The Chain|Regulus Black

War cry

"Watch your hands." Regulus snapped as Alec ran his wand over his bruised ribs. Alec, despite the ache in his chest, scoffed.

"Please, do I look like Zenith?"

"I suppose not." Regulus smirked uneasily, stiffening again when the wand jabbed deep between his ribs "Merlin fuck."

"Well, this is what happens when you blow up a three-storey building. Whilst you're inside it."

"At least you can never call me boring. We had Death Eaters in there we had to release, it was the most pragmatic solution."

"It also made the most attention. It's in the Prophet, He isn't exactly shrieking with joy."

Regulus opened his mouth to retort, only to quickly snap it shut.

Obedience.

After a few minutes, the sharp twinges in his ribs began to dilute, the bruising blending back into untouched skin. Running his fingers along his side, it was tender but bearable. Perhaps the best way to describe the past few months.

Alec held his wand between his teeth as he pulled up his sleeve to see to his own wounds when Regulus noticed the red vine like scars winding up his forearm.

"Since when were you in the business of Unbreakable vows?" But Alec didn't answer, instead, he tended to the gash across his arm, his brows furrowed in concentration and in avoiding the question. "You know, just because you won't speak doesn't mean Leo won't either, or Evelyn for that matter."

"Evelyn is putting her mouth to other uses." It was remarks like that which made Regulus feel like he was still in school. That he could laugh, close his eyes and Delilah would come skipping down the hallway, Evelyn in hand with devious grins. Her arms would wrap around him, pulling him back against her chest.

In those moments he felt like floating, like simply falling into her was the best thing in the world. That no feeling could best the idea of collapsing into his dearest lover. Glancing past Alec, he could see her standing there, all smart and correct in her Ravenclaw uniform, her socks already slipping down her thighs. But the smile, that stupid smile was the same, the simple shrug of her shoulders, she still bit her lip the same when he had thought of her.

You always did like my hands around you.

Regulus would answer back if Alec weren't there. Because he couldn't exactly ignore her. And that's how it had been since he had killed her. She would appear at possibly the worst times, when he was on a mission, when he was surrounded by Death Eaters, in meetings, in bed. The worst was only recently, in Diagon Alley, he had stopped in front of the ice cream parlour he took her to. Inside, a girl, and for a moment his heart stopped.

But she turned around and of course, it wasn't Delilah. And something about that made him furious, how dare she be somewhere other than here. The irony being he sent her to the other realm, it was by his wand, his spell, his absolute desire to possess her entirely in that he killed her as to stop him hurting her anymore.

So, he grabbed the girl in the ice cream parlour, he dragged her out to the alley and he did the only thing he knew he was capable of at that moment.

He tortured her.

Her blood splattered up the stone walls like vicious shadows, and her screams, Merlin she screamed her throat sore. And her cheeks were soaked with tears and he didn't feel a thing when she recognised him from school. He didn't feel a thing when she said that he had tutored her in potions, he didn't feel a thing until he glanced up and that stupid fucking hallucination of the only thing he's ever loved stood behind this bloodied girl.