Run Away ✧ Hogwarts Legacy

chapter twenty-one

I Want to Kill You by Citizen

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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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Everything was simply a disaster. A trainwreck. A living nightmare.

The whole day had been perfect up until that point and now it was falling apart again. The fight with Desmond had been proof that her head and heart were at war with each other.

For Merlin's sake, she had called Desmond the wrong name, how much worse could it have gotten? There was nothing that he had done to deserve that. It was his celebration and even with all of the other girls admiring him, he only had eyes for her. It was always him dropping everything for her. Why could her heart not just accept that and move on?

Antheia wasn't going to risk going back to her dorm and her roommates seeing her upset. It was too shameful to tell them about what she had done and she wasn't ready to talk about it. Instead, she just began wandering around the castle and making a list of everything she saw in sight. Every portrait, melting candle, and even each drunk student that passed her. It was a great way to take her mind off of everything that had happened. It was the only thing keeping her grounded.

The more she walked throughout the castle the more empty it was becoming. Less things to add to her list and her head started to wander again.

Antheia missed Sebastian. The real Sebastian Sallow.

The thought of looking at the demon controlling him with those blood-colored eyes and hearing it mimicking his voice broke her heart. It felt like it was all her fault that he had been a prisoner. It was bad enough to have sent him to Azkaban, but to be the reason he was trapped inside his own mind was even worse.

When Antheia turned the corner into the main level courtyard, she froze at the sight of the man lurking around.

It was dark and cold, but it was undeniable that the demon had returned. She couldn't see its eyes, but she could feel them looking at her from across the courtyard.

It was wearing the same thick leather coat that it had in the maze weeks prior. A bright red scarf wrapped around the figure. No, my scarf. Antheia realized this when she saw the lion at the end. That had been how the demon had sneaked inside the castle so easily before.

The rational part of her brain had stopped hours ago. Her emotions were high and seeing the demon that caused all these issues had everything start rushing out.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Antheia hissed towards the demon.

Before she could get an answer, it began to move and rush to the other side of the courtyard. Weeks of chasing and stalking her, now it was running away from her? It was already a bad enough night as it was and she was boiling with anger.

"Excuse you? I'm bloody talking to you, get back here!" She scoffed.

Antheia found herself running after the demon in empty hallways trying to figure out where it was going. The lower in the castle that she got, the more she began to worry, was it searching for the Repository? Or was it trying to trick her into bringing them there?

It was a risk she could afford to take. She struggled to pull her wand out of her boot as she kept chasing the demon. Hopping on one leg before finally freeing the white birch wand in her grip.