antebellum [t. riddle]

xli.

23 (in new york)/ 24 (in london) december 1945
tw: brief mention of sexual assault

stun him. there's no time to be angry. 

tom and sicaria stared at each other for a moment, both being deposited on opposite sides of the apartment. the portkey fell out of her hand in her shock. the rune that was on her door glowed, and she felt the slight burning sensation in her ring, meant to let her know that someone was inside her house. clearly, i'm looking right at him.

before he could blink, she threw a series of stunning spells at him, all of which he deflected. 

"petrificus totalus," he deflected that and it hit several books that were falling from her shelves. they froze in midair.

flashes of red and blue danced around them in the night, illuminating the space that tom vaguely recognized from her memories. he'd seen visions of her sitting alone by the fireplace, her staring at a calendar, and her greeting an older woman and a young child. 

sicaria still felt panicked, but remained sane enough to keep her wits about her; she never knew she could avoid a panic attack using pure adrenaline. she tried to force herself to think straight, and clear the fog from her mind as she continued her relentless assault on riddle. he deflected each of her spells with ease, not bothering to do do anything offensive. he didn't even attempt to disarm her, only casting shield after shield.

there's no time for this.

deal with him later. 

"enough!" she yelled, ceasing her attack, though her hands were still trembling. his wand was still at the ready; prepared to cast another shield in case she continued her attack. she'd just have to obliviate him and send him back after. "you've lost your fucking mind."

"where are we?" he asked, looking around the apartment. his eyes landed on a clock. 8:27 p.m.

she ignored him. they both knew that he knew where they were.

the intricacies of the situation start to catch up to her, but she didn't have time to occlude away her anger before realizing that she really had no time at all to chastise him. "you've pried into my life for the past three months, and now you've really crossed the line, riddle. what the hell do you-"

"don't raise your voice at me," he sneered. outside the window, she could faintly hear the chatter of people talking on the street and the noise of a thunderstorm. it would take a few hours to get reacclimated to the nonstop noise that was integral to being in new york city. "i didn't realize you had a portkey in your hand."

liar. she thought instinctually, but she truly had no idea as to whether or not he planned this.

she looked down at her clothes and then back to him quickly before taking a step closer to him. "listen to me very closely. i am going to leave right now, but you cannot leave this apartment. if you get lost in the city i'll never be able to find you, and you won't be able to reenter the wards on this place if you get locked out. we'll talk when i get back."

"where are you going?" he demanded. he took a moment to look at her; to really look at her. usually, she was so blank that he had to provoke her to let him see any amount of her humanity, but right now, everything she was feeling was displayed on her face. he noticed how her shoulders slumped from exhaustion, but her eyes darted around quickly while she thought. he saw the anxiety in how she fiddled with her fingers and ran her fingertips over the grooves in her wand. he noticed the way her brow creased as she stared at him, signifying her rage. he watched as her entire body shifted, the signal he knew to mean that she was occluding. a good portion of her anger could not be encapsulated by occlumency, but her anxiety seemed to take precedence over it. she was far more fearful than she was angry.