Yee Haw [For Sleeps & Bloop]

After stumbling over multiple rocks and running completely through a shrub, D'angelo arrived at the stables. Taking a quick breather while removing some of the leaves from himself when he had ran into the shrub. You would think they would have a few lights up around here? Thinking to himself as he walked closer to the wooden building. Using the little bit of moonlight, He recognized a shadowy figure. It had to be Juliette. Strolling over to where she was, D'angelo stopped a few feet before her. "Wow, you're pretty fast. I almost lost you for a bit. Of course it didn't help running through a shrub, but it is what it is." Looking around noticing they were short a member. "Well I guess Jane gets the meanest looking horse."

Jane was practically dead on her feet by the time she came stumbling in after them.

She doubled over, her hands on her knees, panting. 'Stamina' had never been a strength of hers. Regaining her breath, Jane kicked off her shoes and walked over to join them, wiping the back of her hand across her forehead. It turns out they made socks for a reason, and sprinting through the dark at night with only your shoes on had taught her just what reason that was. "Yeah, yeah," she muttered, padding over to D'angelo's side barefoot. "I'm the rotten egg. If you two just wanted a safe, slow, old donkey, then you could've told me without making it a race."

Despite her words, she smiled and stretched her arms. In olden times, horse theft carried the death penalty. Now, past curfew and planning to take a stallion for a joyride, she wondered if the Guardians and prefects would have a similar policy if they were caught.

"Wow, Peak physical condition. I'm a bit jealous of you. That's about every athletes dream." He began thinking how easier his life would have been if he had grown up with that ability. His attention would then be focused on Jane as she walked next to him. D'angelo couldn't help but smile when Juliette had pulled them into a hug. It felt good to know that he had made some friends since he was still somewhat new to Beata. It was a pleasant feeling he hadn't felt in a long time. "Right! Lets do this."

The stables weren't exactly friendly on the nose. The smell of horse crap was lofting in the air. "Man it smells horrible. Let's get these caballos and go" He said holding his sweater sleeve up to his nose. Trying to reduce the awful smell. He caught a glimpse of the horses as a torch was lit. Rex sure seemed like the meanest one. Or perhaps it was just the name that made it seem like it. The boy began walking toward the other horses. Stopping right in front of one that caught his attention. Chevalier? What an interesting name. "I guess I'll take this one."

"More ready than anything," Jane muttered at Jules' shove, shambling in after D'angelo. She wrinkled her nose up at the smell, walking past the rows of horses whickering in the dark. D'angelo was right. The sooner they got these horses and got out, the better.

Jane eyed her new 'partner' with a half-grin. "Rex, huh?" A black stallion with a bad temper. Just what she needed for a midnight ride. She reached out, gently running a hand over its muzzle. He was a handsome one, wasn't he? The Autumn unhitched the door and slipped inside, making her way to its flank. The thing wasn't saddled, and she didn't have the first clue on how to throw one on. Even better.

She turned around. "Alright, I'll take him if you take that one." Jane gestured over Jules' shoulder, to a brown horse with a plaque that read, 'BAXTER'. Underneath, there was a subtitle. 'Student Property.' "Unless you wanna trade."

It took a while to put the saddle on Chevalier. Which was most likely put on poorly. D'angelo wanted no part in putting the reigns on the stallion. He figured he could just hold on tightly. The real struggle was getting atop the horse. As it kept  moving around in the small space, using the wooden wall to support himself as he got on top of it. Securing his hands on the leather saddle, D'angelo leaned on the horse until he was as close to it's ears as possible. Whispering, "Okay Chev, let's have a smooth ride. I show you respect, you show me respect." The boy patted the horse on its side as he sat upright.

"Yeah, I'm ready." Lightly tapping the horse with his foot. Motioning it to walk out of the small stable. Hands pressed firmly against the saddle. This could either go good or bad.

Jane, on the other hand, didn't even begin to bother with a saddle. Those things were fucking heavy, and she wasn't going to try and fight with this beast of a horse. Instead, she draped a multi-colored blanket over its back, like they'd done back at her cousins' ranch (her uncle didn't 'believe' in saddles), and fumbled for the bridle. Reins. Reins would make her life easier, and hopefully not end with the horse leaping off into a lake and breaking its leg.

But there were a surprising amount of pieces that went into a horse tack, and while D'angelo messed with his saddle, Jane fought with Rex. He wickered and resisted at every step, and at one point, he snapped his teeth forward, almost taking her nose off, but after a couple of minutes of struggling, the bit was in, the noseband was on, and everything was dandy. For the most part, anyways. Of course I had to get the testy one.

Climbing on the thing's back was almost as hard, but after some impromptu parkour with the stable gate, she managed to hop on and swing her legs around him, grabbing hold of the reins.

And holy hell, was this uncomfortable. Rex moved uneasily from side to side, stomping its hooves and snorting, but they were ready. At least, she hoped. "I should be," Jane answered, swaying on the horse's back before giving the horse a small lick of the reins. On her command, the horse lurched forward, moving into the narrow stable and out into the open air after D'angelo.

At least this way, no one was faster than her. Out in the open like this, Rex was looking eager for the midnight joyride too. Or maybe he was just shaking his head in annoyance. Jane couldn't speak horse, but she preferred to think he was happy to be out of his pen. "First one to the football endzone wins?" she called.

Slowly but steadily, Chevalier had moped it's way out of the stables. Trotting at a very slow pace. D'angelo had no idea what he was doing. He tried getting the horse to turn by moving the horse's neck with his hands. It seemed successful, although at normal speed it probably wouldn't. "Alright then! Let's go Chev." He said, pointing his finger in the direction of the end zone. But the Chev still stood at the snail pace it had been going. Not really paying attention to Juliette's horse as it had gone off course; too busy trying to get his own to speed up. "....Go!...Speed up!...accelerate!...drive?!...take flight?!....Dammit Chev! We had a deal." He began arguing with the horse. Taking a deep breath, there was only one thing he could try. The boy raised his hand up straight up in the air, and brought it down with a vicious slap as it made contact with the horses side. And just like that, the horse took off in the direction of the end zone. Almost knocking it's rider off, D'angelo clung onto the horse for dear life. Maybe he should have just let it go at the pace it had been going.

Her harmless little suggestion for a bit of fun quickly crumbled apart. It became immediately obvious that not a single one of them had any idea what they were doing, but Jane wasn't going to let Baxter and Chevalier's defiance deter her. No, even if Rex was the scariest and biggest out of all of them, she'd be able to conquer this. How hard could it be? People had rode horses for thousands of years. It was like riding a bike. A bike with teeth and a will of its own.

She pulled sharply on the black stallion's reins, giving Rex a quick kick. "Giddy-up!" she shouted into the crisp night air.

Rex reared back, trumpeting his defiance. Jane almost tumbled backwards off his back, but somehow managed to hang on to the reins. And then he was galloping off after Baxter, passing up Jules in three or four loping strides. It was hard to savor the feel of the wind against her face when she was clinging on for dear life. It turned out it was a bumpy ride without a saddle, and Jane could feel her brain rattling inside her skull with every jolt and bump.

Even still, she laughed. This was a more eventful night than she'd been expecting.

Even though Chevalier had sped up it wasn't nearly as fast as Baxter and Rex. D'angelo was perfectly fine with that. To him, it was fast and chaotic. Every stride the horse took, it caused him to bounce up and down uncomfortably. The poorly put saddle was most likely why it was a very uncomfortable ride. Oh well. Too late to do anything about it now. Thinking to himself as he watched Jane and Juliette pass him and Chev.

D'angelo raised his head from the horses neck, looking straight up at where he was going. Everything seemed to be going better from when they had started. Releasing his grip from the Chev's broad neck. He placed his hands on the saddle. D'angelo let out a small smile; Enjoying the cool wind hitting his face. This could have been another boring night. He could have been back at his dorm trying to fall asleep. This was way more exciting than that. Narrowing his eyes on Juliette, something was wrong over there.

His eyes widened as her saddle had come undone and fallen right in their path. Luckily, Chevalier had took notice of what had happened. The horse swerved to the left of it, jerking the boy around in the process. His attention was directed at Baxter. The horse had stopped suddenly and thrown off Juliette. Throwing her onto the grassy field. D'angelo wrapped his hands around Chevalier's neck. Pulling up as hard as he can until the horse came to a hard stop. Quickly jumping off of Baxter and running to where Juliette had fallen. She's okay right? She has that healing thing, of course she's okay. All those thoughts raced inside his head as he approached her.

"Hey! Are you okay Jules?!" awaiting for her to respond. He touched his head and could only imagine the pain she would feel when she came to. A sickening feeling he didn't enjoy.

Jane had been so caught up with the feeling of the horse between her legs, the wind in her hair, the thrill of breaking the rules, that she'd barely even noticed when Jules' saddle went flying off into the grass. Even then, she hadn't been concerned until she saw Baxter twist and throw its rider to the ground in a sickening roll. Her broken form receded quickly behind her as Rex continued to race for the endzone, even as Jane instinctively jerked at the reins.

"JULES!"

No regular human could survive through something like that without a month in the hospital. Right?

She kicked, she pulled, she begged, but Rex refused to listen. The horse was intoxicated on its own freedom, and without a saddle or spurs, Jane was little more than a passenger along for the ride. No matter how much she tried to get the horse to wheel around, it just kept running, and running, and running. They went hurtling past the endzone, under the goalposts, galloping in long, powerful strides to... nowhere in particular.

Rex ran, just for the sake of running. Jane wasn't his master and could barely be called his rider. She was just the annoying tick on his back, tugging at his reins to try and hold him down. Willful beast. Was this what Jules had meant by 'meanest horse in the stable'?

Her gaze had been locked behind her. She never saw the low-hanging branch lying in her path.

As Rex ran for the school gate, Jane Grey was clotheslined by an oak branch at thirty miles per hour.

There was a sharp pain down her spine from the crunching impact. Jane went flying from Rex's back, flailing and twisting in the air. It'd all gone dark before she hit the ground.

That was the second time Jane Grey died at Beata Academy.

D'angelo let out a sigh of relief as Juliette came through. "Jane? She's right over ther..." Looking over to where Rex and Jane had galloped right before he got off of Chevalier. There was no one there. It may have been dark but it wasn't too dark to the point he where he wouldn't be able to see them. Nothing. Just am empty field stood before him. Damn. Turning back toward Jules, "I'll be right back with Jane. Try not to move around." He stood up and began to run in the direction of the endzone.

Wait a second I could teleport. Thinking to himself as he was running. His mind was really thinking straight. Teleporting to the endzone, right under the goal post. Still no one to be seen. Had they rode past here? That was the only logical explanation he could think of. "Jane!....Jane!... Where are you Jane?!.."  the boy shouted as he jogged further into the dark. Any further and I should reach the school gates right? Dammit Jane where are you? He began to worry more and more as he kept his jog. Luckily a loud neigh was heard through the dark outskirts of Beata. D'angelo quickly adjusted to where the sound had came from. It hadn't been a few second until he stumbled over something that was in the middle of his path.

Falling directly onto the ground, barely able to catch himself from face planting the ground. He turned over to see what he had tripped on. "Jane?.." he crawled slowly to where her body was. He nudged her body, hoping that she would respond. But no luck.  No. She can't be. He picked up her hand and began feeling for a pulse. Knots began forming in his throat. No no no no no no no. The word began to fill his head. D'angelo wrapped his arms around Jane's lifeless body. Clenching it firmly as tears began to run down his face. "Please wake up..come on! Get up! Say something!." more and more tears fell upon Jane's clothes. He hadn't even known the girl for more than a few hours and there she was. Dead in his arms. Lowering his right arm to where her knees were. He began to stand up, holding Jane's body in front of him. He couldn't just leave her there. D'angelo turned back and moped his way back to the field.

The tears had starting slowing down and D'angelo had teleported to where Juliette had been laying down. He couldn't bare to look her in the eye. He gently laid Jane down from his arms. He took off his sweater and cushioned it into a small pillow and placed it under Jane's head.  ".....She's...dead... Juliette..." still sobbing, head faced down at the ground.

She was dead.

There wasn't any way around that. If you were looking for a pulse, for a brainwave, for some medical miracle that she could've survived, then you were just setting yourself up for disappointment. By every definition in the book, religious or medical or legal, she was dead. D-E-A-D. Now was the time where you said the last rites, called the police, and prepared for a proper funeral. CPR would just be a waste of breath.

The dead girl's fingers twitched.

It all came back in a rush. Pain, first, the pain in her neck where the branch had destroyed her windpipe and brain stem. Then it was the tingles in her head, her fingers, her toes, down in her legs and everywhere else. It was like a lightning bolt had shot right through her. She sputtered up blood in a violent coughing fit and arched her back, convulsing, noisily sucking in air.

"It's dark," she croaked, clawing up at her face. "W-why is it... I... oh, wait." Jane tore the jacket off her face and threw it to the side. There was a horrific bruise across her neck and blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, but she was alive. Somehow.

That was her gift and her curse.

She stared up at D'angelo with unfocused eyes, blinking the bleariness from her sight. All of a sudden, her hand shot up to grab him by the collar. "Jules!" she tried to shout, but it came out hoarse, whispery, scratchy. He looked like he was crying. That wasn't good news. "Is she...?"

The cold air brushed up against his teary face. It was cold. Not only the air, But the corpse that was in front of him. Jane. A girl he had only known for a few hours at best. What do I do now? How would I even explain this to the authorities? He kept repeating to himself in his head. Events like this only happened in movies or tv shows. Fun idea turn bad idea. The result being someone getting hurt or in this case....dead. Well someone else did get hurt as well, but this person was almost indestructible. Gathering the strength to look at his purple haired friend.

Juliette had attempted to get up. Only to fall back down. "You shouldn't be pushing yourse-" His words were interrupted the moment Jane had spoken. She spoke. Jane. Dead. Spoke. Slowly turning his shocked face to Jane. How was this possible? He had checked her pulse and felt nothing. D'angelo was torn between confusion and relief.

Chills ran up the Autumn when Jane had grabbed his collar. This had caught him off guard. What she said next would take him even more off guard.

Jules? The undead girl before him had asked how their other companion was doing. Jane seemed to have just shrugged off the fact that she was dead for a few minutes. Was she immune to death? All that could wait. What was most important was that they were all alive. "Juliette is fine, but you... You had us worried!" He had out his hand on Jane's to loosen the grip from his collar. Gently putting it back down. Tears of relief began to slip out from his eyes. Trying to hold them back and use his arm to wipe them away.

A mixed expression of confusion and relief flit over her face, and Jane let herself flop back into the grass, hacking up more blood mixed with spit and bile. Gross. She wiped it away with the back of her sleeve and stared up at the both of them. "Dying is my party trick," she wheezed with a hint of annoyance. "I can't let you steal all my thunder." Maybe she should've started cutting back on that, but in her defense, this time she hadn't planned it. Trees got in the way of everything. One time she jumped out her middle school's second story and landed in the oak outside Mrs. Borg's math class. For her trouble, she ended up with a rip in her jacket, a sprained ankle, and a week long suspension.

She let her hand fall down back over her chest. Damn it, tears made her feel guilty. "Hey now, a sensitive guy is cute, but nobody likes waterworks." It was just a light tease to try and take the edge off the situation. Maybe a warning was in order, but she hadn't exactly considered the possibility of crushing her trachea that night. And after all, on her first day in Beata Academy, she'd taken a quick dive off the top of the school building and a guy just smiled and gave her a flower. Maybe she'd been wrong in expecting people to take that kind of thing lightly. "I'm sorry I put you through some grief, alright? Now where's that Satan spawn of a horse?"

He quickly wiped his face off from the tears. To a certain extent he was embarrassed for that, but it's not like it wasn't normal. He just carried her lifeless body  in his hands. Had he know  before she was practically Invincible, he might not have shed a few tears. All he could do is smile and laugh it off. "Oh give me a break. Next time I'll just leave you there." He jokingly said to Jane. Hopefully there wouldn't be a next time he thought to himself.  "I suppose you're right. We're not quite done til we get those horses back."

Looking at where he left Chevalier; the horse wasn't there. Luckily it had only taken a few steps over and looked like it was picking at the grass. To his knowledge Rex was somewhere near where he had found Jane. Baxter was no where In sight. Like Juliette had pointed out, how were they going to get them back? A long night was sure to be ahead on top of what had already occurred. "Any ideas on how to round these stallions up? I mean, I could try to get close to them and instantly teleport them to their stables. Only thing is that I would have to get a good grip on them. Wouldn't want to lose them midway and have to start all over. Sooo there's that." That was the only idea D'angelo could come up with right then and there. He was open to other ideas also.

"Sure. No problem Jules." He walked over to where The hobbling Juliette was. D'angelo had about a whole foot over the girl. He leaned a bit down and arched his back so that she wouldn't have to be uncomfortable. Gently raising her right arm over his shoulder and securing it with his hand. Then wrapped his left arm around the back of her waist to support her balance. It was a bit awkward at first, but now wasn't the time for that. "Alright. Ready whenever you are. What about you Jane? Need any help?"