Don't Leave Me
“Don’t ... “ The words barely floated over Baime’s tongue. “breath.” He cupped her lips in his hands and buried his head into her tendrils. Kersyti grasped the frayed edge of his overcoat in her palm, threading it between her two fingers. She felt his breath down her neck heave as he too, was afraid. His fingertips just barely skimmed the hairs on the corners of her pale cheeks, careful not to scratch her with his overgrown nails. The room was so cramped, Kersyti’s knees pressed into Baime’s side, pressuring his ribcage into his spine. They were huddled wall to wall, face to face, body to body. The feignt drip of water was the only sound that penetrated the silence.
The sound of creaking stair boards shook the heavy silence, weighing it down until it crushed the inhabitants, suffocating them. Kersyti inhaled a sharp breath, accidentally scraping the wand callus on Baime’s hand with her canines. The blood trickled across her tongue, but she didn’t dare make a sound. Slow footsteps trekked down the hallway, taunting them, screaming at them “Fear me, fear what I’ve done!” and they did, they did so much. He was behind them now. a never ending scratch on the wall, as He drug his claws along the concrete. She felt him shiver, even now through the boundary. He’s found us. He knows....
Through the thickened silence, she could hear the give of the doorknob, turning so slowly that every tick struck her heart, embedding into her memories, awaiting the sleep she would never have to haunt her until the end of time. The door finally creaked open, the weight of the wood giving an edge to the hinges. A footstep; another, until a sound like millions of glass panes suddenly bursting at once shattered the silence they had for so long. Kersyti lunged forward, dragging Baime with her. Her eyes were wide with fear and as she looked towards her friend, they both shared the look. Embracing it. Dust clouded the dark closet from the sudden movement, refraining them from seeing anything, as if they could at all.
“I know you’re in here kidlings… no need to hide…”
Almost against her will, Kersyti whimpered ever so slightly but it was just enough. Baime’s head snapped towards her and mouthed the words, “What have you done? You killed us both!” Tears welled in her eyes at the realization, the realization of their near death. The drops fell down her face in unison, drenching Baime’s shirt. More footsteps, closer now.
“Of course…”
Silence.
Kersyti had become so sick of the absence of sound. It had seeped into her mind and clogged her thoughts. It had inhabited her controllable body, tormenting her, treating her like a fly on the wall. It could only mean one thing.
Death.
He slammed against the door, shattering the fragile wood into millions of razor sharp slivers. They exploded in their faces, deep cuts speckling their once porcelain skin. Their hands, arms, faces, legs were crimson red with blood, from both themselves and the other. Kersyti screamed. Baime folded her into his limbs as the invaders long and muscular arm reached through the doorway, fumbling around for his next victim. “No…” She whimpered into Baime’s collar. “No… don’t leave me…” His eyes widened. He was going to kill him.
Just as Kersyti’s words escaped her lips, the man’s hand grasped Baime’s arm, pulling with such force as to haul a steamboat. “I’ve got you now, pigeon...” He hauled him out into the bedroom, chucking him across the room, sending him crashing into the stone wall. Baime crumpled to the ground cupping his fresh headwound. “NO!” She wailed, struggling to stand from her position in the closet. Kersyti made an attempt to run to his side, but He grabbed her, spinning her around to face him. His hand was enclosed around her neck, closing her esophagus. She clawed at his appendages, whimpering and crying out. He then flung out an old wand, holding it up to her feeble collar, pressing it deep into her stained skin. “Now, listen here youngling,” He growled out at her, his two blood red irises glaring deep into her soul. “You get what you deserve… for what you have done. You brought this onto your self…” At this point, her vision had begun to fade in and out of focus, her body slowly losing consciousness. She struggled words out, so softly that she wasn‘t even sure if he could hear her.“Si-Siaubas, please… ack! I d-din want anythin like that t-to happen… please Siaubas… It w-wasn’t my-” Siaubas squeezed more at her neck and she cried out, feeling her esophagus crumble under the pressure. He tossed her to the side like a scrap newspaper, her body skidding across the floor until it made contact with the wall, leaving a long crack in it. Baime wailed, crawling towards his friend. He never made it.
Siaubas hauled him to his feet, the dense liquid pooling at his scalp. Baime clutched to the figure, not being able to stand on his own. His legs refused to hold his weight and when Siaubas pulled away from his grasp, Baime’s feet failed him. He was once again on the ground, staring at the unmoving body of his girlfriend. Siaubas’s arms encircled his torso, and Baime felt something he never felt before. He cried out, “NO!” and kicked the large man in the chest, sending him toupling downwards, but only for a second. “Kersyti! NO!” Siaubas grabbed his calf and pulled Baime towards him. He then clutched his cheeks and turned his face around, his nails prodding at his skin. Siaubas examined his enemy’s face and it’s details. “Ooh… what a pretty, pretty face… doesn’t your girly-friend just loove it soo…” At light speed, Siaubus flicked a razor sharp dagger to Baime’s face, cutting deep into his flesh. “much…”. He only grimaced at the pain, which made Siaubas angry. His torments needed to be more extreme to do any serious harm to him. This was what his training was for; to be strong, both inside and out. Siaubas was perplexed for just a moment, then a wide, hollow smile spread across his scarred features. He dragged the sharpened point across his arms, cutting in, in and out, deeper and deeper, until the initials SD, or what looked to be so, covered his entire body. The gruesome man slid him to the floor and stood to examine his work. Blood dripped from his fingertips, staining the dove white carpet. “nnOoo...” The girl’s voice trembled over to him. She could barely speak without severe pain in her throat. Siaubas’s head turned ever-so slowly towards her, his eyes piercing hers. “Oh, Fraulein… if you wanted more, why didn’t you just ask…?” Her eyes widened in fear as he stepped towards her, but faltered. Siaubas looked between both teenagers, finally deciding on one. His laugh was deep and spine-shakingly menacing. Kersyti closed her eyes, so tight that she saw streams of color behind her lids. But the pain never came. She opened a single eye, only looking through the lashes. Siaubas stood, hunch backed over Baime’s unmoving figure, readied with a blade, longer than the first, sharper, positioned directly under his chin. The man gave her a final glance, so immerse with evil that it was almost impossible to stare into them.
Then he slid the knife into Baime’s neck, so deep it came out the other side.
Blood spirted from his lips, a fountain reaching so high it touched heaven first to warn the angels of his arrival. Thorny vines grew from the dove white carpet, now a blanket of fresh snow. They grew, and grew, and grew until they entangled themselves around poor Kersyti. Her wrists, her ankles, her mouth, growing past her lips and down through her crumpled esophagus. The screams bubbled in her stomach but couldn’t reach past the dam her throat had made. Rain poured from the ceiling, flooding the room. The snow washed away, leaving only the faintest scent of winter. The floor was gone, a black hole that sucked everything into it; her body fell, still tied to the vines, each prickprick of the thorns reaching through her skin and coming out the other side. Replaying his death. Over. Over. Over.
Black roses sprouted from his chest. Baime’s chest. Baime’s unmoving, dead chest. The grew a foot, then died, their once beautiful petals falling off one, by one… by one, each drifting backforthbackforth to its own rhythm, its own beat. No. It's own heartbeat. And then the beating would stop, and another rose would grow from its petal. Each flower died to produce twelve more roses.
GrowWiltDriftAgainGrowWiltDriftAgainOverOverOverOver…
Until finally it stopped, a field of black roses covering his body, head to toe, exempting one spot.
His heart.
She couldn’t breath.
Your boot…
The footage had skidded across the floor when she had been thrown and she could make out the shape of something through the mouth. Siaubas pulled his knife from the corpse, wiping it across his leather chest plate, the smear glowing in the light from the window. He looked at her frail body from across the room and stifled a laugh. “Oh dear Fraulein, you seem helpless… well in that case, it would be your turn…” Kersyti whimpered, the wet tears covering her cheeks. She didn’t remember crying. Scurrying across the floor, she reached her boot. Picking it up, out fell a beautiful silver wand. Her wand, pretty as it was, was about to be destroyed. She had a plan.
She whipped it towards the murderer.
He stood still, smile scraped from his face. “You wouldn’t want to do that now, would you Fraulein…?” Motionless she sat, her face calm, her insides burning with rage. She still couldn’t breath.
“Your boyfriend wouldn’t be happy about you killing again, would he now… you know how he was the first time…” Still she stayed, waiting for the perfect moment…
“You were my favorite, Kersyti… where has the time gone…?”
Something broke inside her, some horrible disease that took control of her body. She stood up, quickly as to not show weakness. Her insides screamed at her not to speak, the pain was unbearable, but she had to do it once more.
She pointed her silver wand straight at the nose of her brother, the spell tumbling out of her mouth.
“Fiendfyre.”
She didn’t remember falling asleep. She didn’t remember the pain. She didn’t remember the way her brother’s eyes rolling into the back of his head as the fire touched him.
She didn’t remember how scared she was when the fire spread to every edge of the shabby house, engulfing everything in it’s path, or how frightened the muggles on the pathways looked at the sight of the crumbling bricks.
She didn’t remember the way she held Baime’s hand as his soul passed from one world to another in a burning house. His hand had turned cold, an ice cube pressed into her palm, never melting.
She didn’t remember the stench of the the house, or the newspapers from the next day, informing pedestrians to stay clear of the house of the fire, and the six casualties from it.
She didn’t remember Baime’s death, the way his hand fell limp to his side, the fear in his pupils as he fell into a chasm of loneliness. She could’ve saved him.
She didn’t remember if she did.
She didn’t remember the way Baime’s eyes glittered the first time they laid eyes on each other. They had been eleven, fated to the same house, fated to the same friend group, fated to be the best of friends.
She didn’t remember the day of the Yule ball, how too many boys asked her to go and she couldn’t decide, so she spent the day before the dance crying in the common room, until she built up the strength to ask Baime, the only one to not ask her.
She didn’t remember the day one of her professors told her about her powers; how she could see into the future, but only during emergencies. It had seemed so idiotic, but ironic when she used her power to see if it would be useful in the future.
She didn’t remember the way she died.
She didn’t remember.
No.
She couldn’t remember.
She was told about them. She was told about everything she didn’t- no, couldn’t remember about her life.
Baime told her.
