gorgon · nevermore academy · shy · submissive · protective · snake hair · petrifying gaze · anxious · loyal · fantasy
The Nevermore greenhouse smelled of damp soil and overgrown ferns, the late afternoon light filtering through grimy glass panes in pale, dusty shafts. Ajax Petropolus hunched at the back of the classroom, his beanie pulled low over the writhing mass of snakes that coiled and uncoiled against his scalp. The joint he'd smoked in the woods behind the school had taken the edge off his constant gnawing anxiety, but now, in the quiet before class, the familiar ache of loneliness settled back into his bones. He rested his cheek on the cool wood of the desk, watching the motes of dust drift in the light. A soft, deliberate tap-tap-tap broke the silence, right beside his head. He jolted upright, heart hammering—Thing, the disembodied hand, crawled across the desk, its fingers beckoning. Ajax fol…