Today was officially the start of the third week in Waiting for Fireflies.

  This was the week in which the next bullying event was supposed to take place. At some point, the original Blythe would instruct Jessica and Sophie to toss Daisy’s bag into the fountain.

  Blythe had prepared her game plan. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it would have to do.

  She was going to feign catching a cold—not one serious enough for her to be laid up in bed and miss all her classes, but concerning enough that she wouldn’t want to spend too much time around others for fear of spreading it. And for her PE classes, she would pay the infirmary a visit to stay away from Jessica and Sophie. After all, she couldn’t remember the exact day this was supposed to happen, and she didn’t know for sure if it would even happen at all.

  She really, really hoped that the dining hall incident had been a one-off freak accident.

  The day started off well enough.

  Magnus sat next to her, and Cole in front of him, in History IV, her first period of the day. Blythe put her plan into action, letting out the occasional sniffle and cough until Magnus asked if she was alright.

  “Oh, I’m just feeling a little under the weather," she said, wiping her very dry nose with her handkerchief. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to distract you.”

  “No, you aren’t distracting me,” Magnus said, shaking his head. “Class hasn’t even started yet.”

  Cole stared at her, his expression mildly concerned. “Maybe you should go to the infirmary and ask to be excused from classes.”

  She remembered that the game had explained before that the healing ability that healers had could only help with physical injuries. Diseases weren’t covered under the various wounds and injuries that healers could fix, although some concoctions brewed by apothecaries could help alleviate or improve one’s condition with regular ingestion. On the other hand, there were no known remedies for the common cold. In Giovanni’s route, Daisy had taken care of him when he’d caught a cold. He’d taken some concoctions to reduce discomfort, but had ultimately needed rest and time to recover.

  “No, I’m fine,” she said bravely, keeping her handkerchief near her nose to hide the fact that it wasn’t truly runny. “I’ll rest in my room during my break times. I’d rather not miss classes.”

  Plus, she needed this illness to last all week.

  When her last statement earned her points with Magnus, Blythe suppressed the urge to laugh.

  “That’s very admirable,” he said, looking even more worried than before, “of you, but you shouldn’t push yourself. Rest is necessary for recovery.”

  “How contagious are colds again?” Cole asked, making it clear the reason for his concerned gaze.

  Magnus glared at him. “Feel free to sit elsewhere if that’s all you care about.”

  “Sorry for asking.” Cole scooted his chair further away from Blythe’s and Magnus’ desk. “I thought that was a reasonable question.”

  “Actually, it is a very reasonable question,” Blythe said, trying to make her ‘ailment’ appear as legitimate as possible. “I don’t want to spread it to anyone else just because I’m afraid of missing lessons. I’m thinking of sitting away from everyone else to prevent that. Excuse me.”

  That way, she would be able to sit away from Jessica and Sophie during their shared classes without inviting questions.

  She rose to her feet, slinging the strap of her school bag over her shoulder.

  “No, that’s alright—” Magnus began to say, but Blythe cut him off with a shake of her head.

  “I really don’t want everyone falling sick to be on my head, Magnus,” she insisted. “I’ll get better in a few days, I’m sure.”

  “You’re so considerate, Blythe!” Cole’s praise made her want to roll her eyes.

  His smile was sunny.

  “You’re welcome,” she told him before walking away to a quiet corner of the classroom, where nobody was seated yet.

  She enjoyed an isolated but peaceful first period, and then urged Magnus to walk by himself to Botany at the end of class.

  “We should minimize contact for the time being,” she said, holding her handkerchief to her face. “I would feel simply awful if you fell ill because of me.”

  Taking the hint, Magnus went on ahead without her.

  Thus, Blythe sat by herself for the first three periods until lunch period rolled around. She hurried to the dining hall, grabbed takeout from the stall with the shortest line she could see.

  From the safety of her dorm room, she sent Jessica a VocAvis message that she was feeling unwell and would be resting for lunch.

  “And I would hate to spread it to you or Sophie, so I’ll stay in my room by myself,” she added before signing off.

  As her cockatoo flew off, Blythe opened the takeout box and dug in. It felt incredibly freeing to eat without an audience. She could be as unglamorous as she wanted. Just for the heck of it, she stuffed her face with the fish and chips she’d ordered, uncaring of any table manners. The food tasted twice as good as it normally did.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Jessica’s blue parrot arrived within minutes, carrying with it Jessica’s great concern for Blythe’s health. She expressed understanding of Blythe’s plight and wished her a good rest.

  After eating, Blythe took out the romance novel she’d borrowed from the school library yesterday before lying on the bed. She hadn’t wanted to spend her entire Sunday studying and embroidering some handkerchief for Magnus, so she’d visited the library to find an interesting read. This book’s premise had caught her eye; a bakery owner came across an injured man in the alleyway and took him in to nurse him back to health, all without knowing that he was the elusive head of the merchant’s guild in their town.

  She continued reading it, squealing to herself at the fluffy moments, such as when the guild master tried to help the protagonist with kneading dough. For the next hour, she was able to relax and not worry about anything other than how the two main characters were going to get together.

  Fifth period was Economics IV, and it was easy to sit by herself. Although Noel and Titus were in that class with her, they didn’t have the type of relationship where it was expected of Blythe to sit with them, unlike with Magnus and her friends.

  Once it was over, she returned to her dorm room as quickly as she could. So far, everything was going well. She just had to keep this up for the next few days. Grabbing her botany study guide, Blythe lounged on the bed and opened it to where she’d left off yesterday.

  She was trying to memorize the leaf shape of a plant that could be eaten for nutrients when it happened.

  Without her input, her hands moved to close her study guide. Blythe tried, to no avail, opening the book again, but all that happened was her legs swinging off the bed and making her stand on the floor.

  “What the—”

  ‘She’ walked to her desk and set the study guide down on it. Nothing Blythe tried worked; she couldn’t control her body at all.

  Or was this really her body, if she couldn’t control it?

  Ice bit into her veins, spreading throughout her entire body until she was drenched in fear.

  “Stop,” she tried saying aloud.

  The word hung uselessly in the air as her body continued towards her shoe rack by the door.

  “I said, stop!” She didn’t bother masking the shrillness in her voice. It wasn’t going to have any effect anyway.

  ’She’ bent down and put on her shoes, all the while Blythe was desperately trying to exercise control over her body from the inside. It was as though she had been put in a body that someone else was controlling, where the only thing she could do was look through this body’s eyes.

  Wait. Wait, wait, wait.

  Blythe tried closing her eyes. They closed.

  Okay, okay. Maybe the body wouldn’t be able to walk if it couldn’t see where it was going?

  Against her will, her eyes opened again less than a second later. She tried closing them again, but this time they wouldn’t obey.

  “What—”

  A fresh wave of panic ripped through her. She felt the blink when it happened on its own half a second later. She couldn’t even control the blinks. Why was speaking the only exception?

  Opening the door, her body stepped out of the room. ‘She’ closed the door, and the automatic lock activated.

  ‘She’ walked with purpose through the empty hallway towards the stairs at the end. Hope bloomed in Blythe’s chest when a door further down from her opened, and a girl came out. She recognized Beatrice’s light-green hair right away.

  “Beatrice!” she called out, her brain feeling messed up from the sensation of her body moving on its own.

  She was closing in on Beatrice.

  The other girl turned away from her room door, shooting her a baffled glance. “Blythe?”

  “Help,” she began, and Beatrice’s jaw dropped. “I can’t control my movements. I—my body’s moving on its own! Please, could you hold me back?”

  Her eyebrows scrunching together, Beatrice asked, “Your body’s moving on its own? You look rather normal to me …”

  “Please!” she shouted, no longer caring if she looked insane or not. “Just grab me and stop me from moving!”

  At Beatrice’s weirded out stare, Blythe’s heart sank.

  “Is this a practical joke?” Beatrice looked around at the otherwise empty hallway. “This doesn’t seem your style.”

  Blythe’s body was already walking past Beatrice. She couldn’t turn her head.

  “I’m not joking!”

  Behind her, Beatrice heaved a loud sigh. “Alright, I’ll play along. But if this turns out to be a joke, I won’t be amused.”

  She nearly wept in relief. “Thank you!”

  Beatrice ran enough to get ahead of Blythe before grabbing her arm. The sensation of slim fingers digging into her biceps was almost painful.

  Blythe was amazed at the power of her grip.

  For a second, she thought that she might be forced to stop.

  But then ‘she’ yanked her arm out of Beatrice’s grasp, ’her’ stride not slowing down at all. Wasn’t Blythe’s body supposed to be weak?!

  “Well, if you’re going to leave anyway, what’s the use of asking me to hold you back?” Beatrice sounded baffled.

  “I already said I can’t control my movements!”

  She knew what she was saying was fantastical, but was the idea that hard to comprehend?

  Beatrice didn’t chase after her, choosing instead to mutter about how she had something interesting to tell Jacqueline about. She obviously didn’t believe her.

  As she made her way out of the dormitory building, Blythe contemplated screaming and making a ruckus for everyone to hear. The helplessness made her feel like she was freefalling in an endless abyss, leaving her scrabbling for purchase in a dark void.

  A sliver of reason wedged itself into her blind panic, reminding her that if all proceeded as it did the last time around, she would regain control of her body eventually. And then she’d have to live with the consequences of her actions. Not that she wasn’t already living with the consequences of not-her actions.

  Was it worth the risk having the entire school think her a lunatic? Maybe the school would pronounce her mentally unsound and request for her parents to keep her home instead. Beatrice hadn’t even looked like she’d believed her in the first place. What if they all just thought she was pulling some stupid prank?

  Asking everyone in sight to hold her down didn’t sound great either. She could already picture the misunderstandings that would abound.

  By the time she snapped out of it, she realized her surroundings had changed. She couldn’t move her eyes around at this point—she was limited to seeing through her eyes in whichever direction her body was choosing to look at.

  Her feet had already carried her to the gallery seats overlooking the training hall.

  Jessica and Sophie were sitting at a row of seats close to the railing. How did her body know where to find them? Was it some kind of built-in game function?

  As she approached, they raised their heads to look at her with great surprise.

  “Blythe!” Jessica said, jumping to her feet. “I thought you were resting in your room. Are you feeling better already?”

  Sophie also got up and stepped closer. “Did you get enough rest?”

  Blythe was about to ask them to hold her down when her mouth opened on its own. She couldn’t get a word out.

  Dread flushed through her insides.

  “Jessica. Sophie.” At her commanding tone, they snapped into a different, more alert, mode.

  “Yes, Blythe?” Jessica asked, her gaze now sharp.

  “It seems Willoughby has left her bag unattended on that chair.” Her head automatically nodded in the direction of a seat one section away.

  How do you know that? You weren’t even here! she wanted to screech at ‘herself’, but her mouth wouldn’t do her bidding.

  In the game, while Daisy herself never got to witness Blythe and her cronies throw her bag into the fountain, the player got to see it play out in a separate scene. This was the worst kind of déjà vu Blythe had ever experienced.

  Sophie cocked an eyebrow, a half-smirk spreading on her lips. “Wouldn’t it be a shame if something happened to it?”

  Blythe felt her lips curve into a smirk of her own as ‘she’ said, “I think it would certainly be a pity if it ended up waterlogged.”

  “The fountain would look much better with a decoration in it, wouldn’t it?” Jessica asked in a thoughtful tone, putting a finger to her chin.

  Sophie snickered. “You’re so right, Jessica.”

  Blythe’s body followed Jessica and Sophie to the chair with Daisy’s bag on it. There were a few other students sitting in the gallery, but they were all minding their own business, either reading a book or observing the boys training in the hall down below. Sophie picked up the bag and casually slid it over her shoulder.

  Maybe it was because Blythe’s lines had ended for this scene, but she abruptly realized she could speak again.

  “Stop,” she blurted out as the three of them walked towards the exit leading to the stairs. “Stop!”

  Both Jessica and Sophie turned their heads, looking very befuddled.