twisted

fourteen

lorenzo birkshire

My eyes jolted open as I sprang up from the bed. I had just had a nightmare.

My breathing staggered, my heart racing. I rarely got nightmares anymore, so I wasn't used to the feeling.

I looked to my right and saw Onyx sleeping, and then remembered where I was.

I softened and sighed in relief as I looked to my left and saw Lucille curled up in a ball, her back facing me, her hair glistening in the moonlight, flowing down her back.

I smiled softly to myself and lay back down, as I started to calm myself by breathing deeply.

I could handle some nightmares, but when it was people I cared about dying in them I always got extremely nervous.

Why was it that when people die in dreams it felt so real?

I closed my eyes and inhaled sharply, taking time to let the oxygen seep into my lungs before releasing.

I tried to remember my dream as vividly as I could.

In my dream, Mumsy had died.

—

The Dark Lord had dragged our family out of the Manor, bringing us to a forest filled with muggles and muggle-borns who weren't cooperating with him.

He had given me the Dark Mark. Thank Merlin it was just a dream.

In the forest were people of all ages - from two years old, I assumed, to seventy years old. Mothers were hushing their sobbing kids, middle-aged men and women were with their wives or spouses, crying silently - the elderly nervously waiting for something to come.

He had ordered us to ask the muggles and muggle-borns one last time if they would cooperate, and if they didn't, to kill them.

Draco and I had stood there, frozen-stiff, watching other Death Eaters kill with no remorse.

Our wands in hand, we stood dead still.

"Lor-. Lorenzo, we're going to die if we don't do this," Draco choked back a sob.

I had looked at him, my eyes welling up with tears. "I know."

Mumsy was walking slowly around, pretending to be looking around for Lucius. I had seen him around, killing people with no mercy.

Draco watched her, and I saw a tear rolling down his cheek. He was scared. Scared for his mother more than he was scared for himself.

"I'm not killing anyone, Lorenzo. I can't do it," He had said.

I nodded and stared off at the destruction that came before me. Little children were screaming, dying. Teenagers and adults were begging for their lives, begging to be spared. But these people - they people that I had now had to call my kind - they had no mercy. Most of them weren't even being forced to do this - they enjoyed this. They enjoyed their power.

Mumsy found Draco and me and started to approach the two of us, but I looked over to see the Dark Lord walking straight towards Mumsy.