Shadow of a Grave ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter eight ✧ the broken vow

Stonehands by Balance & Composure (acoustic version)

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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 Blackwood sat with her face tucked away against the cushion of the couch. The half of her face that was visible had been smeared and stained by dampened makeup. Her hands shaking quietly in her lap as she looked down at them. Ghostly tears fell from her eye without consideration, almost as if she hadn't even realized that she had been crying at all. She had been motionless in shock as her tears began to stain the familiar fabric of the couch.

Sebastian Sallow tried to reach out to her, but he had already forgotten it was a dream. No, this time it was a nightmare again.

This was how most of his nightmares went. He'd see someone that he cared about in need of help and no matter what he did, he couldn't reach them. Some nights it was his parents, for a while it was mostly Anne, or even his closest friends. The worst of those nights was when he dreamed of Amelia.

Since she had died, sleep had been sweeter and softer. But this is the type of torture that he had been accustomed to.

"Amelia, let me see," Poppy said softly taking a seat next to her on the couch, "Maybe I can heal it."

Tears still silently ran down her cheeks as Amelia finally lifted her head from the pillow. The other half of her face had been bruised under the deep shade of purple that left a blanket over her eye and temple. The white of her eye was completely bloodshot. Bright scarlet red contrasted sharply against the deep blue of the ocean.

Sebastian felt sick at the sight of it. This wasn't a nightmare that he had before. Poppy had never been in his nightmares and Amelia had never had a black eye. He wanted to do something, anything, but he was stuck watching everything play out around him.

"I tried to warn you, Amelia," Ominis sobbed angrily.

The three were in the London home once again. Amelia and Poppy sat on the couch they attempted to heal the black eye with magic. Amelia's fingers ran over the makeup stain that she had left on the pillow as if inconveniencing the pillow with a silk stain was the greatest problem on hand.

Ominis just kept pacing back in forth in front of the fireplace decorated with photographs. Sebastian couldn't decide whether his friend was angry, heartbroken, worried, or all three at once. Likely the latter since that was how Sebastian was beginning to feel as he watched on.

"I'm sorry," Amelia's voice was so small and weak that it hurt to hear. She had clearly been the one who showed up with a black eye and in need of help, but as always she was apologizing for something that hadn't been worth apologizing for.

"Don't be sorry dear, it's going to be okay. But we need to get you out of London," Poppy suggested as she attempted to keep healing the eye. The deep purple had lightened a bit but showed little promise of healing completely.

Amelia didn't speak right away, only shaking her head rapidly in protest. That was when Sebastian realized that the nightmare was really torturing him. Amelia's voice was broken when she told her friends, "I can't leave. If I don't go back, I'll never see Annabel again."