CHAPTER THREE
I DIDN'T KNOW WHETHER TO SCREAM, CRY OR LAUGH. A good mixture of the three seemed pretty appealing in this moment.
The Thing—there's no way in hell that I'd refer to it as Tom—looked significantly different from the last time I saw Tom—not including today. The first thing that was clearly off was the fact that thick black substance that was flowing from gaping black holes where its eyes were supposed to be.
How could you miss that?
The next thing was its face. Most would predict that I would say it looked hideous or something else along those lines but it was the polar opposite of what I saw. Tom had already been quite stunning in looks while alive...Now, his beauty had taken on a creepy and hypnotic inhuman quality into the mix, thus making up what we have now, The Thing.
Its wavy chocolate locks that Tom was known for darkened to a shiny black colour, looking like they had a life of their own. Tom's skin had been a healthy English Rose pale in life but in whatever I was seeing here, the skin was paper white.
Its lips looked redder than wine and beautifully plump.
The Thing just stared at me, its beautiful features blank. In all honesty, it was making me nervous the longer it stood.
How much time had actually passed while I looked at it? Mere seconds? Minutes? Days? Years?
I inhaled, praying that the Thing wouldn't attack me or anything.
"...A-Are you just a figment of my sleep deprived mind or are you actually real?" I asked timidly. For the first time since the afternoon, I felt a flicker of hope bloom in my chest. A fool's hope, yes—but it was something nonetheless.
The Thing in front of me climbed onto the bed, crawling towards me like a possessed person in horror movies. It didn't make things better that it was wearing a suit like the creature in the video.
The black goo got all over the sheets and I cringed, shuffling back into the headboard of the bed. The Thing stopped crawling abruptly once it reached my legs and it emitted zero warmth. What had happened instead was that the temperature in the room dropped severely. I could even see my bloody breath form little puffy clouds.
My eyes widened when the Thing actually had the audacity to grab my hand while it stared (?) at me. I actually had to bite back a scream as it put my hand upon its freezing cheek.
"Alone in the dark we count to three. If we let them pass, they'll leave us be,"it rasped, turning its head slightly to press a chaste, soft kiss onto the palm of my hands.
Then, out of the blue, it disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
I released a breath that I hadn't realised I had been holding. I held the hand the Thing kissed. Its kiss had been so cold that it burnt. Its searing kiss was the only proof that—that Thing was actually here.
I was confused. What had exactly happened these past few minutes?
Maybe I was just imagining the whole thing? Maybe I was missing Tom far too much that I created some fucked up, twisted version of him? And why would it tell me such a thing? It's quite creepy if you ask me.
I settled down underneath the false safety the blankets offered me. Still unnerved, I shut my eyes and hoped that sleep would come to me soon.
~0~
I would have overslept if the stupid alarm hadn't woken me up promptly at six.
"Tom,"I mumbled drowsily. "Turn your alarm off—!"
But then the memory of yesterday's events came crashing down on me. I could feel that there was no other warm body in bed with me. I had slept alone. For the first time in twenty-four years I had slept without my lover.
I sighed, forcing myself to clamber out of bed and get ready for the day when I knew that all I wanted was to just stay in it forever.
~0~
I didn't like breakfast.
I got varying looks of pity or sympathy from my friends and the more older children as I tried to eat my chocolate chip pancakes without snapping at anyone.
I could see it in their eyes. Watching me as if I'm some wild untameable beast, ready to run. Or maybe I could break at a moment's notice. It's like the Department of Mysteries fiasco where I lost Sirius.
Hermione had had the audacity to make them hide every sharp object in the manor. News flash, lovey, I could easily kill myself by sticking a Muggle biro in my neck.
The only people who seemed indifferent from it all were Draco and Luna. The two tried to strike up a somewhat interesting conversation with me about a new creature called a Chattering Glimpie (Luna) while the other went for a more neutral option of Quidditch (Draco).
The tense atmosphere in the room only got worse when my phone pinged, an unknown number had sent me a message.
I stopped eating, suspicion winning over my already small appetite as I checked my iMessage.
Unknown Number
LEAVE ME ALONE
I frowned. Did someone mistake my number for someone else's?
But then again, that was near impossible. Tom had been a little bit neurotic when it came to privacy. As soon as I had started courting him, he made sure that everything of ours was made untraceable. If we didn't want to be found—trust me, we wouldn't be.
"H-Harry...Did you get a weird message?"Draco asked tentatively. I looked up to find he and Luna were staring at me with eyes filled with either mild fear (Draco) or complete alertness (Luna).
Everyone else looked on at us curiously. "What weird message, mate?"Ron asked.
Unknown Number
Tell no one—watching always
"Nothing, Weaselbee,"Draco snapped back, standing up without any warning, grabbing Luna and I by the arms. We stood up and let ourselves get dragged away by the blond.
~0~
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