[Clock Tower] Cats Cradle [Jake]

[Haleigh Mains]

The walls of the clock tower offered a shaky sort of shelter from the storms rolling not only outside the castle walls, but the ones inside as well. Thunder clapped as sound slammed against brick, and the minute hand on the giant clock shook from the blow. Haleigh watched the vibrations then, feeling currents travel throughout her like blood in her veins. Despite the occasional flashes of light that illuminated the skeletal workings of the tower, she was completely alone, though the silence and the low ticking of the clock was far from unnerving. It offered a rare sanctuary from the madness echoing in each corridor, where students were experiancing anything from being sucked inside a portrait to being attacked by strange, shadowed dogs. Here though the tranquility, at least in her eyes, remained untouched, as she crossed her legs and sat with her back against the window overlooking the grounds. She came often to think; it was here her thoughts evolved from disjointed fragments to words and sentances strung together that hung and draped themselves all around her. She could hear everything as if they were being spoken by many different voices by many different people in her ears:

Family. I remember my family. There are so many different families out there, I wonder if there are any like mine. Does anyone ever sit back during a war and think that every single person they kill has a family? With all the billions and billions of people out there, in every neighborhood, country and continent, do they ever realise?

Distracted by another thought, another notion that plagued her constantly, her mind switched gears.

We all die alone, but we all die together, in the end. We may be alone when it happens, in a hospital room or a car crash, but so many other people are dying too. So we aren't really alone, when you think about it. What happens to who we are? Are we erased? Are our personalities stored? What about our talents? Are they simply recycled, or do they get replaced? Do we keep watching the people on earth make the same mistakes we did, when we were alive? Living, breathing? Can we talk to them, protect them? Are we the guardian angels everyone whispers so hopefully about, or is that simply myth? Something humans assure each other to comfort themselves when times turn ugly? The minute we're born, do we start to die?

[/I]
Haleigh sat there in silence, as thunder once again shook the metal walls around her, and the clock, encouraged by the noise, chimed. She didn't bother to check what time it was; she was too engrossed in her thoughts to be bothered by such a simple, complex thing as time. What if everything everyone believed, was a lie? What if science and technology and all the history books were wrong? Haleigh bit her bottom lip gently, so lost in her own mind that her eyes unfocused, and she stared unseeingly at the clock, there but not there.[/font][/color]

[Jake Sawyer]

The common room was no longer a safe haven for Jake anymore. It was far too loud for him, loud conversations, loud arguments, loud snoring. Everything was loud. Everyone was so engrossed in their own private problems they didn’t really pay attention to what was going on around them anymore. Everything this year had been so… weird. Not right, but luckily Jake kept himself out of most of the trouble, he hadn’t been sucked into any paintings or been driven to the point of insanity. He had his own theory about that. He thought it affected people who didn’t know themselves all that well, who weren’t all comfy in themselves. Take Erys for example, she was just plain crazed these days. On the edge of paranoia and taking it out on Ricky. Jake figured there was something wrong with her deep down, something she was paranoid about but yet a little too afraid to talk to anyone. Either way, he needed to get away from the common room.

Where was Jake now?
Somewhere.

The stone courtyard held many more loud conversationalists. Like he really cared about who was dating who or whatever. If they didn’t have anything decent to say why speak at all? Pulling his green jacket around him, Jake found himself heading up the clock tower. Not that it was any quieter in here but anything was better than listening to a bunch of Hufflepuff’s talk about the latest Hufflepuff gossip. More important things were going on in the world, and they cared about the latest colour of yellow. How many different yellows can there be in the world? Sheesh.

As he got to the top of the clock tower, it chimed, signalling half past. He could hear the pendulum swinging, a soft whooshing noise as it cut through the air. The ticking of the hands and the soft grinding of the gears which made the hands turn. Surprisingly it was peaceful. This was a different kind of noise, one he could focus on without feeling like he was invading someones privacy. Though, as he glanced around, he realised very possibly he may just be invading someone’s privacy. Still, taking a chance Jake walked up beside her and looked out over the courtyard. ”Is this a private spot?” He asked, not looking at her ”I’ll try not to get in your way.”

[Haleigh Mains]

Even the presence of another did not rouse her, but the voice from his lips managed to salvage Haleigh from the workings of her own mind. She blinked then, eyes focusing as she fought to recall what he had said. Remembering then he had questioned something along the lines of private, her lips parted. "Er.. No." She answered softly, too anchored in that position to bother twisting her neck up to look at him. Instead she watched the minute hand lurch from second to second, blinking slowly in surprise at how much time had passed since she first came up here. "I was just thinking away from the chaos." In all honesty she'd welcome anyone else to do the same, so long as they didn't bring the drama with them and desecrate the peaceful workings of the clock tower. There was something comforting in the knowledge that time would always be there, always keep ticking even after the clock rusted and withered away. And people always complained they hadn't enough of it, when really they were just wasting it all. Time would always be there.

"No one ever really seems to do that. Stop and think. The only words that spill from their mouths is who is shoving their tongue down someone elses throat." Though her voice was gentle, she imperceptively froze, surprising herself with how bluntly harsh that sounded. "They never really wonder what happens when they die. Or if they do, they only wonder how people will react. They fail to realise that in the end life goes on, and we are all forgotten." At the mention of this she tipped her head to one side, thoughts probed by the conversation on the matter of memory. Figuring then he was probably staring at her with a wierd look on his face, the corner of her mouth twitched with a small smile. "Sorry.. I think. A lot." Her responce lacked the eloquence a Ravenclaw's usually held, but Haleigh would rather concentrate on her own deep thinking, rather than mumbling out an explanation to someone she didn't even know. "Deeply, I guess." She added pathetically, wondering if she had scared him off yet--not by choice, either, company wouldn't be refused, so long as it was the right kind--but finding herself too wrapped up inside to really be insulted by it, if he had gone.[/color]