seraphic [h.s]

chapter fifty six.

Harry.
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Her thoughts were loud, I could feel them. But they were hard to understand, so I couldn't quite read them.

She slid herself from my lap and I winced at the coldness she left behind. Reaching her dainty fingers out to me, she wiggled them, "You wanna go inside? It's getting too cold out."

I nodded, "Yeah." And took her fingers in mine. My body welcomed the contact and almost didn't believe she was truly even there. I wondered for how long it would feel like her touch was ghostly.

She led us back to the door after I'd pushed in the chair. The whooshing noise of the door sliding sounded but it was no match in waking up Dee. She was a heavy sleeper, always had been.

Mae let go of my hand once we'd settled back into the living room. The place was quaint and cozy and it was almost like it had been conjured up just for the two of them. I was glad Mae now had a proper place to call home, one that felt real, one that felt her own.

My mind was still reeling though, from all the things she'd said. A part of me was thankful that she'd felt ready enough to tell me, to speak to me about it. The other part of me wanted to do something so drastic as going back to the place her parents were at and giving them a serve.

I wanted to do more than that, maybe take some of their shit, smash a couple windows, key a couple cars. But most importantly, I wanted to grab them by the shoulders and tell them to snap out of it.

I wanted to make them realise what they'd done to their own daughter, that the neglect and dismissal they'd brought her up in wasn't just something she could shake. She was stuck with that for life, thinking that was the way others should treat her since she'd known nothing else.

I could tell that Mae had moved past that now, that she knew herself and that she was much more than what they'd made her once believe. But that didn't disregard the fact that she'd gone so many years growing up in that mindset.

She'd really believed that she wasn't as important as others, and she had believed that for more of her life than she had spent truly loving herself.

So, I wanted to shake those people who didn't deem worthy of being her parents, though I knew that I couldn't make them realise shit if they didn't want to realise it themselves.

"What are you thinking about?" Mae asked, her voice light and fresh from crying.

She'd cried and I'd cried and there was something so peaceful in that, because the space we'd created was a safe one. At the sight of her tears I wasn't rushing to tell her to stop, to 'Please don't cry because I don't know how to handle it', there was no angered question of 'Why are you even crying?'.

I was there for her because there was nowhere else I wanted to be, she was my home. I wiped her tears as they fell because I would be there to catch anything she needed me to. It was as simple as that.

"I'm thinking about what you told me, about how maybe one night this week I'll take a visit down to your old house and key their cars, maybe take down a window or two." I shrugged like it were a casual thing for me to say. Speaking it out loud made me more inclined to do it, and maybe I just would.

Mae let out a quiet laugh, shaking her head, "You're crazy, H. Maybe let me know and I'll come with."

I grinned, dimples and all. She looked mischievous and serious and I would go down there right now if she asked me to. But she didn't, because she probably wasn't being as serious as I was, and so I kept quiet.