˜”*°•.       Sorrow  was gone,  but  was   it really  just  gone? For  however  indifferent had  he  attempted to  act,  however focused  had  he proceeded  to  be on  Sabrina,  his mind  kept  wandering off,  searching  the source  of  what had  felt  completely wrong.  Ambrose  still  alive, but  the  repeated attempts  to  change that,  still  well retained,  locked  in his  mind  but  refusing  to form  a  question. The  question  to which  the  answer would  be  either too  heavy   or  too  far from  the  truth.  Perhaps  they had  argued  over this,  perhaps  Nick had  wanted  to take  that  role himself,  to  exchange his  life  with  Sabrina’s.  To keep  the  Spellman family  intact.  But there’d  been  a huge  difference  between them:  Nick  was  fine  now,  better,  while Ambrose…  something  still was  off.  Something that  he  didn’t dare  to  analyse, something  that  he  didn’t feel like  he  was the  proper  person to  ask  about. Were  they  even friends?  Or  just  two people  that’d  lost  their  common ground?

     ❝ About what  happened…❞    The  words came  out  impulsively, his  mind  too slow  to  stop them.  ❝ How did  your  aunts react ? ❞  For  one thing  was  for sure:  he’d  played a  significant  role in  this  whole sacrifice  madness,  and yet  had  answered  for none  of  his actions.  

The silence was becoming awkward.    He suspected that their ressurection attempt might be brought up.     TAKEN CARE OF.        Ambrose had taken all the blame.     even if he knew his Aunt still WANTED to talk to Nick.       It was his idea,       his plan.     Nick was just drunk enough to agree.    He should probably apologise.      and then the question was asked.     AUNT HILDA was not told.        AUNT ZELDA had been furious,         and HEART-BROKEN.     He had seen it on her face.     It had led to a heart to heart             and his new found bodyguard.      He knew he didn’t have long before Luke would appear. 

❛ – Auntie Hilda doesn’t know, and we’re to keep it like that... Auntie Zee has Luke keeping an eye on me... I was already near a breaking point before the mountains of madness. Had been for years,   Auntie Zee’s known about my death wish for awhile... losing Sabrina made me lose perspective, I stay alive for them.    none of this to Sabrina.   It would hurt her. ❜     he had become a master at hiding from Sabrina.         It helped that Sabrina was really easy to trick.   a simple smile and a joke,          and she never questioned him. 

       ˜”*°•.   ❝ Let  me  think… Yes,  actually. ❞   His  lips  loosened  in  a  furtively  wry  smile. Sarcasm  dressing  words  of  supposed  indifference. And  yet,  it wasn’t  Ambrose  the source  of  the  frustration – merely  the  one  he’d  subconsciously  chosen to  lash  out at  –.  If  there  was one  person  deserving  all the  hostility  and poison  in  the world,  after  all, this  was  that… new  tomato-headed,  that  Riverdale  stranger  with  his  supposedly  sad  story  and  good  intentions  –  and  yet, he  was  under Sabrina’s  protection  of course  //  perhaps her  new  boyfriend very  soon  too –.  ❝ Are  you  still determined  he  is that  innocent  and harmless  ?   This  is  a  trick  question  by  the  way. ❞  

             “Oh I am fully within my rights to be furious with Mr. Scratch,” she all but growled, arms crossed tightly to her chest. Indeed she was exceptionally disappointed that Nicholas had decided to join Ambrose in his plot to sacrifice himself to resurrect Sabrina, but she also wasn’t entirely surprised. Of course the young warlock’s desire to have Sabrina back would override all sense. So no, she wasn’t as concerned with his actions as she was Ambrose’s.

             Her nephew’s actions cut a wound so deep she feared the pain to be endless. Zelda listened to him speak, tears building and falling as her lungs felt depraved. She had to wonder how she had managed to pass on her suffocating ability for self-doubt onto him when she hadn’t even been around for his formative years.

             “You are not! There is nothing weak about you, Ambrose Spellman,” Zelda asserted, rushing to him and cupping his face in her shaking hands. “I could never choose either of you over the other. Nor could your Aunt Hilda. You’re both our children.” She shook her head, trying to remind herself to breathe. “You say she was selfless and brave, but so are you. You were willing to give your life for hers. You’ve always been the first to stand up and try to offer a solution, the one to bury yourself in research to find a way to fix something. You… You make jokes if its appropriate or not. You left jars of peanut butter around the house for Vinegar Tom to get his face stuck in. And your smile has always been one of my favorite things, even after mockery at my deserved expense,” she said, her voice liquid, afraid she would soon drown.

            ❛  He tried to stop me, we had a half an hour argument over who to sacrifice... and what to do... It was my research which i’m pretty certain Luke must have given you that started this -- ❜ even with his aunt’s fury raised upon him he was trying to get the other warlock out of trouble.   He didn’t mind taking the fall.   He had taken it when the Vatican plan was discovered, he had taken it whenever Sabrina got in trouble.    People didn’t expect anything of him (or at least that’s what he believed). 

              Looking up at her words he wanted to believe them.     His own self-doubt able to offer rebuttals to all her points.  He deserved death, Sabrina didn’t. His house arrest meant he had read a lot, research was the only thing he was good for.    Vinegar Tom put a smile on his aunts face and so deserved a treat, and his smile --- Well, his LOOKS were the only thing he really would accept. But, he knew better than to raise his concerns. He was already in trouble, (at the age of 134). He didn’t want to add to that.   He only spoke once he heard her insult herself.   He moved his hand to touch hers and shook his head. 

his eyes attached themselves to ambrose as he attentively watched him as he spoke his mind. his feelings. he never did doubt ambrose’s abilities, from what he learned in the past, but the emotional duress always made the darker arts twice as deadly. a heavy sigh left his lips as he removed himself from his spot , standing and turning towards him. “ and maybe you’re right , maybe I shouldn’t care because at the end of the day , your family is as much to blame for my loss of control as blackwood is. is that what you want me to say ? that you’re right , how do i know what’s real and what’s not , i was under the spell of a madman and your … aunt. because i can tell you right now that it’s not happening. “ his words were ironclad. “ well , you don’t exactly have a say in what i do , so your attempts to sway me are falling on deaf ears. “ he stated flatly and remained steadfast.

If he wasn’t upset with Luke for stopping him, he probably would have made a comment about his soft eyes.     So much softer than he remembered.    Once he said he would not agree with him, he looked away and down.   He knew he wouldn’t be able to complete the ritual today.  They would have to try again.       a bitter scoff at the fact he wasn’t able to convince the other.  ❛  But apparently you have a say in what I can do...    You can’t --- ❜    he stopped himself.    He knew Luke wouldn’t listen to anything that sounded even a little bit like a demand. He had proven that already ( and he remembered he had a similiar streak when they we’re ‘dating’).  

GOLDEN   GAZE   SNAPS   BACK   TO   REALITY   AT   THE   VOICE.   sabrina’s   cousin   speaks   and   archie’s   eyebrows   raise   right   away   at   the   idea   alone.   “jealous?   but   I   didn’t   do   anything.”   and   that   had   been   the   truth.   he   had   hardly   been   a   bother.   a   casual   step   closer,   the   quarterback   can’t   help   but   to   laugh   at   the   idea.   “you   are   not   serious,   right?”   he   wonders   then   to   his   and   nick’s   previous   meeting   before   finally   sighing.   “should   I   just   tell   him   that   he   shouldn’t   worry?   because   I   just   got   out   of   a   relationship.   .   .I   have   no   need   to   get   back   into   one.”   and   sabrina   was   younger   than   he   was.   his   relationship   with   veronica   just   deteriorated   after   her   father   and   his   death.   a   hand   comes   up,   messing   up   ginger   hair.   “thanks,   man.”

Emilia was fully back into her reading, or at least trying to become so. Normally she could read anything given to her with the greatest of concentration, but now it seemed she could get through a few minutes without needing a break or having to reread a passage over again, the words completely losing all meaning. She had been on the brink of needing another moment of rest when she saw the man kneeling next to her. She had to blink twice, unsure if this was real or her overtired mind play tricks on her.

“Ambrose…” she started, still processing his presence. She wanted to hug him, to crying to his shoulder, but her body did not move, the scars of necessary abandonment my much of her family still raw. “Apologize…for what exactly?” she knew she was being fresh, but she had the right to be considering no one had dared to visit her in the last few weeks. “I suppose you came at the perfect time. I am to be sent to New Orleans possibly. They are not exactly sure what do with me here.”

❛  Not visiting.... being selfish... Not breaking you out of the academy sooner. ❜  He spoke gently and moved to stroke a strand of her hair. Like he always did for both Sabrina and Emilia. The weird little acts of affection which had the whole coven think of the Spellman’s as weirdos.  He could never be mad at Emilia for how she was acting. Especially considering how he treated his own distant mother. He hadn’t visited. He deserved the coldness. 

Emilia sat in the library in complete silence, turning the pages almost robotically every minute or so. It was on of the few time she was not under some supervision, and yet she felt more alone than ever before. She had coped well enough with the death of her cousin, or so they thought, for the first week or so, but quickly she began to unravel, her emotions explosive, surging with the magic in her reserves, revealing the Blackwood genetics in her. It took her hours to calm down, and even then the fear of the house catching fire or worst seemed more the evident. And so it was decided she needed to be placed in the academy full time, where she could be supervised full time, taught to control herself, and maybe talk to others not in complete grief. If not this academy, then Miss Robichaux’s in New Orleans would be her next stop, ready to take her on at a moments notice.

The girl sighed, staring up at the clock, noticing she still had half an hour until her next lesson with Gryla. Was time going backwards? She rubbed her temples, taking a deep breath before continuing on. She had began to lose track of how long it had been since she saw her family. She had caught glimpses of her mother now and then, but nothing more in the few months she had been living in the dorms. Aunt Hilda always stopped by with a care package, and a reminder that grief is different for each and everyone of us, and although it helped her see the end of this, it did not change the facts that her family was forever broken.

𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐃 𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘.  He owed most of his family a thousand apologies, but especially Emilia.    While he grieved the loss of one sibling, he forgot all about the other.   His Aunt Zelda had been completely against him going back to the academy the day after his attempt, but he had simply said he was still the Librarian... he still had a job at the academy.   He qucikly rolled his eyes lightly as he could feel Luke starring at him. Having a babysitter at the age of 134 was ridiculous, but he could understand why. Still, it didn’t stop that he was being constantly watched while trying to work.         

It was easy to forget the true reasons for her refusal to leave when she was needed. Her duty as a hedge witch has kept her busy enough, and with her role as Proxy Headmistress has made it easy enough to keep her in Greendale, but now she was running out of excuses with Sabrina’s resurrection and Zelda back as the true leader of both Church and School

And now her time was up, the first person to to question her delayed return to Greece being her own Son. She had never been drawn to motherhood, and had hoped his father would take on the majority of the responsabilites. It was her biggest mistake, leaving them before the fatal witch hunter attack, the Spellman name a target as opposed to a status symbol. But she could not change any of the past, including her latest of loses, all the money her late fourth husband had left her gone, her debts too great to keep her villa. 

“I hardly think I’m not needed considering how helpful I’ve been during the last few months. And besides, maybe I have missed my family….and you.”

𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐏 𝐁𝐔𝐓 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒.   Emotional manipulation wasn’t going to work on him anymore. It might have worked when he was little and being cared for by his aunt Hilda, but as he grew up he had started to realise that the woman who gave birth to him was nothing but that, and had no intention of being anything else. And he had been fine with that. He had his aunts, but then she would appear every once in awhile and bring him back to square one.  ❛ – i doubt that, mother. I’ve been alive 134 years and you haven’t ONCE missed us. ❜ 

      ˜”*°•.    ❝ All  shiny  and bright,  huh  ?   ❞  A facetious  mood  or  an impossible   relief ?  A fond  enthusiasm  or a  sense  of freedom ?  The  forbearing silence  nothing  but gone,  the  forbidding air  ebbing  away into  nothingness  – sunlight  breaking  through –.  Shattered  pieces of  a  once life  finally  falling into  place.  Life becoming  life.  And that  suffocation?  That  constant  drowning? That   inability  to reach the  surface,  breath? Healed.  Their  place taken  by  that perfect  serenity,  that peace.  For  having Sabrina  around  – however  chaotic,  however stubborn,  however  reckless –,  it  was the  greatest  gift  he  could have  ever  asked for.  And  the fact  Ambrose  was  alive to  witness  it? Safe  from  the  thoughtlessness  that’d followed  them  like a  curse?  Only adding  to  the relief.

❝ I  must say,  I  might  miss  hanging  out with  an  actual incarnation  of  a  depressed  zombie but  oh  well…  ❞   A negligible  shrug  accompanying a  similarly  casual  tone –  and  yet, the  relief  was real,  the  contentment //  for he’d  seen Ambrose,  he’d  witnessed the  pain,  he’d felt  it  –.  And despite  the  deficit of  an  admission, despite  the  taunts and  the  remarks, he  was  indeed  happy for  him.  Happy to  know  that  Ambrose was  there  to see  Sabrina.

𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔣𝔬𝔯 @bulliedby​

---------               𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐌 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐒𝐀𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊.   All shiny and bright? No. He had his own demons that weren’t interlinked with his cousin. Demons he would have to fight on his own and he would, but he now stood a fighting chance with Sabrina back. He had his family happy and complete again.  Though, he wasn’t close enough to Nick to reveal his true intentions or thoughts. They didn’t share the same history as Ambrose and Luke, or Ambrose and his family.  He wanted to keep the fact his weakness didn’t end with Sabrina a secret.     Plus, he was sure someone like Nick wouldn’t understand the complexties of his mental psyche. So he simply offered a nod at the comment.     He didn’t care much if the other believed him as he knew, in truth, they would not probably interact much now that the one thing they had in common was gone. Grief. 

             “For weeks?! You’ve been trying to find someone stupid enough to help you with your death wish for weeks? Kindly explain to me how that is any sort of an excuse.” She was shouting now, or as much as her already strained voice would allow. She was furious and wondered what she had done to deserve such torture. She should have showed her love for him more, more openly. But it was too late, and he wanted to die thinking she would somehow prefer it. “Did you really think this wouldn’t hurt me? How little you must think of me to think that true.”

❛ –– no, it just means don’t blame young nicholas for my stupidity --  ❜  he could only manage a whisper. He had always been given lectures by Zelda, but this was different. This was horrible and he hated seeing his aunt this way. 

❛ –– I don’t think little of you!  I---  ❜   While it was clear to anyone who met him Ambrose Spellman that he was a changed man from the rebellious child who went looking for danger. Ambrose was never able to see it. To himself, he was the worst thing that ever existed. Years of his own self-hatred continued to eat away. Sabrina and their family had been his rocks before, but the past few months without her. He had spiralled further than he had ever been. He had always used his family as an anchor and he had let that anchor be cut.      He slowly felt it sinking to the bottom of the ocean once more.  

Looking up at Zelda with blood shot eyes he shook his head.   ❛ –– you gave me EVERYTHING and i still went looking for more. You and auntie hilda are the best aunties anyone could ask for. You’re kind in your own way, you’re strong, smart, intelligent --- and as much as I used to joke and tease, I’ve always looked up to you!  I didn’t think it wouldn’t hurt you,     it’s why I begged Luke not to tell you. I knew it would hurt, I just --- ❜ he paused for a moment. Wiping a stray tear away. 

no one BARGAINED for his survival. and surely he knew that no one harbored any possible thoughts of fraud. or even thought more on his death. and even so , he couldn’t allow the next set of events to transpire. not on his watch , despite being the victim of Hilda Spellman’s manipulative intentions. freewill had no longer been his own , but that didn’t mean that Luke didn’t already have a sliver of feelings for the other warlock, even if his actions spoke against them. 

“ because what would you have done if it didn’t work , and your cousin never came back ? it would have been for nothing. “ he pointed out and as it appeared – it didn’t work. “ and even with what happened between me … you – and your family. it doesn’t mean i don’t care about what happens to you. sounds stupid , i know.  “ even if it seemed to be one-sided , Luke was going to be honest about it. 

--

❛ –-- Well, I’d be DEAD... ❜   he whispered and then looked up at Luke. He knew that wasn’t the response the other was looking for.   Wasn’t what he should of said.  ❛ –-- but I know that my aunties would have lost both their niece and nephew... but it would have worked, it needs blood and a soul to work... that’s why Sabrina’s attempt didn’t work the first time... ❜ he hadn’t just gathered Nick and told him a ritual. He had studied necromancy for years. He knew the spells, knew the rituals. Knew what he was doing, but the more he thought about how his aunties would react, the more regret washed over him. 

Then his attentions turned towards Luke. This Luke, the real Luke was NOTHING like the one he remembered. His eyes were kinder, everything about him was everything Ambrose had fallen for and more. 

             “Oh is that so? You weren’t thinking? Is that really all you have to say for yourself? Do you allow yourself to be bullied by Nicholas now instea–” Her breath caught in her throat, and she squeezed her eyes shut against the swelling emotions in her chest, putting her hand up to keep him silent as she fought not to openly sob. The effort only partially succeeded. “What you did, what you attempted was so utterly reckless and hateful towards us, I can’t even begin to say.” Her eyes opened, the same pain present in them as was there the night in the mountains. “How dare you try to take the only thing I have left.”