Shadow of a Grave ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter twenty ✧ oneiromancy

Little Words by The Happy Fits

-✧-✧-✧-

It was a warm summer day. Rolling soft clouds against bright blue skies. Birds singing songs for no one in particular. Sunlight was warm against exposed skin and the heat was thick in the air. It wasn't until the slow passage of the sun ran across his eyes that he finally woke up from the pressure of the passing day.

Sebastian had fallen asleep under an old willow tree while relaxing and quickly came to his senses. Or at least part of his senses.

As he looked around, he realized he wasn't sure where he was at that moment. It must have been a dream, a memory, something that he couldn't explain to himself again. Before he slipped away he had been in the cold cell still at the Ministry behind iron bars and not under a blooming tree enjoying the summer heat.

It was a memory that wasn't familiar to him. At first, he thought it may have been Amelia's memory until he looked down and saw the book resting on his chest and he realized that he definitely was supposed to belong there too.

He took the book and inspected it for some insight into where he was. The corner of the page was folded neatly to mark his page before he had fallen asleep as he had always tended to do, but as he glanced over the page, nothing was familiar. When he flipped to the first page to read the title it had been the handwritten note that caught his attention instead.

𝒯𝑜 𝓂𝓎 𝓀𝒾𝓃𝒹𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓈𝓅𝒾𝓇𝒾𝓉 ♡

It was her handwriting, but he couldn't remember which book that note had belonged to. His fingers traced over the love note as he struggled to go through all of his memories trying to figure out where or when he was.

"I knew you would fall asleep again!" Her voice called out.

When Sebastian looked back up from the book he thought he had seen her again. The girl in front of him had looked identical to Amelia when he had first met her. Still young and smiling brightly as she looked down at him with the sun against her back.

"When did you cut your hair?" was the first question Sebastian asked as he looked at her. The young girl had shoulder-length curls that bounced when she talked. He couldn't remember a time when Amelia had ever cut her hair short. All the memories that he could recall of her black curls were always long.

He wasn't even sure why it was the first thing that he noticed about the girl. But the more he looked at her, the more he realized that it wasn't Amelia Blackwood that he had been talking to.

"If you are going to tell me that I don't look like mom anymore, then I don't want to hear it. I already told you that I like it shorter." Annabel Sallow teased back. Sebastian barely had a moment to process that his daughter had to be at least ten years older than the last time he'd seen her. "Come on, we are already late! We need to get going!"

"Go where?" Sebastian questioned out loud.

His daughter had picked up one of the two brooms that had been leaning against the tree behind him. Little charms and colorful ribbons dangling down from the wooden handle decorated hers, jiggling lightly each time it moved.

In the familiar teasing manner she simply answered him with, "Home? Duh?"

Quickly he stood to his feet, tucking the book that he had been reading into his back pocket. It wasn't clear to him at all what had been going on. Part of him was afraid that he had been back in purgatory and this time it might be for the final time.