Arcane ~ ONGOING

~Chapter Sixteen~

👆 The picture is like a teenage Octavian with a two or three year old Astria.
I can't with the cuteness tho 🥺🥺🥺

not edited

Third POV

It is said that the hardest goodbyes are the ones you least expect. You laugh along with them not knowing that it is their last day.

Loss of a person changes everything, followed by the grief that tears everything down, the pain that breaks you while you go on living, convincing the world that nothing has changed. The smile that hides the sobs that break hearts, the anger, the desperation stays on as you trudge your way through life.

Grief that follows loss everywhere is inevitable. The emptiness fills the heart as you carry the weight of guilt and regret.

The Crawford brothers had carried the guilt in their heart for a long time. From their mother's absence to their sister's departure to their father's death, they had been through so many losses. The brothers made an unsaid pact, to stand by each other no matter what. To never leave each other's side. But even then their grief and pain met no ends.

Grief, Octavian had deduced, was just love that had no place to go. The love that comes from your heart for the person has no place to go so it settles down at the end of the bottomless pit reminding you how empty you are without them. It's a reminder of the pain that follows their departure. A reminder that you couldn't do anything to protect them. A reminder that you could do nothing to even hold onto them.

The departure of the infamous Crawford sister hit the family hard. She left each of the Crawford men with an unbearable amount of grief.

The door to Astria's room opened as the eldest Crawford stepped in. His heart was heavy with grief as he settled down beside the young girl's bed. The amount of love that he had kept to himself for the past years became too heavy for his heart today.

He sighed painfully as he softly grabbed her free hand. The pain and fear that he had felt today was on a scale he had never felt before. The last time he was afraid was when he heard the news of Dorian's accident. It wasn't too serious, he knew that but it did scare what could have happened. But today when he heard that Astria was barely breathing, he could have sworn that he felt hìs heart stop. The way his chest constricted and devious thoughts entered his mind was something he had never felt before.

From the moment Astria stepped back into the mansion he had wanted nothing more than to swoop her up in a hug and shower her with endless amounts of love and affection. He wanted to tell her how much he missed her and how much he loved her but he couldn't.

He didn't know how to. Everytime he even stepped in her direction his eyes would meet her fearful gaze. His every action was analyzed by her in fear. She always looked at the edge of her chair, ready to flee if anything goes down. It hurt him to see his own sister so afraid of him. The littlest pieces of his heart chipped away everytime she would flinch away from him or when she would call him Mr. Crawford. Nobody close to him had ever called him that. Sometimes even acquaintances would call him Octavian, after he gave them permission to. He never thought that he would hear his little sister, the one that once called him bubby, would call him Mr. Crawford.

Astria's frail hand was now clutched softly as Octavian's much bigger one engulfed it. He rested his head on the soft mattress on her bed and closed his eyes softly as he muttered a small prayer. He usually wasn't the one to pray but if that would save his sister then so be it.

While one of the elder Crawford was praying for his sister's health the other one was at home, enjoying life.

Dorian sat in front of the television screen, munching on some carrots as Jess and Amelia stomped their way in. "What in the holy heck is wrong with you?" Amelia exclaimed the moment she stepped in the room.