Aftermath ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter fifty-seven

Condolences by Touché Amoré

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Trigger Warning: This chapter includes sensitive conduct - please see the comment for a full description of conduct. 

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Amelia's Perceptive

A dark sky came too quickly. Hours were spent looking for Ophelia, yet there had barely seen a sign of her. Most of the students had likely given up looking for her already, assuming it would be fine to pick up the search the next morning.

Everyone had broken off into pairs. Poppy and I had set off to the Forbidden Forest together in search of the cat. If there was anyone I trusted to find an animal in the forest in the middle of the night, it was Poppy Sweeting.

The moment Anne burst into my room that morning and held my hand to her chest, I knew something wasn't right. I checked her soul regularly to make sure the threads of her being were still in place. That morning it felt different.

It had been just enough to scare me. It was sticky like an oil spill again.

It reminded me of the hours I had sat in an attempt to cure her. The sticky residue felt like it had coated my hands just from touching her soul yet no matter how many times I washed my hands the feeling still lingered against my skin.

"I don't know what to do," I confessed in a panic to Anne that morning.

"It's going to be okay, Amelia," She whispered, "We just need to find Ophelia."

Her voice was shaky and unconvincing. As if she knew it was a lie, yet she pretended everything would be fine as if she was trying to make herself believe it was the truth.

I wasn't sure if the lie was even to try to protect my feelings or if it was to protect herself. Her soul was beginning to rot that morning. Yet she kept smiling and telling everyone that she was fine, that she just was worried about the pet cat.

And even worse, no one had found any sign of Ophelia yet. She was likely the only thing that was keeping her alive.

The sun was gone and my worries grew in the darkness. I needed to get back to Anne and check on her. I was the only one that knew her soul was dying again. The only one who knew that her horcrux might be dead already.

"Poppy, are you okay if I leave?" I asked the brunette as we searched our section of the Forbidden Forest together. 

We had taken the area nearest to the Centaurus so that we might be able to speak with them in case they may have seen the cat. But there was so much to search still in the neverending forest.

"Where are you going to go?" Poppy asked nervously.

"Back to the school. I need to check on Anne," I admitted. I knew Poppy could tell how nervous I was. She was one of the few people that I knew would be able to handle herself in the forest if I left her alone.

She nodded allowing me to leave her.

I could feel my energy draining as I apparated back to the courtyard. As I landed I completely lost my footing as I braced myself from hitting the ground, the skin on my palm breaking against the earth under me. The instant stinging pain of the dirt in the wound was a punishment for rushing.