DISGUISED || SEBASTIAN SALLOW

Chapter 13

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"Come on, Natsai, where are you," I murmured, checking my wristwatch every other minute. Fifteen minutes 'till. 

Any minute now and I would have to go. I couldn't wait forever.

Trust, Y/N, trust people. She'll be here.

I perched up, a jagged set of footsteps stumbling down the rocky staircase. 

Natsai. 

Her hair was still the same, though it was a little longer and frizzier; her eyes looked a bit sunken. Had she a rocky start? 

"Natsai!"

We stood in the Viaduct Courtyard, the ground soppy and wet per usual. A brisk wind shifted between us and that thin barrier wouldn't crack. Wouldn't break. The environment was desolate and empty, just like the holes that fragmented both of our hearts.

Immediately, Natsai Onai's mouth grew cheeky and playful. One second, the mysterious Gryffindoor was trotting down the stairs. Next, her arms were wrapped around my neck, enveloping me with so much emotion I choked. "Dammit, Onai!" I croaked sharply.

"Oh! I'm so sorry—" I began as I attempted to withdraw. Her hands still cupped my shoulders as she stared into my eyes. "I'm sorry I brushed you off earlier. And, by the way, I love the hair!" 

She chucked. Her eyes were dark, a little swollen from the diluted tears that ran down her cheeks. Hurt lingered on the tip of her lips, and I could've sworn I saw something burn in her eyes. Her palms were sweaty, the woman's nose twitching ever so slightly. The jittery breathing. The dark eyes. They held something—insincere. Different.

Wrong.

"Natsai?" I murmured. "Natsai?" I tried to nudge off her grip—that didn't work. Her nails dug into my shoulder, penetrating through my thin white sleeves. I felt blood seep down my arm as her claws dug deeper into my shoulder. Deeper, and deeper, and—

I hollered at the top of my lungs. "Shit!"  

I kicked Onai off, her eyed aflame and wild. Immediately, she withdrew a wand, one entirely different from her old one, and cackled, 'Bombarda!'

"Protego!" I yelled, my shoulders stinging from the marks she'd left. What the hell?  My protego just barely withheld her powerful curse, another series of basic casts following my way.

Why the hell is nobody outside?

"Natsai! Merlin's beard, what are you doing?"

I snarked past Natsai, striking at her. She dodged every bullet, eyes slit and cunning. Like tendrils, her hands sparked long vines, interwoven between each other and coming straight at me! I ducked to just barely avoid the threaded whip. I felt the thorns, tipped on the very edge of the attack, brush my hair, pulling out a few threads of auburn hair.