devil's backbone 🗝 tommy shelby

chapter 21

n// a few months late but this goes out to harry styles for releasing the masterpiece that is "fine line" i love u bitch <3

ps if u squint hard enough it looks like she's wearing a peaky cap

Sybil was ashamed of herself in a way that she could never have imagined she would be in her lifetime. She was at a loss for words to describe how she felt, but at the moment, only one could really sum it up: happy. And she hated it with every fibre of her being.

She had become almost fully adjusted to living with the Shelby man of her dreams over the few short days that she'd been there, and she could honestly say that she hadn't felt that content in all her life. Because as she grew wiser, she realised that love wasn't the enemy — loneliness was.

Despite her initial abhorrence towards domesticity, she sure was eating it up.  She liked having someone to come home to.  She liked having someone that she could always talk to, even if she didn't want to.  And most of all, she loved that it was Thomas Shelby of all people that was the one to show her this light.  For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Sybil Day was thriving.

However, there was a demon crawling up her back that made its way into her head when she least expected it.  Nay — not a demon; a ghost.

Killing a man changed her in ways she never thought imaginable. She thought that being rid of the man would grant her some sort of inner peace and a new sense of calm, as she no longer had to deal with him. And she knew that she would feel badly — as is only natural for a sane human being — but no one could have prepared her for what exactly she would be feeling after the fact.

She found herself looking over her shoulder every two minutes, and found herself and more apprehensive about leaving her man's home.  It was already bad enough that every cop in Birmingham was breathing down his neck, but they were also aware of her existence — something that she never wanted.  She was scared to even go into work, and as soon as that was over and done with, she kept her head down and tried to look as unremarkable as humanly possible on her way back to the Shelby residence.  Upon getting there, she would enter and lock the doors as quickly as she could, and look through the peephole to make sure that no coppers were following her.  The paranoia was worse than the guilt, but Sybil Day would be a liar if she said that she regretted killing that man.  However, that didn't stop her from seeing his corpse every time she closed her eyes.

Nights were hard for Billie, and although she tried her hardest to keep it under control by herself, there were certain things that just couldn't be contained by the strength of one alone.

That's where Thomas Shelby came in.

Thomas had been dealing with his own demons since he'd stepped foot on British soil after his time in France, and although his methods of self medication weren't the finest or the healthiest, he knew that Sybil didn't need opium or alcohol.  What she needed was someone that was there for her when the terror seeped into her pretty little thoughts as she slept.  And so, that's what he became. And if Thomas Shelby didn't sleep before, he sure as hell didn't now. He watched his sweetheart with tender eyes and a heavy heart, watching as her face screwed up and whimpers escaped her form like clockwork.

"Sybbie," he whispered, running his fingers through her hair.  "Sybbie, wake up.  It's just a dream, love.  Wake up for me, yeah?"

Shaking her lightly, he managed to wake his sleeping beauty, loathing the look of fear and dread that seemed permanently etched into her beautiful features as of late.