Hearts are Blind (Severus Snape X OC)

The All Hallows Eve Ball (part 1)

"You should follow me."

Black eyes looked out from under long lashes and stared at her. They weren't sparkling, as they usually did. They were flat and dim like charcoal and kept hers locked in their unsettling gaze.

"Where to?" She felt herself saying, but she didn't mean to. She was only thinking it, but it came out as words. Lucinda ran a thumb up and down the side of the punch glass she was holding. She wanted to look behind her, but she couldn't, though she could hear voices coming from the entrance hall at her back.

"You should follow me." The dark-haired boy repeated and she thought his voice got a little louder.

"It's cold out here, Tristin," Lucinda whined and hugged her shawl tighter around her shoulders with her free hand. "Let's go back inside." But it wasn't cold. It was actually very hot outside. Beads of sweat formed on every inch of her skin, but she kept the shawl around her; smothering her.

"I need you—" he said softly and clasped a hand around her wrist, making her drop the glass "—to follow me."

The girl's heart skidded to a halt at his touch. She was sure there was going to be a bruise where his fingers were squeezing down on her, but that wasn't what made her want to cry out in alarm. It was the pools of black ink where Tristin's eyes use to be. The whites had been consumed by the darkness and now all that looked out from those heavenly lashes weren't eyes at all: they were empty holes in his head.

"W-w-what—" Lucinda didn't think to let go of her shawl and use her other hand to try and free herself. I guess in those kinds of situations you don't think and when you do, you think about the wrong thing. Lucinda thought about the glass she'd dropped in that moment. She hadn't heard it break on the front steps of the castle. In fact, she couldn't hear anything else anymore, at all; just the heavy breathing of the boy standing in front of her. Tristin's grip on her wrist was tightening, but it didn't hurt her, surprisingly. Regardless, she finally tried to pull her arm away from him (staring into those eye-sockets gave her enough incentive to get the hell out of there).

"Stay with me!" He screamed into her face, as she struggled within his clutches.

Lucinda tried to cry out again, but her throat closed up and nothing came out. Tristin made to grab her other wrist, but she was one step ahead of him and threw out her arm, dropping the shawl. Her shoulders were bare then, but she was still blistering hot. Her fist collided with Tristin's chest and she felt him stumble backward, down the steps. He pulled her with him.

"No!" She flailed as they tumbled onto the hard ground. This time it did hurt her. She felt her arm stinging where she'd fallen on it and her head suddenly started to throb. All the while, Tristin had now secured his grasp on both her wrists and was on top of her. "No! NO!" She screamed again, making her head ache more. She clenched her eyes shut and thrashed her arms as much as she possibly could to dislodge his hands from her. He shook her violently in retaliation.

"Stop it!" He yelled down at her. "Lucinda, stop it!"

His voice had grown deeper and, for some reason, that scared her more.

"No no..." she repeated, though this time her voice came out weak and slurred and tears ran down her temples and into her hair. She sniffled and with that came the smell of spices and burnt timber. Her head swam, even with her eyes shut and her body felt as if it were crawling inside itself.

"Open your eyes, stupid girl!"

She opened her eyes... but only because it sounded like professor Snape. And it was professor Snape. She could see stars winking at her in the sky beyond his head. Her eyes slithered around a bit and the stars behind him faded. His hands were still clasped around her wrists, but he didn't say anything. The sky turned cloudy and then faded away completely, being replaced by a low ceiling. Instantly things started to piece back together again.