Crazy Stupid Love
Chapter Twenty-Eight : Gone Again
Branches grabbed at her hair and whipped across her face while she ran. Despite years of training and conditioning, her lungs burned, and her legs felt as if they'd give out any minute. She was a prime athlete in every light, but she hadn't slept or eaten in days. Her ribs were still cracked from the last beating, and the wand she was wielding wasn't even her's. It wouldn't work the way she wanted it too, but every hex she sent behind her meant there was a bigger chance she'd get away, whether or not it was perfect. Micheal was behind her, at least he was supposed to be. She had to make a call... she had to make a call.
A stray hex caught her back as she fell to the ground screaming in pain. The stupefy had come out of no where, and sent her falling harder than she expected, it jarred her re-broken rib cage and Tyler felt all the air leave her body. She couldn't breath. They'd caught her again. Everything they'd done, everything they'd tried had been in vain. All those people, and those sacrifices had been for nothing. All the torture, and the pain, and the anguish... everything.
"Welcome back gorgeous..." the voice cut through the pain like ice. And Tyler wanted to be sick. The worst though, was the feel of their grimy hands on-
"Tyler... wake up. Train leaves in an hour." Micheal's voice called through the door of Tyler's small room, waking her from her sleep as she rolled over on the the squealing cot and ran a hand through her hair. Damp with sweat from another nightmare, one of the many that had continuously haunted her sleep for weeks without mercy.
"I'm not going." she called back in a monotone voice as suddenly, the door of her room burst open. Tyler wasn't surprised. Micheal had lost his temper with her countless times over the last few months. He thought she was sick, or ill... he thought she needed normality. He thought returning to Hogwarts would help. But he was wrong.
"You're going." he stated firmly as Tyler stood up from the cot and stared back at him with no expression. She was thinner than she'd been before, but more muscular. Months on the hunt had made her stronger, but she lacked the daily nutrition while she was on the run. Micheal looked much the same as her. Now though, he looked angry, tired... but angry. It had been a long year and a half, and they'd chased down every lead they could. They'd seen the horrors of the Dark Lord and his followers. She knew he was back. She'd felt the repercussions of Death Eaters, and exactly what they could accomplish.
Not that anyone would believe them.
Micheal had gone to the ministry, to privately contracted aurors, to powerful pure blood families... but since Tyler's parents had died, he had no real credit in their world. The Ministry accused him of altering his own memories, that what they could pull from his memory and mind held no real say or matter in the affairs of the ministry. That everything he said and laid claim too was based on one person's opinion, and they questioned his mental stability after such a loss. It was at the point where they'd pulled Tyler's memories as well that they decided to involve the Ministry's Youth and Social Services Division, believing that based on the contents of Tyler's mind, Micheal was an unfit caregiver. That he had altered her memory to make his story more believable, convinced her to say things that weren't true. But the truth of the matter was that Voldemort was back, it was just no one wanted to believe it.
She'd been tortured, and tormented, and she'd lived on the verge of starvation with little to no sleep trekking across the globe to find whoever had ripped her family from her, and now it just seemed like it was for nothing. "Tyler... please." Micheal finally broke as his shoulder's slumped and she watched the fight leave him. Micheal had grown weak. Before she'd always looked to him as the strong unbreakable force, now... his resolve broke much faster, he was wearing out. A little voice in the back of her head resented him for that. Tyler couldn't be strong for the both of them. Micheal was supposed to be helping her, now it just seemed like he was holding her back.
"I'm not going back to Hogwarts Micheal. I'm not done yet." she stated coldly as he sighed and sat down on the cot she'd slept on the night before. They had the money and the means for expensive up-keeping. They could have stayed anywhere they'd wanted too, but after all this time, all the running, and the living out of tents, and sleeping on the ground... Tyler felt more comfortable in a place like this. With the bare minimum. It was safer that way too, easier to flee, easier to hide. "I'm closer now." she stated as he simply looked up to meet her eyes. Micheal feared Tyler. She'd grown impossibly stronger over the past year being on the run. And he'd never regretted anything as much as he regretted pulling her out of school and into this life. He'd asked her to grow up too quickly, pushed her into a world that she wasn't ready for at her age. The horrors they'd seen, what they had done haunted her. He could see the change. She never laughed, never joked. She was a shell of her former self, and he'd drove her to this. Nights in captivity, days on end she spent being tortured, weeks she went without sleep or proper food because she'd become too obsessed with finding the death eater that had killed her parents and her brother.
Vitaly Yaroslav.
That was the name Tyler had been hunting for almost a year.
Micheal had to admire her dedication, and her ferocity, but she was losing herself. She was turning dark. He could see the cracks that were breaking into her soul, and he couldn't be the reason she lost who she really was. His actions had done enough damage. He needed to try and fix this before he lost her all together, and Hogwarts was his last resort. The school had had some questionable reports as of late. The former year's Triwizard Tournament had finished with a bang, Harry Potter claiming that Voldemort was back, Barty Crouch Jr. sneaking his way around the school grounds, and the death of the Diggory boy... It didn't matter if people believed or not that Voldemort was back, because it was the truth and he knew it, and despite the occurrences at the school, he knew that it was the last place where Tyler would be able to hunt from. She could go back to Hogwarts and see her friends, and play Quidditch and focus on her classes. She could get back to normal before she lost everything she was before. "You have to go Tyler. I can't teach you anything else, you have to finish your schooling there-"
"I know more than half the professors that teach at that fucking school Micheal, and you know it. You've given up!" she accused angrily as he looked up sadly to see the shift in her eyes. He could tell when it happened now. It was like a switch she flipped. He hadn't noticed until about six months ago. When they were captured, and tortured, there was a switch Tyler made where it was like she couldn't feel anything. Like she was protecting a part of herself. She made the switch when she was angry, or upset. It was like turning off her own humanity, she went cold, and icy. Everything about her changed. Her posture, her eyes... her voice. Like she was embracing death, and coldness. It was as if she'd created an alter ego that felt nothing but anger, and it was scary. It was going to get her hurt, or killed.
"No. Tyler. I haven't." he sighed quietly as he ran a hand through his unkempt hair and tried to meet her eyes that were now filled with anger and resentment. He knew that she blamed him. Not fully, but to a certain extent. She couldn't hide it anymore even. And he didn't blame her. "I'm trying to do what's best for you kid-"
"If ye send me back there then yer givin' 'im a chance to hide. Yer lettin' 'im get away. Ye think this is what my parents would 'ave wanted? To 'ave their killer walkin' 'round scott-free like 'e's done nothing?!" she demanded as Micheal just sat quietly and let her rant, listening to her accent become stronger as her anger got the better of her. He didn't know what to do anymore. He'd been meeting with the Order in private lately, and he'd even gone as far as to ask Molly Weasley what he should do. He wasn't fit to raise a kid... he had no idea what the hell he was doing when it came to trying to deal with Tyler. It had been their idea to send Tyler back to school in the first place. They'd recommended it. To get her away from all the blood-shed and the horrors of the hunt before it made her dark and fully poisoned her soul. "Tyler please..." he begged as she turned away from him shaking her head. The next thing Micheal knew, she'd thrown her fist through the drywall of the small bedroom. It splintered around the impact of her fist, and Micheal just shook his head.
She'd had numerous outbursts like that before. He knew she could be volatile and headstrong, but never this bad... and it only got worse as time went on.
"Don't do this." she demanded as Micheal looked into her eyes and shook his head.
"I'm sorry Tyler."
"What do ye think this will accomplish?" she asked as he took a deep breath and tried to word it carefully so as not to set Tyler off.
"I think that this will help you get back to normal Ty. You're not the same person you were before. Being on the run has changed you." he said as she scoffed and glared at him angrily. He knew what she thought, that she was better, and stronger. And the person she'd turned into was an improvement, but he could see it clearer than she could. "Admit it... when's the last time you had a full nights sleep? Or ate a good meal? Or had a normal conversation with a normal person?" he asked as she meant to interrupt before he continued talking. "Look I've been doing this a lot longer than you... and you have to understand that sometimes you have to take a step back and distance yourself from the search before you lose yourself. And you've been at this for a long time without taking a break, if you don't take care of yourself, when you find Yaroslav, you won't be strong enough to do what you have to do." he tried to reason as Tyler felt her irritation and anger grow. "I promised your mom and dad I'd take care of you, and if this is what I have to do to do that, then I will. And you can hate me for it... but it's happening like it or not."
"What happens next then? Huh?" she asked as Micheal sighed. He knew she was going to fight him on this.
"Go to school, take a year off... Yaroslav's been hiding for decades and still walks the earth. He's not going anywhere. You found him before, you'll find him again." he offered as she glared at him and shook her head before storming out of the room to the bathroom down the hall.
She hated him.
But the tiniest part of her saw truth in his words.
Half an hour later Tyler was standing on the platform staring at the Hogwarts Express, something she used to get excited about years before, but now just seemed successful in making her more miserable. Micheal had insisted on pushing her cart as she looked at all the students running around happily. They had no clue.
Tyler envied their naivety.
"It's a year Tyler... you're going to be fine."
"I know Micheal... I'm not an idiot." she spat back as he sighed and walked up to her. Grasping her shoulders in his hands as she glared into his eyes.
"I'm sorry kiddo... more than you know. For everything." he sighed as he pulled her into a hug while she stood frigid against him. Others looked on in slight confusion. The two of them looked a little worse for wear. They were dressed in all black, as per usual while they were on the hunt. They were really the only clothes the two of them had left they didn't spend much time worrying about trivial things like appearances anymore. They both looked completely on edge, other wizarding families couldn't understand why. "I'll see you at Christmas." he said as she nodded once before turning without another word and climbing onto the train. Picking the first empty compartment she saw, Tyler the door behind her as she sat down and stared out the window.
At some point she'd fallen asleep to the lull of the train, but eventually tore herself awake from yet another nightmare as she found herself grasping onto her wand impossibly tight. Her knuckles white behind the strength of her hand as she sucked in ragged breaths to calm herself. Young students passing by gave her questioning looks as they peered into her compartment before a single glare sent them running on their way. No one knew she was coming back. Not a single person. Who was she to tell? She hadn't seen anyone in over a year, and she never wrote because she was never in one place long enough. Drawing the blinds closed, she double checked the lock on the compartment door and slid back down into her seat to think. Tyler couldn't remember the last time a happy thought plagued her dreams. Months on the run made her bitter and drawn to the safer darker places in her mind.
In this dream they were covered in black. It was a memory from early on in their hunt... the first block of time that she'd been captured by followers of the Dark Lord. Tyler couldn't name them because she couldn't see them. She remembered not having been able to see properly for days the first time. But she knew they who they were in a sense. When they came and went, she could usually tell which death eater is was when they would enter the room. She could tell by their curses, their preferred method of torture, and their tactics. The questions they asked, and how they reacted to her once sarcastic and witty comebacks. She learned back then how quickly wit and humor can be beat from a person, although when it was reported, the others at the ministry investigating didn't agree. The pain was too much to be anything but real, not that the Department of Justice would ever believe her. She was nothing to them. Nothing to anyone anymore.
Not that she cared.
Tyler knew she'd grown cold, quiet, and angry in the time she'd been away. No one would ever know if it was the solitude, or the dark nights spent in captivity, or the notion that everything she was doing, everything she did was for nothing.
Micheal couldn't know either, he couldn't understand... and he never would. He hadn't lost anyone, the people that had died were acquaintances to him... it was her actual family that had been taken. He would never understand.
And that made her resent him.
She noticed how much he'd been leaving lately. Saying he was talking to a lead, but he refused to take her with him. Then he'd sprung Hogwarts on her like it wasn't a big deal. Like she hadn't given up her life, and that everything they'd done and been through in the last 19 months never happened. Like he hadn't left her for weeks on end in captivity tormented and tortured every day for information and entertainment.
He thought going back would help her cope. Give her time to heal before she went searching again but he was stupid if he thought she needed time. She needed to find him. When she found him, she would rest. When this was all over, she would take time to heal. He'd broken the deal that they'd made. Suddenly, it seemed like Micheal cared about everything but finding her family's killers. She'd agreed to leave her life behind to get revenge, and Micheal promised he'd help her with that. And now he'd completely changed his point of view.
The train eventually pulled to a stop and Tyler realized she had yet to change. Cursing, she checked to make sure once more the compartment door was locked before quickly pulling on her school uniform. It felt like years since she'd worn the colors of her house, her school uniform felt so foreign on her body after months of ripped jeans and sweaters. Returning to civilization to buy all new clothes and supplies was like entering a different world. When they were on the hunt and on the run they didn't take time to indulge in the riches Tyler had inherited, and to be quite honest she felt better knowing she wasn't using it. With her family wealth and her inheritance, and their life insurance Tyler hardly needed to even consider the possibility of a career or a job... but the money felt so dirty. Like it belonged to someone else and she had no right to use it.
She supposed she'd have to get over that now though considering she was the only one with any right to use it, and it had bought all her clothing and school supplies.
Tyler left the compartment after changing and the train was empty. She had missed the carriages, and would have to walk.
She couldn't complain though, she'd trekked further before, and the walk to the school gave her time to think. Whether or not that was a good thing she didn't much care. She spent much more of her time alone thinking lately. Usually it was planning or something of the sort... Now, she had time to think about anything and everything, but yet her mind traveled to school. To the friends she left behind without an explanation... to Fred Weasley. Her first love. The memory of leaving still cut through her like a knife through butter. Like it had only just happened. Tyler couldn't remember the last time she'd cried from physical pain or torment... but she could break down into sobs in a heartbeat if she let her soul open back up the memory of Fred. Even after all this time. She didn't know what to expect when she walked through the Grand Hall and had to meet all their stares, all their questions. She imagined like before, some grand legend and story had been told in her absence. But she had to remind herself she didn't care anymore. She couldn't afford to. She was only obeying Micheal and attending Hogwarts until she could get her affects in order enough to leave and go out on her own. She didn't need him anymore. Her birthday wasn't too far off, and the minute she turned 17 she would disappear again, but this time... this time it would be different.
Walking up the steps to the main entrance, Tyler sighed as she sauntered through the courtyard before making the walk through the familiar corridors to the Grand Hall. She turned the corner into the hall in the middle of the sorting, and it seemed like time stopped. Before, she might have frozen up, she might have been nervous, or scared. Now though, now she felt indifferent.
One year.
All she had to do was keep her head low, and her eyes down for one year.
this chapter was a little longer, and as you've all been begging, it's leading up to a reunion of epic proportions... maybe
an update within 24 hours, see... all you need to do is review and i'm happy to post chapters all day long!
TheAwesomenessShortest - thanks for the review! hope this chapter was to your liking as well
BananaBubbles98 - epic penname. Glad you like it so far, and don't worry, the reunion is on it's way
calhounariel97 - your reviews are actually fueling my creative fire LOL they're savage haha. Absolutely hilarious! thanks for the review and hope you liked this chapter as well!
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