Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
Holyhead Harpies, Beater 2.
Main Prompt - Halloween; Resurrection (used the first scene as inspiration)
Optional Prompts - 11. Limitless / 14. Deplorable / 15. Angst.
Word Count - 1199
Beta'd By - Ami, Sam, Sophy and Lo
Also Written for Hogwarts Assignment 2, Quidditch, task 2 - Write about someone causing harm.
Sleep Well
She pulled the mask away, the blood on her hands leaving fingerprints on everything she touched. She expected to see his face, to know that he was dead. Dead and gone somewhere he couldn't hurt her or anyone else ever again.
Only it wasn't.
When the police arrested her, she was sitting beside the body of someone she'd never seen, with his blood on her hands. She trembled so violently that they couldn't get the cuffs on her, but since she wasn't resisting arrest, they held her tightly by the arm instead.
How… how had he done this to her? How had he… she didn't understand.
Tears fell down her cheeks unchecked as she stared at the man on the floor, dead at her hand.
She hadn't meant for this to happen.
She'd never wanted to be like him.
…
Ginny sat on the bed, staring at the wall. Her nurses flitted around her, adjusting the tubes and machines like they did everyday. It was routine, one Ginny had grown used to, but one that she knew would be coming to an end soon.
He was coming.
She knew it. It was so close to the anniversary, and she could almost feel him getting closer and closer to St Mungo's Sanitarium, where she was being held. The doctors believed her to be catatonic, and it suited her. She didn't tell them different.
He was coming.
She had to be prepared for him, He would come for her, because she was the one that knew his secrets and he hated that. He hated her, since she was born, he had hated her. He hated her for being born. His jealousy for her being the youngest, the only girl, was limitless.
As the nurses left, one with a stroke to Ginny's hair and a sad smile, Ginny continued to stare at the wall. She had to plan. She couldn't let him continue on, and since she was the only one who knew what he was doing… it was up to her to stop him.
…
Harry lay on the floor, gurgling blood as he pointed desperately behind her, trying to warn her of the danger still in the room. Ginny twisted, screaming when she saw a masked person looming above her, knife raised and ready to attack.
She managed to avoid the first blow, rolling out of the way and scrambling across the room. The killer followed her.
She'd heard the stories about him, had even seen a picture of the mask printed in the papers, but she'd never have believed that she, or anyone she knew, could be at risk. What the killer had done was deplorable, but she hadn't believed it could ever affect her directly.
She fought back, ignoring the pain when the knife nicked at her arm, leaving a trail of blood down her skin. Rolling to her back, she kicked up, catching the killer off guard and knocking him to the ground. Drawing her courage, she moved over him and pulled at the mask, slipping it from his face.
When she saw who she'd uncovered, she recoiled back, a gasp leaving her lips as she fell to her knees.
"No," she whispered. "Why? Why would you-"
She didn't manage to say anything more, as he fled the room, leaving his knife behind on the floor.
Ginny let her tears fall as she turned back to Harry, stroking the hair from his face. The light had already left his eyes. She pressed her lips to his forehead.
"He won't get away with this," she promised quietly.
Leaving her boyfriend on the floor of their flat, Ginny had taken off after his killer. She couldn't allow him to continue.
…
The lights in the facility went out, and Ginny shot upright in her bed. Climbing out from under the covers, pulling on the trainers that had been left along with her other clothes, Ginny slipped from the room. Every shadow she saw made her jump as she travelled the corridors. That she didn't meet anyone on her travels left her with a sick feeling in her stomach.
A clang behind her was the only warning that he'd found her, and she looked over her shoulder, unsurprised but still terrified to see the mask coming towards her.
She ran, as fast as her legs could carry her, through the corridors and up staircases. She couldn't breathe, her chest tight and her lungs too hard as she moved, and still she kept on. She could hear his footsteps behind her, chasing her down.
She pushed blindly through another door, only to find herself on the roof of the Sanitarium. The breeze felt good against her skin as she span, backing away from the door slowly.
He followed her out, a knife held loosely between his fingers.
"Nowhere to go now, little Ginny," he taunted from behind his mask.
"Face me as yourself, you coward," she hissed.
He paused, then shook his head. "And give you the satisfaction?"
Ginny couldn't move any further back, she knew. If she backed away anymore, she'd fall from the roof, and then…
He'd be free to do whatever he wanted.
She stopped moving and waited for him to approach her. He didn't disappoint, but neither did she, dodging away from his first attack and mounting her own. Playing defence wouldn't work, and she had enough brothers to know that sometimes, all you could do was fight for your life.
He gasped when she caught him in the stomach with her elbow, and she used the momentum to her advantage, reaching up to grasp at the mask, trying to pull it away.
She had to know that it was him this time.
…
She left Harry and followed the killer down the steps and outside, his knife in her hand. Running as fast as she could, she managed to catch up with him, the mask so clear in the night sky. She leapt on his back, managing to get him on the ground.
She stabbed him over and over, refusing to listen to his cries and sobs until he was finally silenced. His blood was all over her, and she could hear sirens in the distance.
She pulled the mask away.
It was only later that she learned he was a trick or treater who'd made a very bad choice in fancy dress.
…
The mask pulled away, releasing a shock of red hair, just as his knife sunk into her stomach. She let out a pained noise, crumpling when he pulled the knife away, a thick layer of her blood along the blade.
"Percy," she gasped out as he picked her up, not bothering to be gentle. "Don't… don't do this."
He laughed, a cold cruel laugh that took away the tiny bit of hope she had that he wouldn't be able to murder his own flesh and blood. She could feel every step he took, every jolt to the knife wound he'd given her.
"Sleep well, Ginny," he murmured, dropping her from his arms.
Except… she didn't hit the floor.
Falling…
"Percy!" She screamed, flailing for something to grab onto.
Falling…
"Help!"
Falling…
Nothing.