Introspection
Chapter One: Survival of the Fittest
Disclaimer: I own the plot and original concepts, characters, et cetera. Everything else belongs to its respective creator(s).
Stumbling blindly across the grounds, Lily Evans ran away from all of the terror in the castle that lay behind her, away from the screams and the horrid green light. The panicky chaos thriving in orderly Hogwarts, where the magical events were regulated and there was routine broken only by the spontaneity of rowdy students, seemed a strange concept in a foreign language. Anarchy, where the only rule was the primal one of evolution, that the fittest survived, pulsed behind her like a writhing maggot trying to eat through the most succulent piece of foul decay.
So Lily kept on running, her fright-induced adrenaline helping her to ignore the burning ache starting to lick its way up her cramping calves and side, keeping her gasping for the cold, stinging air that froze the tears on her cheeks. The hem of her wet cloak slapped against her legs, the edges of black cloth like ice and as painful. Oblivious winter snow glittered in the cold sunlight as it fell down in lacy flakes like finely faceted diamonds and lay before her in an unblemished white blanket that deadened the sound of desperate breaths that sliced jaggedly like shards of glass and nails through her throat and lungs.
Her slowing pace was bringing her closer to the Forbidden Forest, a dangerous place and paradoxically the only haven for her right now. The churned-up snow led a path to her. Her numb, pink fingers bent stiffly, as if they were too heavily starched, to form a grip on the handle of her wand, obliterating the tracks with a spell repeated many times. Then she pocketed her wand and fled deeper into the forest, the rolling, curved paths of tears an icy trail of sorrow paved onto her face, a path for the hot flood of tears to slip down, washing her face in salty streaks.
Those same tears burned her raw, swollen eyes and blurred her vision. Lily wiped them bitterly away with a frozen fist as she ran blindly, not trying to go anyway, simply trying to get away. Finally, she collapsed, too exhausted and fear-ridden to move, the dull ache washing away to sharp pins and needles from the snow through her Hogwarts robes and the black cloak she wore. Her eyes were frozen shut and she was too tired to move.
The scarlet traces of her retina faded to black as she fell into a troubled sleep.