Having had a smooth session of personal training in Magic Archery, I spent the rest of the day following my schedule with no problems. After my daily routine of praying to the Goddess and doing some religious contemplation, I turned in for the night at 22:00 sharp! As I always think is best, 'Early to bed, early to rise!'.
Waking up for the first day of lessons for the new academic year, I got up and had some breakfast before heading down to the Trackfield to perform my morning exercise. The morning felt crisp, despite it still being summer, but I preferred this kind of temperature for physical exertions since it placed less strain on the body.
"I wonder if I'll see Lisette here again..." I thought as I did another lap around the track.
X
How dare you think you’re something more than you’re not. You’re nothing. NOTHING. You’re just a sniveling piece of trash. Lower than an insect. A waste of space and my valuable time. Did you want me to love you?
I just—mom I got 100% on my spelli—
SHUT UP your voice is so annoying stop talking and just sulk away. Freaking trash. 100%—yeah right you liar! Why are you so stupid? Mallory is so much better than you — why’d I bother with a second child. What a joke.
Lisette jumped up from her soaked sheets once again, her head swarming with the feverish nightmares that plagued her almost daily. She looked over at her workshop to see several empty vials of muscle ointment had been used, as well as three sleeping draughts to sleep through mild-moderate pain. All that was used up in just a day.
She stared down limply to her sheets with her dead hung arms. She should be excited about today, it was her first day in Magic School but the thought also downright terrified her. These nightmares would be a problem for her too, as it stood she barely had gotten four or five hours of sleep. And that was broken up into smaller naps.
“I think—I may need to write back to the church after all.” Lisette sighed, and wondered how that would go. Before she came to this academy, she lived with many children orphaned at one of the medium sized churches in the city. It was also the reason why she came this year when she was sixteen, rather than last year. While the nuns and priests worked around the church, many of the children were taken care of by the older children. As Lisette was one of the oldest who hadn’t been adopted, she was deemed as the “caretaker” of the little ones.
She supposed that was where she over exuberance and energy came from, and she thrived off the passion the kids had too. And boy did she love them. She loved them very much. But these nightmares—whether it was a curse, or just severe trauma that followed her, she was still plagued with memories of her past life. And this—it wasn’t uncommon. The head nun, Saint Mother Lucretia, had been taking care of her the longest. She was extremely strict with her upbringing, but she wasn’t abusive in anyway. When she learned of Lisette’s nightmares happening, she didn’t ask what they were, but rather prepared a simple herb extraction that she could place on her wrists and neck to help her sleep at night.
But she ran out of it Friday night. That was probably why all of these nightmares were flooding back.
It shouldn’t be more than 4:30–give or take the time difference, I really need a watch or clock instead of just relying on the dark outside. Lisette pulled herself out of her bed, and dressed up in her workout gear. This running routine would have to suppress to break her from that mental prison.
Today will be a good day. Nightmares will not ruin them. I won’t let them. I can’t.
So she left her room, throwing her hair up into a quick messy up-do and made her way to the track. As she arrived, she already saw Veronika running her own set of laps.
Huh, must be later than I thought. Yup, definitely need a watch.
She ran over to her with a smile and wave. Hopefully she’d ignore the dark circles that were under her eyes and just expect it from being up early and not taking a shower beforehand.
“Good morning Veronika! It’s a nice morning for a run! Can I join you?” She smiled, and hoped she wasn’t bothering her by joining.