( MAD AS RABBITS ), casimir!

[Cat Lichen]

Cat was pretty sure that she was going crazy. For the past few nights, she hadn't been able to sleep at all, yet that wasn't what was bothering her. She hadn't been able to sleep well for quite a long time. Ever since the fire, actually, the redhead had been subjected to haunting nightmares about burning down the forest, and Davey. When she slept, it was like he talked to her in her head. But she was pretty sure it was just her brain being too strange. As she lay in her four-poster bed and stared up at the cracks on the ceiling, she wondered what life would be like without the ghosts interfering.

After some thought, she concluded that it would be rather uneventful. Luke had disappeared off the face of the planet, and so had Reuben, so there were no real prospects for boyfriends anymore, unless she met some more dashing young men. At the moment, she was quite glad that none of that was happening, because it would just make things triply confusing. With a sigh, she turned over and looked at the red numbers of her clock etched into the darkness. 3:30. Her bed was so warm, but she knew she wasn't going to get back to sleep anymore, so she made up her mind to go for a quick walk to clear her head. Quickly, she threw the bedsheets off of herself, and slid her feet into a pair of fuzzy brown boots. Her black sweater hung on one corner of her bed, and she slid that on before quietly sliding out of the door.

She looked both ways, and headed off towards the Science Wing. For some reason, the locked door there seemed to bring her a sort of closure and calm. Maybe it was because it was where she had gotten into this whole business? For whatever reason, even though it was locked and too frustrating to try and pick with a hairpin, it calmed her. So she headed off there, taking care not to tap too loudly against the cobblestone floor. Cat stuffed her hands in the kangaroo pouch of her sweater as she felt a chill run up her spine, and she looked over her shoulder just to check that nothing was following her. Well, anything could be following her, but no humans. Right now, that would cause her the most trouble.

The girl finally weaved through the dark corridors and made her way up the stairs to the science wing. At the top, she leaned against a stone wall and slid down, bringing her knees to her chest. Damn. The door was still locked. She wrapped her arms around her knees, but seized up as she heard a set of footsteps also coming up the stairs behind her. Crap! There was a potted plant right beside where she was, and she rolled over behind it just as the person came up the threshold.

[Casimir Japhis]

Casimir couldn't sleep. He hadn't been able to sleep since the fire. The fire was still haunting him. And then came the era of darkness. That was equally tormenting. The moment he closed his eyes he saw faces. Faces that merged out of the shadows and whispered malicious things in his ears. Faces that reminded him of his past. Faces that would never stop haunting the poor teenager. They were his own personal ghosts; the ghosts of his past and all his sin he had committed.

For quite some time he had given up sleeping. He knew this would happen and he'd only fall asleep during the late hours of the night, when dawn was creeping up. he'd only get 2 hours a sleep a day and then he'd drag himself out of bed and faces purgatory; the classes. He as half asleep in most of them. he looked terrible too. his chocolate eyes were lifeless and dark circles lay under his eyes. he was deathly cold and pale. like some sort of vampire.

Getting out of bed, Casimir slipped on some torn jeans and a white t-shirt before exiting the room. He walked through the corridors at night, looking around and clearing his mind from all thoughts. He enjoyed the peace here however this only reminded him how lonesome he was. getting out a cigarette he placed it between his lips. his foot steps echoed through out the corridors as he made his way up to the science wing. He didn't care where he was going. He just wanted to walk.

However he found himself with quite a surprise there. The little red-headed a tucked in a corner, her back to the wall. Casimir frowned. he hadn't expected to see Cat here at night.
"Cat?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, the cigarette still between his lips. "What you doing here?" his voice was soft and husky as he looked at her.

[Cat Lichen]

Cat's green eyes peered out of the darkness, not recognizing the person to be Casimir until he spoke. Her muscles relaxed slightly, and she sent him a small smile. "Probably the same thing you're doing, not being able to sleep and all," she told him quietly, unfolding her small frame and coming out of the corner. The cigarette in his mouth irked her, but by now she was just tired of fighting with him about it. There were too many other things on her mind that didn't include Cas's health, much as she did care about it. There were some things that she couldn't fix, even though she didn't like to think of those. She tended to be a little bit controlling sometimes.

If she wasn't, though, who would be? The redhead shook her head slightly and stuck her hands back in her kangaroo pocket, rolling her shoulders forwards. "Ugh, the nightmares are getting worse," she admitted miserably, looking down at his knees. Admitting to a weakness was rare for the small girl. Why? Well, Cat was the sort of person who liked to put on a brave face and suck it up, and admitting that she had problems like normal human beings was tough. Unfortunately, she wasn't exactly like a normal teenage human being anymore. "How are yours?" she asked, rolling out on her ankles.

She had also heard the news of Caspain's death, and she still couldn't believe it. The excuse that he had fallen down the stairs and cracked his head open didn't seem plausible to her. It was Trenton. Things were rarely freak accidents here. The fact that she wasn't going to see one of her best friends ever again hadn't registered yet, and her expression was blank. Fuck, she was going to miss him terribly. "I, um, heard about Caspain," she commented quietly. She knew that he and Cas had been good friends as well. Hopefully he wasn't planning on doing something as revenge, because right now there was enough going on without a revenge plan. But how could it be revenge when it was apparently an accident? Cat's thoughts were muddled, and she resented Professor Albino's incessant need to pretend that nothing was going wrong at the school.

How wrong he was.

[Casimir Japhis]

Casimir sighed and settled down next to Cat. There was quite a melancholic, depressive air surronding the chocolate-eyed adolescent. Sighing, he put the cigarette to his lips and took a long drag before turning to look at Cat out of the corner of his eyes. "My nightmares are well...," he suddenly shivered despite the fact it wasn't too cold. "...they haven't really changed since I became blind. Also coming back. The same flashes. The same images. They'll never stop haunting me." In his dreams he saw his life being twisted into such a cruel way. He was so messed up, Casimir was and his dreams were so deranged. he hated though thinking himself as messed up. He denied it constantly. He was normal. Yes, Casimir was normal. Though, he should stop lying to himself. It wasn't going to do him well.

He had heard of Caspian and didn't quite know how to react to it. He knew he should be sad; Caspian was his best-friend was god's sake. He should be crying! But he wasn't. Why not? Why was he acting like this? He hated himself so badly. Why wasn't he crying? Was he that heartless and callous? Was he that fucked up that tear didn't exist? Casimir thus took another drag from his cigarette and looked out into the dark oblivion in front of him.

"Caspian..." he said and then suddenly looked at Cat and frown on his face. "Why aren't I crying Cat? He was my best friend and I'm not shedding a tear, for fucks sake! What's wrong with me?" his voice was louder and more urgent.

[Cat Lichen]

The redhead nodded sympathetically, her dark-rimmed eyes meeting his. Of course, she hadn't been blinded, but she had been with Casimir for the entire ordeal and could almost feel his pain. The school and all it's students seemed to be going crazy, the pair of them included. Actually, it was rather ironic. Some of the students at Trenton didn't know that anything was wrong, while others were dying and being crippled in order to stop an evil force. "I think we're going nutty," she muttered with a slight chuckle. And, the funny thing was, she didn't even doubt it.

The joke was suddenly forgotten when Casimir spoke next. Even Cat felt her stomach churn. "It probably hasn't hit you yet, Cas," she said sympathetically, patting him awkwardly on the shoulder. Truthfully, she thought that maybe he had just been desensitized to death, after all of this madness, but saying that would probably warrant an explosion on his side, so she kept quiet. "And there's nothing wrong with you. This whole situation is just screwed up in general," she added reassuringly, biting down on her lip. In the past, she had wondered when this whole ordeal would pass, but now she knew that it probably wouldn't for a good, long time. It would hang over them like a tropical storm until they managed to defeat Davey.

[Casimir Japhis]

Casimir grunted as he comment of going nutty. He then took a long drag from his cigarette and leant back against the wall, his chocolate-brown eyes wondering up to look at the ceiling. "I think I was always nutty but when I went blind...well the insanity just sort of surfaced," he muttered. "And then since then it's all gone down hill." Too many things had happened to him. Scarlette, Jason, Montreal, Cat, Drugs, Alcohol, Caspian's death, his mother's death. Everything. It was all too much. He didn't know what to do anymore.

Shaking his head, he turned to look at Cat. "No, it's hit my alright. When they told me I locked myself in my dorm for five hours or so. But nothing came to me. I didn't cry. I just sat there looking at myself in the mirror like fucking Dorian Gray. I didn't even cry. He was my best mate. What's wrong with me, Cat? Tell me. Tell me honestly. Because no one else will." He looked at her desperatly. Some one needed to tell him. Some one needed to tell him he needed to go and see a shrink. He hoped Cat would. Becuase no one else probably would.

[Cat Lichen]

Cat bit her lip. If Cas was this worried about going crazy, he should get some help or something, she thought. She knew for a fact that Trenton had just recently appointed a school counsellor, which was a damn good idea since they were all losing their minds. Hopefully this didn't get them all sent to mental institutions, but oh well. If he didn't want to talk to anyone else, it was a good option. And maybe it was just because she was a girl, but talking about problems generally made things feel less overwhelming. But really. Caspain had died. They were all in shock.

She pursed her lips in thought and sat down on the steps, folding her knees up to her chest. "You know, maybe you should talk to the school counsellor," she suggested quietly. "I think we all should. Just to screw our heads on properly again." At the moment, it felt like hers was a little unscrewed, and her thoughts and common sense were leaking out like a broken water bottle.

[Casimir Japhis]

Casimir turned to sharply look at Cat. He didn't want to hear this. God no. He wanted to hear advise or something. He didn't want to go and shrink. They were completely useless. They just made you talk about useless crap and make you actually think about your problems. Casimir didn't want to go and see a shrink. Then he'd actually have to admit that he was screwed up. If he went to see a shrink, people would actually have the excuse to call him a 'fuck up.' No, he couldn't see a shrink.

"No. Fuck am I going to a shrink. I'm not that screwed," he muttered sullenly, before taking another drag from his cigarette. How dare Cat think him a screw him. He scowled and grimaced. She was insulting him. How dare she. He looked at her. "Are you teliing me I'm fucked up, Cat? Because fuck I am i ever going to see a shrink!"

[Cat Lichen]

Ugh, Cat really hated when Cas got all defensive like he was currently being. Stop being such a drama king, we're all having issues here, she thought to herself and wanted to say, but decided against it as it would just give him more of a reason to bitch at her. Yes, they were best friends, but they fought like an old married couple. She rolled her eyes, thankfully not visible in the darkness, and muttered, "No, Cas, I am not saying you're fucked up," she said, with particular emphasis on the end of her sentence. Jesus, dude.

She continued again after a second, taking a calming breath so she didn't yell at her friend. "I'm just saying that it would do us all some good to talk out our issues and lighten our shoulders a bit, you know?" she suggested, pursing her lips gently.