Spider Webs
By T.W. Shadows
"Funny how the world works. One moment, the sun is shining bright, and the next, you're in a downpour."
-- Anonymous
So, this was it. This was how it ended. Everyone had a pretty good idea about how it would come, who would prevail. But everyone was gone now. Everyone but me. There really was no way to describe it. The word I choose, the word I chose--
"Pity." I jumped. I thought I was the only one still left behind. He came out from under the milky shadows, the last ones disappearing because of the peachy sun rising, the gray clouds that struck the night sky vanishing to the East.
I stared at him. He wasn't battered or broken. He didn't have a look of insanity or cruel torture on his face. Aside from a bleeding gash on his cheekbone, you never would have been able to tell that he just participated in the bloodiest, greatest war ever known to our kind.
"I was going along the lines of shameful." I admitted. I was waiting for a hard reply from him, something condescending, haughty even. It never came. He just stood there, close to me, and exhaled. He was Draco Malfoy. How could he not even acknowledge my opinion…?
"Pity. Shame. All the same, now. It's an emotion of grief…" his lips moved, but his voice sounded so unreal, so strained.
I nodded. "Happiness is overrated." I attempted, going for a joke.
He didn't laugh.
"It's just a ploy, isn't it? Life, I mean. It's just like a thing they advertise in a pamphlet…It's a process to get through your days without being labeled or singled out or bothered…" I continued, letting my voice trail off, like a listless cloud.
Draco flashed his silver eyes. "When did you get to be so depressing?" he whispered, hands now trembling.
"Not many options left to be, are there? It's time to put up the walls, Draco. Only break them down when necessary. It's a bit like a spider web." I reached in my pocket for my wand, then remembered. All people who did not support the Dark Lord had their wands confiscated…
"You reckon this really is the end?" Draco asked, his hands exposed under the sunlight. His fingernails were caked with blood and grime.
I shrugged. "I think we're only just beginning…"
"Ginny."
All of a sudden, his hands were on my shoulders, grasping them tightly. "You've got to run." He said this very hushed, very secretively, as if there were someone in our midst, even though there was nobody for miles and miles around, of that I was sure.
"What, Draco, what--?"
"You're the only one who still has got the sense of hope, no matter how false it may be. You'll be next. Just run." With that, he gave me a little shove, and I stumbled, not used to moving my legs.
I stayed rooted to the spot. "Draco, I won't leave without you. I'm not setting off alone. Hell, I'm not even sure if I'm going anywhere for a while."
His eyes flickered maliciously, just as I remembered them. "Foolish girl," he hissed, "it's too late for me. I've died, only emotionally, mind you, but I'm still as good as dead. Don't you see?" He thrust himself forward. "Empty soul. Now just go."
I ran. I ran and I ran and I ran until I couldn't even see his glimmering hair…I ran onto unfamiliar territory, everything barren…I ran…
I watched her. I watched her until I couldn't see her tiny, frail body. I preferred to stay right where I was. Even though I wasn't even an 'I' any more. I was just…There. An empty space, that nobody bothered to save.
I turned back to face the mounds of dead bodies and things that used be safe and holy. Oh well, I guess. Only one thing left to do. I took a great, deep sigh, and put up my walls.