T Higgs will hit a bitch (rebelhellion) wrote in uprisingrpg, @ 2011-04-05 10:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | terrence higgs |
Who: T
What: celebrating a deathday.
When: Tuesday morning.
Where: TELLA's new home in the Forbidden Forest, possibly the Higgs' old house in London
Warnings: a little bit of sad.
Status: Complete
Regardless of where he was or what was happening to him, Terrence's world came to a standstill every April fifth, without fail. It didn't matter that he hadn't been thinking about it, that yesterday he'd been happy and almost completely carefree for the first time in years.
It had caught him by surprise yet again, almost unnoticed in all the fun he usually had at the beginning of April. It would have been his favorite month, really, except for the fifth, and the twenty-ninth. The in-between days were usually alright, though for all that the fifth usually managed to sneak up on him, he always saw the twenty-ninth coming.
Eighteen years ago today, Amelia had died. At the end of the month she would have been twenty. That was so difficult for Terrence to wrap his head around, year after year. He barely even remembered what she'd looked like, what color her hair and eyes had been. He had absolutely no idea what she would have looked like now.
He woke before Ella, and didn't bother to leave a note when he left the tent. He always woke before her on April fifth, always left without saying anything. After all these years, even if it surprised her, all she had to do was remember the date to know why he was gone.
He transformed before leaving the wards around the tent. The creatures in the forest were not particularly fond of the hyena and serval that had appeared in their midst, but they were far better tolerated than two humans would have been. Besides, in this form, he didn't have to give them a chance to notice him - he was off at high speed before anything could even notice where he'd come from, running surefooted through the forest.
They'd dreamed of a ranch with a lot of land, surrounding themselves with creatures, but in the end it had been much easier to find the land where the creatures lived and camp out in the middle of it. They already had a tent, from the time they'd spent traveling after graduating, and the Forbidden Forest was both dense enough with dangerous magical creatures to suit their needs and close enough to the action that they were sure to never get bored. Terrence was also sure that no one would in a million years think to look for them here, but once he stopped, he performed a disillusionment charm on himself immediately after transforming back to human form. There was no need to take extra risks.
He was taking a risk today, of course. It had never been dangerous for him to visit Amelia's grave before, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. No one knew him well enough to know that he visited it every year, and if they did think to look there, he wasn't going to be visible. He also wasn't going to be there for very long.
He apparated directly to the grave site, behind the crumbling remains of his family's old home, and looked around quickly, making sure he was alone. He knelt at the stone that was set into the ground, and looked at the pebbles he'd set there over the years. He picked up another, set it down, and then tapped it with his wand, carefully removing any trace of his touch that might - in the unlikely event that anyone thought to use these - lead them to him.
He sat in the grass beside the headstone for a few minutes, and then Apparated away again, to nowhere in particular. When he reappeared, he discovered that he was by the ocean, though he didn't have the faintest clue where. It didn't matter, really. He made sure his wand and knives were in their protective sheaths, and ran into the waves, turning over on his back and letting them wash him back and forth. Normally he would have spent the whole morning at her headstone, but he wasn't going to do that today.
For the first deathday ever, Terrence had a reason to be - well, glad wasn't the right word for it, but not entirely sad that his sister was already dead. His life would be a whole lot more complicated right now if she was alive, attempting to protect her from the people who were after him, who wanted to hurt him. He had very few attachments to the world he'd left behind, and as much as he would miss his friends if they were killed to punish him, it would be nothing compared to being responsible for the death of his sister. He had not quite been able to imagine anything worse than her being drowned at his mother's hands, but being bloodily, slowly murdered because of his betrayal definitely would have been worse.
That was an oddly cathartic thought. Not that she was dead, but that he had no strings tying him to anything, not the kind that could be used against him. Certainly not to Ella, because she could defend herself, because the piece of her soul that was resting inside him was a safeguard against her death.
He closed his eyes, absorbing the feeling of the waves moving him, the sun and wind on his face, and was surprised to find that he felt content. Content with what he'd lost, with what he'd endured, with where he'd ended up.
After a few minutes, one of his feet brushed against the sand, and he stood up, drying himself off. He couldn't see the state of his clothes, not while he was invisible, but he could feel them drying. It was time to go home, time to spend the rest of the day being content with his lot rather than dwelling on the past. Time, finally, to rip the bandage off his biggest wound and keep moving, as he would have done with a real, physical wound. It was time to heal, and time to move on.