The Aftermath // Sebastian Sallow x MC

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧 - 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬

▼△▼△ ᴛᴡ: ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴs ᴏғ ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ, sᴜʙsᴛᴀɴᴄᴇ ᴀʙᴜsᴇ, ɢʀɪᴇғ ᴀɴᴅ ʟᴏss ▼△▼△

"Is his presence really necessary?"

"Fun you should ask that, cause I just wanted to say the same damn thing."

The last thing I needed while casting all the protection spells I knew on my apartment was to have two men bickering in my living room. Natsai had made the right choice by leaving, although I had suggested she could use the stone to talk to her father. "There's nothing he can tell me that I don't already know," she said, "and it would hurt too much to bear it."

I sighed loudly in the hope that both of them would stop behaving like children, while ending my slew of spells.

"Well, here's the deal," I said once I was done, "Niamh was very clear when I used the stone during her trial: what we will see is nothing more than mere shadows of the people we remember; they cannot come back to life and we should not abuse it as Cadmus did. For this reason, each of us can use the stone only once."

Both men in front of me looked at me seriously, and I knew they understood.

"Each of us can use it alone; it is only fair to have some intimacy at a time like this, as long as the other two wait outside and interrupt if the meeting lasts too long. I'm afraid it's easy to get sucked into the illusion that those people are still with us, or can be. All right?"

Both nodded in unison, and for a moment I felt like I travelled six years back.

"I think the best course of action is for you two to go first," said Ominis, arms folded, his expression serious. "Then, after my turn, I'll get back to my parents' house as soon as I can. I can't risk them finding out what I did or what the ring really is. Well, obviously, in case they don't already know."

I nodded, my mouth tight, my teeth stuck on my lower lip.

"All right, then", I broke the silence, "I think I should go first".

𝓔𝓵𝓲𝔃𝓪𝓫𝓮𝓽𝓱

Looking at it, I found it incredible that such a small stone could hold such immense power. I was extremely nervous to finally meet my grandmother: I wondered what she would be like, if she would be anything like Aunt Martha as I had always imagined. As a matter of fact, imagining her was the only thing I could ever do: she died before I was born, and my mother never talked about her, or my grandfather, or even my dad. Although she was a seemingly cold person, I had always suspected that really thinking about the people she had lost was simply too painful.

After closing my eyes and taking a long breath in, I turned the ring on my palm three times, as I had done during the Niamh trial. I then closed my hand in a fist, feeling its tremor.

"Hello, little one."

As I slowly opened my eyes, I saw  the identical copy of Aunt Martha in front of me. My grandmother Briar was a beautiful woman, and she seemed to be at least twenty years younger than her sister was at that time. It felt like looking at a drawing: her figure was not in colour, but almost looked like a shadow, or one of the ghosts of Hogwarts.

She was absolutely stunning.

Her long curly hair fell gently down her mid-back, loose, and her smile was just as sweet as my aunt's. Her face was covered in a multitude of small freckles, just like mine, and her build was slender yet stable.