naomi blackall (suzu) wrote in cultureic, @ 2016-02-19 16:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | suz dearborn |
WHO: Suz Macdonald
WHEN: February 19, morning
WHERE: Suz's flat
SUMMARY: Suz has a visitor.
WARNINGS: Flu symptoms
Suz was having trouble getting out of bed. It had been nearly a week, really, of having trouble getting out of bed, of having to qowl in sick to work because she couldn’t bring herself to face the people there who might’ve been responsible for what ha happened to her sister. It wasn’t very Slytherin of her, to put her emotions before her job like that. But give or take a handful of people, she hated the Ministry, had done so since those first weeks when they’d stuffed her new office full of owls. It wasn’t lost on her, either, that the man who’d found those owls with her was dead now. Like her sister probably was. Like she and everyone else she loved would be soon enough. Thinking about death only made her feel more miserable and cold, so she burrowed even further under her warm blankets and sniffled so loud it drew a sad, sleepy meow from the cat curled up at her feet. It should’ve been her on the other side of this, dead or who knew where. Suz was the oldest, the one who’d sussed out what Hogwarts was like so her baby sister knew what she was getting into. She’d done everything first so Mari was never caught off guard. Or at least that was how she looked at it. She must’ve dozed off at some point because she awoke with a start, surprised to glance at the clock at her bedside to see it was much later. But still, she stayed in bed, turning onto her other side with a dry, scratchy swallow. Her eyes went wide when she saw Mari laying at her side, atop the blankets, with both her hands tucked under her cheek. Her hair wasn’t electric blue, but her natural color, a dark brown Suz hadn’t seen on her much in years. She wanted to reach out and touch it, but her entire body suddenly felt too heavy to even lift an arm. “You’re here,” Suz whispered. She smiled softly and her cheeks felt sore from it, like they hadn’t been used for smiling in ages. “You’re back.” The ‘You’re alive’ was unspoken, but plain in Suz’s shining eyes. The smile Mari gave her in return was a sad one, one that looked entirely too old to belong on her baby sister’s face. “What? Bug, what is it?” Suz asked urgently, fighting to unearth one of her arms from under the blankets to reach for Mari. The blankets were heavy, too, and her arm was tangled in them. Mari was starting to blur before her eyes and Suz’s heart started to race. It took her a moment to realize it was only that she was finally crying. Distracted momentarily from her need to touch Mari, with her elbow still caught in the blankets, she added in another whisper, “You’re here.” “I’m not,” Mari said finally, sounding much farther away than she was. “Not really.” And then, matter-of-factly, “You should’ve been there, Suz.” “Wha—” Suz started to ask. But before she could get the whole word out, Mari’s shoulder started to become indistinct and then her entire body and then Mari was turning to dust right before Suz’s very eyes, blown away on a breeze that couldn’t possibly exist inside. Suz watched in horror, a choked sob lodged in her throat. “Wait! Wait!” But by the time she managed to free herself from her blankets and sit up, Mari was gone. Suz cried harder, then, wrapping her arms around her middle and curling in on herself to press her forehead to the pillow Mari’s head hadn’t actually rested on. She cried so hard it made her sob and choke and gag until finally she vomited, covering her pillow in glitter. It was startling enough to snap her out of her misery. Feeling uneasy and sick, she dragged a hand over her mouth and stared at the pillow for a beat. All at once, she felt too heavy again so she burrowed under the blankets on the other side of the bed, facing away from her sick so she didn’t have to think about it. Seeing Mari hadn’t been real and Suz was coming to terms with that. But it had made her feel even more hopeless. Because Mari was probably dead and Suz should’ve been there. |