Disclaimer: Me? Own this? –bursts out in hysterical laughter-

In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came…

The dying lyrics of a haunting melody danced through Christine's brain like the last embers of a campfire. The song had consumed her sleep night after night for several weeks, controlling her previously-uneventful dreams with a passionate aggression.

The seventeen year old orphan, living under the care of one Mrs. Giry, rolled against the wall, stretching long legs and yawning. She could still hear the song, its words echoing off of her sleepy mind's walls.

"In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came," she murmured, opening rich chocolate eyes and gazing at the clock beside her bed.

The voice that calls to me and speaks my name, her mind responded, unbidden. Christine shook her head and got up, tousling her long dark hair absently. Across the bedroom, Meg Giry gave an irritated moan when Christine threw a pillow at her.

"It can't be time already," the girl whined, pulling the covers up over her head as Christine switched on the light.

"Oh, but it is." Christine womped her roommate over the head with the pillow again. "Get up, Meg, or I'll flip your mattress."

"You wouldn't," the muffled voice grumbled, but Meg's untidy blond head popped up from under the blankets all the same. Christine grinned rather evilly.

"Ah, so you've finally learned. It's only taken you an entire summer…"

"Sure, mock me now," Meg sniffed. "See if I help you today in the Cell."

Christine's heart thudded uncomfortably against her ribs as she pulled a blouse and pair of jeans from her dresser. "Why do you call it that? It's just a school."

"It's a nightmare," Meg told her flatly, dragging herself into the room's adjoining bathroom. "I call shower first," she added unnecessarily, closing the door.

Christine sighed and sat on her bed. The Girys, old friends though they were, were not family. Nice, yes, but sometimes a girl needed more than nice. Sometimes, a girl needed flesh and blood relations.

Christine was not lucky enough to have kin. Her mother had died when she was very young and now her father was gone as well, the victim of cancer. The grandmother whom Christine had stayed with for six months had passed at the opening of summer, leaving the lonely teenager to move to a completely different city. And that had been fine, at first; by keeping busy, she'd been able to avoid thinking about the loss of her beloved father and grandmother. She'd allowed herself to be swept away into a land of beach visits and parties and though all had not been right with the world, it had at least been better.

Now, however, with the prospect of classes and students and homework, stress was thrown into the mix. Cleaning and contending with Meg's sometimes-wild friends, Christine knew she could handle. Hundreds of new people rushing at her all at once was a completely different matter.

"Done!" Meg trilled as she emerged from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her head turban-style. "Your turn, Chrissy!"

Christine smiled weakly and headed into the bathroom. Somehow, she couldn't imagine that a shower and breakfast would ease her mind, but for now it was all she had.

A/N: Ah, ok, first chapter. This is a bit shorter than most of the chaps should be, but I actually want to have a chapter story so this is what you get. I hope it isn't too horrid. Most of the characters should be appearing and it will be (obviously) an AU, Movieverse as the book leaves me with a completely different picture of the characters. So…enjoy and I'm going to go type up the next chapter now. See ya! –waves and fades into the shadows with a keyboard-