The Hope beneath the Dark - Sebastian Sallow

27. Trouble in paradise

"Nice of you to finally join!" Ominis said sarcastically as Sebastian walked towards us. 

Now that we weren't overwhelmed by Anne's presence anymore, I was angry with him. Angry that he pushed me, twice, and just left me there like I was nothing.

"Maude, can we talk?" Sebastian asked, placing a hand on my arm. 

I took a step back at the touch, and for the first time in forever, I found myself somehow afraid of his touch. It felt like a part of my trust towards him had weaken and I wasn't sure what to think.

"You can tell me whatever you want to tell me while our friends are here." I said sharply, looking in direction of Ominis who was standing in front of me.

"Alright... I guess everyone in here knows what happened..." Sebastian sighed. "Maude, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just didn't want you to force me to leave and I didn't think I pushed you that hard."

"Why did you ignored it completely and then just left?" I confronted him.

"That's no excuse, but I was still in shock from seeing Anne and it felt like nothing except that was on my mind." He explained.

"You mean, nothing else mattered except what you wanted." Ominis remarked.

"Come on, it's not like that!" Sebastian defended.

"Then why leave me?" I stood inches from Sebastian's face, seeking for an answer while he was looking down.

"I felt bad about hurting you." He confessed.

"So you just left her, brilliant!" Ominis laughed sarcastically.

"Look, I know it was stupid. I'm here now!" Sebastian shouted. "Besides, it seems Maude wasn't so shocked to see Anne, and I heard them mention your name before I tried to talk to her. Clearly something is going on. What is it, Ominis?"

After a little more fighting between the boys, Ominis finally gave in and told Sebastian about everything. The owl from Anne when Solomon died, that she instructed us to turn him in, that Ominis lied to me because he wasn't sure he wanted his best friend to go in Azkaban, the fact that I was the one convincing him not to do it. Lastly, Ominis told him that Anne was cured, she didn't tell how, but she was coming back after the Holidays.

"And you knew?" Sebastian turned to me. "Yesterday when you said you wanted to be here for Christmas, you just wanted to keep that from me, didn't you?"

"Sebastian, it's not like that. We just wanted to protect you..." I tried to explain.

"Protect me from what, my sister?" Sebastian distanced himself from us.

"She thought you were in Azkaban, I didn't want you to know before I got to talk to her because you would've went and see her before I had a chance to plead your case with Anne." Ominis told him.

"Of course I would've! She's my sister. And she's cured?" Sebastian said. "I can't believe you wouldn't tell me right away."

Sebastian tried to leave but I ran up to him.

"Please, don't leave. Or let me go with you so we can talk." I asked him.

"No, Maude." Sebastian scoffed. "I'm sorry for hurting you, I never should've pushed you, but this... You shouldn't have lied to me."

"I didn't want to cause more troubles, I agreed with Ominis that we just needed to wait to speak to Anne."

"Of course, you would agree with Ominis. You two always agree!" Sebastian spat. "To think I opened up to you last night at the ball and asked you to live with me after the year... now I know why you didn't say yes."