hollow // credence barebone

32. fading

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she used to write to him about her house in london when she returned from new york. she mentioned painting the walls white, buying a lot of plants and renovating the fireplace. she told him about the pets she had and her futile attempts at removing the bird. he used to wonder what it'd be like to visit her in her home.

that was not how he imagined it.

she basically tackled him to the sofa and threatened into immobility under possible risk of sedating him. as she hurried away, he heard a clunk of glass and cupboards shutting from upstairs. he found himself in a rather disadvantageous position now that his body downright betrayed him.

he wouldn't admit, but the pain in his chest had almost made him delirious. he was barely hanging onto consciousness as letargy made him unwillingly lean back into the cushions of her sofa. but he did look around, moving his eyes over the multiple plants covering a huge majority of the living room. he was startled when a pair of yellow eyes blinked at him from between the monstera leaves and a black cat came to sniff at his leg. it looked distrustful as it hissed at him and hurried away. he felt a little offended at the way animals seemed to despise his very being, but the cat soon returned with a friend.

and despite the pain and exhaustion, aurelius sat up straight and instinctively moved towards the edge of the couch. a huge, black snake with piercing black eyes was slithering towards him on the floor. its tongue kept poking out as it neared him, and aurelius was ready to open his mouth and call for elise, but she was already making her way down the stairs. she simply glared at the snake, making a couple of inconsistent hissing sounds. aurelius had never heard her make that kind of noise before as he widened his eyes. elise acknowledged his confusion and shrugged.

"i told him to not eat you or i would shorten his daily dose of food by half. he's fat and lazy, so that worked very well."

"you... you spoke to it?"

"mmm."

"you can speak to snakes?"

she shrugged, dropping a full bag of something clanky and loud on the empty seat beside him, "i always could. i assumed my family was somehow related to salazar slytherin. but snakes don't really make the best of company."

he read about parseltongues and the four creators of hogwarts. he remembered elise mentioned she was in the house of snake, but she never mentioned actually knowing how to talk to snakes. judging by all the other revelations, he had to assume there was still a lot he didn't know. such as the fact that he never actually saw her preparing any potion until now.

she was mixing two vials of shimmering liquid, scrutinising it in front of her eyes. from her bag, she pulled out something that looked like dy lavender and put a bit into the concotion that instantly turned violet. it smelled like grapes and wood. elise gave it another mix before looking at him.

"i'm not blind, you know? i can tell things have been rapidly worsening. am i wrong?"

he wanted to deny it, but the pain in his chest was still not receeding and elise glared at him as soon as he thought about saying no. he sighed, taking the potion from elise and giving it another sniff. she was already digging inside her bag again as she continued.

"it's not like we didn't suspect that moment would come. your body is actively shutting down on you. i can't tell how long until it is completely damaged and i don't know what your current stance is. but you're too young to fucking die, aurelius. so you will drink this potion now."

"what is it?" he never drank anything like this before.

elise got another vial and shook it, "blood-replenishing potion. also known as sanguis implete which literally means blood replenish in latin. it will supply you in iron and vitamins. it also has a disinfecting effect that may or may not sting a little. there are multiple open wounds inside you. as for this," she pointed at the green potion in her hand. "this is what i call a foliandre. it will make you sleep for a couple of hours until your body calms down and gets its shit together. i'm thinking about giving you a primia cleansing potion, but it has a nasty side-effect with foliandre and might make you throw up. any questions?"