The Devil Doesn't Bargain (MatD part 2)

Chapter NINETEEN - Away from Pitying Eyes

Though the weight of Anne's eyes tugged at my chest, the word itself meant nothing to me. 'Obscurial' sounded like an odd ingredient one might find in the pages of a Potions text or the name of a funny looking creature from Beasts class. Surely it couldn't be as terrible as the frown on Ominis' lips, the anger in Sebastian's eyes or the pity in Anne's.

The pity was the worst of it. 

"I don't- What's an Obscurial?"

"Oh sweetheart..." Her hands squeezed mine harder and an unnecessary heap of anger tugged at my chest. 

I don't need sympathy, I need answers.

Pulling my hands from hers, I looked to the only person I knew would give me what I needed straightforward.

"Ominis?"

I tried to ignore the way Anne's head dropped and Sebastian's deep sigh as he stepped a bit closer, fingers clenching and unclenching at his sides hesitating over my shoulder.

The blind boy swallowed a moment, raising his chin and squaring his shoulders.

"Sebastian could very well be wrong. We don't know anything about your situation for sure my dear-" He paused, allowing me a breath, a momentary ease. "-but under similar circumstances where young witches and wizards suppressed their magical abilities, a parasitical dark force known as an Obscurus grew within them. It is particularly destructive, latching on to its host's emotions and feeding on its pain and creating dangerous, unrestrained and often fatal chaos until- until death. A particularly young death."

My mind curled around itself, pounding at my skull in attempts to collect and process every word.

Dangerous, unrestrained, fatal...

Isn't that what I've been my whole life?

"They were far more commonly found in children in the 1700s during an age of suppression where it was far more dangerous for our kind. Many young witches and wizards suppressed their magic in fear of the Muggle world and the "trials" they held for such beings out of their own fear."

Ominis clenched his jaw but pressed onwards, brows pulled together.

"To my knowledge, Obscurials were thought to have been extinct since such dark times."

"Apparently not." Sebastian was somehow even closer now, eyes avoiding mine but keeping near. "How could they do that to her?"

Ominis snipped. "I think we ought to think positively Sebastian. Atley-" He turned his nose to me."-you are far older than any Obscurial I have ever heard of. Perhaps you were lucky."

When has luck ever been on my side?

I tried to squash the negativity, tried to tie it up and lock it within but the memory of my parents angry faces derailed all focus. Chaos, anger, confusion, resentment, disbelief, sadness... it all threaded through my ribs and tugged them in separate directions, the pain cramping and gashing through to my lungs beneath.

"Atley. Atley hey?" Sebastian's face was now inches from mine, hands firmly on my shoulders. The anger in his eyes distant and something far deeper now at the forefront. The glint of candle light twinkled like stars atop his brown irises. "Ominis is right. We don't know- we will find out and- and we will figure this out. Just like the curse."

The edges of the room seemed darker and some part of me wondered if the candles had snuffed out again.

"I'm going to get to the bottom of this." He pulled a sweaty strand of hair from my face and pressed a kiss to my forehead. The heat of his breath twisted down my cheeks and over my ears. His eyes caught mine once more and the familiar pity from Anne's now peeked behind his.