desiderium | t. riddle

xii. veiled demons

So, he lifted his free hand and dragged his forefinger across the hidden black branches of her wrist, muttering 'lacero' under his breath. A shallow slit followed the path his finger had taken, and black droplets sprouted in notes along it. Riddle's eyes narrowed. It was like nothing he had ever seen before.

Now it was Evangeline's turn to curl her fingers venomously around his wrist. Whatever fog that had been subduing her for the past few seconds seemed to have disappeared the moment Tom broke skin. Her lips had stiffened and her eyes turned stoic as he looked back to her.

Then, before he could say anything, or explain himself, — though how he might do that, even Tom didn't know — or even collect the blood for investigation as he'd planned on doing, there was an incantation of 'afflicto' and a loud crack!

Riddle looked down in horrified agony to see the wrist that had been holding Eva's completely bent out of place. Eva didn't let go of his broken limb, pulling it closer with an uncharacteristically strong grip. Tom looked her in the eyes, and had to keep himself from flinching away in surprise when he saw whorls of inky black swirling in the grey irises.

She looked nothing short of murderous as she whispered in a voice shaking with fury, "Stick your nose where it doesn't belong one more time, Riddle, and I'll do much worse."

He watched with wide eyes as the hints of ebony in her glare subdued and she walked out of the room without another word, cutting their time together short.

It wasn't the broken wrist that bothered him. No, it was the ease and apathy with which she had done it, and the reflection of that exact quality he knew resided in himself. 

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Serpens walked at a brisk, tempered pace all the way to Ravenclaw Tower, the sounds of her own furious breathing roaring in her ears.

By the time she had reached her own dorm, her rage at Riddle's blatant display of entitlement and callousness had calmed and her thoughts quieted just enough for her to hear over them. Eva almost wished they hadn't, however, when she heard the familiar sounds of retching coming from the lavatory.

Disturbed, she glanced at the clock above the door to the four girls' shared washroom to see that it was still only three in the morning. She hesitated for a considerable amount of time before decidedly walking over to the washroom

 and knocking softly.

The muffled heaving paused and Evangeline watched, apprehensive, as the crack of light coming from below the door moved slowly.

"What is it?" Cassi's voice emerged hoarsely, confirming Eva's suspicions. She continued to tread with caution.

"It's Evangeline ... may I come in?" She had never done anything like this, didn't even know what it was she was dealing with, but knew nothing could be helped with hushed voices subdued by wooden doors.

The sound of a toilet flushing, a heavy sigh, and then footsteps, before the door creaked open, allowing the Ravenclaw to slip in, quickly to maintain discretion with the two other girls sleeping in the dorm.

In the almost unbearable fluorescence of the lavatory lights, Eva could see that Cassi's eyes were spiked with red and her mouth wet with saliva. Her hair was tied hastily back into a hybrid between a low ponytail and bun and her clothes hung over her figure like a comfortless blanket. She looked horrible, tired, as if she was deteriorating and letting it happen, even egging it on, until it got to the point that she simply disappeared.

Before Eva could say anything, Cassi spoke up. Her words were cracked, almost silent, as if she wanted them to disappear, too. "You have it, too, don't you?"

Evangeline didn't know what Cassi was talking about, but thought 'no' was definitely not the answer her friend needed at the moment. So she kept quiet, and Cassi seemed to take this as a 'yes'.

"But you're trying to get better? You ate bread the other day?" Her tone turned desperate as she interrogated Eva again. It became shockingly clear to her that Cassi needed this, very bad. She didn't know why, or what was happening anymore than she had known when she was outside the washroom, but she knew she needed to do this for Cassi.

Coming from heaven, she had never seen anyone so torn apart, so self-loathing, so done. And, as unkind as it might sound, there was nothing pretty about what was happening to Cassi. It was like a monster, eating her up from the inside, rotting her entire body, and looting titanic shards of her life away from her, leaving sharp, bloodsucking edges in its wake.

Cassi must have decided to give her hope the benefit of the doubt, because she took the silence as a 'yes' again. "Is it working?"

Cassi needed her to show her a way out, Eva realized. Whatever terrible thing was happening was to her, Cassi thought Eva was fighting it and could help her fight it, too.

So Eva decided to really give her the answer she needed this time. "Yes ... and you can ... get better too."

She knew it was stupid, trying to help her with so many missing puzzle pieces, but it had to be done. She had to try. Especially after seeing the minute lift in Cassi's pale eyelashes at her response.

"And I'll help you, in the morning. But... I think it's best if we both go to bed right now. You really look like you need some rest, Cassi." She continued, forging false confidence into her words, praying with everything inside of her that they wouldn't remain empty for much longer.

Looking slightly hopeful, but no less sick, Cassi nodded and acquiesced, pulling her hair out of its jumbled tie as she exited the washroom and climbed into bed.

When Eva caught sight again of the bones of Cassi's spine jutting out through the back of her nightclothes in a trail of erratic hills, she promised to herself that she would do everything in her power to crush whatever cruelty was attacking her pale-haired friend. 

a/n: this chapter's pretty short and took a long time to write because, i have to admit, it was very hard to write. this is for multiple reasons that i think need to be said. i don't ever want to glorify anorexia or bulimia. i've seen so so so many fics, books, and films that show people struggling with disordered eating to be sweet, skinny little angels that refuse the second slice of cake at birthday parties. it is for this reason that i'm not writing an mc with an eating disorder and i'm not writing cassi's spiral into it, only her recovery. you might notice i'm also not describing her illness to be very pretty because, trust me, in real life it isn't. i didn't expect writing her character to be easy, and want to be held responsible for any mistakes i make while writing her, so please comment as soon as you notice anything wrong with how her illness is portrayed. thank you for reading and i love you all so much, please take care of yourselves <3