Forever A Marauder

Twenty-Eight: Calysta

CALYSTA

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They came late in the night. Very late. Or early in the morning. Calysta was too busy having a heart attack to take a really good look at the clock.

Harsh hands jolted her awake; her arms flailed as she was pushed off her high bed. Shoulder crushed beneath her, gentler hands quickly ushered her into a standing position. Calysta's eyes focused in the dim light to behold multiple wands aimed at her face. Calysta whimpered and sank into which ever figure had her hanging by her elbows; woman's hands, she figured.

"Calysta, stand up, darling." It was Leena Daelynn. Calysta gasped and struggled to face her mother. A small and painful sound escaped her mother's lips as she stroked her daughter's hair, Calysta buried her face into the woman's neck. Leena hadn't seen Calysta in many months. Her usual perfume filled Calysta's nose, bringing with it the memories of her childhood when her mother would hold her tight when she woke up with bad nightmares. Calysta wished this was one.

"Momma..." She sobbed. Calysta didn't want to do this. No, she wouldn't. She had to die, rather than become a monster.

"Very touching, Leena. Now, the time has come to fulfill your promise to service me, little one. You possess the kind of skills I like to see in a wizard, young Daelynn. Very pleasing show you put on in Hogsmeade." A snake's voice mocked her, making Calysta shiver in her skin. A sad twist of her heart activated the desire to vomit. The Dark Lord was in her bedroom. Death Eaters were in her bedroom. Oh how odd it was for Calysta to think of the fact she hadn't cleaned the room in weeks.

"I wasn't expecting company." Calysta blurted, stiffening in instant regret at how joking her tone sounded in her own ears. Her mother's hands also clenched tighter around her biceps. A laugh of sorts escaped the dark wizard's mouth like smoke, making Calysta shudder again. A wave of unrest made it's way through the small group of Death Eaters.

"Comical," Voldemort mused. "You didn't forget about our arranged meeting, did you now?" The voice could reasonably be mistaken for a sarcastic pout, but Calysta knew a wizard like that didn't have the capacity to find amusement in something like this.

"Couldn't get it out of my mind." Calysta answered dully, pushing out of her mother's grasp. Voldemort stroked his bone-ended wand with his fingers, staring at her with a quizzical gleam in his snake eyes.

"You're thinking about your father." The Dark Lord suddenly said. Calysta dared to look in his eyes.

"Y-yes," A little laughter unsettled her further. "What have you done to him?" Her eyes swelled with tears. Did they kill him?

"Simply in a body bind. Couldn't have him making a mess of things." The wizard answered. Calysta looked behind her shoulder to look into her mother's eyes. Leena nodded faintly, urging her to believe what Voldemort said.

"Thank you for not harming him." He would feel no sympathy, but Calysta said it anyway.

"Very well, very well. Let's get on with it then, shall we?" The wand drew away from his chest and lowered to Calysta's wrist. Calysta's eyes darted between the wand, the Lord's face, and her arm. Leena was breathing heavily; Calysta could hear it from behind.

"It will sting," A voice on Voldemort's side said with a soft snicker. Calysta made a bitter face to herself, but straightened her back when Voldemort's bare-foot figure stood directly in front of her. She hid her disgust at the smell he carried; a bit like alcohol, but it stung her nostrils more intensely with a metal and fire scent.

The wand was ice cold where it touched her skin. The breath was knocked out of her lungs as it burned from ice to fire, her skin darkening in a defined shape of a snake.