Shadow of the Key | Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 44: Face My Fears

"Death has come to me, kissed me on the cheek, gave me closure. Immortal by design, I'll be meeting you here every time."

- Melanie Martinez

Amelia's POV

What do you do when the person you love most is taken to Azkaban and you're trapped in the middle of an endless, enchanted maze that haunts you with their voice?

You scream until your lungs give out and your heart implodes. And that's precisely what Amelia did.

Her breathing was rapid, broken as she knelt down in the grass, gripping the tufts until her nails dug in her palms hard enough to draw blood.

She couldn't feel it. She couldn't feel anything besides her shattered heart and the tears spilling down her cheeks.

She didn't give a Doxy's nip about the locket. She just wanted Sebastian back. She needed him back.

But the entrance from where she came from was no longer visible. She didn't know where the fuck she was.

The rational part of her knew she needed to carry on. Especially if she wanted to make it out of there alive.

But the irrational part of her was winning. A part of her that could only think about Sebastian suffering behind those metal bars as the Dementor's feast on his soul.

And her heart somehow shattered even more.

The smell of fresh cut grass was replaced by a scorched, toasted odor, and looking down at her hands, her nails now digging into the soil as she tried to ground herself, she understood why.

The deadly blue flames burned so brightly, licking every blade in its proximity, it was blinding.

She only had two choices in this situation.

1. Let the flames devour her and die in the maze while Sebastian rots in Azkaban for the rest of his life.

2. Get her shit together and find the locket like Sebastian would've wanted her to do.

The modicum of optimism told her to go with the second option. That maybe, if she can find the locket and escape with her life, she could formulate a plan to break Sebastian out.

If she lives, it wouldn't be a life worth living if he wasn't part of it. She'll put on that damn locket and burst through that prison like Satan crashing the gates of Heaven.

With those thoughts running through her mind, somberness quickly morphed into something deadlier.

Rage.

Rage at herself for kneeling in the burning grass and letting the precarious minutes tick by. Rage at Harlow and his pathetic colleagues for having the audacity to take what's hers. Rage for Sebastian who merely acted in self-defense to protect himself and her, and he was sentenced to Hell for it.

He was a fallen angel who didn't belong in Heaven nor Hell. He belonged here on Earth with her.

And she refused to live a life without him in it.