Issue 1 Downtime

Haley slept fitfully at best on most nights, tossing and turning, and her dreams frequently disturbing, odd, or at times downright terrifying. Even when lying awake, trying to get back to sleep, she heard odd noises coming from the wall.

Tonight she lay curled up under her sheets, surprisingly still--probably much to her roommate's relief--but soon found herself dreaming again....

It was cold. A chilly, damp fall day slowly creeping towards night. The fading sun cast warmth no longer, only long shadows, and the sky was smoldering red-orange as Haley walked around the grounds of the school. It was eerily quiet, the calm only broken by an occasional biting breeze.

Out on the point there was a sight that didn't quite seem to belong there. A tower of sorts? No, as the beam of light swept out from it in the dusk it became more obvious what this was.

there's not a lighthouse near us...

Haley found herself drawn towards the lighthouse, walking slowly and steadily towards the point.

"...don't," came a woman's voice from above Haley.

Haley started a bit.

"Don't what?" She asked, looking around for the source of the voice.

The voice was revealed to be the woman from her prior dreams, floating above with a determined look on her face.

"Don't go near it," she said. "You're not going to want to be there for what I have to do.

Haley looked up at her.

"Who ARE you...I keep seeing you..."

"There's no time. He's gone mad, and if I don't do this... he'll be able to spread."

"What the hell are you talking about? WHO the hell are you talking about?" she asked, confused.

"Mastermind," she said as she gained elevation, heading towards the lighthouse. "We almost didn't notice until it was too late..."

"Who the hell is Mastermind?" Haley asked, following the woman on the ground towards the lighthouse, before she realized that she too could fly.

....Sort of.

Haley awkwardly--though admittedly much better than she could while awake--rose into the sky to continue following the woman.

"And who the hell are you and why do I keep seeing you almost every night!?"

The woman didn't respond as a nimbus of blistering heat extended out from her. Flames leaped up from her hands and bombarded the lighthouse.

"Hey what th--" Haley was cut off as she shielded her face from the blast of heat and light, dropping through the air until she caught herself a few feet above the ground. She smelled burnt hair and suspected that both her bangs and any hair she had on her arm was singed.

She looked back and forth between the strange woman and the now-burning lighthouse.

And not simply burning. Stone was knocked from stone as she hurled destruction at the lighthouse. As it collapsed, Haley heard discordant notes not unlike the ones she'd sensed in the walls of the manor, but this time broken and disjointed. Shards of crystal were revealed by the stone falling away, but the woman was far from done. She continued on, aiming to level the thing.

what the hell is she doing that for...?

From the look on the woman's face, Haley didn't particularly want to get in her way. Nor did she know if she'd even be able to do anything.

Who is mastermind and what for he have to do with a lighthouse...an why the hell is she just tearing that thing apart?

As the lighthouse was nearly leveled, the crystal shards seemed to rise up, more discordant notes sounding as they tried to regain some semblance of structure. The woman gathered an immense fireball between her hands and directed it plummeting towards the reforming crystals.

Then, all was silent.

"Who. The. Hell. Are. You!?" She screamed, aggravated.

She turned around, the flames still smouldering on her.

"The one that's keeping you and everyone else safe..."

The dream started to fade away.

"No! What the hell does that even mean god damnit!"

Only Haley wasn't outside anymore--she was in her dorm room, standing in the middle of her room in her pjs, screaming at 145 in the morning.

Brigid made a muffled, distinctly dissatisfied noise from under her covers.

Haley realized where she was at that point.

"Motherfucker...sorry Brigid..."