|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:08 pm
There once was a shirt that Ursula had seen in the window of Hot Topic. It had been a black shirt, one of the kind that displayed witty retorts like That's what she said or I'm the skeleton in your boyfriend's closet. Some amusing, some dumb, all loudly announcing whatever it was that a teenager wanted to share with the world. But there was always one shirt in particular that Ursula had never understood. In white print, blazed across the front was Can't sleep, clowns will get me. She'd never grasped the concept behind it.
She did now.
Only, if she had her way, blazed across the front (in a prettier font, no doubt) the shirt would say Can't sleep, Queen will get me.
For the past week, her sleep had been plagued with nothing but nightmares. Night after night, the Queen of the Negaverse would visit Ursula in her dreams, regardless of how hard the young woman had tried to keep her at bay. She'd stopped snacking before bedtime. She avoided anything horror-related on tv (not that she was a huge fan of the genre to begin with), but no matter what trick she tried that The Google suggested, the nightmares continued to come, and they were growing progressively worse as the days passed. She'd wake up screaming sometimes, or with Khalid staring at her, having been forced to shake her awake. They always ended with tears as she'd cling to her husband and cry. When he asked, she would tell him they had to do with Beryl, but that was the extent of her explanation. She refused to tell him of what the Queen would whisper to her, what Beryl would imply towards her husband's feelings. But not only had she attacked Ursula's relationship in attempts to drive a wedge between the couple, but she'd turned her focus towards Khaldun, on Aree, on Andrew and the others. Of how all of them were using her, how none of them truly cared for her, that she was all alone in the world, save for the connection she shared with the Queen.
It grew to the point that she tried avoiding sleep entirely. She'd stay up trying to read or watch television, drink coffee or try to make conversation with Khalid. It didn't take long for her to grow irritable due to exhaustion and she inevitably fell asleep in the end, anyhow. And there would be Beryl, on her throne, waiting. The conversations varied. Sometimes the others would show up. Charonite, Hematite, Tanzanite, Obsidian. Even little Grendel had made an appearance, laying comfortably in the Queen's lap as she stroked the fat Guardian.
The previous evening's nightmare had ended terribly, with Tanzanite moving in to kill Ursula on the Queen's order. Thus, after calming what had now become a morning tradition of hiccups, sobs and occasional vomiting, Ursula had decided that she needed to visit her best friend. Perhaps her subconscious was guilting her over what had happened to Tanzanite. That it was her fault Aree had nearly died and her brain was twisting it into nightmares. She probably deserved it.
Arriving at the front door of her former apartment, Ursula used her hip to knock against the side of the wooden door as both hands were occupied with tall cups of Shufflepucks' finest. It was still early and the sky was still cloudy, so hopefully she was still at home (and had no urges to kill her best friend as Dream Tanzanite did).
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:24 pm
Aree didn't sleep much. Nobody who slept much had the bruise-like under eye crescents that Aree was sporting as she craned her neck towards the sudden thumping on her door. She had had nightmares for months prior to the sudden outbreak, so the newer, more violent string seemed only slightly out of the ordinary. She was sitting on the couch, buried under a pile of paperwork that had nothing to do with school (which the young woman no longer attended) and everything to do with taxes. Aree had never done taxes, because Aree had never had an income until only a few months prior. Now she was up to her neck in income reports and paystubs and had no idea what to do with any of it.
Thus, it wasn't too surprising when she rose and let the entire stack of printed 'How To E-file' papers fall in an unorganized heap to the floor. Her bare feet crunched down on the Turbo Tax logo as she crossed the room and opened the door. She had never bothered asking who it was or making use of the small peep hole. Aree, unlike most teenage girls living on their own in the city, had little to fear. There were only two people she feared, and neither were going to come knocking on her door in the middle of the morning.
“Coffee,” she said, lips cracking into a smile, “If you weren't already married, Ursula, I'd be King of the Negaverse for you. Come in, but be warned I'm about to set fire to that ******** paperwork.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 1:57 am
"It's not caffeinated."
Aree looked at her as though she'd sprouted horns. Or turned into the fabled Queen Serenity. (Whichever was more horrifying, really).
"This better not be another one of those diets, Ursula..."
"It's not."
Aree, along with Khaldun and Khalid, had been an unfortunate victim of various new-fad diets that Ursula had been trying a few weeks before the wedding, in attempts to lose some last minute pounds. One of which had forced her to give up caffeine. She had lasted all of four days on it before practically having caffeine injected into her system, an antidote to save them all from the wrath of the Ursula Morning Monster.
"And if you were King, then we'd be drinking caffeinated right now."
Her friend had been shoving papers to the side, making room for their coffee. Her shoveling paused, however, the purple haired girl giving her best friend a what in the Hell have you been smoking - I hope you didn't pay too much for it because it's NOT WORTH IT look.
Leaning over to sit on the sofa's armrest, Ursula settled her cup in her lap.
"Aree...we need to talk. I'm uh. In a bit of trouble."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
