𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 | legolas greenleaf

ᴅʏɪɴɢ

Flavia looked at her reflection in the mirror and smoothed out the invisible wrinkles on her black silk dress. She sighed at the feeling of the expensive material on her skin. She was inspecting herself when her eyes caught the beautiful crown in the reflection of the mirror, and she was forced to remember all the events that led up to that day. But one event, in particular, was playing over and over in her head. It was only fair that she remembered the most important night of her life on an important one such as this one, right?

19-year-old Flavia ran through the huge garden towards the seemingly endless darkness. Giggles escaped her mouth as a boy not so older than she chased her. "Come on Flavia, grandma is waiting for us in the ball room! You know how much she hates it when we're late". The last rays of the sun shined on her golden locks as she ran. Her parents named her Flavia because of her hair. She remembered when she was a small child and her mother would explain why they had named her so.

"Golden one, it means my little Flavia" her mother used to coo her. "A fitting name for my little golden princess." 

She didn't seem out of breath as she ran, probably because of the countless hours she spent practising with her broom, or her beloved horse Lucis. A smile graced her features as she thought of the pure white steed.

Now the crown was in her hands, waiting to be put on her simple but regally styled hair. She admired the crown for a few minutes. It was her favourite.

The crown was made of gold but was coloured black. It was adorned in blood-red rubies symbolising the nation she ruled, and emeralds because she took great pride in her Hogwarts house. Of course, it had nothing to do with the compliments she got because the emeralds were matching her eyes excellently.

She slowed down a bit. "You can go, Tim, I'll be joining you in a few minutes. I just want to take a little walk" she said looking over her shoulder. "Like I am going to leave you alone here when I know it is going to be dark so soon. And you can't be late for a ball that is thrown for you! Come on, let's go back inside." he had scoffed.

The girl stopped completely and turned to look at him "I am serious Tim. Go back. I need to be at least 5 minutes late to make my grand entrance anyway. Don't worry about me."

Tim opened his mouth to object but gave a sigh instead "There is no point arguing with you, right?" She smiled cheekily "Nope, absolutely none." He turned around to leave and took a few long strides but started talking while turning his head "Don't be t-" She was nowhere to be found. "Don't be too late?" he said to no one in particular while shaking his head.

She inspected her eyes in the mirror. It almost made her laugh that these eyes were the same eyes that looked at him, the same eyes that shone with laughter when she was with him.

The same eyes that watched the life fade away from his, a cruel voice whispered in her head. Except, they weren't. These eyes didn't shine with laughter. The eyes that stared back at her in her reflection were cold and void of emotion.

After seeing that Tim was no longer in sight, she got out of her hiding place-which was just a tall statue- and ran towards the forest. Now the sun was nowhere to be found and the darkness of the night started creeping over the day. One by one the lamps in the garden started to shine.

She knew she had to be quick if she didn't want to be seen. Once she stepped into the forest, she stopped running. Instead, she was walking calmly while going deeper and deeper into the forest until she reached the small clearing she had found as a child.

The leaves of the tall trees blocked away any light provided by the bright lights that shone from the manor. "This is way better than all those stuck up women in the ball room," she thought, finally in peace with the darkness surrounding her. She carefully sat down on a fallen tree trunk.