Cursed

10

*This continues on from Sal's P.O.V where his last chapter (chapter 8) left off*

*Really unedited*

At the sound of the knocking, Salvatore felt his entire body tense; unable to believe what he was hearing.

He didn't move from his seat though, instead he just looked up at Evanora, who sat smirking across from him. Her dark eyes glinted mischievously as she absentmindedly traced patterns on the table. Waiting to see what he would do next. Before he could even decide to stand up, the knocking sound came once more. That time everyone paid careful attention to it, listening in hushed anticipation. It was three quick and precise raps that sounded more as if someone were testing the quality of the door rather than asking for an invitation for entry.

Quickly, Salvatore deflated as he realised where the sound was actually coming from.

All heads turned to the right side of the table where Big Foot 2.0 was sitting, knuckles posed over the hard wood of the dining table as he stared intensely at the surface. As if sensing all their gazes he looked up, the hair that covered where his mouth should be moulding into something that resembled a sheepish smile.

"Sorry," his deep voice muttered gruffly, "I was just trying to figure out what type of wood this was. Oak?"

Instead of replying Salvatore just stared at him in disbelief, unsure of what exactly he could say. He didn't know, nor did he actually care what the table was made of, he just wanted to know why Evanora was still looking at him as if she was two seconds away from jumping up and yelling 'surprise!'

As if he understood that it was unlikely for him to receive a response, Big Foot 2.0 slowly retracted his hand and returned to sitting stoically at the table while everyone else turned their attention back to Salvatore.

"That's rough, man, I totally thought that your girlfriend had come back," Frog boy commented in what Salvatore guessed was a sympathetic tone, though it was hard to tell. He wasn't quite sure what frogs sounded like when they tried to be sympathetic. Though, he sounded less croaky and more human in that moment, making his tone seem quite genuine.

"She's not my girlfriend," he responded in a voice dangerously low and devoid of emotion. "I barely even know her."

"Oh so you're taking things slow," Frog boy nodded in misplaced understanding, "I can respect that."

Salvatore considered clarifying that there wasn't a 'thing' to be taken slowly but decided that the effort would be a waste of energy. Instead he just shook his head and stood up, the scraping of his chair against the floor incredibly loud in comparison to the awkward silence emanating from the people in the room.

"I'll be right back," he lied as he turned to leave the room, not really interested in further conversation with the crowd of people who were possibly more off-putting than he was. An idea that should have made him feel slightly better about himself but, in reality, didn't really contribute towards anything.

He silently made his way down the corridor towards where the library was. Dust lined the walls, gathering where expensive paintings and expertly taken family photos once hung. He eyed the once cream coloured walls, now greying as a result of neglect, and tried to remember why exactly everything went to hell. The memory itself wasn't hard to recall but actually playing it out in his mind was where the difficulty began, he didn't particularly enjoy dwelling on it. It was almost like a secret he was trying to keep from himself; skilfully locking it away whenever his conscious mind came close to it.

He stretched out his fingers and let them slide across the walls, the mindlessly therapeutic feeling of the rough surface overpowering the knowledge that fluffy piles of dust were building up under his fingertips. The marks left behind broke the dusty sheath, looking as if an animal had angrily dragged it's claws over the wall. The realisation made him pull back, almost too quickly, as if the wall itself had bitten him. He shook his hand free of the dust as if it would corrode his skin.