Vacuity (Sebastian Sallow) | on pause.

Ch 29 | The Nightmares

Sebastian lay there sleeping on the sofa. He was a natural shuffler in bed, always trying to get comfortable, but the shuffling became more intense.

His head became tormented with dark reflections of his stay in Azkaban. How any decent sleep in there would become hell with the dementors around; he got flashes of the isolation, the cruelty, and then the harsh treatments from the Ministry itself.

"N-No," Sebastian murmured.

Y/n was a light sleeper, especially when it had only been a few hours of sleeping. Her small eyes opened slightly at the first murmur of Sebastian from afar.

Sebastian was muttering to himself in that living room, clearly disturbed by something and Y/n opened her eyes more, making sure it wasn't all in her head of what she was hearing.

"W-What?" Y/n let out, thinking Sebastian was speaking to her.

Sebastian Sallow was not speaking to Y/n. And she took notice of that as Sebastian began to shuffle more and breathe heavily.

"Sebastian?" Y/n sat down in the bed, watching him from afar in concern, waking herself up more in the process.

Sebastian began to feel triggered by the voice of a girl he loved in the fifth year. The voice the dementors would use against him to torture him. They'll use her voice in his head to haunt him.

Y/n took the mistake of standing up barefoot, beginning to inch closer to Sebastian and try to figure out what was wrong.

Sebastian brought his body up, taking a seat firmly on that sofa, and kept his head low, feeling every trigger over his mind with Y/n's voice. He couldn't initiate the nightmare within reality.

"No, go away," Sebastian warned, "Stop."

Sebastian continued to speak about whatever it was that he was experiencing in his nightmare, his voice tinged with fear and terror.

As he spoke, Y/n couldn't help but wonder what exactly it was that Sebastian was fighting within his own dreamscape. It was clear that whatever was haunting him was something deeply troubling and was keeping him in a state of pure terror even as he slept.

"Sebastian, wake up," Y/n clicked on him.

But what she did not know was that every time she spoke, it would only confuse Sebastian even more.

"Stop!" Sebastian stood up, backing away and covering his ears, "Stop talking."

Y/n seemed confused, "You're having a bad dream. Let me just—"

Y/n's voice was triggering something deeply for him in his nightmare and it was proving impossible to wake him from his troubled state.

"Shut up! Stop! I didn't do anything—I didn't mean it." Sebastian said in an almost childish voice, "Don't haunt me with her voice."

As Y/n neared more, following the sleepwalking man around the home, she finally took hold of him mid-living room and clutched his wrist.

"Sebastian,"

"GO AWAY!"

Y/n felt Sebastian's push within her. His large hand had pushed her back enough against the wall as she nearly burned her one piece on the fireplace nearby.

As that happened, Sebastian sunk to his knees on that carpet, breathing heavily. His chest rose in and out rapidly as he maintained his eyes closed.