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Mitzi had barely stirred from her bed since she had woken in the wee hours of the morning. Her plushies had kept her company through the morning, but even they had eventually decided that she needed to get up, get moving, do something to distract herself, and started trying to push her out of bed. But the ghoul just didn't feel up to it.

The whispers that she had been able to ignore for the most part, had finally found their way in, and the ghoul had a nagging, deep-rooted fear that if she left her room, she would find her parents outside. Or worse, that it had all been real, and her friends...

It wasn't until the afternoon that anything broke her out of her circle of self-defeating thoughts, when her phone buzzed. She jumped, the noise loud in the quiet, and for a moment just stared at it. Then she grabbed for the phone, feeling the first hope she'd felt all morning. She saw the name, and-

-a flash of the ghost, lying in front of the main school building, ripped to pieces and shadowy wisps drifting away from her-

- felt a rush of relief. Imryn wasn't dead. She was... yes, she had just sent the message. That meant she was okay. It had to, right?

She quickly typed back, her heart pounding. A response would be proof that it was all a dream, all just a dream. And she needed that so, so badly.



Sure, she'd already asked that, but she needed to hear back from the other ghoul. And besides, her other text had been a day or two before, and she was not in any state of mind to remember.

Mitzi was still sitting in her bed, one arm around several plushies and the other hand tightly clasping her phone. She hadn't realized how desperately she was waiting for the response until it buzzed, and she jumped, but it actually allowed her heartrate to finally start to slow. She tabbed the phone open, and felt distinctly relieved as she read the new message.



Hearing back from Imryn helped her finally convince herself it could have been a dream, although the whispers were still there, and she was finding it hard to put the last bit of doubt to rest. Hearing from the ghost helped, and she probably ought to text her other friends again, just to hear from them as well. But she also wanted to see them, so that her most recent memories were something other than the visions from her dream.

The Reaper ghoul was waiting for the reply, so her response came back quickly.



And then she followed that up with her room number, content that Imryn could figure out from that how to find her. With as messed up as she was from the dream, it didn't even occur to her that the other ghoul might not be comfortable coming to the Reaper dorm; Mitzi just didn't feel up to leaving her room, and really badly wanted to see someone.

Mitzi wasn't really in any state to tell time, and so she really didn't notice that it was taking Imryn a while to make it over. She had actually just started to wonder - and with that, wonder if the texts might have been the dream, which of course had her starting to panic again - when she heard a knock on the door.

She headed over and opened it, sighing in relief to see the other ghoul. She looked both ways down the hall, making sure there was no flash of grey. Some logical part of her mind said it was ridiculous, but that was not the part talking loudest at the moment. Then she grabbed Imryn's wrist and pulled the ghost into her room, shutting and locking the door behind her.

That done, she turned back to the elemental, and gave her a big hug. "I'm so glad to see you," she said, before suddenly realizing that might be a taaad awkward. She pulled back sheepishly, but seeing the ghoul there, safe, had done a lot to calm her lingering fears. They weren't gone, something bad could still happen to everyone... but those memories were simply a dream, if a particularly vivid and terrifying one.

And suddenly Mitzi realized that after the mess of texts she had sent to Imryn, she probably owed the other ghoul an explanation. But she did not feel like reliving that dream, even to the relatively minor degree necessary to explain it. "Oh, yeah, sorry about that, I just... well, I mentioned I had a nightmare, right?" she asked, flashing a smile that was more nervous than sincere. She turned, crossing the room and flopping down on her bed, just to buy a little time. "I guess I just needed to see someone, to be sure it hadn't... really happened..." It sounded so stupid saying it, even as she still felt the niggling worry that there had been something real there.

To try to change the subject a bit, she gestured to the bed next to her. "Want to come sit down? I can pull out, I dunno, a game or something, or a movie." Not that she had many games - her parents had thought they were a waste of time - but she certainly could put on a movie or music.

As Imryn spoke, Mitzi managed another strained smile, which by the end managed to turn into a small laugh. She was becoming slightly - ever so slightly - less tense, just knowing the other ghoul was there, alive, safe, not harmed. Not... not... not... She quickly turned her thoughts away from that again, her expression flickering, before returning, albeit still somewhat forced. "Snuggles sound... really good." she admitted. She looked over at the scareon, and after a long moment, she patted her lap. "Here boy, here Noin," she called, just a hint of desperation in her voice. What if he didn't come? But Imryn had made it sound as though he would.

As Noin started to explore, a BunnyWunny with wings and a sword watched, although less with suspicion and more as though generally protecting the room from a newcomer. The mini had realized as soon as Mitzi woke up that something was wrong, even if he didn't understand what. He had let her hug him, more tightly than usual, more tightly than in fact comfortable, and had marshaled the plushies into first comforting her, and then trying to get her up. He had also herded the other plushies into the closet at the knock on the door, as Mitzi was not really in a state to do so at the moment.

So of course he was feeling even more defensive of her than usual, and hearing his mistress call the scareon over, he eyed the other mini, trying to determine his intentions. After a few moments, he nodded his head, apparently satisfied, and led the way over before climbing up onto the bed. Now it was Imryn's turn. He knew that other Halloweeners than his mistress were out of his league, so he generally had to trust his mistress to handle them. But today, he was leaving nothing to chance. After circling the elemental, and poking her once, he finally gave her a nod of approval as well.