Vacuity (Sebastian Sallow) | on pause.

Ch 36 | He Said It

"Help! Help! The children!"

My attention span fueled over the woman yelling and instantly detached from Sebastian, pulling out my wand and running toward the injured.

"Y/n—"

"W-What—are they out?" I asked the lady, who had been Agnes Coffey's sister.

My heart was pounding as I assessed the situation, looking at the distressed expressions.

"Oh! The watering spells are not helping!" The woman cried, hands over their mouths, "Dark wizards!"

My brows furrowed, but before I could ask anything, my priorities rose to work quickly and save the children inside the burning home.

As I ran, my breath hitched over the view of the abandoned home Sebastian and I were staying at. It wasn't in flames, but the door was wide open and as I focused, dark cloaks swished over.

"Aguamenti," I attempted the incantation toward the home that once belonged to Agnes Coffey.

The water struggled to splash out the wand, but after a few seconds of concentration and intention, it shot out, bringing the fire into a disappearance.

I sunk to my knees as part of the burning roof from the home fell off, making me duck down and crawl over the ashy grass, forcing me into the home.

The temperature was scorching hot, but I projected over a protective spell as I coughed onto the fumes.

"Please, help us!"

"Oh!" I exhaled in worry, watching the surviving young kids huddled in the corner, sweating from the fire.

My hands extended, using my wand to lure over the destroyed living room, but as I did that, another piece of burning wood fell over my shoulder, causing a slash over my skin.

"Shit," I cursed out from the burning sensation, but I closed my eyes and breathed once, knowing I had innocent lives to save, "Come on...up, up,"

It took an excruciating three long minutes to escort the children safely. The screams of their mothers turned into relief.

But one child was missing. One important one.

My chest rose in and out at the entrance of that home. I began to sense a few darkening faces take sight of me from the abandoned home I was staying in and my vision flamed out from the firing smoke.

"Colin?!" I yelled out, re-entering the falling home, "Fuck, fuck...Colin?!"

"Revelio!" I screamed, throwing splashes of water through my wand as I multitasked and looked around.

"Uh...Y/n...Y-Y/n...."

I caught my own breath at the sound of a child's fainted voice from above. My body froze for a moment before I raised my head slowly and realized he was on the second floor.

"Colin? I hear you. Stay where you are." I yelled in sweat, pushing out the wood and carefully going up the stairs.

I slipped halfway over the delicate stairs, my ankle bending a little from the fall, but I screeched in the pain and crawled onto the open bedroom that was left.

Colin Coffey stood under a bed, his hands over his head while he cried and kept his eyes closed.

"Colin—" My steps froze as I saw the body of Agnes Coffey on the floor, her eyes opened widely as she held the hand of her child, "Agnes..."