Run Away ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter twenty-four

The Ministry of Magic had always felt like a twisted place. It was always cold and gloomy on the inside. It was more akin to a graveyard than a place of safety and protection. The Ministry was where secrets came to die. It was the place where history was rewritten.

That was the realization that Antheia Wynters had come to as she waited in the hallway. The black and white checkered titles under her heels made her feel like she was another pawn on the Ministry's chessboard.

She had wandered around waiting for some time before she found the painting. It was the bright red eyes of the woman that had caught her attention first, but then it was the rest that made her heart drop. The hallway was lined with paintings designed to retell the origin of magic. The beginning of the history that the Ministry had allowed people to know about.

Marceline Elm, the plague underneath read. The Cruel.

It wasn't what Antheia had expected to find when she entered the Ministry that morning. But when she had seen the bright red eyes drawn out with aged oil paints she had known it was their demon. That the theory Desmond had been working on was correct, Marceline Elm had been the witch who possessed Sebastian Sallow. 

Marceline didn't look like a demon in the painting. Not as vile or disgusting as she had pictured for herself. No horns or spiked tails like a demon should have. Instead, the painting showed a woman with white hair that dropped around a pale soft face almost as if she had been a ghost. But the eyes were a bold red like the painter had mixed in blood with the oil to capture such a dooming look. 

The same stare that the artist captured had been the devilish look that Antheia had seen on Sebastian's face. It was undeniable and made her gut fill with a sense of doom.

At that sight of the red eyes alone, Antheia had accepted that Marceline Elm had been their demon. If there was any other confirmation needed then she would only point them to look at the painting for themselves. Let any deniers see for themselves the woman with white hair and red eyes with her hands resting onto a pyramid in her lap. The relic.

"Are you ready?" Ominous asked as he approached.

"Have you ever noticed this painting before?" Antheia asked in return. It felt haunting and she couldn't ignore it any longer.

He sighed at her gently before saying, "No, I can't say that I've seen it."

Of course, Ominis hadn't noticed the painting with the relic before, that was the whole reason that she had come to the Ministry after all. If the blind boy had been able to see it then perhaps they all would have connected the mystery together sooner.

"Right, my apologies," Antheia corrected herself. "It's a painting of a Marceline Elm and it looks like she is holding the relic. Even the eyes look like our demon. It's just like Desmond thought."

"Does it have a year?"

"890."

A thousand years ago. That was how old the relic had been around and how long the witch had been waiting for someone to trigger her trap. Cheating death at every turn for centuries.

"I'm not sure how Desmond managed to figure that out from some hand-written notes in the journal, but at least we know for sure now." Ominis said, "Come on, let's get this over with so we can look for what we need."

She let Ominis lead the way down the hallway as she took one final look at the painting. It may have not been the demon that she had hoped to see, but the sight of her made her magic burn under her skin all the same. All of the threats and hatred that the witch caused her finally had a face.