Shadow of a Grave ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter nineteen ✧ ninth floor door

The Death of Me by City and Colour

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Sebastian Sallow sat in his cell in a place where he wasn't entirely sure where he was. It wasn't Azkaban yet, but it would be soon enough. He was growing more sure of that every second that he waited.

There were no other prisoners kept in these holding cells outside of him, yet the Ministry had been focused on keeping him closely guarded. 

Only one person guarded him from the uncomfortable small stool across the empty room. The masked woman hadn't spoken a word to him since last locking the iron gate between them. Everything she said was limited. 

And he had been attempting to get her to talk with her. It was either an attempt to talk with her or slowly lost his mind to the silence.

"Will you be sending me to Azkaban soon?" Sebastian asked the silent woman.

Of course, she didn't answer. She just adjusted her mask higher against her nose and kept her deep brown eyes locked on the door. Acting as if she hadn't even heard him speaking.

"I'm sorry you have to be the one guarding me," He offered trying to spark any conversation to keep his mind busy.

The apology he meant at the very least. It had been a rarely boring couple of days of sitting in the cell. Or maybe it had just been a couple of hours. There was no clock in sight, but it had felt like a long time.

There was no point in running and trying to get out without a plan. He didn't know where Bella was or how to get to her. Hecat had been somewhere around the Ministry and he was waiting on her if there was a chance of getting out to find his daughter. 

So he sat quietly in the cell across from the silent woman with brown eyes, occasionally trying to speak with her. Always failing to get an answer.

"I didn't realize Aurors guarded prisoners before," He said out loud.

At that point, he knew she wouldn't speak, yet he kept going on anyway.

"Why is the Ministry even keeping me here? It doesn't really seem like this is normal. There is no one else even here. The room is empty. Surely this was put together at the last minute?" He pointed out. Everything about the cell seemed thrown together. There was nothing for him except three walls and iron bars that looked as if they had just been put up for him. 

There were no internal thoughts anymore. Anything that came to his mind rambled out as he worked through his best guesses. 

Then he guessed, "I assume it has something to do with Marvolo? If I'm kept in isolation then maybe the Ministry is afraid that I won't make it to a trial. That would be my guess. Why else would they have an Auror guarding me?"

"I'm not an Auror," The masked woman finally corrected back.

Sebastian's brow raised, finally hearing her voice. She had spoken before in the courtyard when he had been arrested but remained mostly silent. The detective gave her orders and she followed. Never speaking much at all.

There was a slight accent that she had that he wasn't familiar with. He guessed that maybe that was the reason for her silence.

"What are you then?" He asked.

Brown eyes rolled dramatically to the back of her head. A gloved hand motioned a zipping gesture and locked where her mouth would be under the mask. As if the answer had been a game.