Aftermath ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter forty-eight

Love You to Death by Type O Negative

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Amelia's Perceptive

"Do you even breathe while you read?" Anne teased from across the table. Sketching into her book while enjoying breakfast.

"Do you always complain this much?" I teased back.

"I'm glad you two are getting along, but will you please shut up?" Ominis begged from the couch where he was attempting to nap.

Anne shot a playful wink toward me before we buried both our noses back in our projects. She returned to working on her drawing while I went back to reading. 

I was thankful to finally begin to under Anne's friendship in the way everyone had explained. Being chosen by her made you feel special. Even if it came with the teasing nature of her personality, it was only out of love.

In the past week, I'd felt like I was making progress on understanding how a horcrux was formed. The spell, while hidden, was able to be pieced together across the history books that Ominis provided. However, I wasn't sure if there was an importance to what the remainder of the soul bonds to.

Additionally, there was a lack of confidence I was feeling toward being able to remove only the cursed part of Anne's soul. I'd only used the power to kill or torture. There was still the risk that I might hurt her.

Sebastian finally walked back through the front door, a handful of letters and face covered with a smile. 

"Owl went to the wrong house," Sebastian announced tossing out the small stack of letters to the two of us at the table. 

As he turned toward the kitchen and began pouring himself a cup of coffee, I noticed a letter hiding in his back pocket. Broken golden wax was just visible from the lip of his pocket. The same golden wax that was on the letter that he handed to Anne.

"Oh, it's from Addie!" Anne announced loudly, looking at both of us for a reaction. 

I bite my lip pretending to like I hadn't noticed. Sebastian also pretended not to hear his sister either. 

She didn't care as she went about breaking the seal of the letter quickly in a performance, "Dear Anne,"

"Anne," Ominis hissed from the couch, "That's enough."

"I hope you are doing well," She went on ignoring his warning, "I'm sure you are aware of the breakup. I just want you to know that Sebastian Sallow is a cheating nit-witted twat. And Amelia Blackwood is a wagtail bumpkin."

"Nit-witted what?" Sebastian turned before pulling the letter out of Anne's hands and tossing it back onto the table with a sigh. 

A smile betrayed me in reaction to Anne's joke. I'd expect that she had been looking for a reaction and the confusion it caused her brother was funny. It always took Sebastian a moment too long to realize when someone else was pulling a joke over on him. 

Anne bursts into laughter at her own joke, "I can't believe you fell for that. Adelaide would never say anything like that!" 

What had begun as a laugh suddenly turned into a coughing fit as Anne struggled to catch her breath. Joy quickly turned into a fearful look of panic as her cough grew deeper and deeper. 

Both boys rushed to her side as if they would have somehow been able to stop the coughing. 

The napkin that Anne had been using at breakfast quickly was spotted with little dots of blood as she pressed it to her lips. We all just looked at the scarlet dots as they stained against the white cloth silently.