「 ☆ 」 -- 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

As the World Caves In by Sarah Cothran

"𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬, 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝
𝐎𝐡 𝐛𝐨𝐲, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡
𝐀𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐨𝐦𝐛 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐧
𝐎𝐡 𝐛𝐨𝐲, 𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐓𝐕 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡
𝐀𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧."

~

Laurel stared at the platforms in utter horror as the students of the three schools made their way to watch the second task of the Tri-wizard tournament, the platforms were wooden and in the boy's opinion, rather rickety where they stood in the middle of the water. He stopped in the middle of the path watching as students passed him before he saw Alden turn back from where she had continued walking a distance away, she walked back over to him and tilted her head.

"Everything alright Laurie?"

"Yeah, I thought I had something in my shoe. Just stepped on something odd."

Laurel couldn't let himself get psyched out by a body of water alone, no matter what his gut was telling him, so when Alden reached out to hold onto his arm he allowed her and walked with her. Every step he took on the bridge towards the platforms caused his body to scream for him to go back, turn around. Going back to land where it's safe, once on the platform the boy began to relax, finding it to be not as rickety as it looked, still, he took caution and stayed towards the middle of the platform while keeping a cautious eye on the water.

Hearing the champions splash into the water brought his attention back to the event at hand, he cheered along with the other students as he watched them dive in, and realized he had missed the explanation of the event in his worrying over the water. He looked to Alden who was caught up in a conversation with a few other students with her legs dangling over the edge of the platform he decided to ask someone else. He tapped on the shoulder of a nearby Beauxbatons student, a tall and slender black haired boy who looked to be a seventh year. He raised a sharp eyebrow at Laurel, making the boy shrink into himself as he began to ask the question.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but do you know the premise of the task?"

The Beauxbatons boy's gaze softened towards Laurel, he then answered Laurel in a warm tone.

"The champions have to rescue something precious from the merpeople and-"

Laurel's ears started to ring.

His heart began to race.

His blood froze.

No wonder he had a bad feeling about the water, about going on this very platform. Who knows how many hungry merpeople were swimming below him at that very moment.

His mind raced towards his mother's empty casket, the feeling began to choke him, his vision slowly starting to fade in and out before he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder.

"You're not looking too good kiddo."

Quinn.

Laurel blinked back to the present, he was miraculously still standing, the Beauxbatons boy had walked away, and Quinn was standing beside him with his hand on his shoulder along with a concerned look on his face. He shook his head and glanced at the wooden floor below him.

"Nothing. Just don't like mer-people, that's all."

Quinn raised an eyebrow, not in the same entitled way as the Beauxbatons boy, but with an air of concern. He shook his head and started to turn his body from Laurel.