Chatter surrounded Alec. Individual conversations coalesced into a droning mass where everyone talked about different things, yet every conversation was the same. They were all in pairs or small groups of three or four, and they talked about themselves, caught up with each other on their lives since yesterday, and gossiped about that show last night. Alec was eager to join them, but his own partner had yet to arrive. In fact, he had been missing since the incident with Sunset.
Alec tried not to think about what might have happened to him, but found it increasingly difficult as time crawled by, especially as some of the chatter around him was about the incident.
“Did you hear about that guy who got in Sunset’s way?” one said.
“Sunset’s definitely going to do something to him,” another added.
“Do you think she’s already dealt with him?” the first asked.
Alec wasn’t worried. At least, not at first.. He knew that nothing could have been done to his friend the moment he lost him – not even this soon afterwards – but as the start of school neared, he couldn’t help but feel like something had happened. He couldn’t help but twirl his silver hair as he waited. It got even worse when the teacher walked through the door.
“Right everyone, let’s have some quiet!” she said, her voice carrying over everyone else’s, and the chatter died instantly. Unfortunately, Alec’s anxiety did the opposite. She started calling out names; each one was a new weight on his nerves. Devon’s unanswered name weighed particularly heavily. With the last name called out, his mind was doing everything it could to ignore his teacher and wonder about his friend.
His heart jumped when there was a knock on the door, interrupting the teacher before she even began. She called for the knocker to come in and the door opened.
“Sorry I’m late…” a weak voice called through the door, one Alec recognised well. His heart lifted, and he sighed as he felt relief wash through him.
“Nice of you to join us, Devon,” the teacher said firmly. “If you could just take your seat, maybe we can start–” she was interrupted by a thump, and the whole class whipped their necks to see Devon lying on the floor.
Alec ran over to him, panic gripping his heart once again at the sight of him. “Are you okay?” he asked, keeping his voice low to try not to break the quiet otherwise only occupied by the teacher’s footsteps. “What happened to you?”
“I don’t know,” Devon answered softly. “It’s like I was dreaming, but I’m still asleep. Or awake.” Alec couldn’t make any sense of what Devon said. He wanted to ask what he meant, but he was interrupted by his teacher at his side, asking him to return to his seat.
He didn’t dare look away as he returned to the edge of his seat. She checked Devon’s forehead and spoke to him softly. Alec couldn’t hear what either of them were saying. The quiet was broken as murmurs rose through the rest of the class, wondering what happened. Some mentioned that they saw him walking fine earlier, and thought that perhaps he was faking it. Others recognised him from this morning, and thought that perhaps Sunset took revenge after his encounter with her.
The class turned quiet again when the teacher stood back up. “I’ll be taking him to the nurse. I want absolute silence until I return.” She helped Devon to his feet, and carried him to and through the door. It didn’t take long for the “absolute silence” to turn into a competition to see who could talk the loudest. It never did.
Alec was left alone. He wanted to see Devon and ask him what he knew and where he had been, but had no choice but to return to class and spend the day without his friend until he could see him again.
Alec spent the next few hours on autopilot. Without Devon around, he had no idea how to spend his time beyond what was expected of him. Time seemed to dawdle, getting slower as every hour passed while Alec waited, anxious for the hour he may see Devon again.
Finally the school bell rang for break. Alec tried to rush to the door with so many other students as eager to leave as he was, but was stopped by his teacher calling him. “Alec? May I talk to you?”
He bounced in his spot. “I’m sorry, miss, but I have to–”
“I was wondering if you would help set up the Fall Formal next week,” she interrupted. “I know you’re good at that kind of stuff, and they could really use an extra set of hands.”
He wanted to tell her he was in a rush, but found himself unable. He tried to answer, but the words trapped in his throat. Only when he agreed could he finally leave. His hesitation left the door free of other students, and the hall with few enough students that he had no trouble walking between them.
Along the way, he heard rumours of a boy who collapsed in class. Some recognised him as the one who stood in front of Sunset. They wondered if she had done something to him, but others vouched that she couldn’t have done anything, at least not directly. Perhaps she did something indirectly then, they would argue back, though it sounded like something out of a fantasy. And thus the Sunset Curse was born.
Alec wished he hadn’t heard any of it by the time he reached the nurse’s office. He knocked on the door, calling, “Nurse Redheart?”
She opened the door, her body blocking his view of the inside. “How can I help you?” she asked.
“Is Devon still here?” he asked. “Can I see him, please? I’m his friend.”
She considered for a moment before asking, “Did you see Devon this morning?”
Alec nodded. “Yeah. I walk to school with him every morning.”
“What was he like? Did he show any sign of this?”
Alec thought back. “No, he was completely fine. He was no different than he ever was.”
“Was there anything else recently? Anything he did, or anywhere he went?”
“No, but… he did get lost at some point this morning. Like, one minute he was walking with me and the next he was gone, and I didn’t see him again until he stumbled into class. But that can’t have anything to do with this, can it?”
The nurse didn’t answer his question, simply saying, “thank you,” and stepping aside. Behind her, he saw Devon managing to sit upright, somewhere between asleep and awake. Alec rushed to his side. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” he answered.
Alec held up two fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Two.” Devon rubbed his eyes, not bothering to look. “You always hold up two.”
Alec let out a sigh of relief. “What happened? One minute you were on the other side of the crowd, the next I lost you completely. Then you were late to class, and now you’re too sick to do it.”
“I’m not sick, I’m just tired.”
“You weren’t tired earlier this morning. What happened?”
“I don’t know. Everything was fine and then… I can’t even say, it was just unreal.”
“Like you were dreaming?” Alec repeated. “But you’re still asleep? Or awake?”
The reference seemed lost on Devon. “I’m pretty sure I’m awake,” he said, though he didn’t look reassured by it. Alec was left unsure of what there was left to ask. He spent his whole morning feeling like he had a thousand questions, a thousand things to talk about, yet in the moment, he found himself empty after just two.
“Did anyone notice?” Devon asked. Alec couldn’t help but laugh at the question.
“The whole class, though if you’re lucky, some might have missed you by being too busy talking to each other,” he said between giggles. “Unfortunately, anyone who didn’t see it has definitely heard about it by now, and not just in our class.”
“Already?” Devon hung his head, his hands holding it. Alec guessed he was imagining all the looks and chatter he would get the next day.
“People are calling it the Sunset Curse because of this morning,” Alec said. Devon buried his face in his hands and groaned. “You disappeared, and even when you came back, I mean, look at the state of you! So they just assumed it had something to do with her, though I guess she couldn’t have done anything to you in person, so she cursed you!”
“... It might have something to do with her,” Devon muttered. Alec wasn’t sure if he was meant to have heard it.
“What, like, she actually cursed you?”
“What? No, of course not. But…” Devon sighed. “I’ll tell you tomorrow, after school. Or show you, if I can, but probably not because… it probably didn’t happen.” Devon didn’t sound confident.
“Why not tell me now? Or later?”
“Dude, I’m knackered, and I don’t really want people overhearing and thinking I’ve gone crazy.”
“Also, he’s going home,” Nurse Redheart added. Alec whipped around to look at her. “Really, you didn’t think he could just suddenly collapse on us and stay in school, did you? I called his mother; she’s going to pick him up soon.”
As soon as she said it, there was a knock on the door, and it opened to show Devon’s mother herself. She rushed over to his side. “Devon? Are you okay?”
Alec knew for a fact that Devon muttered “Speak of the devil” under his breath. “I’m fine. I’m just tired,” he answered her through a yawn.
“What happened to him? Will he be okay?” she asked, looking over to the nurse.
Alec looked at Devon, thinking of how lonely he will be for the rest of the day without him. Devon seemed to notice. “Don’t worry, I’ll be in school Monday,” he said softly. Alec wondered how he was so sure.
“He’s fine. He’s just suffering from fatigue,” they overheard the nurse telling his mother. “If he rests for the rest of the day, he should be back to normal by tomorrow.” Devon gave Alec a look that said ‘I told you so.’
“Why did it happen? Was it due to lack of sleep?” she looked back over to Devon, a hint of motherly malice in her gaze. Devon shrinked under it.
“It doesn’t seem like it. Actually, I don’t know what caused it; it seems to have jumped on him out of nowhere. I have no idea how that happened, but if it happens again, have him see a doctor.”
“I see,” Devon’s mother said. “Thank you, nurse. Come on, Devon, let’s go home.”
Devon slowly got up, trying not to rush himself, wobbling as though the ground was shaking when he stood. He fell on his mother, using her for balance, and with a goodbye they went on their way, leaving Alec behind.
It felt like forever since Devon last saw his home; like there had been many dreams and dreamless sleeps since he last laid on his bed.
The journey back there started with a barrage of questions wondering if he had been sleeping well or staying up to the point of worry. Devon truthfully told his mother that on that particular night he slept when he was supposed to, though he made no comment on any other nights. Even so, she had seen him drink his customary coffee that morning, which should have fought off his fatigue. After Devon answered her questions, his mother started showing her gentle side, making sure he knew she would take care of him for the rest of the day, or even weekend if needed. When they finally reached their house, she helped take him up to his room and left with the promise of returning with soup and jelly later.
Despite how tired he was, Devon couldn’t get himself to fall asleep. His mother was downstairs, preparing a warm soup to help him doze off, but in the meantime, between his body being too weary to leave his bed and his mind being too awake to slumber, he was left staring at the ceiling, waiting either for his mother’s homemade remedy or for sleep to finally overcome him.
This isn’t working, he thought to himself. He let his mind wander, and ended up thinking about his day. He thought about the cat, and his promise to bring a friend to that world, should he ever wish to return. He thought about doors and combinations, and how he may never be able to return to that world in the first place, if it even existed. He had no reason to believe it didn’t happen, except it was unbelievable.
His thoughts drifted to before he entered the other world, and what could have caused his morning, if it had happened at all. His encounter with Sunset was the only thing that stood out. Could she have sent him there? No. Devon shook the thought, whether she sent him to the world or if it was the Sunset Curse, as they called it. Besides that, though, he had no idea. The only other slightly odd thing from the morning he could think of was...
He took out his phone. He thought there was nothing out of the ordinary on it earlier, but on a second look, he saw a weird app, red and black a crazy eye on it. He opened the app; it was some sort of recording app, though it didn’t seem to respond to much he said. Apparently he had already saved a bookmark on it. He opened it up, and it showed three phrases:
Sunset Shimmer.
“Name.”
Canterlot.
“Place.”
Kingdom.
Devon thought about the castle, and the village that surrounded it. The Kingdom of Sunset’s heart, as she saw the world around her.
Devon closed his phone and lowered his hand. Despite being the perfect time to think about things, it felt like the worst time to do so. His mind was too tired to concentrate, and the smell of his mother’s soup snuck into his room and distracted him.
He would have time to think over the weekend. For the rest of the day, he was done.