Me and the Devil: Sebastian Sallow

Chapter SEVENTY SEVEN - Grief

(Deadlines - Aleza Cirri)

Stars dipped around the moon as it grinned despite the pain in my heart. The spikes and tips of each of the castle's towers stared blankly back at us. I couldn't feel the breeze anymore.

"Oh. Sebastian..."

Gingerly, I pulled his hands toward me to inspect his wounds. Deep reds and purples coated his palms and trailed up his fingers in strings of bruises, cuts and burns. He winced slightly as my thumb grazed too close to the marks.

"I'm so sorry. Holy shit."

Sebastian was smiling down at me. "You were literally asleep. You didn't do anything."

"I did! I hurt you- where's my wand?" I searched frantically through the folds of my clothes and the space around us, heart pounding deeper with each breath.

"It doesn't hurt now."

"But it did Sebastian. It did hurt you and I- I-"

He was quiet.

"Where's my wand?"

His hand found it and rolled it toward me, not bending his fingers.

"Let's go back to the Undercroft. I've got some Wiggenweld in my bag-" He offered.

I clutched my wand, noticing a droplet of his bright red blood against my fingertip.

Memories of boggarts and my past slammed through my pulse and I blinked them back, clutching his hands again and using each healing charm I knew until the colors began to fade, though not entirely. He flexed his fingers, seeming relieved in some small way but his eyes watched me warily.

"I mean it Barlowe. It was an accident. I didn't- couldn't let you suffer through whatever nightmare you were going through. I don't care about your magic hurting me. I don't care."

I felt my bottom lip start to tremble, terrors tying a noose around my neck as I stared blankly at him.

Sebastian carried on with a grin, as if everything was just as it should be. "I'd do it again Atley. I'm not ever letting go."

I felt my world spiraling before the tears started to fall. Flickers of anger lapping at my heart and breathing picking up once more.

His stupid grin.

His stupid optimism.

It would get him killed.

"Sebastian! You- idiot." I slammed my hands against his chest and the smirk vanished.

I was having a hard time sucking air into my lungs. Breath capped at not even a quarter of the way full.

"I- I- I-" The heat against my chest spread across my neck, fear whispering just inside each of my bones. "You can't-"

He tried to lean forward and pull me back into his arms but I flinched and pressed back against him.

I crushed my nails into my palms to keep the pain in, but racks of gasps and pained tears slipped down my cheeks anyway.

I tried to keep them in.

The tears, the aches, the memories -

the fear.

But I couldn't.

He needed to know.

"Seb-S-Sebastian." I hiccuped and cursed my stupid fucking mouth for stuttering.