BOUQUET OF TRAGEDIES. ❜⠀⠀❪ regulus black. ❫ -DISCONT.

THIRTEEN; ❝ THE LOVELIEST OF FLOWERS ❞

CHAPTER THIRTEEN;
❝ THE LOVELIEST OF FLOWERS ! ❞

⠀⠀⠀NUMBNESS TOOK OVER her as the ground beneath her turned into thin air. With nothing to hold her up, she started falling and falling, greeted by cold darkness from all sides. Her vision became blurry and her brain shut down. Her heart pumped the last of her blood before shattering into a million shards as if it was made of glass or crystal, both prepared and unprepared for doom, at the same time. Her lungs forgot how to respire and died inside her ribcage.

⠀⠀⠀There was ringing in her ears but she didn't care; she just stared at the innocent face of Violet Simmons with her once lively uranian blue eyes that were now shallow and cold pits of icy death. Images flashed in her mind, Violet laughing as Jeremy and her bickered back and forth, Violet rolling her eyes and huffing in annoyance when the others forbade her from cursing because she was a baby, Violet's face that suddenly lit up when Manon agreed to go on a date with her and Violet's dazed, out of focus face as she just stared at Manon's face while the ravenette talked about something unimportant, with uranian blue eyes full of warmth and love.

⠀⠀⠀Violet. It was all just Violet. Her vision, her mind, her soul, the word on her lips, her favourite flower, the colour she was going to wear on their second date. And when she reached out her hand to clasp hers, there on it, in the lost's blood, there was a small, irregular blob resembling a heart with just one single word:

⠀⠀⠀Manon.

⠀⠀⠀SHE DIDN'T KNOW how she made it to the Hall but by the time she did, it was over. They'd all suddenly disappeared and with what people had seen, they had all been wearing victorious and wicked grins.

⠀⠀⠀Violet was in her arms which she carried to a nearby blanket, she realized this after she had laid her down. Dozens of blankets lay on the floor, some occupied by the injured and others by the dead.

⠀⠀⠀The dead.

⠀⠀⠀"NO!" a wavering scream echoed through the Hall minutes after Manon laid her down, and seconds later, Charlotte and Kate came running towards her, the latter falling to the ground in hysterical sobs and former standing shellshocked behind her.

⠀⠀⠀Manon's mind started to tune everyone out, except for her remaining friends but even they only had her partial attention. She just stared at Violet's small, smooth hand which was usually warm and used to push back loose strands framing Manon's face as she worked on her homework. It was now cold, so unfitting for a small girl who used to sprinkle life on all of them.

⠀⠀⠀The ravenette clasped her pale hand in her own, the one with her name on it, and absentmindedly ran her thumb over her knuckles, like how she would as they studied or read together.

⠀⠀⠀Unable to take anymore, Manon silently got up, ignoring all the calls after her and slipped out of the Hall. First, she went to the kitchens and stole a few bottle of firewhiskey, then memory lead her up to the Astronomy Tower.

⠀⠀⠀She planned on going drunk tonight. But it all worked in a way opposite of what she wanted. She wanted to forget and she was only being reminded, at first of all her habits that she adored and then of all the regrets she had with her.

⠀⠀⠀Manon was going to ask her out on their second date, and on the second date, she wanted to take her out on an afternoon picnic by the Black Lake. If the weather wasn't going to turn out well, she planned on using the Room of Requirement. And she was going to wear Violet to it and read her her favourite story, and eat the cream and strawberry sandwiches she loved so much with her favourite apple tea. Manon didn't even like tea, she was a coffee addict, but she was willing to switch up her habits for her.

⠀⠀⠀And now it was all gone. Like a kid who finally saved up enough to buy that toy she really wanted, but when she returned to the toy store, the toy had been sold to someone else.

⠀⠀⠀It was all so cruel, so unbelievably cruel. How could a person wish to end someone's life? Cut off the precious moments they were going to share with their loved ones, deprive someone of a regular life where they formed relationships and broke them, find happiness and joy is individually selective things, discover something new all the time, build a future together with the one person, out of millions and billions, they wanted to do it with?

⠀⠀⠀In a bittersweet moment, Manon remembered her father's words from her childhood.

⠀⠀⠀'Father, why do the best and the good always leave earlier?'

⠀⠀⠀He had smiled and said, 'When in a garden, which flowers do you pick first?'

⠀⠀⠀'The loveliest.'