Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Forty-Nine: Paralyzed

It was Anne, Ominis or Poppy.

I knew it wasn't the latter two options. Though in my rage I figured they had better consider themselves lucky I wasn't accusing them of turning him in.

"Abbi, she loves you. Please, let's just pause to think about this-"

"I don't believe it," I hissed. "Anne hasn't so much as tolerated me for years. Come with me if you want, but you aren't going to stop me. He won't rot in there."

As I said it, my magic twisted uncomfortably inside of me, painful and cold, used elsewhere. He was trying to use it, and I knew in my bones it wasn't working.

He didn't have enough.

Neither of my friends moved. Poppy staring at me with her wide brown eyes, Ominis wringing his hands, anxious to pace by the look on his face. The twisting of emotion inside of me clenched its dark claws on my heart. Poppy looked torn, her head whipping between myself and Ominis at the doorway, pain across her features.

"Really?" I demanded, my glare icy as I removed my eyes from Poppy and squared in on Ominis. "Your best friend, and you're just going to let him go there?"

Ominis stayed silent for a moment, gaping at me, his mouth falling open and closed as he started to say something and stopped himself, gaping like a fish out of water.

I scoffed, pushing roughly past Ominis.

My shoulder made rough contact with his, shunting him out of the way of the door, my anger boiling in my chest, through every inch of my body. I looked down as my hand wrapped around the handle of the door, and felt a blind hope fill my mind.

Glowing red magic was slowly pooling into my palm. Powerful, desperate to be used, and the next best chance at rescuing Sebastian.

"Ominis," I said, my eyes not moving from the magic in my hands. "I never would have thought it would be you that broke Sebastian's heart."

Ominis narrowed his eyes at me, his chest puffing pompously as he spoke next, but unable to fully hide the hurt my words caused him. "If you aren't careful about what you do in the next few hours, it will be you who breaks it, not me. Do you really want to do that again?"

I didn't bother to reply as I exited through the door to my room, slamming it shut behind me as I went, the remnants of my broken heart left behind with them.

My eyes were set on the Floo Station at the end of the hall, its green flame flickering invitingly. I ran forward, wand in one hand, the other outstretched and shouted my destination as soon as the flames licked my exposed fingertips. Sucked up and away, the air stolen from my lungs, I found it didn't bother me as much as it used to. I was comfortable in the darkness, the wight of the compression similar for once to the weight on my soul.

Too soon the air of Feldcroft filled my nostrils, fresh coastal air filling my lungs, the wind whipping around me as frost kissed the ground and my boot tips as I immediately rushed forward.

I didn't look back at the entrance to the catacomb where I had landed. I could feel the anger pulsing in myself and in the air, but when I forced myself to focus on the feelings, I realized how little time I had. Sebastian's magic was slowing in alarming rapidity in my veins, freezing in place, weak and drained.

He was in Azkaban by now, being forced to relive the worst moments of his life.

I didn't want to know how many of them involved me.

The frozen grass crumbled to pieces under my feet as I ran, the fields rolling before me as I saw small windows approach, their warm candle glow inviting me inside. My eyes were locked on the pitch black void at the far end of the village.

The small home in the hamlet of Feldcroft was dark when I arrived, my breathing ragged, the stitch in my side burning, but my eyes locked on the door.

It was late, the moon high in the cold winter sky, my heart thumping wildly in my chest as I pictured Anne behind that door, sleeping peacefully in her bed as her brother was carted off to the worst place this world had to offer.

Anne Sallow needed to pay for what she had done, and I intended to collect that debt. Ominis surly expected I would do so, and I knew his fear was that he would witness my murder of Anne. He thought too little of me, in any case. Always had, if he thought I would do that to Sebastian. I didn't want to end her life. Murder was too simple an end for someone who could so easily send their brother to the Dementors. She needed to suffer the horrible reality she created, and death was too easy an out.

I would get what I needed and she would never see him again, just like she wanted.

I found as I raised my hand that I didn't need my wand to break down the door.

The magic erupted from the palm of my hand, blood red and violent, snapping the door from its hinges. The loud noise echoed through the peaceful hamlet, reverberating around in my head as I walked forward numbly, intent only on the hurt and suffering I was feeling well inside my chest with each passing moment.

I entered the home, expecting to find the Sallow twin cowering in a corner, from my abrupt entrance, aware that she was about to pay for her betrayal. Instead, I found her tied to her dining room chair, a small trickle of blood coming from her mouth, her head rolled forward, eyes half closed.

Panic instantly flooded my heart, momentarily drowning out the anger I felt previous. If Anne was bound, then it wasn't her who'd done this, and I had rushed off and pissed off the only help that I actually had.

Looking at her, small and frail, defenseless, I found I didn't care if it was a trap.

"Anne!" I shouted, my voice cracking and painful as I ran into the home, not even stopping to check for anyone in the small home.

The voice sounded from the corner of the room, just as I was seconds from touching Anne. I jumped whirling around, my magic still flaring, the tendrils still seeping around the room. Marvolo Gaunt sat in Sebastian's bed, his back propped against the wall, his handsome features twisted up into a smile.

"She won't wake."

One hand hand clenched around my wand, the other on Anne's shoulder. I held my wand pointed directly at his chest. 

"Why not?" I demanded, my voice shaking slightly. 

"I won't let her. Look closely."

I turned back to her, taking in her appearance in greater detail. I gingerly touched her face, cradling her cheeks in both of my hands. It was obvious immediately what he meant.

Her eyes were glowing the same ghostly green Ominis's had, and that the Keepers currently had if I went to the Map Chamber. Green, empty voids, that stared blankly as I shook her head in my hands. My heart shattered as I took her in, my hands shaking, refusing to believe what I was seeing before my own eyes. 

"Let her go," I demanded, not looking away from her eyes, hating what I saw in them. He had no right to do this to her, to hold this power over her.

"Isn't that what you were also going to come here to do?" Marvolo asked, amusement in his voice. I hated the way his oily voice sounded against my ears, hated the way he was right, and how he so casually spoke to me about the horrible things I was planning to do. 

The thing was, those were my horrible things to do; not his. 

He had no right. 

"You don't get to touch anyone," I said, standing rigid and turning to him again slowly, my wand still pointed at his chest. "What do you want with her?" 

"With her? Nothing. Couldn't care less. It's you, Abigail, that I want."