Night;

[veranda]

((Open, feel free to reply))

Her palm against the rough surface of the wall, Veranda walked to where the beautiful emerald couch rested beside the fireplace. The crackling flames illuminating most of the area were the only sources of sounds in the deadly silent common room.

It was late; at least ten minutes or so past twelve, and most of the students were already asleep in their various dorms. Veranda sat at an angle to the back of the couch and let her legs hang over the armrests. Her knee length silk nightdress glinted slightly in the light of the fire, the shadowed areas perfectly marking the contours of her body.

Veranda let out a low whistle, signalling for her pet snake to come to her. The rustling sound of the dry scales against the dungeon floors told her that it was coming. Bending over slightly, she reached her arm out. A moment later, the black snake was curled upon her wrist.

Leaning back against the couch, she gently stroked the scales of the snake. It was her only company at the moment – or so she thought.

“Roses are red, Violets are blue.
Boys are cheap, a penny for two”

She whispered softly to the snake the lines she had made up at the spur of the moment.

[slither]

Delilah lay on her four poster, staring at the ceiling stones. A dream had waken her but she could not remember it, as always. Delilah seemed incapable of retaining even a single dream. Sometimes it bothered her but tonight the only thing annoying Delilah was her inability to fall back to sleep. She could hear the soft breathing from the other girls as they rolled over, dreaming dreams that Delilah secretly envied. She rolled onto her side and stared at the wall. A small sliver of light shining through the crack at the bottom of the door was the only light in the room. She watched it, even though it never changed. But after she stared long enough it started to blur, her eyes unable to focus any longer on the small light in the otherwise pitch black room. Delilah blinked and watched the light disappear momentarily. Then it happened again. Only this time the light seemed to shrink, then become two, and then one shrunken strip of light. Someone was up and wandering on the stairs.

Out of curiosity and boredom she sat up. Her toes lightly tapped the cold floor as she searched for her slippers. Finding them, she slipped them on and grabbed her purple dressing robe from the trunk at the foot of her bed. She pulled her arms through the sleeves as she carefully opened the door and turned onto the stairway. Something moved past her and when she looked down she black serpent slithering toward the common room. Delilah knew instantly that it was Veranda that was awake. Delilah figured it was nothing very special that Veranda was up to, but since she couldn't sleep she decided to follow the snake to the common room.

"You haven't resorted to reciting poetry to animals now have you?" Delilah stepped out of the stairwell and crossed the room, taking a green high-backed chair diagonally from where Veranda sat.