Atheyas

𝖊𝖕𝖎𝖑𝖔𝖌𝖚𝖊

            "I've been told once before that when you stare into the abyss, it begins to stare back at you." He never really believed it until he visits them. He sits and stares at what's left of his prime. The shadows loom above him, concealing the tears that fall delicately on the loose soil.

             He stares at the writings on the stone in front of him. Today is their 15th heart-rending reunion. He hears their laughs echoing around him, but he can't help but rewind to the worst of his days.

              The younger Black sibling had not been easy on himself. Despite Sirius, trying his best to be there for him, Regulus refused to accept his help. To him, it was only him and Laav, till the end. He had been caught wandering around multiple times, carrying her everywhere he went. They would make trips to The Black Lake every now and then. And it came to a point where he couldn't take it anymore.

               The constant battle he fought with his emotions needed to come to an end. His feet carried him back to the cave. Unable to bear the weight of guilt and regret, he drowned himself along with her ashes. He surrendered to the never winning war. The war against his own mind. And Sirius was left with nothing more than a note on his table. Though his body was never found, he knew it was only justified for Regulus to have his own headstone. Buried beside the others.

The people he has known all his life, now no more than a stranger.

"You lost her," Harry says, breaking the silence.

"I didn't," Sirius' lips curls into a bittersweet smile. "I would have if she was mine."

He takes a deep breath and tightly clutches the two notes of his most loved ones to his chest. "She almost was but somehow, she wasn't."

And it's always the almost that hurts, doesn't it?