Blaise

Morphie's eyes slowly opened to a glaring light overhead. He brought up a hand to block away his eyes from it. He was lying down on a soft bed and felt the smooth mattress on his other hand with the pad of his fingers.

"Ugh," He grunted, feeling highly disoriented. His thoughts were scrambling together from what had happened earlier.

He sat up quickly, heart jack-rabbiting at the reminder of the dark figure he saw in the restroom.

He heard a throat clearing beside him and his head whipped towards it in alarm, not having noticed anyone near him.

"You're awake."

There was a boy his age sitting on a chair facing his bed. He was handsome with dark hair that curled elegantly on a pair of deep-seated obsidian eyes that seemed almost hollow.

"Sorry. Who are you?" Morphie began. "and…where am I?"

The boy smiled gently but Morphie couldn't help but feel it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"I'm Blaise. You fainted in the restroom.You're in the company clinic right now"

"Oh I see," Morphie said. "I figure you're the one who brought me here?"

The boy nodded slowly. Morphie slightly hesitated for a moment before he pulled up the courage to ask.

"Did you perhaps…see anyone else there with me?" Morphie asked carefully.

Blaise's expression turned politely confused. His eyes squinted minutely, as if he was trying to figure out if Morphie was playing some sort of trick.

"I…didn't see anyone else, no. I saw you on the floor and called help from the others around the hall to bring you here." Blaise said slowly. "The nurse said you might wake up disoriented so it was better for me to be here, even though I don't really know you."

"Ah, I'm sorry for the trouble I caused and thank you by the way," Morphie clasped his fingers together and brought them on top of his knees which were bent towards his chest. "I'm Morphie, by the way."

Blaise blinked at his name.

"Short for Morpheus. Mom was a Matrix fan," Morphie explained in reflex.

"You fainting...Is that something that usually happens? You seem pretty calm about the whole thing." Blaise asked bluntly, ignoring his explanation entirely and Morphie almost winced at his insensitive approach.

His eyebrows furrowed a bit at Blaise, trying to gauge if he was making fun of him but Blaise appeared sincere in his question.

"Not really. I mean, it used to happen when I was young so I guess it's not entirely unusual. It hasn't happened for a while already though."

It used to happen a lot more when he was younger. More due to the fact that he could hardly sleep properly due to his vivid dreams rather than anything else.

Morphie felt a cold feeling settle in his chest.

Surely this wouldn't keep happening again? He chalked it up to lack of sleep, his imagination maybe getting ahead and stepping into reality with how exhausted he felt?

He chewed at his bottom lip and looked down worriedly at his own lap in deep thought, unaware of the dark eyes that kept staring at him.

"Were my parents notified?" He asked Blaise, feeling dread creep a bit in his heart at the thought of his mom knowing.

Blaise nodded, eyes straying towards Morphie's fingers that kept trying to pick at the side of his nail in a nervous gesture. Feeling conscious, Morphie abruptly pulled his fingers apart and crossed his arms over his chest almost defensively.

"Speaking of, I should notify the nurse that you're awake--" Blaise said suddenly, rising up from his chair but stopped when Morphie gestured for him to stop.

"There's no need!" Morphie said a bit too quickly. He needed a moment to really compose himself and having to explain things to an adult seemed too suffocating of a thought.

This boy, Blaise, seemed indifferent and a bit insensitive but better that than having to be poked and prodded at by a medical professional where he couldn't for the life of him explain whatever it was that had happened.

"It's fine, I-- It's fine." Morphie said hesitantly, looking up pleadingly at Blaise as if to persuade him. "I'm not really in the mood to do some explaining, really."

"Hey, are you awake in there?" A voice called out from around the corner of the room.

"A bit too late for that I guess. He's awake now." Blaise responded and rose from his chair once more, appearing much taller than Morphie expected when he straightened to his full height.

Morphie grumbled when he heard the nurse fumbling from across the room, probably arranging her tools before she would approach later with a clipboard and a 'So, how are you feeling?' question at the ready.

"Are you alright on your own now?" Blaise asked.

Morphie nodded silently.

He kept his head down on the white sheets and his fiddling fingers, feeling quite cornered with the situation.

"So, how are you feeling?" came the predicted question from the nurse as she stepped before him and he raised his head to peer up at her smiling gently at him.

He blinked when he realized Blaise was no longer in the room and felt a bit guilty for not being grateful enough for having been brought safely to the clinic.

"I'm okay." Morphie gave her a tight-lipped smile.

"Well, you gave us quite a scare there earlier. We checked on your vitals, so the doctor will be with you shortly just to confirm some things and check on you again. You're advised not to join that career fair later and to take the rest of the time to recover."

Morphie had already sort of knew that would happen and inwardly sighed. He didn't want to make this situation a lot more drastic than it actually was. Sure, he was feeling out of sorts but this would just be temporary, right? He'll recover like how he always does after a bad dream.

"Your mom's here." The nurse informed him before his mother came bustling in, looking a bit harried and extremely worried.

"Morpheus! I came as soon as I could--your teacher called me. Are you--" His mom began asking hurriedly, quickly closing the gap between them and hugging him close.

"I'm fine, Mom." He said, his voice sounding quite muffled against her shoulder. He felt a sudden urge to burst into tears when he felt her warmth and her concern.

"I was so worried!"

"Mom, it isn't that big of a deal." Morphie said but his mind was filled with the image of seeing that crouched figure in the cubicle and he returned his Mother's hug tightly.

"What if it's the same as before? What if you're--" His Mom began to ramble. Morphie felt startled at her distress and hurried to explain.

"Mom, no. It isn't, I swear. I--I just felt really tired." He quickly but gently cut her off. His mom pulled back and just looked at him with unbelieving eyes before turning to the nurse.

Morphie tuned out their conversation regarding his physical state and gave out answers on how he was currently feeling, what happened when he fainted and if this happened often.

He turned his head towards the glass window outside and stared listlessly at the birds flying in flocks to the top of the building.

His chest felt suddenly heavy then, wishing more than anything to have a normal night of sleep.

He also wanted more than anything to understand what to make of his strange dreams as of late. What triggered him to see those sorts of things? He hasn't watched any horror movies or read books that were too hard on his emotions.

He felt entirely too unsettled about the whole thing, as if more was yet to come.

*

When he left the clinic on the 4th floor with his mom , he was bundled in the scarf she insisted he wore even though it wasn't as cold outside.

Morphie honestly felt being smothered right now was the last thing he needed but her fussing was more insistent than usual and he felt more guilty at the deep-seated worry that remained in her eyes as they left for the lobby area.

There were a few kids from his class gathered outside of the function room near the lobby, probably waiting to flock inside.

They stared as he and his mother walked past and Morphie figured that he must've looked a lot paler, maybe even a lot stranger than usual with his unruly hair and oversized bright hoodie.

As he continued to walk, he spotted Blaise at the very back of the crowd, eyes looking dark as they stared back at him with unfathomable expression.

He brought a hand up to give a small wave at him which Blaise returned with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

*

He was to take a break for a few days from school. 'To recover and refresh' His mother insisted even though Morphie had argued back he felt fine enough to continue school.

He just needs to rest properly, to dream of other things than that giant shadow that seemed to disturb him.

If that thing persisted or bothered him again, Morphie silently swore he would bring it up--or rather, he tried to persuade his own self that was feeling guilty over being dishonest with it with his mom.

When he arrived home, however, even the warm sight of his sister greeting him unintelligibly and the coziness of his room did nothing to abate the creeping feeling of dread as he approached his bed.

It's just a dream.

He insisted to himself as he crawled towards the covers. As much as he wanted to avoid sleeping now, he needed it the most. He felt the strong need to conquer something, to overcome the sense of what was quickly overruling his thoughts.

As if this would be his last.