Passion | | Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Four

The sound of faint screaming out in the distance woke Astoria up in an instant. She sat up immediately, wondering if it was just her or if it was actually someone screaming. While she was awake, the screaming continued as well as it multiplied, sounding as if it was the whole town. Her windows outside were slightly more illuminated than usual. The street lights seemed much brighter. She stumbled up out of bed and slightly opened her curtains just a bit so that she could peek outside of them.

When she peaked her curtains up, her mouth immediately fell agape, a gasp leaving her mouth. There were several houses on fire around her, and people screaming and running around. Her mind was frantically wondering what was amiss and what caused such chaos. And that was when she saw it, the familiar look she had seen so many years before.

The Loyalist puppets of Victor Rookwood.

Astoria let go of the curtain, hoping none of them had seen her through her window. "They're here for me," She thought. Her heart dropped as she thought of all the people suffering because Rookwoods Loyalists were after her.

She charmed herself with more appropriate clothes straight onto her body and grabbed up her enchanted satchel. Right before she opened her door to head down the stairs, she heard the front door being banged on, then eventually kicked down. She panicked and quickly snatched up her wand, rushing to open the door and fight the threat before it cornered her.

While one was already coming up the stairs, Astoria whipped her wand straight at them. "Depulso!" She shouted, causing the threat to be shoved down the stairs, straight into two others. With another move of her wand, the very same three were smacked into the wall.

She finished running down the stairs and saw four more of the loyalists on their way towards the stairs, immediately seeing her. One of them immediately cast Diffindo at her, causing her to cast Protego in an instant to protect herself. "Confringo!" She shouted, hitting one right in the chest.

"Rookwood just wants to talk to you!" One of the loyalists said, with a dark chuckle.

"Over my dead body," Astoria said in a serious tone. As the fight went on, Astoria tried her best to keep more of Rookwoods allies out of the house by barricading the door so she could fight the ones currently inside the study. It was a smaller space than she was used to fighting people in, and she hadn't had a duel with someone in years. But just as she thought she had the situation under control, it got worse.

"Incendio!" One of them shouted. Hot, red flames burst from the top of their wand, leeching onto every space in the room it could find. The Parlor was suddenly aflame, it quickly got hot. It was hard to see through the thick, dark smoke, it was also getting hard to breathe. While the allies of Rookwood had masks to help keep the smoke out, Astoria did not. Making her extremely susceptible to it.

She could barely see, water welling up in her eyes from the fire and smoke made it even harder. Not being able to see her enemies made it so much harder to fight. She was able to hit one of them with depulso again, straight into the fire, but she feared she may be overpowered.

But just as Astoria thought it may be over, a sudden voice gave her hope. "Glacius!" It shouted, causing some of the fire by the doorway where they were to be extinguished, it also hit another one of the allies, freezing their leg down in an instant. "Confringo!", another hit to a loyalist.

The smoke was clearing faster now that the door had been reopened, Astoria could fight better now. She slammed one of the threats into the wall, knocking them unconscious. As she turned around to see who had helped her, she saw that it was Sebastian. They locked eyes in an instant.

"Astoria, c'mon, we have to get out of here!" He said, rushing over to her. "Rookwood's followers are all over the town, they've already burnt down half of it trying to find you. We have to leave now."