Shadow of a Grave ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter twenty-four ✧ dance with the devil

Fight, Fight (Reach For The Sky) by Go Radio

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Trigger Warning: This chapter includes sensitive conduct - please see the comment for a full description of conduct.

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The taste of blood was still thick in his mouth when the two apparated into the catacomb. The metallic taste coated his mouth resurfacing unpleasant memories as he stood in the dark tomb.

It wasn't necessarily Sebastian's first choice of location. There wasn't any place that he could think of that he had hated more. Most of the worst moments of his life had taken place in the Feldcroft catacombs.

Everything about the place made him feel dark inside and the cold air made his skin crawl. It always felt like holy ground and his feet would burn if he stood in place for too long. It had always felt like a sacred site where his presence wasn't welcomed anymore.

All of the eerie darkness of the dead buried around Sebastian Sallow felt like their ghosts were crawling at his throat as if they were punishing him for their deaths. The weight on his shoulders felt heavier like the dirt under his feet was slowly sinking him into the floor and dragging him into the earth to join them. It made his head burst with impulsive thoughts of everything that had taken place there before. Dead eyes against his back. The catacombs brought out the worst of him and even he hated the person it had turned him into.

There had been one good memory in the catacombs. Amelia had only told him years later, it was in the darkness of the catacomb that she had realized that she loved him. 

Sebastian was a murderer. The thoughts and paranoia ate away at his mind until he snapped. She had been there when he finally broke down and first used the killing curse. The day he became the unwelcomed sinner in the graveyard. Once before he had been the monster in the tomb and she had still decided that he had been deserving of her love. It was the lowest moment of his life, but she had been there and decided that she had loved him regardless. And that made the stone walls of the catacomb feel even more holy.

Standing in the catacomb this time felt different. The coldness wasn't filling his veins or crawling under his skin. Rather than feeling the weight of the world against his shoulders sinking him into the ground, everything felt lighter.

The past had made him feel like a murderer, but as he stood looking at the monster in front of him, Sebastian Sallow felt now of martyr.

"Where the bloody hell did you bring me, Sallow?" Marvolo Gaunt hissed. Thick gobbles of scarlet-red blood gushed across his broken nose and over his teeth as he spat the words out. The slender man continued to pinch at the bridge of his bloody nose, attempting to slow the bleeding of the open wound.

Sebastian's head still rang from headbutting him moments ago. A few cuts have formed inside his mouth from the force of bone against bone. Tasting the blood in his mouth made him feel inhuman.

In truth, he was shocked that Marvolo had spoken to him at all. Sebastian had thought about the last words Ominis had said to his brothers before they jumped. He had figured out the true motivation behind all of this and pieces were finally connecting.

After the threat that his friend had given him, Sebastian had been prepared for the madman to be less patient, so he kept his guard high as he watched.