"You could have done anything else." I hissed, looking directly into Mark's cold eyes. "You could have refused to do it. You could have been brave. You know what grief is like. Didn't you think about how Kayley's mother would suffer?"
Mark's eyes flashed with anger. "I did what I had to do." he said coldly. "I wanted my daughter back. Do you think I wanted the Dark Lord to kill her? I would do anything to bring her back. Wouldn't you do the same for your parents?"
His words had struck a chord within me. Of course I wanted them back. I couldn't remember them, I only had pictures and imagination to build an image of them in my mind. If it was possible for them to be back to life... I would do anything.
"See, Aurora?" Mark whispered. "Me and you. We're the same."
I struck Mark across the face, a red mark pulsing on his cheek. "We are not the same." I spat, my voice shaking. "You are a murderer and a liar! And it's not possible to bring back the dead, even I know that!"
"He promised me I'd see my daughter again, don't you understand that?" Mark hissed, angry tears budding in his eyes.
"And you will." I said firmly. "When you die. Just like when I die, I know my parents will be waiting for me."
Mark smirked. "What's so funny?" I questioned.
"That's where the two of us are different, I suppose." He smirked. "I'm loyal until there's no reason to be loyal. You're brave to the point of pure insanity."
"Well I've never killed anybody." I hissed.
"Oh, but I'm sure that I'm your first victim, right?" Mark said, his eyes glinting in my direction. "I'm right, aren't I? I see that darkness in your eyes, it's always been there... right from when you were a baby."
A shiver went up my spine. "You don't know the first thing about me."
"But you're going to." Mark said in a superior tone. "I was always good at reading people in school, even James agreed. I was always the smart one, helping them...."
My mind flickered with an idea. There was one way of making him suffer without killing him. I could do what Cameron had did to Cole, cause Mark the pain he deserved.
"But you weren't smart enough to keep a wand." I said quickly. "Cr--"
"Expelliarmus!" Mark shouted, and he thrust a wand out of his pocket. My wand went soaring out of my hand, landing at the foot of the wardrobe.
I scrambled towards it, needing any form of defence against this monster. But rough hands grabbed at my hair, a scream of terror escaping my lips. With my eyes watering and hair falling out in clumps around me, I kicked out at Mark, hitting him where it hurt.
My body hit the floor, and I started to crawl across the floor, desperate for any chance of escapism. But then hands were on my body, dragging me to my feet. "NO!" I screamed. "You let go of me!"
But Mark didn't listen to my screams. His fingers dug into my arms, and with one swift movement, shoved me against the attic wall. The force of his impact made me fall onto the floor, slightly dazed.
My hands continued to fight and struggle, but Mark had grabbed the old Christmas lights. He was wrapping them around my body as if I was an alive Christmas tree ready for a sick present of his. Still, I continued to struggle, until I was tied to one of the large support beams of the attic.
"So you kept one." I said through gritted teeth. "How wonderful."
Mark stroked his wand lovingly. "Yes, I did. Just in case a situation like this ever arose."
"So what, am I going to be your second victim?" I snarled. "Couldn't stick to killing one teenager?"
Mark didn't answer. "You'd best not struggle. Otherwise we'll never get to use those Christmas lights again."
This was it, I was going to die. Despite Mark's lack of response, I knew he was going to kill me. Why wouldn't he? I had exposed his lies to his family, and the only thing standing inbetween him and his dead daughter.
"Did you ever care about me?" I asked quietly, a broken note hitting my voice.
Mark finally looked at me. "I was furious when Dumbledore told us to keep you." He sat in front of me, examining me like I was a experiment to observe. "But I couldn't refuse him on the spot, as he didn't know I was on the Dark Lord's side. So I planned to take you to the nearest orphanage."
"But you didn't."
"Thank Jenna." Mark said through pursed lips. "She said it was a second chance, something that we could get right this time. I suppose it helped you looked the spitting image of our dead daughter."
"Why do I look like her?" I asked quietly.
"Did you know that there are seven people in the world who look exactly like you?" Mark said curiously. "And apparently we walk past three murderers in our lifetime."
"Well that's true." I said venomously. "So really, did you ever care?"
"After it became clear that Jenna was attracted, I simply pretended you were Robyn." Mark said simply. "There was no hope at getting her back, so I thought I was stuck with her double. But Aurora, where do you think the nickname Rory came from?"
I felt slightly sick. "You only called me that because it sounded like Robyn a little bit?" I shook my head in disbelief. "I just thought that you'd picked it up from my parents."
"I didn't see them after I dropped out of Hogwarts, not really." Mark said, his eyes lost in memory. "But if I remember rightly, you and your brother were born in the same hospital as Robyn."
"He won't bring her back." I said harshly. "Neither will my parents, or Kayley. That's life Mark, and you have to accept that they aren't coming back!"
"But we can meet them." Mark said slowly, a mad glint appearing in his eyes. "A fire, created to kill just the two of us."
"What about your whole master plan to get Robyn back?" I said, my voice shaking.
"I've failed her, and I've failed Jenna as well." Mark said bitterly. "But I can do one good thing, and that is to rid the world of both of us. No pain, no guilt, no grief... Would that be so bad, Aurora?"
"You're mental."
"I know." Mark said calmly. "But that won't matter for very long. Neither will the darkness slowly surrounding you."
I felt sick, nervous and guilty all at the same time, rushing over me in a tidal wave. Why did I come here? I was going to be killed, by the one man who had destroyed my life. I had wanted revenge, it had been my only thought over the holidays.
But what about Harry, Gennie, Cole and my other friends? I hadn't told them where I was going. If I was going to die.... they'd never see me again. They wouldn't see me as I was. They would just see me, mad.
Because I was mad, wasn't I? I had been considering killing him. I may have loathed Mark with every bone inside my body, but what about Hollie, Jenna and Lacey? They still loved him in some way. And I would be tearing their family apart.
And did that make me any different from Voldemort?
"Inciendo!" Mark shouted, pointing his wand at the Christmas tree. It burst into flames, shocking me. I didn't think he'd actually set anything on fire.
He started walking calmly and collectively around the room, setting fire to various items. "See, Aurora?" he hissed. "Memories deserve to be destroyed, they are painful and deserved to be erased."
His words fuelled me on to try and escape the bounds of lights tied around my body. My hands scrabbled on the wood floor, trying to find anything to cut myself freee. I felt a small prick of pain on my finger.
I recoiled in delight, realising that it was a weapon. With my frantic hands feeling around the weapon, I came to the conclusion that it was the blunt knife that I used for my Mulan outfit when I was six.
My hands wrapped around it, and with great difficulty, I managed to saw my way through the majoirty of the lights, which were actually quite flimsy in themselves.
The only problem was how I was going to escape now. I had the power to escape, I just needed Mark distracted enough to let me run.
The heat was starting to fill up in the attic, debrie beginning to fall as it burnt. Mark was staring intently at something that was on fire. Now was my chance.
Slowly, I got to my feet, knife clutched in hand. "You see, Aurora? I erased your memories because they lead to destructive things."
"You messed with my head, you bastard!" I shouted, and as he turned around I flung the knife straight at him.
He screamed as it struck his shoulder, sticking there. Not taking the time to admire my handiwork, I dashed across the attic, picking my wand up with one fluid motion.
"You dare try to injure me?" Mark hissed as he yanked the knife out from his shoulder. "Don't try to avoid your fate, Aurora. It will always get you. The plan was for us both to die, remember?"
My eyes darted around for a weapon in the burning inferno of the attic. The heat and smoke was rising, making me panic and the urge to escape rose in me. My hands darted out, and I grabbed an old lamp.
"I wouldn't know." I hissed. "You wiped my memories."
I twirled the lamp in my hands clumsily, the top catching on fire. It was unintentional, but effective. I waved it like a torch in Mark's face as I stumbled backwards through the smoke.
I could hardly see Mark through the smoke. He was a ghostly outline, a nightmare ready to strike. Tilting my head behind, I saw that the attic door glowing like a beacon of light.
Abandoning all attempts of caution, I flung the lamp to the floor, and ran for the exit. Not looking back or taking care on the dangerous stairs, I flew down the stairs, missing the final two.
"Rory!"
I could see Lacey running up the stairs, looking half-crazed. Jenna was entering the house behind her, screaming her daughter's name.
"I'm okay!" I yelled, pausing in the brief moment of safety. "Just get outside!"
Suddenly, my hair was pulled at from behind, propelling me backwards. I let out a scream, and began to struggle as Mark's arms went around me.
"NO!" I screamed, thrashing in his arms. "Let me GO!"
I flipped my head around. Mark was covered in smoke, his clothes were singed and his shoulder wound was openly bleeding. Smoke and bright burning light could be seen coming from the attic.
He started dragging me backwards, into the fray of the attic's destruction. "MARK!" a voice screamed.
Mark paused, and so did I. Jenna had reached where we were, just a few feet away. "Let her go." Jenna whispered. "Stop this madness."
Mark shook his head. "She is the reason our daughter is dead!" he screamed. "She's the reason our life is a living hell!"
"No!" Jenna screamed. "It is Voldemort's fault! Not Rory's. Please, not her."
"It has to be this way!" Mark shouted. "She has to die, and then we get Robyn back."
"Robyn is dead." Jenna whispered. "But we raised Rory as our own. Can't you just let her go? Save a life instead of destroying it."
"Say you love me." Mark whispered.
"What?" Jenna asked, flabbergasted.
"Tell me you love me, and I'll let her go."
Jenna shook her head. "I can't. You've destroyed everything we stood for, the second you revealed you were still working for him."
Mark shook his head. "Then she and I will both die."
Mark began to drag me up the rickety stairs, and the heat began to grow more intense by the second. I tried to struggle, but Mark's arms were hard and unmoving. This was it. I was going to die.
"NO!" Jenna screamed. I flipped my head around, just as she reached for my hand. I grabbed onto it, and Jenna pulled with all her might.
For a few moments, Jenna and Mark were suspended in a silent tug-of war match with me, but Jenna had a determination that Mark lacked. He loosened his grip for half a second, but it was enough.
I tumbled from his grip, crashing down the last few of the stairs. I barely had a few moments to be in shock, as Lacey grabbed me. "It's okay." she mumbled into my hair. "Everything is okay."
Still in a daze, I looked up, to see Jenna fighting against Mark with her fists as the fire grew closer. Mark kept screaming my name, screaming that I had to die. But Jenna kept pushing and fighting, and then--everything broke.
Jenna's strength had been pushed to it's limits, and so had the stairs, as the fire crept over their feet. She had shoved herself against Mark to keep him away from me, and in that moment of one weight hitting another, the stair support had collapsed.
Cracks appeared all at once, and the ground swallowed up the two of them. "NO!" Lacey screamed.
I scrambled to my feet. "They'll be okay!" I shouted to her. "They'll come out in the living room!"
With the heat racing down the stairs towards us, I grabbed Lacey's hand, and we started to run. Dazed and coughing, we stumbled down the stairs, unsure of what was happening.
We burst into the living room, the place where everything had began, bracing ourselves for the worse. And the worst is what we saw.
A gaping hole was in the ceiling, and fire and smoke was creeping around the top, eager to destroy. Debrie and dust and blood danced across the floor, making patterns next to the two people in the middle of the floor.
Jenna was in Mark's lap, her neck at a strange angle. Her green eyes were staring at me without any emotion, just a sudden blankness. She was still.
Mark was sobbing over her, looking almost human. He looked up as he saw us. "I hope you're happy." He hissed to me. "Her life for yours."
And then, with a wave of his wand, he disapparated, with Jenna in his arms. I sunk to the floor, and let out an anguished sob.
Another person was dead because of me. Why? Why? WHY? Why did everybody I love die?
"Lacey, I'm so sorry." I sobbed into the smoke ridden carpet. "It's all my fault, all my fault."
Lacey slapped me across the face, short and sudden. "Listen to me, it's that bastard's fault, not yours." she hissed, tears flowing down her face. "Get up."
I stayed where I was, frozen in grief and disbelief. I just wanted to stay here, forget about everything. Why couldn't Mark allow me to forget everything?
Smoke burnt my eyes, and made me cough. But that was nothing. That wasn't pain. How far had Jenna fallen? How had her neck snapped it two pieces? If she hadn't died on impact, she would have been in mind-shattering pain.
"You idiot!" Lacey screamed, "Are you going to let my Mother's sacrifice be in vain?"
"I don't deserve to be saved." I whispered, tears falling down my face. "Too many people have died because of me, Lacey!"
"Yeah, well I'm not going to be another!"
Lacey reached down, and scooped me into her arms, like I was a baby again. I clung to her neck as I sobbed, as she carried me from the living room. I heard a slam and a bang and bright light and sound surrounded me.
"I'm sorry." I whispered.
Then everything went black.
- - - -
A/N Yup. I killed Jenna. I'm so lovely like that. I'm actually a little bit upset now, cause Jenna loved Rory as her own and sacrificed herself. And it paralells with Lily sacrificing herself so GOD i'm sad now.
Next chapter will be in Grimmauld place, and there are going to be 33 parts all together, cause I've planned this whole thing out. WOO.