if the voice in his head saying “this is where you are now” was his instincts and the one saying “no, that can’t be logically correct, you were just in your bed” was his logical thought. His opinion on that matter kept flipping one way or the other with time. And as quickly as he saw himself sitting in a classroom, he was back in his bed again.

5:34am.

I wonder if this is actually sleep paralysis, or if something in my body’s naturally secreting LSD by some freak genetic issue.

That was a question Sebastian had asked a few times before. Sometimes, this happened to him; he’d wake up at an ungodly hour with barely any sleep, his muscles forgetting how to move or make any attempt to utilize the lack of tiredness he found himself with, and he’d be stuck there. Slowly phasing in and out of scenarios that kind of felt like dreams. Over and over again until it was a meaningless blur. Then he’d look at the clock again, see it was barely any time at all, resign himself to his own lack of control over his own body, and begrudgingly allow the process to repeat. He’d done preliminary research, seeing if this is what sleep paralysis was, just to put a name to what he felt and demystify it a bit. Despite the facts lining up, he still somehow never believed it.

Why do I have to have no control like this? God, please let this end. I know it will, eventually, and I know I’m not dead, but I wanna be assured of other things too for once. That… sounds nice. Please.

No response from whatever was up there.

Sebastian sighed and let the process repeat until he could notice it was morning and try to move again. He groaned, letting the sunlight actually get processed by his eyes as he tried to sit up. “Urgh… Hm?” He squished his eyes shut as hard as he could a few times, almost proving his dominance over his own muscles, and checked on his roommates. Elias was passed out- Figures, I’ve never seen him actively leave this room in the morning. He’s asleep when I leave for lunch, then I come back and he’s vanished into nothing. Wake up the next morning, he’s there again. I honestly wonder what would compel someone to have that much going on in their life- let alone what it is he does- and Katie was stirring with bloodshot eyes on her bed of air. She looked up at him with an expression he couldn’t bother to analyze, pushing off the air to hover by her midsection, her torso and legs drooping as though she was slung over someone’s shoulder.

She yawned. “Y- you… you sleep alright?” she asked, strangely hesitant.

“Mm,” he mumbled indeterminately.

Katie paused. She then cast a curious glance at Elias. “We gonna wake him up?”

“Sleeps like a rock. I’m getting breakfast.” Elias unceremoniously shoved off the bed and walked to his closet.

“Wh- hey!” Katie cried. “What are you-”

“You don’t have to look,” Sebastian affirmed. “You don’t have to be here. I have nowhere else to change.”

“I-” Katie pursed her lips. “Rrrrgh.” She crossed her arms and turned away in a huff.

Why me? Why me? Sebastian whined in his head, changing as quickly as he could. He wordlessly walked out the door, flipping up his hoodie and following the path he had every other day. It was almost easy to pretend today was just gonna be like any other-

Thud.

Sebastian felt an odd light tug and stopped. What was that? He wondered, reflexively taking a step backwards.

"DUMBASS!"

He took a double-take. "K-Katie?"

"That… was me! I slammed the wall!" Katie’s voice rang.

Sebastian turned around to inspect the hallway. "What? Is there, like, a proximity limit?"

"FUCK! I AM… SLAMMED ON THE WALL!"

"Okay, okay…" Sebastian awkwardly jogged back to his door. Katie, back in her redheaded form, opened the door gasping for air.

“You… better not do that again,” she panted.

Sebastian walked away again the second Katie wasn’t looking at him. Sure enough, he felt the tug again. Without stepping further, he turned around to inspect; what he saw was a gold chain sprouting from his own chest. The chain was locked to Katie’s choker, transformed back into the ringed collar from her electric visage, clearly tugging her towards him. Her feet kept sliding as she held onto the doorknob.

“Close the door?” Sebastian suggested. How does this thing work? I should test it.

Katie obeyed with vigor before her eyes flared. “You motherf-”

Sebastian took the chain in one hand and gently tugged it. Katie went flying towards him, much harder than he actually tugged. It turned into an awkward tackle-hug that sent Sebastian to the ground, Katie gripping him tightly around the waist.

"Fuck! That kinda… hurt…" Sebastian looked up at Katie, her face distorted with confusion and repulsion. “Wh-what?” she spat. “A-are you… turned on by this or something?” She immediately climbed off of him. “If I didn’t know what was going to happen, you’d already be dead on the floor.”

Sebastian faintly nodded in recognition of the situation and kept heading to breakfast. Well, he thought. I’m stuck with her at ALL times now. That’s… that hug… he paused on that thought, something akin to a little weight dangling from his chest. That… felt kinda nice. Well, like, not SEXUALLY, I still think I believe everything I said about my interest in her, but… hm.

Katie walked up beside him, clearly joining him for breakfast now. She almost looked… expectant? Like she was waiting for something? Sebastian didn’t think too much about it.

Kinda forgot what a hug felt like.

- - -

Sebastian considered himself lucky for being so close to the dining hall. It made mornings pretty easy to get through, a simple in-and-out that didn’t tax him too much.

That was before today, though.

“Do you even need to eat?” he asked Katie, munching on a bagel.

“I… don’t think so?” Katie mused. “Eh. Food tastes good.”

True enough, Sebastian thought. He half-registered Katie looking at him before going back to eating. 

An awkward silence rang between them, the general din of the student body around them filling in their attention. Katie’s foot started bouncing under the table, ever-so-slightly known and building in intensity. Hmmmmm, do you… EVERY MORNING?

Sebastian paused at the thought of Katie’s voice ricocheting around his head. He huffed and finally stared at her. “What?” he growled indignantly.

“Wh- The fuck do you mean, what?” Katie spat back.

Sebastian kept glaring at her, hoping his point would get across when words failed him. Well… what am I supposed to say?! He thought. That you’re expecting too much? That I know you’re TOTALLY just bored right now because I do fucking NOTHING? That this is just judging me? That… that it’s all fair-?

“Stop,” Katie hissed.

“Huh?” Sebastian snapped out of his head. “Stop what?”

“You don’t… talk to people much, do you?” Katie asked with a shaky tone; she was nearly twitching, constantly trying to manage the pressure under her skin to ensure she wouldn’t explode with anger. “You just… talk to yourself? In your own head?”

“Katie, I don’t like where this is going,” he warned.

“Your wish,” she said.

Sebastian’s eyes refocused in confusion.

“Your wish last night,” Katie restated. “Now, I hear all that. This ‘telepathy’ to communicate is like saying words in our heads. Well, you clearly do that more than you think.”

His face went pale. The blood and strength drained from every muscle in his body and fell through an abyss beneath the floor beneath him. Did- did she…? Did she just say…?

“Yes,” she confirmed. “I just heard that too.”

Sebastian stared at the redhead in front of him in bug-eyed terror. Her hardened stare eroded with every second the moment dragged on.

She didn’t have a chance to say anything else before he practically fell out of his seat scrambling to some semblance of balance before running as fast as he could out of the dining hall.

- - -

Katie watched as Sebastian ran out in terror. It was all she could do; it was almost humbling to hear his screaming thoughts. She could only hear the thoughts he formed like words in his head, sure, but it seemed to be almost reflexive for him to do that with every thought anyway. It was almost too much for her to parse, save for occasional glances of something intelligible- mostly about “no more privacy” and generally sounding really afraid.

What was really dominating Katie’s attention, however, was every eye in the room now being on her.

“Wh-” Katie began, forcibly stopping herself from an instinctive snarl. It was so easy- easier than she expected, and it put a pit in her stomach. “What the FUCK are you all looking at? Huh?” It was what she was about to say… or rather, what was about to leak out of her mouth without thought. And just like always, she’d ride that wave and steel her glare, maybe beat the shit out of anyone who actually tried to step to her. But as she was about to do all of that… the memory of the chains flooded back. The tug of the blissful void nagged at the back of her mind. They turned into a moment of odd clarity, canceling out every instinct and replacing them with a moment of 20/20 vision.

And that clear perspective made her want to vomit.

Even worse, her neck started to tug. Sebastian was getting further away. Closing her eyes, she could vaguely feel out what direction he was in- likely another stupid power of hers now that all this happened. The tug kept gently increasing in intensity, taking most of her willpower to avoid climbing over every piece of furniture in the dining hall to scramble back to Sebastian. But running after him now, in front of everyone, would be-

“Are you alright?”

She turned and nearly passed out; the double-take of a person talking to her was certainly enough of a cinder block to break that camel’s back. It was a boy with light brown skin and emerald eyes, but what grabbed Katie’s attention more was his body. He had to have been at least six-foot-three, and his tight maroon shirt clung to every contour of his biceps and MASSIVE pecs. “Hey, my name’s Miles. I’m really sorry, are you two alright?”

Oh god, himbo… Katie felt faint. “Y-yeah! Hi, sorry. I’m K-Katie, by the way…” She hardly noticed her fingers reaching to twirl her hair a bit.

“I know it’s not my place,” Miles continued, “but I’m just a little worried. Are you two…?”

“NO! No no no no!” Katie giggled, a little too long-winded. “No, we’re not dating, I-I’m single. We, uh…” she paused and considered. “It’s weird, we’re kinda stuck together, I guess.”

“You, uh…” Miles considered. “You doing okay with that?”

Katie winced. “I… sorry, I shouldn’t be telling you this stuff. It’s… a little private. Hell, it’s stuff I probably shouldn’t know, but I know any-” She stopped herself.

Miles put a hand on her shoulder, sending a shiver through her body. “Well… maybe you don’t need to say stuff you shouldn’t. But if you know what’s got him down… well, I think it’s on people who know that stuff to help him out.”

Katie looked at him with large, misty eyes. “Th-thanks, uh… Miles, right?”

He smiled. “Yeah.”

“I-I-I-You free later?”

Miles chuckled. “Uh… I’m probably gonna be outta the gym at three. You know where it is, right?”

Katie let out an imperceptible squeak along with a feverish nod.

“Alright! Sounds like a plan. Now, uh… go help him out, right?”

“Y-yeah.” Katie walked towards the door, slowly considering her approach. "Hey… is this how you do it?" she thought. "It’s like saying words, just without saying them. Okay, I think I got the hang of this."

"Uuuuugh… came Sebastian’s voice. Why are you in here…?"

"I’m sorry about that, man. I heard a lot. You… kinda kept me up last night, too."

"Wh-what?"

"I’m sorry. I really am. But… you gotta talk, dude. Even if you’re scared, especially if you’re scared, you gotta talk. Can I meet up with you?"

"…Yeah, you can."

Katie met the boy sitting on the curb and hugged him tight.