oh so critical || OPEN

[layla aubrey jameson ,]

A cool wisp of frosted breath curled delicately out from between Layla’s slightly pursed lips, dissipating into the surrounding air. It was a chilly winter morning here at Beauxbatons. The grounds were coated in a thin crust of snow; not the delicate fluffy kind which is almost soft to the touch, but the kind that fell days ago and has had time to settle into a tougher, more crumbly texture. As you took a step, you listened to the unmistakable crunch of the snow under your heels. There were very few patches around the campus that remained unspoiled by the footprints of hundreds of students traveling to class or to meet friends out by the lake. The castle hadn’t seen much snow this year, which seemed rather peculiar. Layla remembered a few semesters ago when the campus seemed to be frosted pure white for almost the entirety of the winter months. It was beautiful, though admittedly rather annoying because no one ever really wanted to leave. Everyone stayed holed up in the warmth of the castle corridors, rather than mill about the various outdoor spots to sit and study or chat with friends. There were very few who didn’t mind braving the cold, Layla included. This winter was different though. They would get a few gentle flurries, followed by some rain or wind which would sweep the campus clean once more.

Layla preferred the summer to the winter, and the spring to the summer, and the fall most of all. She wasn’t a huge fan of cold weather but then again it wasn’t like it really affected her anymore the way it used to. She remembered hustling to meet with old friends like Charlotte and Rob by the old oak tree near the edge of the lake. Even in the midst of winter the younglings would take some time to visit their favorite spots around the campus. They would stand around, shuffling their feet awkwardly in the cold frozen earth because there was nowhere to sit down without either freezing your butt off or getting your robes soaking wet from the snow. After a few minutes, they would agree to head back inside and warm up or they’d split up and go their separate ways. Layla would clench her jaw as they walked headfirst into the chilly breeze that blew across the tops of the lake and caught those enclosed around its perimeter. She would do her best to restrain the violent shivers and shudders that yearned to burst free from her slender but still slightly tall body. Her cheeks would be a blossoming shade of red, complimenting her pale skin which at the time wasn’t all that unnatural. Her blue eyes would have a light winter sheen to them, sparkling with moisture as they tried to keep from drying out in the cold air. Her hair would be slightly mussed with a few strands crossed out of place. Those were the days when she was human, when she had the blood pumping hot through her veins, struggling to warm her body. When you’re dead and your blood long since frozen, you don’t have to worry about trivial things like the weather. Layla was pretty sure her skin temperature was colder than the crusty layer of snow under her feet.

Today was a beautiful day for a walk. Layla spent most of her time out of doors simply because she could and she had nothing better to do with her nights than to wander around. However, this was different. This was a walk just for the sake of taking a walk. She wasn’t trying to count down the hours until the sun rose again and those who were lucky to fall into their nightly slumber began to wake. She was just walking around because she felt like it. The sun was out and barely seemed to be breaking through the trees of the Enchanted Woods. The weather was most peculiar today. You couldn’t even tell where the sun was positioned in the sky because a thick grey cloud covered all of campus and made it hard to tell. At least, for humans. Layla had a pretty good idea of where it was located. The clouds were just thick enough to make it a bit of a challenge though. Staring at her feet, the tall brunette slowly wound her way on and off the beaten paths of the forest. She had walked these trees dozens, if not hundreds, of times before. She knew exactly where she was going and exactly where she came from. Yet she was still convinced that one of these days she was going to stumble upon something new. There was going to be some whole other part of the forest that was yet to be discovered. That day never came. Her black leather boots hugged her calves, but were pretty loose compared to some of the things the girls wore when they dressed casually. Layla’s had a small stunted heel; they were winter boots so they were meant to be sturdier and less fashionable. A pair of dark washed jeans was tucked into the boots and she wore a few layers of sweater and jacket over her torso, more out of habit and not to look like a complete freak than anything else.

Her eyes were blue as ice. They shone in the shadows of the trees, almost giving off an eerie glow. She heard the heartbeats and pitter patter of various small animals running from her, their intuition telling them that a predator was nearby. She wasn’t hunting today though. For the most part she only went at night since that was when the campus was quiet and she could do as she liked. Around here there was no telling who you might run into in the forest. Layla tucked her hands into her jacket pocket and shook a piece of hair back behind her right ear. She closed her eyes as she walked, sick of watching her own breath in front of her face. Her own special intuition warned her of the nearby trees, so she strode rather gracefully through the forest. She could hear a soft babbling up ahead, which meant there was water nearby and more likely than not there was a bridge. Layla kept walking until she reached the edge of the small stream, then turned to her left and followed it upstream for a little while. She knew the Moonstone Bridge would appear around a corner at some point. Sure enough, it only took a few more minutes of walking before she caught sight of the bridge. She squinted her eyes, not quite sure what she was seeing. She was a ways away though, so it made sense that she was unable to see. As she drew closer she realized that someone was standing on the bridge.

[lillyana kristine black]

Staring up at the ceiling with eyes wide and lips parted in a sigh, she shook her head, folding her hands over her stomach and trying to remember what things had been like the last thing she'd been here at Beauxbatons. It had been a very long time, nearly a year, in fact, since the last time she'd wandered this campus. And she would be lying if she said that she hadn't missed it, as strange a notion as that was for a heartless woman like her. Chewing absently on her lower lip, she closed her eyes on the world, thinking back to the time she'd spent back at the orphanage over the last year. The look on her old friend Heather's face as she'd cleared the doors upon arrival still brought a smile to her face. She'd missed Heather since first coming to Beauxbatons, missed the young, sweet, naive little girl who had made her realize what friendship was after she lost her memories and Madame Delaney took her in. But this also made her think of the friends she had left behind here at Beauxbatons when she left to visit the orphanage. After all of the horrors that her visit had dredged up in her mind, she found herself longing to see Dorian's face, or to see her friend Layla again, or even to see her old enemy Katerina Peck, just in order to have some semblance of normalcy return to her life. At Beauxbatons, she could always expect that things would remain constant--boring, even, which she appreciated after the crazy life she'd led.

With another sigh, she sat up in bed, glancing back at the indentation in her pillow where her head had been and gliding a hand through her hair to right it. She could feel the knots tugging and tearing apart as she combed her fingers through them, and though her hair had remained much the same as it was in her human youth, she found herself pondering on all of the other things that had changed so drastically about her--her blood rushing warm through her veins, her skin flushing with that warmth, her teeth ground sharp, her need for food and drink becoming a need for blood. With a sharp intake of breath, she climbed to her feet, finishing combing her hands through her long, dark locks quickly before reaching for her wand and stuffing it into the side of her boot. It was time to get up and get out of this room and out of this emotional slump that she was stuck in. Most times, she wasn't the one to be so thoroughly wrapped up in things as trivial and unimportant as feelings, but in this case--in the case of a visit to a town where she was attacked so viciously that she lost all memory of everything.

With a shudder, she snatched her coat up from where it lay on the corner of her desk, pulling it on in a quickened flourish before leaving the room and making a beeline for the main door out of the common room. In the next few minutes, she had breezed her way down the numerous flights of stairs to the first floor past group after group of her excited peers, bundled up to avoid the chilled winter air. Outside, the air was brisk, though it mattered little to her, and the wind moused her hair gently away from her face--there would be tangles galore to comb through when she made it back to her room lately. Staring down at the ground, she shoved aside all concern for her hair and stuffed her hands into her pockets, shuffling down the path in the direction of the lake. If she couldn't see her old friends and the like just yet, then she could at least stroll down an ever-familiar path on campus. The lake had always been a sort of sanctuary for her, and she found it easy to admit that the cool waters were where she often dumped her more painful, irrational fears and doubts. With a deep breath, she paused to look down at the thick, wet slush she was stomping through, and grimaced. Since she was a very little girl, an entire life ago, when she was still human, she had always loved the snow--but this slushy madness was nothing like the lovely puffs of white that would stick to her eyelashes and turn her nose red with cold as it breathed past her.

Approaching the edge of the water and the Moonstone Bridge, she stepped from moist dirt and grass to cobblestone and shook the melting pulp from her boots, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair. Her fingers caught on a few more tangles, which she ignored rather than worrying over them, and she leaned down on the side of the bridge, forearms keeping her upright as she stared down over the water with a cool, calm smile brushing across her lips.

After a few minutes of quiet pondering, movement caught her eye, and she looked up quickly, spotting a figure in the distance and squinting a little to see the face of the girl who approached the bridge. "Layla? Layla, is that you?" Pushing off the side of the bridge, she walked towards the bundled figure, realizing after a few moments that it really was her old friend, and she smiled brightly, stepping back into the muck and walking slowly toward her. "Hi. How have you been?"

...so it sucks. i'm sorry. its
been a loooong time. xP
buut i hope you like it ish?
loooove you, darling. <3

[layla aubrey jameson ,]

Layla never did very well with the whole school part of attending school. She was never the brainiac of the family. Come to think of it, no one in her family was really exceptionally intelligent. They were all smart enough to carry their weight in their respective career choices but that was about it. That was where it ended. Her parents were both aurors, though her mother turned to being a healer after Layla’s older brother Jensen was born. The travelling and the danger was too much for her. Granted, there wasn’t as much danger as of recently but Layla remembered when she was very young how she and her siblings would have to go and stay with her grandparents because her parents would be called away on some kind of job or other. That was back when the world was in danger of turning very dark, or so she was told when she was a little girl of but 5 or 6. Her brother would comfort her and insist that it was all folly, everything would be fine and their parents would return with a little trinket or some chocolates from wherever it was they had been sent. Her sister on the other hand was a right b*tch, to be quite honest. She was the one that would always tell Layla the most horrid of stories to get her hands shaking and her lower lip quivering with fear. Her sister fed her nightmarish tales of the dangers their parents were off combatting. Layla would stay awake the whole night, replaying images of dark cloaked beasts cutting off her father’s head.

When they graduated, her siblings went off on two completely different paths. Her brother followed their parents and became a sort of auror, though much more secretive. He disappeared for months at a time without so much as a letter. At least, that was the old way of things. Since he wed that terrible little wench Gabriella things were very different. Layla hadn’t seen or spoken to him since his wife forbade him from it. To this day Layla still wasn’t exactly sure what his job was. She liked to think of it as being similar to what the Muggle’s had in their CIA or FBI. Like a secret policeman. Then there was Michele, the wretched middle child of the Jameson children. She had a gift for herbology. She could make almost anything grow, except her nose apparently since she had been telling all sorts of lies since the day she was born and yet there was nothing to show of it in regards to her facial features. Either that or the lores were false. Layla was the one still left to determine her career. She was already a fifth year, which meant only two more years until she was tossed out to figure everything out. She was gifted artistically, though not in a very wide range. She liked to sketch and when she was still human her skin was almost permanently tinted black with the charcoal she preferred. Now, her vampiric skin resisted the dust particles and stayed smoothly perfect without a single smudge or blemish. Most girls would be grateful, but Layla actually missed having to be careful about accidentally touching her face or her clothes in case she were to look as though she had been kissed by dirt.

Cossu had definitely been the house for her. While she was also a bookworm, like so many Roueries were, she wasn’t as interested in the knowledge and the intelligence reading was meant to bring. Then there was Sournois which she most definitely did not fit in to. Layla wasn’t cunning or clever or, let’s be honest, conceited enough to be a Sournois. Cossu was for the other ones, the kids who didn’t have brilliant minds and weren’t the popular ones. Cossu was for the outcasts and the weirdos; the artistic, the musical, and the creative. Layla remembered her first year, pretty much the only people she knew were musicians or artists or the like. Rod and Ann had been musicians, Charlotte was the photographer of the group, and Yoku was the fashionista. She was constantly being poked fun at because of her odd choice of clothing but to their little group it made no matter. They were all a little weird, but at least they were weird together. Layla didn’t even feel like she fit in fully with the weird kids. She wasn’t actually weird enough. She was just quiet. Her brother was pretty popular and her sister was definitely known amongst everyone because she was so personable and although Layla hated to admit it she was very pretty. Layla only had her siblings at school with her for her first two years. Jensen was in his seventh when Layla started and Michele graduated the year after. Now Layla was the only Jameson left and she loved it. She loved that she didn’t have to deal with the comparisons, though some professors still remembered her perfect apple of a brother or her pain in the ass sister. They were always surprised that Layla was so polar compared to the two.

The brunette was content with herself though. Typical girls always had things they picked on themselves about, and Layla certainly went through that, mostly right after she had been turned. But those times were well behind her and she fancied leaving them there. Some thought her lucky, stuck in her extremified state of sixteen year old beauty. Others thought her cursed, never being able to move forward and have any real kind of life, at least the kind they deemed as real. Layla wasn’t sure what kind of life she was going towards or what she wanted to feel or be or anything of the sort. She was confused about everything, and that was what made her happiest. Teenagers were always confused and always scared about the future. She didn’t mind feeling that way because she looked around campus and knew that everyone else was feeling some scale of that too. She felt more part of the crowd than she ever had, and she wasn’t looking to change that any time soon. Not even a little bit. Not even at all.

Layla’s eyes adjusted to the forest around her. The stream beside her was swollen with the melting snow, creeping towards trees it had kept well back away from its banks for hundreds of years. It was only going to get worse. She realized she had never bothered to follow the stream before. They always led to something, like a lake right? Did this stream lead back to the lake at school? Was there another lake at its beginning where it found its source? Maybe one day she would follow it as far as she could and just tuck herself away into the folds of the forest. She could give herself over to the nature that clawed deep within her chest. She could allow her inhibitions to take over, release her human nature from being chained into a pen that was much too small for it. She could let her fangs grow permanent and her eyes turn the deep tint of ruby. Her skin would become paler and ghostlier. She would lose all connection to the human life she so desperately clung to now. It was possible, though it rarely happened. Some vampires either lost control or chose that lifestyle. Those were the ones to stay well away from. They didn’t live a civilized life. They didn’t hunt to turn. Layla could never stick that out. Or maybe she could, since if she ever actually chose that path it wasn’t like she would really be Layla anymore. Wild animals didn’t exactly have names and personas.

The person standing on the bridge began to take a clearer form. A silhouette was curved into the shape of an actual person, rounding outward at the breasts and hips but drawn tightly inward into a thin waist. It was clearly a young woman. There was no scent to her, at least not one Layla could pick up very well. Definitely not human. Humans wreaked from miles off. A gentle breeze lifted the girls hair, which was longer and darker than Layla’s. There was something faintly familiar about the shape but Layla was still a little too uncomfortably far off to really tell what it was. The figure was facing her, though the angle of her head suggested that she was looking down. She was dressed in human clothes, so she must have been a student? Or maybe a teacher? This was a popular spot for students to wander to, though not many did. Especially not in the cold. The forest was filled with all sorts of creatures and although many liked to act like it, they simply weren’t brave enough to chance running into something. A few seconds more and Layla discovered that she had entered within earshot of the girl. The shuffling of her feet through the cracked snow and dead debris caused the girl’s head to snap up. Her eyes, though too far off to actually see clearly, were most definitely trained on Layla. Vampire, definitely.

Layla felt uncomfortably at the disadvantage. It had been a while since she last few and her senses were much weaker than they should be. She was unable to see or smell as well as she could have if she had a full belly. At one time, she would have been so defensive she would have stopped her journey right then and there and proceeded to stare the girl down, calculating what moves to make if she were to come under attack. Now, however she was much less dramatic and psychotic and more at terms with the fact that she attended a boarding school for children. Not much harm was likely to come to her here. Regardless of what kinds of creatures and monsters lurked amongst the trees. Layla kept her expression friendly, yet she couldn’t help the weariness that touched at the corner of her eyes. She was sick of being so apprehensive of people. Her eyes stayed trained on the girl ahead of her, until there was a definite feeling of familiarity tugging at the back of her head. The girl was clearly better sensed than she, because she spoke up and confirmed a previous relationship between the two. ”Layla? Layla, is that you?” Layla squinted hard through the remaining space, quickening her pace to help her eyes make the adjustment.

The girl pushed herself away from the bridge and began walking towards Layla, a smile on her face. Finally Layla was close enough to recognize the features of the girl and the rope she had felt gently constricting around her rib cage loosened, leaving her senseless fears behind. A smile stretched across the brunettes pale face as well, tugging at the corners of her blushed lips and widening her bright blue eyes. ”Hi. How have you been?” Once again, Layla sped up the pace a bit to get closer to the girl she now recognized to be Lillyana Black, an old friend she hadn’t seen in quite a long while. She was pretty sure that was because Lillyana had left school altogether for a period. Layla chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about it, but her smile never waned and she decided she must have looked like a fool doing the two things at once. ”Lil! Hello! Long time no see.” Layla quickly closed the gap and reached her arms out, albeit a little hesitantly since she wasn’t sure how the girl would react. She hadn’t seen her in a while and things definitely seemed to be different, darker even. Layla didn’t need to be a vampire with heightened perception. ”Where have you been?” She asked almost jokingly, though a little curious as she approached for a hug.