A Hidden Sanctuary (Pat Reed)

[Kessa Westwood]

Clearly sleeping at night was the last thing Kessa had wanted to do, sleeping in the gym proved to be a problem also, exhausted she needed sleep bad or she felt like she would die, literally.

Looking for someplace to sleep was not an easy task, after trying to sleep in the gym which proved to be the very wrong place to try to get shut eye, as other students who wanted to practice their powers would interrupt whatever sleep she did get.

Well today was the day she would find the best hiding spot and no one, no one! would find her or be able to hear her if she should wake up screaming.

Looking around she entered the research section of the school, where spacious areas for a possible hideout proved inviting, there wasn’t too many people here to find her or wake her up so she was becoming excited about finding an ideal spot now.

Looking into closets and storage spaces she was looking for one that would be big enough for her to sleep in, sound proof and such a space could be and it would have to be some what clean and warm. Although Kessa didn’t really need it warm as most of the time she woke up covered in sweat.

Shortly she found what she thought was a good spot, it was a storage area that had furniture like desks, chairs, bedding and a couch! Kessa moved some of the bedding into one corner, stetting things up so she would be hidden even if someone came thru.

Once done, she try it out by settling down and falling asleep, a very deep sleep that her body had not known for quite some time.

[Patricia Reed]

Addie had been doing a lot of gardening lately. Though, she hardly thought anything of it. She loved it. More than anything else. She looked at gardening as she imagined truly religious people looked at going to church. It brought her peace, made her feel whole, and filled a part of her that she couldn’t quite explain. She wasn’t sure why, but when gardening, she felt one with nature. Which she thought made her sound like a hippy, so she never told anybody that. People simply only knew she loved gardening.

That wasn’t her job though. She wasn’t Hammel’s gardener. She took care of all of maintenance. Which meant cleaning and fixing anything that needed it. And since she’d been neglecting a few of her other tasks in the attempt to make outside look… breathtaking in her opinion, she was taking this day to catch up with what else needed to be done. First stop was the research labs.

There had been some complaints that the storage down there were being misused, storing things that weren’t for research. So it was Addie’s job now to clear out what wasn’t supposed to be down. She’d managed to find a box full of clothes. Assuming it had been clothes left behind by a student, she added it to a pile of things she figured could be donated to the local goodwill store. She’d also found a bottle of some kind of… brown sludge. Needless to say, that went into the throw away pile.

She’d already done three closets and was a bit sweaty from heavy lifting; bits of hair that had escaped her sloppy bun were sticking to her forehead. Opening the door to another storage area, she groaned quietly at the sight of a couch. She knew she’d need help with that, so she’d leave moving it for last. At least there was bedding on it. That’d be great to drop off at the store. So she gathered the clothes in her arms.

A yelp came from her though when she realized somebody was under them. Pulling them back carefully as to not startle whoever it was, Addie realized she was sleeping. “Excuse me…” Reaching her hand out, she laid it on the girl’s shoulder hoping to wake her up. “You shouldn’t be sleeping down here. Don’t you have a perfectly good bed somewhere?”

[Kessa Westwood]

Having had finding what she thought was a good place to sleep with out being disturbed, Kessa fell asleep almost instantly.


For Kessa sleep was something she needed and yet something she also feared, each time she fell asleep there was a good chance of having a precognitive dream, usually those dreams were of bad things happening and not being able to do anything about those dreams hunted her. Of course there were dreams and regular nightmares but at this point Kessa was unable to tell them apart.

Any sleep Kessa voluntarily summated too, she didn’t want people finding her, hearing her or seeing her when she woke up from such sleeping stints.

Today she thought she was alone, safe alone with her curse, her nightmares, her dreams or whatever came from this period, however no one could have seen that a maintance worker would be the one to find the sleeping Kessa who was deep into a nightmare at the point the woman was trying to wake her.

You know what they say about sleeping dogs, right? Well same goes for a sleeping Kessa but this person didn’t know that yet soon would find out.




“Excuse me…” “You shouldn’t be sleeping down here. Don’t you have a perfectly good bed somewhere?” a voice said to the sleeping girl as Kessa was being shaken awake.

Deep inside her nightmare Kessa was suddenly awaken, panicked she fought the person who woke her. She didn’t know this person and lashed out at them.