Long Live the Mafia Prince - A Drarry Fanfiction

Part 011

A grand mountainscape breathes before my eyes. Deep green trees, fine misty fog, and stone cold boulders fill the canvas that is the window frame, the silver gray sky as the background to it all. I can feel the moist, chilly air seeping into the room, running down my skin.

I turn away from the window. The place, I recognize it.

Walls covered in swords and guns, floor tiled with smooth rocks, the antique furniture pieces... It's Draco's room. With every bit clean and perfectly in its spot, there's no doubt about it. Except...

Where 'La vie' used to be is a new painting, of a calm and gentle black cat. Looking at its clear, glossy eyes, I almost feel like it could jump out of the frame. The details are so vivid and striking, it seems convincingly possible the cat could even come alive. In fact, the longer I stare, the creature appears to be moving.

Slowly, the black cat breaks its sitting position and stands. On its feet, it carefully set one foot after the other, walking in circles on the flat backdrop. When I take a step forward, the cat even meows. The soft calling and graceful movements are alluring, even hypnotizing. It pulls me closer and closer, until I'm in arms reach to the painting. From so near, the cat seems more magnificent, more real. Enough to maybe feel its warmth...

My finger meets with the cat. I gasp. I can touch the cat, a real cat. The painting is alive.

The cat purrs at my touch. I smile, tracing its fur, its muscles, its figure. It's perhaps the most precious thing I have ever come to encounter. Every noise it makes soothes me, every step it takes comforts me, every beat of its heart warms me.

I reach my other arm. With both hands wrapped around the painted cat, I pull it into my chest. Somehow, magically, the cat is in my arms, very much alive and real. I'm baffled, but pleasantly so. I never knew I wanted to hold a cat. The bliss, however, doesn't last as the fluff ball jumps onto the floor and waltzes to the door.

"Where are you going?" I say, following it.

It stops in front of the door and meows, looking back at me for help.

"Do you want to leave?".

It meows again.

Unsure, I turn the door knob. Am I allowed to do this in the Mafia's lair? How did I get here in the first place?

Before I can answer anything, the cat bolts out into the corridor. The sudden burst of energy startles me, but I follow it. At first, I walk behind its tail, soon I'm speeding to keep up, to full sprinting. I'm so busy trying not to lose the cat, I don't even notice where I'm going. Turn a corner, down a flight of stairs, another corner, up a hallway, down more steps...

There are no windows anymore, the only light coming from torches on the walls. The air is heavier, too, wetter. The cat has brought me underground, into the basement of the Mafia's lair.

I breathe, breathe, and breathe. The more I do, the harder it gets. My lungs feel frozen with the fall wind, my legs are numb, and I'm covered in cold sweat. I slow down, eventually to a stop. The moment I do, the cat disappears into the shadows. I bend down, hands on my shaking knees. Drops of sweat drip from my chin, my hot breath fogging up the chilled air.

Barely getting my thumping heart under control, I finally get a chance to process. Where am I?

Everything is covered in shadow. The torch light can't seem to brighten anything up enough to make out. All I can see are dark shapes in an ever darker void. I turn to look at another corner to see nothing different. Turning again, and again, every corner, every bit of the space is just black. Stark, deep, pitch black...

I hear a meow echo.

"Where are you?" I say.

Another meow, but it's moving further away.

I rush to follow the sound, no thoughts, simply trusting my animal instincts. The cat continues to meow. Meow, meow, meow. Only, somehow the cat isn't getting any closer, if not getting even further. It doesn't take very long for the calls to fade completely.

Out of breath again, I look around. Where am I now?

There's nothing. No light, no shadows, no cat. It's just me, myself, and I...

Panic sets it. I run. Run, run, and run. No directions, no end, no anything. Just void after void after void, I run.

Then, out of the endless void, I hear something. I thought it was a meow, but no. It's a person. A person whimpering.

"Hello? Who's there?" I call.

There is no answer, but more whimpering.

I try my best to follow the sound, though difficult. The sound seems to come from everywhere at once. At this point, I can't even tell if the sound is real. What feels like hours of whimpering ringing in my ears and walking pass. I feel like collapsing. Where are you...

Something catches my feet and I trip. My knees and elbows hit the stone ground and it takes a second for the pain to climb my numb nervsystem. Rubbing the aching on my elbow, I push myself off the floor. Then, just as I stand up straight, the deep, deep void drains away and torch light fills the room.

Blinking away the blinding fire, my eyes dart around, trying to get a grip of my surroundings. From what I can tell, I'm still in the basement of the Mafia's lair. Not only that, I'm in front of what seems to be a cell for the Mafia's prisoners. Inside the cell is the source of the whimpering.

With their back turned to the cell bars, a prisoner lies on the ground, curled up and shivering. Just from looking at their back, I can tell they have been handled brutally. Ripped shirt, bruised skin, open wounds...

"What happened to you? How do I get you out?" I say.

The prisoner only whimpers.

I look around for anything that could break a lock. "I don't...".

A soft mass wraps around my ankle. I look down to find the black cat, snuggling up to my leg, meowing gently.

I pick it up. "Do you need help, too?".

The cat hisses. I flinch, putting it back down.

"Sorry." I say, going back to looking for a weapon, "Can you help me? Find me a rock, or a log. Anything that could...".

I turn back to the cell. The whimpering, it stopped.

I step closer, hands on the cell bars. "Hello? Are you okay? Talk to me!".

Instead of the human, the cat talks to me. Meowing calmly, it slips between the bars and knodges the limb prisoner. A few good pushes turns the prisoner around.

I stare at their face.

It's Ginny.

"Ginny?" I say, my voice trembling, "Ginny, hey, stay with me. I- What do- Please, Ginny, no!".

Not fazed by my yelling, the cat gracefully steps out of the cell to my feet again. Like nothing is happening, it purrs, rubbing its face on my leg.

I look down at the cat, shaking. "What are you doing?! Help me! I need to get her out of...".

The void. It closes in again.

"No, no, no!" I yell as Ginny's dead body fades into the darkness.

My screams echo into the endless shadow, creating some sort of haunted harmony with the black cat's meows.

Tears falling down my cheeks, I kick the cat away and run for Ginny. Though I already can't see her, I can't lose her. I run, run, and run into the void, into nothingness, into the end...

/////

I open my eyes.

I'm out of breath, soaked in cold sweat, and shivering.

Where am I... Ginny...

Looking around, I'm in my house, in my living room, on the couch. The clock on the wall points to nearly two in the afternoon.

The Mafia's basement, the cat, Ginny, it's all gone...

It was... It was a dream...

I sigh.