TORMENT

marquez brothers.

I instantly sank down to my knees at the shocking sight. I could barely breathe as I looked down at the bloodied boy before me, the thing that made everything worse was that this was my fault. His eyes were closed and his shirt ripped, covered with a layer of dark red blood dripping down out of clusters of wounds.

"Ophelia." He rasped, his voice a feeble sound. I noticed a piece of paper in his hand and opened it.

Ophelia,

Your brothers are at Ilvermony.

Brandon.

I threw the letter to the side and took Mattheo's face in my hands, his eyes slightly opened. The wounds proceeded to bleed out and I tried to think immediately of what to do next. I took his hand in mine and apparated to my house in London, my bedroom.

"This isn't your fault, love." He croaked as I pulled off his shirt and went to pick up something to wipe away the blood.

"Stop talking," I whispered, beginning to wipe the profusion of wounds scattered around his chest and abdomen. He winced and grabbed my hand tightly. There was a deeper cut on his arm that was bleeding really severely compared to all the other cuts. I pulled off my shirt, glad that I had a bra on underneath and tightly wrapped it around his arm.

"Hmm." He stared at my bra with a sly smirk on his face and I rolled my eyes, beginning to do some healing charms on him.

"I am so so sorry," I spoke in between spells, "I don't know what came over me. It was so idiotic. Of course, I want to find out where my brothers are but I never wanted to hurt you."

His chest was now back to normal, except some fresh scars covered it and he pulled me towards him by my waist.

"I understand, your brothers are family and I'm just some dick who doesn't really have any importance." He grinned and I shook my head, "What happened to your neck?"

"That necklace you gave me started to burn me, I don't know how," I explained and he turned around so that I could see his back. There were harsh burns all over it and I put my hand against it, still feeling some heat on it.

"I won't go into too much detail." He started, turning back around so that he was facing me, "But, that necklace I gave you contains a special stone that links us in a way." He showed me his arm that had a bracelet with a similar dark green stone on it, "That day when those men were molesting you, the bracelet began to cut me, signalling that you were in danger."

I was shocked and confused, why would he want to know if I'm in danger?

"Have you got any cuts on your legs or have I missed any?" I asked.

"No, I think you got them all. By the way, Brandon won't be coming back, he only came because he wanted to finish things with me." He groaned quietly then closed his eyes and reached out for me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I was dragged against his chest. We stayed silent for a moment, savouring each other's comfort. I could feel my bare stomach against his, making me able to feel the scars and indentations against my skin.

"It's Saturday tomorrow, isn't it?" I mumbled by his ear and he turned to face me, brushing his nose against mine.

"Yes, you should go to Ilvermony."

"I don't feel like going this weekend, I want to stay with you." I kissed him softly and he put his hand on the small of my back, tracing shapes over it. I didn't want to leave him after what happened, I felt really bad.

"We can go together, darling." He proposed and brought his other hand to the burn on my neck, scraping his finger against it tenderly.

"Okay." I smiled then stood up and went to find a clean shirt, "Do you need anything?"