Written for the Day 3 prompt of the Nightmare Dork University Autumn Carnival over at @366daysofnightmaredorks.
Katherine ran lightly down the front steps, pausing only to pet Professor Severnaya's brass owl that sat on the stone porch wall amidst Dr. Tushir’s pots of geraniums. It never ceased to amaze her how lucky she and Nightlight were to live here in this beautiful house. Most grad students had to make do with potluck when it came to housing. When the little placard showed up on a bulletin board, saying that two North Dale University instructors were looking for quiet tenants for the second-floor furnished flat in their double-decker, Katherine snatched it before anyone else could. Tenants didn't get much quieter than Nightlight and her, after all.
Autumn leaves crunched under the soles of her shoes as she headed in to work at the NDU library for her 12noon to 8pm Friday shift. Nightlight had still been asleep; he didn't need to go on duty for Campus Security until 4. They were both off work this weekend, which didn't happen all too often, and Katherine was looking forward to sleeping in with him tomorrow, going out together to the farmer's market for fresh produce and cider doughnuts, and then watching Nightlight perform cooking miracles in the old-fashioned kitchen.
She was on the Reference Desk this week, which was both a blessing and a curse; it ranged from bursts of busyness to long stretches of boredom. Fortunately, her boss Mr. Ombric didn't mind her writing or studying on the job, or listening to podcasts on her tablet if she kept the volume low. Katherine was currently immersed in THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES for the second go-round, as she tried to catch up with the newest season.
This early in the semester on a Friday, she had lots of uninterrupted time, and managed to get through episodes 116 through 118, and halfway through 119, before her attention was needed. A brisk cough made her look up into the pale clever face of a student she vaguely recognized.
His black hair was brushed back into fierce spikes that should have looked ridiculous, but did not. He wore a crisp charcoal-grey dress shirt with a black double-breasted buttoned vest. He looked down his long prominent nose at her over a pair of half-glasses.
Katherine felt her lips thinning and her nostrils flaring at the student's implied disapproval, but curbed the biting response she wanted to give. Instead, she hit the pause button and said sweetly, "How may I help you today?"
"You're meant to have a selection of DVDs reserved for students in Professor Izzilee's 300-level film course 'Nihil Noctem'." It was a statement, not a question. "I need to review the list for this semester so that we don't duplicate it for next semester." The man's sharp chin jutted out at her as he added, "I'm her new TA." He handed her his student ID card and a note from the instructor confirming that he, Pitch Black, had authorization and permission to borrow classroom materials.
Well, that explained his self-important demeanor. As for his dress sense, Katherine would bet one of Nightlight's home-cooked meals that this man was probably a theatre major.
She nodded and bent to look in one of the cubbies below the desk for the syllabus binders. When she stood up again, she was startled to see two people, not one, at the desk waiting for her; she hadn't heard anyone else approach.
And then she blinked, and there was only one again.
Feeling unsettled, Katherine did her best to stop her hands from shaking as she leafed through the binder and found Professor Izzilee’s movie list. She skimmed it quickly, noting that it was a mix of classics she knew and some moderns she did not. When she handed it to him, she expected the arrogant Pitch Black to sneer at the choices, but as his gaze roved over the titles, he actually seemed to be approving.
“Thank you, Miss..” he glanced at her name badge. “... Shalazar. You’ve been most helpful. Enjoy the rest of your evening.” With that, he turned and walked away, pausing to greet a short boy with pale hair wearing an oversized blue sweater, who seemed very agitated. They left the library together.
The rest of Katherine’s shift remained quiet; she managed to finish episode 119, but only halfway heard it, her mind still coming back over and over again to her odd vision of two versions of the same student standing at the reference desk.
When 8pm came, she blamed the chilly night air rather than her nerves for accepting a ride from Phil and Henrietta, instead of walking home as she usually did. Phil was a big gruff fellow, his younger sister Henrietta very nearly as tall and broad as he; both were sculpture students. They occasionally did painting odd-jobs for Professor Severnaya, although they were known to grumble over his frequently changing his mind on a whim. Tonight, their no-nonsense stolidness was the perfect way to distract her from the weirdness earlier in the day.
She was happy to close the door on the second-floor landing and to see the warm browns and deep greens of the apartment, painted walls and polished wainscotting maintained with love, lamps shining through cheery yellow and red shades. Katherine blessed Nightlight for making sure she didn’t walk into furniture in the dark.
She settled into a comfy armchair near the big bay window, curtains drawn to block out the streetlights. She ate the beef and barley soup leftover from lunch, and finished it off with some cheese and crackers. Then, her stomach more content and her mind less jangled, she pulled the ottoman closer and put her feet up. Nightlight was on duty until midnight, and so Katherine decided to catch a nap before he came home.
She dozed off, and fell almost immediately into a nightmare.
She found herself walking on an alien planet, picking her way carefully between piles of dust. Long-untrod paths weaved in and out of a rotting, rusted skeleton of an immense steel horse, a structure that was at least fifty feet high.
Her clothes were not her own; she wore a dress whose skirt flared out with at least six stiff and frothy petticoats beneath it. The skirt skimmed her knees and met the tops of high boots; both the skirt and the boots were decorated with fleurs-de-lis. The feather cape around her shoulders complemented the long curling feather in her jaunty picture hat.
An odd outfit to wear when strolling through a dead world.
She was startled by harsh grinding sounds above her, and looked up.
There were smaller steel horses coursing up and down the structure of the giant steel horse, reminding Katherine of roller coaster cars, speeding along at an incredible rate.
And on the back of one of the small horses rode the strange second figure she’d seen at the library, clad in a robe made of shadows, eyes burning out of a pale face, looking back at her with fierce intent.
And then the horse sprang loose from the tracks and FLEW towards her, its orange eyes shining, its black tail streaming metallic ribbons behind it, its rider grinning with horrible jagged teeth as it came nearer and nearer…
Nightlight’s hands on her shoulders startled Katherine into waking. She looked into his dear sweet face and shuddered in relief.
“She’s not one of your usual targets,” said the dark creature garbed in goo to its sharper, more angled twin. They stood together in the darkened doorway of one of the side rooms, unseen by the two humans in the living room.
The other figure replied, “I just get so bored, so bloody bored! And anyway, it will make it most amusingly awkward anytime she sees my pet project... she’ll have quite a few stories to tell.”
“Hmmmm,” mused the first, flicking away a stray blob of oily gunk with a dramatic wave of a viscously draped arm. “Can anyone play this mix-and-match game?”
“Certainly. Knock yourself out.”
Professor Nik Severnaya and Doctor Tatleen Tushir first appeared in my story “We All Bleed”. Link at AO3.
Transcripts for the episodes of THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES that Katherine was listening to can be found here.
My thanks to one of my horror fam members for letting me “borrow” her as the unseen Professor for whom Pitch TA’s.
One of the movies on Professor Izzilee’s list is CARNIVAL OF SOULS, which Katherine has seen and which becomes an element in her dream.
Katherine’s outfit in her dream is inspired by this incredible artwork by @lumin0usfox
This story will be continued in the Day 5 prompt “Cyclone”.
