Who: T, Ella, Alek Svetkova (NPC), random NPCs What: an attack. Alek is in danger, T has a psychotic break, they both go into comas, Ella kills everyone. When: Saturday, January 1. Where: TBA Warnings: Violence Status: Incomplete log; to be finished tomorrow.
January 1, 2001. It was a brand new year, one that was begun with Ella’s small family: Terrence and Alek. Even walking through the streets of Diagon Alley, she felt almost light-hearted at the fact that her new beginnings were spent with exactly whom she imagined all her good moments would be spent with. Every time she caught sight of Alek, she remembered how grateful she was to have him with her, with them. And now here they all were, in Diagon Alley on the first day of the new year, picking up a few extra school supplies for the young boy.
The two adults walked a few paces behind the excited boy, Ella’s arm wrapped securely around Terrence’s waist, fingers curling loosely into the stiff leather of his jacket. Happy was never really an emotion Ella tried to identify with, but she could probably say that, in this moment, she was truly content. It was possible to forget for a few moments that they were all somehow being controlled and to just pretend like this, right here, was exactly how the world was meant to be.
“Завийте надясно тук, Алек, ние ще се вечеря,” she called ahead to Alek, gesturing toward a small restaurant about ten shops up the alley. Tomorrow, he would be going back to Hogwarts and Terrence and Ella’s lives would go back to normal, no children involved. But, for now, dinner and then possibly taking Alek flying, or teaching him how to hide poisons in his textbooks in case of emergency, seemed a rather good idea.
Terrence couldn’t quite say that he was completely content, but he was in a good mood. He had his arm around Ella’s shoulders, so nothing could be terribly wrong. Weird as it had been to have Alek here, for him, he wasn’t complaining, and would probably even miss the boy when he returned to school. Having Ella all to himself again would make up for that very quickly, of course.
“You’re giving him directions to the adult shop, aren’t you?” he asked, amused. He still couldn’t understand Bulgarian, and probably never would. She was allowed to have some secrets from him, after all. “You’re such a bad influence.”
Ella laughed. “Just wait until you see the stilettos, whip and phoenix feather boa I had put on hold for him.” Ella didn’t really care to keep secrets from Terrence, per se. But she was often grateful that sometimes she could say things to him without really saying them. Sometimes, usually when things got exceptionally intense between them, words decided to have a mind of their own, and, as much as she always meant what she said, she wasn’t usually fond of words, in general. Having a foreign language scapegoat came in handy.
Besides, she enjoyed this translation game they had. She’d say his arse look great in those trousers and he’d reply with something about bangers and mash. It was fun. She smiled to herself and trudged ahead, quietly looking forward to warmer weather. She was not a fan of how many layers she’d had to put on today. She was becoming too used to Great Britain’s weather. Had she been in Bulgaria in this weather, she probably could have gotten away with prancing around naked outside.
“If he’s going to sell sex for money, it’s my duty to make sure he’s got the best inventory,” she added, laughing again. Ahead of them, Alek quickened his pace. Unlike most, Ella was alright with him running off ahead of them. Perhaps that was a fault of hers as she felt less protective of others because she didn’t want to be protected, herself. “See? He can’t wait to get his hands on the new selection of edible knickers. I taught him well!”
If they had nothing better to do, Terrence would have suggested that they not bother with clothes at all today. But he didn’t mind being out here, laughing at her answer, imagining her brother dressed up the way she was suggesting. He glanced in Alek’s direction, and then his answer - whatever it had been - got stuck in his throat.
A hooded figure had gotten hold of Alek. At first, the boy looked confused, but then - perhaps because the man holding him said or did something that Terrence couldn’t see - it became obvious that he was in danger. Terrence started forward, even as his head started to hurt, his vision going dark around the edges. The man’s dark hood caught fire, but now there were spells flying, and there was something wrong with Terrence’s head; there was a female voice that didn’t sound like Ella, screaming. Was that his mother? No, she was dead. Fuck, his head hurt.
He charged in the direction he’d been heading, instinctively managing to shoot spells in the directions that the other spells were coming from - if he wasn’t imagining those. He went for his knives, too, fire bursting to life around him, avoiding Ella and Alek, but everyone else was fair game.
Ella was the last to notice that something was terribly not right, something she would berate herself for later. She should have known that life could not be just right, that something would come along and fuck with her niche. Well, Ella didn’t like it when people fucked with her, and she definitely did not like it when people fucked with her brother.
She immediately moved forward, too, instinctively maneuvering around the bursts of fire. She’d seen this enough to know how to work with it in complement. She ducked as a hex from the man came toward her, barely missing it by a hair. What in the fuck was going on? Three more men flanked them on either side and Ella shot stunning hexes at them both, though her aim was not fantastic when she was focused on getting to her brother.
“I will show you what it is like to see your children murdered in front of you,” the first man shouted, pointing his wand down toward Alek, who looked terrified. “All of you Marked by the devil, all of you, will pay!”
Perhaps Ella could have empathized with the lesson this man and his continuously increasing number of men were trying to teach, but he’d tried to teach it to the wrong person in the wrong way. She snarled loudly, turning to cast the Killing Curse at the man who was practically hovering over her now. The man dropped behind the jet of green light and Ella decided the rest of them would not be so lucky as to die by a killing curse. She moved by Terrence and slipped her fingers around the hilt of the knife at his hip, drawing it out of its holster.
Step one: get Alek safe. Step two: rip all of these men to shreds.
Terrence was acting completely on instinct now. His head was killing him, and his eyes didn’t seem to be processing things properly; he kept thinking he was catching glances of Amelia with her red hair, surrounded by an angelic glow, the way he sometimes saw her in his mind when he looked at Alek. He knew, logically, that she wasn’t here, that she was dead, but she wouldn’t go away, and there was still screaming, the smell of smoke and burning hair filling his nose as his fire burned out of his control. He crouched and spun out of the way of the curses flying everywhere, a knife in one hand, warm blood covering his fingers from someone, shooting off curses with his wand in the other; he trusted his instincts to keep him from accidentally endangering either Ella or Alek, and trusted Ella, at least, to take care of herself.
Hell, she was probably doing better than him. What the hell was wrong with his head? It felt like it was going to split in two, and his vision was going dark. He’d die here if he passed out, and be of no use at all. It was time to save himself, the way he knew she would do in his situation.
A jet of light hit him as he turned on the spot, and he managed to gasp one breath of air from the inside of St. Mungo’s before crumpling to the ground, covered in blood that wasn’t his, hands over his aching head. And then everything went blissfully, mercifully black.