There's something out there in the dark || Jack
Ianto pressed the palms of his hands into his closed eyes, fighting back a loud yawn. When he opened his eyes again, the hallway in which he was standing hadn’t suddenly changed into something more familiar. Gritting his teeth, Ianto finally resigned to the regret of wandering around at night. It wasn’t his fault, really. Back home, he had a spacey room with a forest he could explore at night next to his backyard. The unfamiliarity of his dorm room made it almost impossible for Ianto to get a healthy amount of sleep. If he wasn’t asleep, Ianto couldn’t spend more than three hours cooped up in the dungeons he called his dorms without getting increasingly restless.
Great, Ianto thought angrily, now I’m lost.
Avoiding the patrolling staff was easy enough. Overprotective parents and an uncle in the police force would teach you to be sneaky eventually. It definitely helped that Hogwarts had a plethora of hallways and staircases. Unfortunately, this also meant Ianto was now lost in the said plethora.
Ianto smoothed the creases of his suit pants – he really needed to stop sleeping in them – and drew out his phone from his pocket. Behind him, Ianto heard a whoosh – probably just a draft from a nearby window – and unlocked his phone. He tried to open the photo of the school map but his phone froze. Tapping at it, the screen flickered before fading to black. Perhaps it had run out of battery.
Pocketing his phone again, Ianto sighed and shivered a little. Despite the pants, his sleeveless pyjama shirt was definitely not doing anything against the cold which had seemed to get worse as Ianto continued to stand in the empty hallway. He heard another draft and frowned. As far as he could tell, this hallway wasn’t near any windows or doors leading outside. Ianto shook it off and decided to just continue walking around the school until the students started waking up or he found a familiar place – whichever came first.
His head shot up when he saw one of the hallway lights sputter and go out in an eerily similar fashion to his phone. Ianto quickened his pace to reach the end of the hall.
One by one, like clockwork, each light flickered out, from no apparent source and soon, Ianto was plunged into complete darkness. Ianto’s breath caught in his throat as he whipped his head back and forth, trying to find even a sliver of light. He couldn’t even see where his feet touched the ground, or any part of his body for that matter. No moonlight, no residual light from other rooms, no shadows, nothing. Ianto cursed himself when he realised he had left his wand in his room and decided to retrace his steps. That was quickly proving impossible considering every direction was pitch darkness.
Ianto’s back finally hit something hard and solid, presumably a wall, and he sunk back against it. He breathed in and out loudly, trying to calm himself.
“Okay, Ianto,” he muttered softly, “It’s just the dark. Nothing’s wrong with the dark.”
Ianto heard something shifting slowly. The sound was coming from all around him, as if it was a giant mass. Was it his imagination or was there something darker than the blackness dragging itself in front of him?
Fuck, Ianto thought hysterically, panic making his head rush and bile moving up his throat.
There was something out there in the dark… and it was moving.