In a place no one can find... I hope

[Deon]

"HOLY SHIT!" Salvador screamed as Caynce's teeth bit into his upper-arm, leaving rows of tiny indentions in his tanned skin. He immediately let go of Caynce's arm and tended to his own, looking over what was now little pools of blood. "My god! He drew blood! That little asshole drew blood!"

Everyone seemed to be yelling at once. Ven spat angry orders from the ceiling as he fought to stay aloft, spraying plaster and tiles everywhere. Caynce started screaming bloody murder after he was the one who inflicted pain on Salvador's innocent, helpless arm. Shinegami cried out as she was trapped in the clutches of the crazy dancers, while Maeve furiously demanded that he remove the shrieking sombrero, which now was screeching a high-pitched, fast, crazy tune. Salvador kept on his string of surprised and horrified shouts about how Caynce had inflicted horrible wounds upon his person that will leave terrible scars and ruin his dancing career because they'll show up on camera and no agents will want to hire him, and then started spouting something about immediate infection from the bacteria in his mouth and kept going and going and going and going until the noise was at an ungodly volume, boring into the skulls of every person inside the room and forcing out any and all intelligible thoughts!

"Would you all f**ing SHUT UP?!" Dementia screamed over the noise, her nostrils flaring, and her pale grayish-blue eyes, usually seeming so dead and cold, were hot and wild with fury. She had opened the doors to the main hall and had been hit with a shock wave of intolerable noise as she attempted to make her way to the dorms. She stomped over to Salvador, who was frozen to his spot in surprise, grabbed her shoulder, rolled up her left sleeve, and angrily slammed her hand as hard as she could into the plastic sombrero on his head. The radius and ulna in her arm had been forced out of her skin, twisted together and sharpened into a stake that pierced the hat with ease. The hat's tune slowed and finally sputtered out as it died. Dementia wordlessly released her bones from her arm, and her cells worked to fill out the now limp piece of skin, building new bone in an instant to give her arm shape and structure. She huffed, spun on her heel, and started yelling out orders.

"You! Get off the damn ceiling before you bring the school down on us, or I'll shoot you down myself!" she shouted to Ven with an accusing point. She whirled to the next person: Caynce. "You! Get a backbone and stop f**ing screaming!" Turning to Shinegami: "And you, girl, what are you yelling for? My god, is there no such thing as peace anymore?! And stop blubbering!"

Salvador immediately straightened up as Dementia yelled at him, sniffed and wiped away the tears that had gathered in his eyes at his beloved plastic sombrero. He wasn't exactly Mexican, but it was a wonderful accessory all the same. And plus, he had the collection of panties he'd stolen from the girls Cobalt took into their dorm in it. Whatever happened to those, anyway?

[Krispey]

It all happened so fast! Before Maya could blink, Caynce was being pulled into a circle of seemingly mad people. What the hell was with that hat? Instead of making people laugh, and join in and began salsaing in unison, it just drove people mad. And then, the next thing Maya new, the idiot wearing the ridiculous piece of work was screaming. All this calamity was so unessecary! The guy went on and on about bacteria and this and that and this and that.

Maya could see the flustered faces of the hal way's inhabitants. This was ridiculous. And to top it all off, some girl comes strorming in, yelling as if she ran the school itself. Okay, Maya had to admit that her methods were effective and such, but when she turned and began to yell at Caynce, Maya's violet gaze quickly turned into a glare. Who did she think she was? Who was she to yell at him as though she were his parent or something? Well, Maya cared not who she thought she was, but that just wasn't going to fly.
"Uhm S'cuse me? I dunno who you think you are, but you need to watch how and who you're talking to! As if you're not adding to this boistorous calamity! You don't know him! Don't you EVER talk to him like that EVER F***ing again! You got that?" Maya couldn't believe how agitated she was by someone's ranting. She couldn't believe how defensive she was of Caynce. Wow. You would think that the unbearable noise would have pushed her to do just what this girl had done, but no, it was not that that had set her off, it was someone popping off at a friend of hers that had got to her. She wasn't about to let some girl disrespect her friend in ANY way WHAT-SO-EVER!

[Delerium]

Arkady wondered if the world was this unbearably loud and chaotic when Pandora unleashed all the plagues of mankind. No longer concerned about anything but the excruciating pounding in his skull, Arkady immediately fell to hisb knees once more and pressed his hands over his ears as firmly as he could.
It didn't help much, and Arkady found himself groaning with his teeth clenched in pain.
DAMMIT! Why did they all have to make so much noise?! What the hell had happened to cause such pandemonium?!

Then Dementia entered the scene. Once she finished her tirade and the girl, Maya, got her two cents in, Arkady cast a grateful look in Dementia's direction before letting out a sigh of relief and bringing his hands away from his ears.
He rubbed his temples in a poor attempt to stop the ringing and said, "Uh, can we NEVER do that again? Yeah, thanks." Next one to raise the noise level above 60 decibels is getting a roundhouse kick to the chops...

Deciding the hallway wasn't the silent retreat he had originally thought it to be, Arkady stormed over to his bag and snatched it up, grumbling under his breath the whole way. "Pansy mother f..." The rest was inaudible.

Hefting his bag on his shoulder, Arkady suddenly paused; it was much lighter than it should've been. He opened it up and took a peek inside before sweeping his sapphire gaze across the room.
Then a glimmer of fear appeared in his eyes. "Uh, anyone seen a, uh, big novel lying around? It's... important."

[Krispey]

Maya sighed, shaking her head. Well, at least all of the nonsense ruckus was gone. Since when did she ever get herself all worked up? Well, not much...But it was something about Caynce that she just couldn't let anyone walk all over anymore like they had apparently done before. She eyed the man that she had knocked off balance....Not once but twice. She remembered him from two previous inccidents.

One in the office, and the other in the cafeteria. Real mature! is what he had shouted after her when she shoved past him. And now, he was cursing...And then asking for a big novel...Hmmm. It SOUNDED boring. I mean, it was big! It has to be about mythology or culunary arts or something along those lines. Maya shook her head at how she could easily stereotype something. Well, her mind was always wandering aimlessley, and most of the times, it made no sense. Her gaze scanned the area, only to find a book lying on the floor wide open. Maya made her way over to it, pushing pass the ridiculous looking boy who had been wearing the ridiculous hat.

She squatted down, resting one of her bent knees on the cool floor of the hallway. She eyed it, and noticed that the text was not printed. It had been written in...She flipped back a few pages. I wish mom would call more often and something about a party had ran pass Maya's eyes. She had quirked an eyebrow. She turned to face the man who had asked...Arkady is what his signatures read. "Uhm...Arkady is it?" She didn't wait for a reply, "Well, I'm not so sure you'd call this a novel...But I found it."

She ran her fingers delicatley over the stationary. He had written so neat. Maya was admiaring the well-written text rather than reading it. She seemed to be in a trance as her fingers glided over the smooth paper in the journal before closing it shut. She had never known a male to keep a journal, and with that, it felt like she was closer to Arkady although she knew not one thing about him.

[Deon]

Dementia raised an eyebrow at Maya's performance, her face showing no sign of astonishment or anger. She calmly wiped off some spittle that had flown from the girl's lips onto her face. Her voice was even, monotonous as she replied to Maya, but the words were full with fiery anger. "I'll damn well do whatever I please. If he objects, perhaps I'll consider, but I won't stand for someone who's trying to protect a weakling from the big bad world out there. It's called life. He'll learn to deal." The smile that was plastered onto her face was utterly fake.

From the corner of her eye, Dementia caught the look that Arkady gave her, looking thankful. At least here was someone who appreciated what she was doing. This was practically charity! At least... destroying that sombrero that Salvador cared so much about was. He was still blubbering over it in a corner. She turned to get a good look at Arkady, and her lips opened slightly in surprise. A pleasant surprise, one that she hadn't expected to even feel anymore. She was looking at the most beautiful man she had ever seen... almost angelic. Inside she laughed at herself for the thought, and a small smile bubbled over from the inside to reach her face. She turned away to keep from laughing outright; she didn't know why she couldn't stop. It was starting to become almost painful.

Salvador looked up from nursing his dead sombrero and shot her a quizzical glance--she had a look on her face that could aptly be described as just being stabbed while listening to the most hilarious dirty joke of all time... the kind that one knew they shouldn't be laughing at. What the hell?

[Delerium]

Ah damn...
Arkady's gaze fell on Maya's hands - well, the book she held in her hands. Open. His book. His journal.
Shit...

Doing his best to look nonplussed, Arkady strode calmly over to her and held out his hand for the 'book'. "Yeah, thanks for finding it," he said pleasantly. However, his paranoid mindset could not resist squeezing out of him: "Uh, you didn't see anything important in there, did you? Ah, not that you would, I mean... You know, sometimes I leave paper and stuff in there... That sort of important stuff, you know?"

You are such an idiot, Arkasha, his mind grumbled, giving his braincase a swift kick.

Then he felt the gaze on his back. It prickled up his spine and left the hairs on the back of his neck standing straight up. Arkady turned his head slightly in order to get an inconspicuous view out of the corner of his eye. It was Dementia. She was eyeing him; much like a wolf eyes a lamb before moving in for the kill. It was unsettling, but not altogether unpleasant.
It was... he couldn't say.
But for a moment, time seemed to slow down and the other lives intermingling around them were deemed inconsequential. All Arkady was aware of was Dementia's hungry leer and the small, almost-innocent smile that perched on her lips. But as the object of its direction, Arkady knew it was anything but innocent.

But then she looked away and reality resumed its normal pace.
Turning his attention back to Maya, Arkady shook his head very lightly and said, "Uh, yeah, so can I... Please?"
All in all, the odd moment had taken less than ten seconds.

[Krispey]

Maya had only caught the last bit of the girl's Dementia's words learn to deal. Maya hadn't cared to much for the girl after she allowed her emotions to show, let alone what she had to say. Maya's gaze travelled up to Arkady as he began to speak. Anything important? Well, someone was sounding a little concerned. Maya hadn't heard anything he had asked, for she was still slightly in a trance. Then, she scooped up the journal, rising to her normal position.

She looked down at the journal as she held it in her hands, her cinnamon brown hair falling over her shoulders. Quickly, her gaze transferred back to the journal's owner. Maya looked directly into his eyes. "I admire you without knowing you," Maya said in almost a whisper. She delicatley took Arkady's hand, placing the journal in his palm, closing his fingers around it herself. "Sorry for the other day..." Maya made her way around him and headed for the exit.

[Deon]

God damn this. God damn this. God damn this!

Dementia was screaming to herself inside her head even as her pale, bony fingers stretched to cover the bizarre smile that her lips had involuntarily twisted in. Her hands were the only thing that kept her voice inside her mouth, silent. She didn't know what it would say to break the general hush that had fallen over the hallway after her advent. It was a deafening sort of silence, the kind that made one notice all too well how quiet it actually was. She was shaking with silent laughter that made her look like she was racked with sobs, and was so intensely aware, almost painfully so, of every slight motion that her body made. She could feel his eyes watching her, burning her skin. She wanted to get out of here. She wanted to get away as she had never wanted before. She wanted to run, to be weak, to be everything that she hated in a human just so that she could leave and stop the stupid convulsing motion of this sick, mirthless laughter.

Halfway doubled over, hands still covering her mouth as if something horrible threatened to burst forth at any second, she pushed past Arkady with her eyes averted from his body. They held the look of fear, of exasperation, of longing, of confusion, of resignation... Her touch was terribly attune to the feeling of his arm as she stumbled out of the main hallway towards the dorm rooms without so much as a glance back or a worry about the eccentricity of her performance.

Salvador had dropped his sombrero on the floor, forgotten, as he stared at Arkady in awe.

"Dude. You have to teach me how to do that."

[Delerium]

Arkady could scarcely breathe as Maya not only placed his journal in his hands, but curled his fingers protectively around it; and the expression she gave him! It pierced the bitterness caked around his heart, filling him with an emotion he hadn't felt in what seemed eons.
Warmth. Gratitude. The feeling that... perhaps he wasn't alone in the world; maybe he could trust others again...
A lump formed in Arkady's throat and he felt moisture pool in his eyes; all he could do was nod as Maya spoke and brushed past him, not wanting to speak for fear of letting his emotions and the unshed tears burst forth.

Once she was gone, Dementia was the centre of his attention again and Arkady found he could push down the upwelling feelings once more. Good. Wearing one's heart on one's sleeve was never a smart thing...
Dementia seemed to be... well, he wasn't sure - which was the continuing norm when it came to his thoughts concerning her. Once again, she appeared to be struggling with her inner thoughts and feelings, opting to rush out rather than let them show.
It startled him just how much they had in common.
But not as much as what happened when she brushed his arm on her way out.

A jolt of electricity seemed to bolt up his arm and spread across his chest. Arkady was too well-disciplined to let his full reaction show, but his eyes widened considerably and his breath caught audibly in his throat. What was that?! Arkady had always been attuned to the thoughts and feelings of others, especially when they were in his personal space, but this... It actually caused worry to flood his mind.

Just what were Dementia's thoughts and intentions concerning him? They had been powerful, that much he could ascertain by the electrifying current that passed from her to him during that brief contact. But what could they possibly be? Did he want to know?

"Dude. You have to teach me how to do that." Salvador was staring at him with a stupid expression of awe that made Arkady want to shove the moron's head into the fountain for an indefinite period of time.
Was he that oblivious?!

Maya's scent still lingered on his journal and his skin.
Man, this had been one wierd afternoon.
Shaking his head and clutching his journal to his chest, Arkady quickly made his own exit, his mind whirling.
Maya saw what was in his journal. Dementia had some perverted form of feelings for him. So THAT was 'Damn Donia'. What's up with that kid, Caynce? Carmela and her chinchilla again; she was so innocent. That guy who'd been with Carmela that day, Ven, had been crawling across the ceiling. Maeve had been trying to cause trouble again. Dementia... Maya... Dementia... Maya...

"Damn hormones..." Arkady grumbled under his breath.