What if you decided not to turn him in? What if he has to stand trial anyway? And what if you get asked to be a witness?
Would you save him? Or wouldn't you?
For Sebastian Sallow, Eleanor - Ellie - has been through hell and back. She did it all for...
The song choice for this chapter is "1 step forward, 3 steps back" by Olivia Rodrigo.
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'Elara? Elara, wake up.'
I'm shaken awake by Imelda. I want to curse her because my head hurts, and after I won the game, I feel like I don't deserve this harsh treatment.
'What?'
'Sebastian's here for you. He's looking for you. And so is Ominis.'
I open my eyes. 'What?' I say again. 'Sorry, they're looking for me? Why?'
Imelda shrugs. 'Sebastian said something weird about butterflies? Is it about the funny butterflies you followed into the forest last year for some girl named Clementine? Someone at Hogsmeade told me about it and I –'
No. This has nothing to do with Clementine or butterflies leading me to a chest hidden somewhere.
If Sebastian and Ominis go as far as to have Imelda wake me, this must be a secret code for Anne.
She's the one busy creating butterflies lately, after all.
I don't really get dressed, but rather just take a robe and put it over my pyjamas. Imelda gives me some shit about going out like this, but I don't care. If this is serious, then I don't have the time to worry about my looks.
Something Imelda doesn't understand, of course. A tiny bit of mere revenge in my chest is happy about it – that means, what Ominis told me is true. Sebastian doesn't trust her.
When I step out of the dorm, hair in a messy knot, I see the boys standing there. I'm glad to see that, at least hair-wise, they don't look much better than me.
'What's up?' I ask when I meet them. It's really early. There is no one up but us – and Imelda, since they woke her up, too.
'It's Anne,' Sebastian says. 'I know you don't wish to speak to me, but she's had a real fallback. I've been with her the whole night. It wouldn't stop. I don't know why; she's been getting better and I'm so scared. I didn't know what else to do so I woke Ominis and he convinced me to wake you, even though I know you don't like me very much at the moment, and –'
'It's fine,' I interrupt. 'I'd do it all for Anne, you know that. Come on, let's go.'
We walk up to the Room of Requirement and in my head, I already count all the ingredients I need for a healing potion. I know it won't help much, but for the time being, it could at least ease the pain.
'How'd you hear?' I ask when we finally reach the seventh floor.
'Deek woke me up. Said he found her lying on the floor, twitching in pain. It must've been a horrible sight to see. He's with her now.'
I walk by the empty wall three times as fast as I can and when the door appears, I barely wait for it to be finished, when I already pull on the handle.
