Bound By Blood.

ch.55~ I'm fearing your insane.

"That was beyond extreme. Even for you. 

What the fuck do you think you just started?!

You're insane, and thats coming from me."

Translated Recovered Correspondents between Death Eater Mattheo Riddle, to Order Member Alexandra Brooks, 2003.

The Riddle Manor, 2003.

Mattheo.

"Why did you have to say that?"

The question echoed in my mind, heavy and suffocating. 

I leaned back in my chair, the weight of her disappointment pressing down on my shoulders like a blanket. 

The flickering candlelight caught the edges of papers strewn across my desk, but my focus was elsewhere.

"Because you deserve to know the truth. Even if it burns."

I'd anticipated witnessing her crumble, the walls she built around her heart shattering as my words penetrated her armor.

Finally seeing the emotions she held in her, come to light. 

Instead, I was blindsided.

Alexandra's eyes held a tumultuous mix of emotions, but instead of the vulnerability, the anguish I expected, she had retreated into a facade. 

A moment. 

She had allowed herself to slip, for only a moment. 

Until, it all disappeared. 

The moment that shield came up, a part of me felt gutted. 

I had spent so long trying to understand her, to peer beneath the mask she wore with such practiced elegance. 

But in that moment, it was heartbreakingly clear—she was more adept at hiding her true self than I had ever realized.

Even from me. 

As I watched her cross her old dorm, that fleeting glance back was a window into her soul, if only for an instant. 

The flickering light through the torn curtains danced in her eyes, revealing knots of turmoil that she had seamlessly tucked away. 

Yet behind it all, I caught the glint of disappointment aimed squarely at me, as if I'd failed a test I didn't even know I was taking. 

I rubbed at my temples, frustration surging in tandem with confusion. 

How was she able to shove it all back in, so quickly? 

Like she flipped a switch. 

To suck in the chaos, to tuck it deep within? 

Each second, every heartbeat spent absorbing the weight of my words had begun to strip her away, only to reveal a facade I had seen her perfect countless times before.

It struck me like a lightning bolt, the haunting awareness that perhaps she hid it all so well because she was terrified of what honest exposure could reveal. 

My own reflection stared back at me in that moment.

I, too, played the part of wearing a mask, refusing to let anyone see anything underneath.