The Aftermath // Sebastian Sallow x MC

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 - 𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐭

▼△▼△ ᴛᴡ: ᴘᴀɴɪᴄ ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ △▼△▼

I can't define the exact timing of what happened from the moment Sallow left until the end of that night. I know that, the moment the others found me, I was crying desperately, sitting on the ground, and that I couldn't breathe properly.

Garreth came upon me, kneeling on the ground and catching me in his arms, an invitation that I took without any hesitation. Sinking my face between his chest and his left shoulder, my hands clasped on his clothes as if I feared he might escape from me, I uttered a cry of pain so loud and guttural that it almost did not seem to have come out of me, despite being suffocated by my mouth pressed on his coat.

Frightened by my scream, he grabbed my swollen and moist face between his big hands, trying to seek an explanation, an answer in my eyes; however, all I could emit were choked breaths and excruciating moans.

"Liz please, please breathe... I... I don't..." Garreth stammered, confused, caressing my cheeks and wiping them from the tears that continued to flow with his thumbs; I looked at him, but I couldn't speak, nor breathe. I kept my eyes fixed on his, scared, wide open. My left hand ran to rest on my sternum while my right one grabbed under my chin, in an attempt to hold my heavy head, my chest burning because of the speed and the shallowness of my breaths.

Please take my heart out of my chest. Please, rip it out. I can't feel this, not again. I can't stand it once more. Please.

Garreth detached himself from our eye contact just to look at the others, calling them with slurred and desperate words. "She's not breathing, I don't know... please, I don't know what to do," he murmured, his voice cracking, while he was holding me close, his pulse racing. He began stroking my face, my shoulders frantically, his fingers sinking into my hair, kissing my eyes, cheeks, forehead, between a desperate look towards the others and the next. 

I could feel my stomach twitching, and the acidity of the bile flooding my throat. My ears were ringing, making it hard to hear what was happening around me, while my dry, pale mouth was desperately trying to make me catch my breath.

I have to calm down. For him. I have to stop, they can't see me reacting this way. I'm not like this. This isn't me.

In the background, I heard Imelda screaming and cursing. "What the fuck happened? Who the fuck did this? I swear if I find whoever the fuck did this I will fucking..."

Everett began asking the passers-by - who were now surrounding us to watch the pathetic scene - if they had seen or heard anything; Natsai was kneeling beside Garreth, partly to comfort him, partly to check on me.

I can't breathe. I'm going to die. I'm going to die here, in the middle of a road, with them looking at me. I can't breathe.

It was certainly not the first time that Natsai saw me this way: during the previous years, especially after Fig's death, both she and Ominis had soon learned that panic attacks were simply something to live with if you were close to me. However, although she was my flatmate and the person who saw it happen more often, I don't think she ever got used to it.

Ominis. Where is Ominis.

"Lizzie..." I immediately recognized his voice, but couldn't get myself to answer; I turned to him, my eyes wide open while my gasps got faster and faster, my mind more clouded by the lack of oxygen. 

"Don't resist, let me in," he said bluntly, before lifting the wand towards me.

"Legilimens".

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