his heart was beating fast against his chest as he waited for her at the usual spot. the spot where everything happened and everything ended. it was always him who waited, waited until she arrived like the calm before a storm, mind always brewing, but never shows. maybe it was this about her that had intrigued him all those years ago. as calm as ever, she now approaches him and he holds out the bouquet of flowers to her, in the spot where everything happened and everything ended.
if anyone were to have taken snapshots of the two of them over the years and overlayed each image one on top of the other, they would notice that nothing ever changed. only the steady shifting of the seasons would be the proof that time even moved for the two of them. it was always the same. the two of standing still face to face, only mere steps away from each one another.. yet the distance always felt so much further. she was always unreachable.
maybe if wes had realized the thing that stood in their way before was so easy to fix, things would not have ended the way they did. had he tried harder to save her before, would they still be together? but now… equipped with the means to save her, to free her, he wanted to make sure that happened between them before would be something she’d never have to experience again.
“it’s uncanny how beautiful you can still look even when the whole world is going up in flame like this, dear isla,” he greets her, his tone always playful, ever so playful when it came to her, “but doesn’t this world also feel so… suffocating to you? there’s just not enough love."
( give her my love, sweet wes. )
at mother’s beckoning, wes takes a step forward, closing the distance between them that always seemed to foreboding to him, one he always felt so powerless against, but not anymore. not now when he had plunged the dagger into her chest, unblinking as he gazed into her eyes which shimmered with obvious pain. pain that he knew would subside and her world would then be filled with love, mother’s love.
he liked this spot, the spot where everything happened, where everything ended. where he had ended her suffering for her.
"isla, i’m sorry,” he murmurs softly, caressing her cheeks gently with his hands as teared brimmed in his eyes, “i’m sorry i wasn’t able to love you enough before, i’m sorry i couldn’t protect you… now though, now mother will love you. mother will love you so much, isla."
there are many unsteady factors in isla’s life caused by the chaotic temperance of her mother. but wes had always been an anomaly to the constant spinning pinwheel, a chrysalis encased untouched by her mother’s stained finger now. isla had once attempted when juvenile essence still gripped the two of them. a foolish girl thought she could sneak in a relationship with a halfblood away from mother’s all-seeing eye. there was no such thing as being way, she unfortunately comes to learn once again the familiar taste of frustration and despair.
with it, isla also comes to learn how to build herself away from it all. find a loophole in the unexpected. though the slytherin’s heart no longer beat quickly around the gryffindor, she’s gained a lifetime friend. he knows her well and she understands him. for a girl who has never had many choices, it was something important. he was her hope.
isla’s false hope. they had landed in an unfortunate timeline. busy creating notes for an upcoming exam, isla had failed to thoroughly read the details in the announcement. a few words had flickered through. a dagger. a curse. danger. she should be fearful, but it’s almost child’s play for a girl whose own parents had tried to force her into eternal sleep so often.
she should have paid more attention earlier. eagerness is replaced by an alertness, the hem of her ruffling skirt brushing against her calves as isla comes to a halting stop. she knows what he’s like. isla knows his present life with her roommate and she hears snippets from her darling gryffindor friend. she knows things about him that don’t reflect what he’s like around her. it should be kept like that.
“yes wes...i suppose,” isla words herself carefully as mistrust enters her features, fingers fidgeting against the bouquest placed on her stomach that she had taken from him. the scent is so sweet. it drowns out her nose.
and he in turn drowns isla in red a second later. there is no pain, no nerves around the heart but there is something sticky and warm spreading across her chest. some splatter down on the bouquet which has now dropped to the ground left to be forgotten.
( hello there my sweet child, mother is here for you. )
❝ -- no! no, no, no, no, no! ❞ wes is saying something to her but isla can’t register it as panic settles into her being the moment a familiar feeling creeps over her. except stronger, reminding her of her feeble position.
she drops to the ground, clutching her head as painfully familiar words infiltrate her mind. numbing her. controlling her.
( what’s wrong my dearest? mother can help. )
her mind flickers to a distancing memory of the same exact words being spoken to her. there’s a hand, her hand, reaching out. but then there’s more pain. so much pain, a cry for help. but is this cry coming from her? or from little isla who trusted her mother and got burnt in return?
( you’re one and the same. )
on cue, her hands let go of her head and she slowly stares up at wes between tear filled eyes. slowly she stands up and reaches out forward to grab his hands carefully and shake them. it is interesting how the floral scent of earlier is replaced with iron.
❝ -- yes mother is here now. ❞