In the Shadow of Darkness | Sebastian Sallow

Prologue

Sebastian sat up in a cold sweat, the nightmare—the memory of what he'd done—still clear in his mind. He must have moaned, or yelled, or made some noise, because he heard Ominis stir nearby.

"Sebastian?" The other boy asked sleepily.

"I'm...fine," he lied before lying back down, staring at the canopy above him.

A soft snore from the other bed told him that Ominis had already fallen back asleep.

He sighed shakily. Clarity had slowly come back to him over the past few days, and with it, the emotions...and the grief. What was that saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Maybe this wasn't hell, he thought, but it sure was close.

His uncle was dead. His sister hadn't answered any of his letters since that night in the catacombs. With no other family, he felt so alone. Ominis had kept his distance all through their O.W.L.s, and...

Then there was her. Ominis had wanted to turn him into the authorities, but somehow and for some reason, she had convinced his oldest friend otherwise. He didn't know what possessed her to believe in him, but he knew he didn't deserve it. His desperation to cure Anne had taken him too far, and he would have to live with that for the rest of his life. When they had finally spoken in the Undercroft after the end of year feast, she had told him she supported him and then, quite surprisingly, threw her arms around him before promising to write over the summer.

He sobbed quietly, knowing he didn't deserve anyone as good as her. He wished he could talk to his sister about it and she would have some sort of solution to make it better in the end—wishing he could hug her close like he had when they were young children and fall asleep to the sound of a heartbeat he'd known since before they were born. He felt like half of him was gone forever.

Wiping the tears, he drew a deep breath, making a decision. Quietly, he climbed out of bed, being careful to close the door on his way out of the dorm room, and made his way down to the common room. Once there, he grabbed a quill and three pieces of parchment. He wrote three letters, two of them nearly identical. The third, much longer, included another apology to Anne for everything and a promise that he would always love her, no matter what.

Sealing the three messages in envelopes, he looked around the common room on last time before heading toward exit to do what had to be done.