For the square Magical Curse on my bingo card. This one is a bit longer than the last three. Just btw.
“Curses aren’t real, Sir,” Cody says with a concerned glint in his eye.
Obi-Wan huffs out a breath through his nose and turns exhausted eyes to his Commander.
“You truly think so?”
//
His Master’s hand brushes softly against his cheek. His arms are tired, but he won’t let go. He can’t.
He remembers making a promise. He remembers the feeling of that hand slipping from his cheek. He remembers seeing the light leave his Master’s eyes.
He doesn’t remember what happens next.
//
“You’re not cursed, Obi-Wan,” Anakin tells him one day. It’s after a long battle and both Jedi are exhausted and aching. Obi-Wan lost a lot of men, so Anakin’s not surprised at how Obi-Wan’s feeling. He’s not surprised his former Master feels that the deaths are his fault.
They’re never his fault, but no matter how many times Anakin tells him, Obi-Wan will never believe him.
Obi-Wan shakes his head. He makes no noise of protest, just movement.
//
“He’s what?” Obi-Wan asks, feeling as though the ground beneath his feet has been pulled away. He sways a little and he thinks he feels someone rest a hand against his arm.
“I’m sorry.” The Padawan in front of him (a small human whose name Obi-Wan never got) says with sorrow written all over his face.
There’s an empty spot in his heart now.
Garen’s gone.
//
“Anakin says you think you’re cursed,” Ahsoka whispers one night. It’s quiet and nearly peaceful in the dark.
“I don’t think I’m cursed,” Obi-Wan whispers back. His eyes are aimed at the night sky and his heart is heavy. “I know it.”
//
Satine’s pain-filled eyes send stabs of pain through his heart. He’s used to this. He’s used to holding those he cares for and loves in his arms. She’s lighter than Qui-Gon was. His arms don’t ache this time.
His cheek is brushed by a hand.
She says she’s always loved him.
He wants to say it back.
But he can’t.
//
It starts with a child. It starts with loss and anger. It starts with a family. It starts with pleading parents.
They didn’t know. They didn’t understand what they had done.
The woman doesn’t care.
They took her love from her.
She wants to take their child, but they beg her to leave him be. She shoots a cold look in their direction as the crying child wriggles in her arms.
She relents, saying she won’t take the child, but she won’t let this fade. She won’t let them forget what they did.
She won’t take the child.
She just takes his happiness.
//
Obi-Wan stares into the desert. The suns have started to set.
His curse doesn’t seem to ever stop.
He’s lost everything, so why doesn’t it stop?
His friends are dead. His family is dead.
He remembered telling Anakin he was meant for infinite sadness. He remembers Anakin brushing it off, thinking his curse was a joke and just his mind playing tricks again.
But, his friends are dead. His family is dead. All he has cared about and loved.
They’re gone.
He’s not.
“Why?” He asks into the darkening world.
Laughter rides on the wind that ruffles his hair, and like a lover he could never have, it whispers one word.
