𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄 || Severus Snape x OC ||

18. BLOOD OF MY BLOOD

*.·:·.☽ ✧ ☾.·:·.*

Eyes flutter open. Numbness leaving a lingering grasp upon her. Body jolts. Dark irises and enlarged pupils dart to the surroundings. Her back upon the mattress. Her head tilts to the side seeing the nightstand with her selenite necklace and the raven feathers, her wand next to them. The dormitory. Her palms splayed upon the sheets, push against the mattress and Alice sits up on her elbows. Fully clothed. A racing storm in her mind tries to remember the last thing that happened before she had blacked out.

The Forbidden Forest... Her fingers grazing against the forest's moss and soil... Severus casting a spell to shield them from prying eyes.... He nears... Then her memories attack her... He backs off... She collapses... His hands upon her, begging her to try... Pain... Choice... His wand... and then...then his lips were atop hers and a second later her secrets were spilled before him whilst her own forces abandoned her...

Her heart pounds suddenly. He saw it- she gasps. Her breaths uneven, shallow. Whatever had happened that dreadful night, he had seen it. And she was the one who had given him the key to her deepest secrets; the bloodied key to Bluebeard's chamber she didn't even know she held in her mind, deep within her.

She swings to put her feet on the floor, sitting up on the bed. Black silky rivers run down her shoulders. Her quick nose catches the scent of the Forest in her dark tresses. The woods had left upon her their scent. Fingers curl around a lock, bringing it to her sensitive nostrils. Eyelids lower, half closed as she catches his scent lingering upon her hair. A faint scent untraceable to most, but not to her own primitive senses. For the beast within her brought pain, malice, and blood; but bore gifts as well, subtle as they may be. The gift of heightened senses, akin to those of the animals. Her sense of scent ruling higher than the rest.

Alice rose from the bed, her hands to her sides, as if to steady her, as if her trust to her own balance was still uncertain. Eyes flicked to her hands. Green & dark shades from the woods' soil, but no coal-black colour. The beast is asleep. For now...

But her shame, her fear, were not. The dormitory echoed her steps as she pushed to her heels and rushed to the door. Spiral stairs seemed like a vortex to the unknown of her fate as she descended more and more, deeper in the castle. Her blood pulsing in her veins faster and faster, as the deeper she delved in the castle towards the potions dungeon, the deeper she sank in her mind's own vortex. Her darkest secrets spilled. She breathlessly descended the last spiral stairs and stormed into the Potions Dungeon, pushing open the door, panting, not knowing exactly what it was that she would try to tell him, what it was that she would try and do.

But her racing heart echoed on its own in the dimly lit dungeon, amidst the dozens of vials and cauldrons.

He wasn't there.

The large round table amidst the dungeon had a single candle on it. Strong enough to cast the flickering light that would allow one to read. Her hand came to her sternum, willing her panting to ease, to calm. The tingle of hesitation reined her inquisitive eyes for merely a moment, and then Alice paced reluctantly to the large round table.

Pages laid on it, beneath the candlelight. Next to them, a shimmering cauldron; its green fumes in a slow dance rising higher. Her fingertips came to the table's edge as her eyes fell upon the papers, and then her hand hovered over the pages. Parchments with recipes for potions, drawings, words that made little sense at first but then... then the eerie feeling came to flood her chest, and cold numbness coiled and settled in her stomach.

For Alice saw a word that shouldn't mean anything to her, but the old ink that stained the page beyond the title spoke of something, of a creature that she hoped it wouldn't ring a bell to her tormented soul.