#frtesq

“ THEN WHAT SHOULD WE SAY ALICE ? “  Words cut through air like sharpened knives, her tongue forged into a weapon in which she couldn’t control. She’d watched houses burn, children cry as they’d been ripped from their mothers arms. Alice, even more so, she’d thought. How was it that this had become their life, how was it that they’d survived? That word alone leaving a sour taste within her mouth. They’d once praised her for it, called her a survivor for what she’d been through with Hades. However, was she truly a survivor, truly alive, if the insides of her had been rotting away slowly bur surely? “Everyone is dying.” Her vocals quiver, if only for a moment, a tenderness laces them as she shakes her head. Trauma wrought women who’d fought for a cause in which they’d believed, or in Mary’s sake, grown to believe. “Everyone is dying and there’s not a bloody damn thing we’ve done about it.” A lie, and yet one she’s begun to swallow whole. Had they not risked their lives? Every evening they’d stepped out of the boundaries and four walls that their sanctuary called home provided, they’d risked it being the last time in which they’d see one another. Alice, to Mary, was the only thing worth considering family, the only person she’d ever consider. Hands wring ‘round flannel shirt that flows between delicate digits. Faint stench of blood still apparent beneath her nose as she cranes her neck slightly to reach the gaze of the woman for the first time. “We’re all going to die, you know it as well as I.” Hope was futile, a fickle thing in which Mary had found she’d lived fine without. There was no hope, no retribution given to those who’d bruised and battle scarred them. “And I’ll be damned if you expect me to sit ‘round and watch it happen to you.” A once stiff upper lip now trembles as face falls, sadness radiating as sniffle breaks the silence. A cuff of her jacket wiping stray moisture away from her face. “I’m not going to watch you die. Not for this, not for them.” When the girls were younger, less battle worn and marred by scars inside as much as out, they’d been foolish enough to believe that they’d had a purpose. Now, however, those days seemed long ago enough that they’d belonged to someone else. Alice, as strong as she was tragic. Mary, a dull aching loneliness that swallowed her whole. They’d fallen so far, allowed themselves to be absorbed by shadows cast. Fingers outstretch behind her, searching for a solace in the warmth of the girls palm. Gently wrapping ‘round before she continues, unable to meet Alice’s glance any longer, she turns her head as if to mumble to herself. “I love you, Alice.”

BUT YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO. these words echo in mary’s mind, enough so to cause a beat to skip from her heart as heavy eyes find the gaze of the woman in front of hers. they’d seen to much, she didn’t want it anymore. they’d bloodied their hands already, she’d wanted to wash them clean. war made monsters of bright, young girls who’d once wore lace and bows and danced under the moonlight. war made demons of girls who’d burned bibles and crucifixes if only to escape. it was her burden to bare and hers alone. yet, the persistence that alice had always had, the compassion for soothing the feral heart that rattled beneath bone made cage in mary’s chest was all too infallible. ❝ AND I FOR YOU.  ❞ the words come out with ease, yet they’re heavy in the air between them. moonlit struck features twitch, a momentary lapse of judgement pours over her. she was a liability, a danger to those around her, and yet alice had never wavered. alice had never left. ❝ –––– but you won’t have to. ❞  hand outreaches, digits curl around alice’s own. it’s a warmth she’s grown accustomed to, a safety net in which mary would free fall into. a tight squeeze of her own cold, calloused palm for reassurance. ❝ at least, not alone.  ❞

How little Narcissa thought of the woman who had come in passing; one who brought up past childhood memories of a friendship that could have been, and someone who only reminded her of disappointment. It was why with that remark escaping Alice’s lips, that a haughty sneer appeared upon her lips as she began to laugh at the thought. Of course she was jealous of her life, who wouldn’t be? After all she was of the Black family — one of the sacred 28 families, something that Alice herself could not even boast, not that she would be allowed in the upper echelon today. “Well that’s a rather quaint thought.” She replied lightly, her eyes flickering over her old friend with a veneer of amusement before stating, “Perhaps if you had made different choices in your younger years, this would not have come to be.”

For someone who disliked this country as much as Anastasiya did, it was rare to see her without a bottle of bourbon in her hands, or at least a glass of some sort of alcohol. It kept her somewhat tolerable of the rather irritating occupants of London. However as she looked up to hear a rather familiar voice; one that almost, just almost brought a smile to her lips she began to raise an eyebrow as she continued to drink from her bottle of bourbon before replying dryly, “And whatever made you think that I would bother soiling my hands in this war? After all, I’m not even an official resident of this dreary country.” Deflection was her friend, especially when it came to touchy topics as of this. After all — wasn’t most of the company she kept on the opposite side of the Auror that stood before her?

There was something feral in the other; one that she found herself being drawn towards — likened to a moth to a flame. He was something of a similar nature to her; but what exactly was it that made her darker impulses whisper out to caress her very thoughts at the very glance of him? For so long, she had tried her hardest to quell the very being that she had known delved deep inside of her; but how much more could Anastasiya take? Tilting her head back; a devilish smirk began to appear upon her lips at his remark, despite something inside of her feeling rather disappointed at his words. “Violent? Why you surprise me tonight Fenrir, I would have thought you had something for us to do.”