Free Falling- A Lily Evans and James Potter Fan Fiction!

Chapter Eight

The final Chapter!

No matter what she did, her feet just would not move. Her brain was screaming at her to run but her legs had turned to jelly under her. James glanced back at her, his eyes wide when he realized she was still standing there. He sprinted the short distance back to her and shook her by the shoulders. He yelled her name, partially breaking her out of the trance that fear had placed her in.

            “James…” She managed to say, her voice shaking. “is…R-remus transformed?”

            In any other situation, Lily would have busted out laughing at the look on his face. He opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off as a large black dog burst through the tree line, barking madly. She had a brief moment of déjà vu, the shaggy coat of the dog reminding her of… someone, and the wild look it was giving her with deep brown eyes, looked just like Sirius!

            She felt James leap away from her, and she looked in the direction which Sirius… the dog had come, and chills ran down her spine as a howl came from a spot extremely close to where she stood. She looked back at James, but he wasn’t there. Instead, a tall stag stood in his place, pawing the ground at her impatiently. James’ deep eyes stared out from the stag, almost pleading with her to go.

            As she saw that look, her feet finally decided to move. She turned and started to run back toward the dark castle, but just as she did, a huge, hairy shape jumped in front of her. It stood on its hind legs, but was hunched as if it was more comfortable on four.  Foam came from its mouth as it looked her over, along with a deep throated growl. Lily would have been thoroughly terrified if it would not have been that the creature’s eyes were so similar to that of Remus, that she almost thought that he recognized her. Until it lunged for her.

            She screamed and jumped out of the way, landing on her arm. She heard a snap and cried out in pain as her arm broke. Ignoring that pain, she turned and sprinted across the grounds, until she heard a large thump and a whimper behind her. Against her better judgment, she turned and looked back to see the stag fall to the ground.

            “James!” She screamed into the night, causing the werewolf to turn his attention to her. Before she had any more time to react, he was on her, crossing the distance in one bound. For a brief moment, her fear returned, not for herself, but for the crumpled form her eyes stuck on. Then there was a flash of the worst pain she had ever felt as a large paw struck across her back, claws extended, and then there was nothing.

***

    Endlessly falling. Her stomach in her throat, no idea which way was up and which was down. Darkness all around her, threatening to engulf her completely. Then, the faces came. They were blurred at first, their features barely distinguishable. But the further she fell, the clearer they became.

            First it was her parents as she had last seen them, happy and alive. Then, they began to change, to morph into something gruesome. As much as she wanted to she couldn’t avert her eyes as their loving eyes glassed over, their faces bloated and discolored, now obviously dead. Then, her friend’s faces came alongside her parents, and began the same gruesome transformation. Soon, she was surrounded by every person she cared about, every person she loved, turned into these deathly imitations, these monsters. This went on for what seemed like forever, through countless numbers of life to death transformation. It was overwhelming, so much so that she wished for her own death just to end it.

            Suddenly, she noticed a small white speck to the side of her. As she looked, it slowly grew, steadily for hours on end. It was as blurry as the faces had been, and like them, it slowly came into focus. She saw a full bodied person walking toward her, and she wondered what new kind of torture this would be.