#dresden reference

“I shouldn’t have listened to either of you! Now we’re gonna die in here!” Ominis paced back and forth in front of the now sealed entrance.

“We will figure a way out, we’re not going to die. Especially in here.” Katherine was doing her best to give comfort to her newfound friend, though she wasn’t sure they could call each other “friends”. Ever since they had met in the hallway in front of the Undercroft and he yelled at her for no reason. She didn’t ask Sebastian to show it to her and she certainly had no reason to go in there. But things had been tense. Both boys too stubborn to mention it and instead insisting to pretend it never happened.

“Ominis.” Sebastian’s aggravated voice cut through the dusty air. “We’re gonna get out alive, because I’m too pretty to die and you’re too damn stubborn to die.” Sebastian never even turned around to face his friend. Instead keeping all of his attention the wall of tortured faces.

Ominis let out an exasperated half chuckle, not at all convinced, and started to trace his fingers along the sealed doorway the trio entered from, looking for any possible crack to leverage for an escape.

Katherine wasn’t entirely sure how they found themselves in a sealed room with Ominis’ dead aunt. One moment Sebastian was demanding her presence and now here they were. Merlin she should not have gotten out of bed this morning. He told her about his idea and charged her with talking to Ominis. The same Ominis that doesn’t even like her. By some miracle, or terrible luck in hindsight, he had listened to her.

Time crept by like spiders along the wall. How long had they been in there? Minutes? Hours? Days?

It felt as if she had spent a lifetime searching for any possible exit. Going even as far to cast a flurry of spells, most of which bounced back at her. A particularly nasty diffindo came back at her leg with a vengeance; she used part of her school robe to tie herself a tourniquet and bandage, having left her supply of wiggenweld in the dorm. All the while continuing to bicker with the boys over whose fault it was that they were in their current predicament.

Katherine’s breathing was fast and shallow. The walls beginning the spin and collapse around her. Her eyes were heavy. She tried to swallow the sand paper in her mouth but it only made it worse.

She slid down the offending obstacle, collapsing into the dirt of the dank floor. She stared at Ominis across from her. Features paler and more gaunt than usual. Dirt caked his usually pristine robes, blood on his fingers from clawing at stone.

She looked down at her own dirt and bloodstained self. She was missing fingernails, having been ripped off trying to pry the doors open in a futile escape attempt. It was unyielding and only proved to injure her further. Salazar had made a damned torture chamber.

Sebastian was at the wall furthest. Examining the wall of tortured faces. Early on he mentioned the ‘crucio’ carved into the stone must be the answer but was shot down. There has to be another way.

“I am far too pretty for god to let me die down here” he mumbled. Even in the face of death his ego was huge.

Had this been any other situation and they weren’t stuck in a dark decrepit crypt that nobody knew about. Would people even look for them? Would they even notice they were gone?

Her breathes were ragged and pained. There wasn’t enough oxygen to fill her lungs. Heart pounding in her chest and hammering in her ears.

She was going to die.

Her hands shook, the sight of her bloodied companions swirling and pulsing. Katherine’s eyes burned; too dry to produce any tears.

Choking on her fear. She stood up and stumbled over to the brunett studying the horrific wall.

“Sebastian.” She croaked. He turned, the circles under his eyes were heavy. Dirt obstructing the view of his freckles. His gaze was dark, full of exhaustion and desperation. “We have to get out of here.”

“Oh. You think so?” He snapped, tone sharp. “Are you just now realizing this, oh high and mighty Ravenclaw that you are?” His tone was as condescending as ever, showing just how little he thought of the girl he dragged down here.

She scoffed. Far too exhausted to put up with him. “I’ve been trying to get us out this entire time. What have you been doing aside from staring at this damned wall!”

Her back hit the stone wall with a ‘hmph’, the air getting knocked out of her. Sebastian stood tall above her, a snarl evident on his face. “I told you both from the beginning that this ‘damned wall’ was the way out!” His voice echoed around the small place. Ominis’ grip over his ears tightening. He looked like a small child huddled in the corner, as far from Noctua as he could get.

“Absolutely not! There has to be another way out”

“It’s just a damned spell!” His chest heaved. “I refuse to die down here when the answer is apparent and quite frankly, easy.”

Jaw muscles tightened at the two stared at each other. Sebastian’s knuckles white. She grabbed his wand from him, shoving it into his chest. “Then do it. If you’re so smart.” Uncharacteristically angry, the frustrated witch knew she was pushing his buttons, but there’s no way he would actually cast it. Right?

Ominis spoke up from his place in the corner. “Those spells only work if you truly mean them.”

Sebastian’s voice dripped with an unfamiliar venom “I don’t think that’ll be a problem” he growled, took a step back, readied his wand-