Seven Devils ★ T.M.R ★

Chapter Forty-Five

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TOGETHER
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Content warning: blood, discussion/depiction of death.
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There was something damp all over her, the warm, thick, sticky feeling of blood bubbling numbly from her stomach and plastering her shirt to her skin. The taste of it saturated her mouth, her fingers were cold, and she couldn't feel her feet. Distantly she knew that was bad but she was too tired to panic.

The cold was familiar. She'd felt it before, that same deep heaviness creeping in from her limbs and erasing a bit more of her as it inched inwards to her heart. She could almost remember it, the glimmer of a memory of waking up in a strange room feeling like this... and Dumbledore... she could have sworn that Dumbledore was there –

Marina's thoughts snagged. She could hear something, a voice from somewhere far, far above her, muted and dun like she was deep underwater and they were at the surface, someplace warm and clear and unreachable.

She knew that voice.

But over the muted trill of magic and the flashes of red light bleeding through her closed eyelids, something else very strange was happening. A wobbly, dizzy feeling was taking over her like her body had become the heatwaves rising from sweltering tarmac, the noise around her fading out all at once and the world going utterly silent.

" – her awake!" another voice said suddenly, so loud and so close that it frightened her. "Make sure she doesn't slip away again!"

Marina felt hands against her face and with insurmountable effort she compelled her eyes to open. It was him. He was here. God he really was beautiful, even looking like that, all tense and afraid with his eyes wide and his lips tight, red all over his hands and down his neck.

"Tom," she said numbly, battling against her heavy eyes drifting shut.

"Stay awake," Tom commanded firmly, pushing her blood-stuck hair off her face. "Do you understand? Stay awake for me."

Marina nodded, too tired to speak, when pain suddenly erupted across her body and she moaned in agony, blind under its crescendo.

"What did you do?" she could hear Tom demanding. "What's happening?"

"The bite is not responding as it should," the other person muttered. "This may take some time."

"She doesn't have time!"

The pain faded just enough for her to crack her eyes open and he was the first thing she saw. The only thing she saw. "Tom," she whispered again, the tears on her face feeling boiling hot and deadened numbness still reaching in from her extremities, getting closer and closer...

"Marina," came Tom's voice, loud and urgent, shaking her. "Marina! Stay awake!"

But she was so tired and he was drifting away, fading out as she sank into that mute cold, calm and quiet, still and heavy. By the time she realised that she couldn't hear Tom's voice anymore, couldn't feel his hand against her cheek anymore, it was too late.

The world returned in a sudden roar and Marina gasped hard, immediately descending into ragged coughs as the world spun and the pain crashed back through her. Through the madness someone was pulling her up against them, their arms around her tight and firm, and even though the world was a blur of pain and light and sound, she knew that it was him. She could feel his chest moving with heavy breaths, his hands shaking where they held her to him, and the vibrations of his voice despite the numb deafness thrumming in her ears.