Challenged Love

Chapter 21

Flashback: 1988- last moments before losing control
(Third Person POV):

Night had already fallen. How had it come so quick? Sometimes we do not realize how fast time flies until we stop checking the clock. Minutes come, and minutes go. The past is dying away with every second, the future always creeping near.

Night had already fallen.

Florence Rosewood was upstairs tucking Holly into bed. She had just previously sent her nephew, Kasper, to bed and wanted to spend time with her daughter before she lost her to sleep. Of course, she knew Holly would still be there when she went to wake her up the next morning, but Florence did not want her to ever think they would leave her too as the Normans had left Kasper.

Three days. Three days and no one knows where they are.

Florence allowed these thoughts to slip her mind for a moment.

"Could you read me a bed time story?" Holly asked.

"It has been awhile, hasn't it?" Mrs. Rosewood mentioned with a soft, weakened laugh.

She then stood up from the edge of the bed and flipped through the books on Holly's bookshelf. To Holly, her mother appeared calm as she was every night, yet she did not know that her mother hid under the mask of overwhelming anxiety. Despite her condition and the troubles happening in her life, Florence read her daughter a bed time story, because being strong for Holly was all that mattered to her.

Florence finished the story. "Now, it is time for you to fall asleep, Miss Holly."

"But I don't want to," she protested with a frown.

"But you must," Florence sighed. "Good night, darling."

"Good night..."

Holly pulled the covers up to her chin and laid down on her pillow. She presumed that sleep was the one thing keeping her from the night's adventures, but if only she knew the risk.

"I love you," Florence whispered.

"I love you too," Holly replied, a grin escaping her lips.

"Now go to sleep. Dream away, my love."

Florence switched off the lights and shut Holly's bedroom door behind her. She then exhaled, relieving much of the pressure building up within her chest.

Dream away, my love.

Heavy and quick footsteps began racing up the staircase.

"Shh! Benjamin! The kids are sleeping," Florence told her husband in a hushed and exasperated whisper.

"Jane and Robbie are at our door," Benjamin rushed his words.

Florence's breath hitched. "You're joking-"

Together, Florence and Benjamin rushed downstairs, unaware of the perilousness waiting behind their front door.

The door flung open before either of them could reach for the knob.

"Did you receive a letter too?" Jane asked, holding up a letter identical to the one the Rosewoods had received hours before. The letter read the same phrase: "Alas, Voldemort will be the one you serve."

Florence eyed her husband, her look reading confusion all over.

"As a matter of fact, we did," Benjamin confirmed, although he still suspected that something was off.

"How strange is that?" Jane gasped, acting surprised. "Who could have sent it?"

However, the letter was the least of the Rosewood's concerns.