Serendipity (S. Black)

THIRTY-SIX

"here is the thing about equality - everyone's equal when they're dead"

*

It was night when Eva finally arrived home, spending hours wandering around her town with no real purpose. All of her childhood friendships had fallen apart over the years of secrets and absences. In some ways, her home was as foreign as it was familiar.

The Cup was over. Lasting over seven hours, the United States finally won with a score of six hundred twenty-five to four hundred fifty. The group celebrated all night after the match before returning to James' house for more celebration. A few days later, everyone departed for their own homes.

Walking down the street with her headphones on, she happily tuned out the world as she listened to an ABBA cassette. Music always brightened her mood. Something about the melodies and lyrics woven together in a way that was magical. Different magic than the kind they taught at Hogwarts, but magic all the same.

Usually when they saw her, neighbors smiled at the blonde girl skipping down the sidewalk with an infectious smile. That's the Taylor girl, they muttered to each other. An oddity, but a sweet thing nonetheless. No one knew why Amelia Taylor sent her daughter away to boarding school for the majority of the year when she loved her so much, so she was naturally a topic of gossip.

Today, however, she saw no one. No one waved at her as she walked down the streets, no dogs barked, no old friends gave her a polite hello. The stillness bothered her, but she ignored it, choosing to get lost in the music instead. Until she turned the corner on her street, when she stopped dead in her tracks.

The paint-chipped ranch house sat at the end of her street, the pink beds of mums rippling in the night wind. The front door swung back and forth as if someone had forgotten to close it.

And ghastly green against the inky black sky, the Dark Mark hovered over the house.

Eva saw all of this in a matter of seconds. Bile rose in her throat and she dropped her bag on the sidewalk, running as fast as she could for the house. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest.

"No," she kept muttering under her breath, praying that the inevitable hadn't occurred, but she knew what the mark meant. "No, please."

Wand in hand, she ran through the ajar door and into the dark entryway.

"Mum!" She yelled. Her cracking voice echoed in the hallway as she ran from room to room. "Mum!"

Terrified beyond belief, she entered the living room, dark like all the others, to find her mother lying in the middle of the floor, motionless.