CURSED: FROM THE BEGINNING [D.M]

-(67) both tainted souls

"Where is Draco?"

"I thought he always used to come to you for the night."

"He didn't this time."

"What-"

She pushes past her and walks in, following her instincts and going straight into Draco's bedroom, turning the lights on. And all of Zilliah's senses go into high alarm as she sees him, shrunk up in the corner, shaking and crying. He looks up at her but his eyes are bloodshot, lifeless. He drops his head back in between his knees and continues to quiver, as if he doesn't even recognise her. She can hear her heart drop at it.

"Draco?", Narcissa gasps as her eyes come to rest on his pitiable figure. She turns to Zilliah, shocked and confused. "How did he-"

"You didn't see him? You didn't hear him?", Zilliah's rage threatens to consume her as she glares at the woman before her.

Narcissa brings her hand to her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. "I didn't. I swear, I thought he-"

"Out", she bellows, not wanting to hear any reason, pushing her out of the room. Narcissa's face pains further at it but she doesn't resist it. She tumbles into Theseus who stands just beside the door, his eyes fixed curiously on Draco as if he is seeing something so foreign. But Zilliah doesn't allow either of them another look at him as she shuts the door in their faces and locks it, quickly making her way over to him.

She kneels down before him, touching his hands that rest on his legs. "Draco", she calls softly, making him snap his head up.

The tears in her ever beloved eyes makes her want to tear the whole damn world apart.  Because when he looks at her, it's with nothing but an unbearable amount of sadness in him and it breaks her wholly. Like she always does, she wraps her hands around his head, making to pull him into her chest. But this time, he resists, croaking out words of protest, his voice barely even audible.

"Draco", she mumbles, bringing her hands to his face and cupping his cheeks. He flinches at that touch and swats her hands away and her heart aches all the more at it. "It's okay. It's just me", she says, her voice breaking and her tears falling as she senses how much he's hurting right now.

"Leave." His voice is so small, so weak and so vulnerable, that it pokes a thousand thorns into her chest.

"I'm not going to leave you, Draco", she says, trying her hardest to hold him but he just keeps pushing her away, not even letting their eyes meet. It's like he is doing everything he can to shut her out. Like he thinks he doesn't deserve to be comforted by her. But if he thinks she would just leave him like that, then he has never really understood her. "Please", she whispers to him, praying to every entity in existence to make him understand that he needs her right now. "Please let me hold you."

Draco shakes his head violently, like he cannot even let her touch him for some reason that is beyond her understanding.

"It's just me, Draco", she says over and over again, trying her hardest to drill that into his head.  But with every single one of her attempts, he blocks her out even more. "Why won't you let me hold you?", she asks, feeling more and more deflated as the seconds pass.