Once she became overwhelmed by the crowds of people moving between classes, Elizabeth grabbed her headphones and plugged them into her phone. After putting them over her ears, her favourite rock band began playing a soothing melody into her head. The cruel outside world was tuned out for her.
Elizabeth hummed to herself peacefully, bobbing her head up and down to the beat of her music without a care in the world. She thought about replying to Ruby and Jett in regards to what happened earlier, but decided to wait until she was relaxing in her room for that. If there was one thing that made her truly happy, it was knowing she at least had Ruby and Jett as friends to keep her from losing her sanity.
The two were twins she had met during elementary school, and ended up being the only ones who ignored Elizabeth's disability while taking a great interest in her. They stuck together during high school, but unfortunately the twins were accepted into a university on the other side of the country. She had no way to meet up with them easily anymore, which left her basically stranded in a different world now.
When Elizabeth left the building, she took a deep breath of the warm summer air and looked up at the clear sky. “Fall is going to be here soon... the cold is going to suck. Maybe I'll take the scenic route back.” A hopeful part of her believed that taking a long walk out in the beautiful sun would help with her bodily funk.
She took solace in the fact that most of the crowds were gone as she turned down the next path around the side of the building. Elizabeth looked down at the ground or stared off nowhere in particular when people passed her, trying to pretend like they weren't there at all.
Her tactic worked for the most part, until she came around the next bend and noticed a group of guys gathered around one of the benches beside the path. Elizabeth was far too curious to ignore the commotion, so as she continued along the path she nonchalantly took her headphones down and draped them around her neck.
There were almost a dozen of them gathered there, all of which were talking over each other in a way that made it hard to make out what they were saying. Just as she passed by the group, she caught a glimpse of a young woman at the center of them. “Hold on for one sec, 'kay? I only needed help from one of you, not all of you!~” the woman told them. Although she came off rather sultry, Elizabeth could detect a hint of annoyance in her voice.
When one of the men stepped to the side slightly, Elizabeth was able to get a better look at the woman causing the commotion. It seemed evident immediately why she had attracted such a crowd. Her choice in outfit alone complimented her curvy figure and exposed much of her beautiful light almond skin.
“Is that girl a model or something...?” Elizabeth thought to herself as she became momentarily entranced by the woman's beauty. She felt drawn in by her crystal blue eyes, only to find her gaze slowly move, this time to her gorgeous carmine hair. Her hair flowed down to her waist, the ends of which were highlighted a hot pink that gradually faded upward into the red.
Elizabeth realized she had stopped walking during this time, and was going to start looking like a weirdo if she stood off to the side staring any longer. She quickly went to turn and walk away from the horde, but as she did, she accidentally made eye contact with the young woman for a brief moment.
The young woman suddenly shouted with excitement, “Oh there you are!!! I was wondering when you'd come!” She immediately burst out from the crowd of men surrounding her.
Before Elizabeth could even turn around to respond, the young woman playfully wrapped her arms around her neck from behind and pressed against her back. She felt herself become even more flustered than she was with Professor Addison as the woman squished against her.
“You had me waiting here for sooooo long!~” The young woman exclaimed, then looked back at her crowd. “Sorry boys! My friend here was supposed to take me to study, but she was running behind!” She leaned in close to Elizabeth's ear and whispered. “Isn't that right, sweetie?”
A tingle shot up Elizabeth's spine as the woman's hot breath hit her ear, and the sweet scent of her perfume filled her nose. “Y-yeah! I got out of class late, I'm sorry about that!” Immediately after saying that she almost regretted it. Her mind was spinning in circles trying to wrap her head around the situation.
The young woman smiled and shook her head. “It's 'kay, but we gotta get a move on!” She looked back at the men and gave them a wink. “Maybe another time, boys!~” she teased them. Keeping the act up, she grabbed Elizabeth's hand and practically dragged her down the path at an oddly brisk pace.
Elizabeth’s face was plastered with visible confusion while she was helplessly dragged along by the woman. Once they were a fair distance away from the dispersing crowd of disgruntled male students, the pair rounded the next corner and the young woman let go of her hand.
“I'm reaaaaally sorry about that! I asked for help with one thing and then I got swarmed! You're a total lifesaver!” She exclaimed while leaning in closely.
Elizabeth’s embarrassment made it difficult to find a place to look, as anywhere but the face would be rude. Her deep rooted social struggles were making it difficult to look there. “There's no way she doesn't know why she got swarmed... Not with a figure like that,” she commented mentally. While glancing away from the woman nervously she replied, “Yeah... it's okay, you just caught me by surprise is all.”
The young woman raised an eyebrow at her and shrugged. “I had to make it believable you know?”
Elizabeth nodded, trying to catch glances and avoid eye contact as much as she could. The woman was likely several years older than her based on appearance alone. That, and the few inch height difference between them made her a bit more intimidating in Elizabeth's eyes.
“You're a really quiet cutie aren't you?” The young woman teased her and moved to try to force eye contact between them. “Can I at least get your name? Mine is Lilith!”
“Elizabeth...” she muttered quietly. She was now trying to hide the shameful red hue on her face. “I have... trouble dealing with people.” She spoke again, grunting as her head started to hurt again.
“Ohhh... you aren't good with people huh?” Lilith moved closer and to the side so she could finally be face to face with Elizabeth. “C'mon now, I don't bite!”
Elizabeth grunted in pain again and pressed her hand against her temple. For a brief moment she felt her head start to spin and thought she was about to pass out, but the wave of dizziness passed just as quickly as it came.
Lilith got up closer to her face with concern and tilted her head. “Are you okay? You don't look so good.”
She blinked her eye a few times to try to get a grip and nodded to her. “Yeah I’m...” When Elizabeth took a step back and looked at Lilith, something seemed very wrong.
It was an experience that boggled her mind. As if there was an electronic glitch in the world itself, Lilith's face fizzled between two appearances. There was the one that Elizabeth had been conversing with, and another that was slightly different. The fizzling stopped briefly on this new appearance.
Lilith's ears were the same size as before but were now pointed, and two of her front teeth had been morphed into fangs. Lastly, her eyes had become sharp like an animal's, and had a pink hue to them that blended with their normal crystal blue colour.
“Do you need to go to the health office?” she asked. Her fangs were glinting in the sunlight as she reached out to Elizabeth.
The disoriented girl's eyes went wide, instinctively smacking Lilith's hand away as her heart began to race and pump adrenaline through her body. After she slapped her hand, the otherworldly fizzling effect happened again. This time Lilith's face went back to how it was originally.
“I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you, I... I need to go!” She failed to explain through her panic, anxiety flooding her voice completely before she took off down the path. Her composure was shattered and she had no idea why, all she could do was let her legs take her to ‘safety’.
Watching Elizabeth run away, Lilith's eyes narrowed on the girl. “She was really scared, huh.” She stared down at her hand that was smacked and squeezed it a few times. “This feeling... she couldn't be, could she?” she muttered to herself as the young woman ran out of sight.
“What the hell is wrong with me today?!” Elizabeth screamed at herself internally as she ran into one of the nearby buildings, pushing past the random people she bumped into along the way. “I actually met someone who completely ignored my disability for thirty seconds and didn't act like an asshole, and I hit her?! Just because I'm seeing crazy things, doesn't mean I can do that!!”
She ran through the nearest set of doors she could find and slammed them shut behind her. She took a few deep breaths and looked around, realizing she had run into the gymnasium. Luckily for her, nobody seemed to be around yet. She figured if anyone found her she would just say she got lost, since that wasn't entirely a lie anyway.
She slowly slumped onto the floor and smacked her fist against it. “I'm such an idiot...” she whimpered. Her eyes shut tightly as a few streams of tears rolled down her cheeks. She growled at herself quietly, not only was she angry for how she was acting, but her headache came throbbing back seemingly tenfold. “God, it feels like my head is going to split in two!”
Elizabeth clutched her head tightly and muttered through her teeth, rocking back and forth as the pain started to make her feel nauseous. “I need a doctor or something, this isn't normal!” She opened her one eye for a brief moment, but as soon as she did the room started to spin and made her stomach churn in tandem. To try and save herself the shame of vomiting on the gymnasium floor she closed her eye again, taking deep, rhythmic breaths to keep her body in check. “Just. Make. It. Stop!”
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