──────────────── ❈ ❈ ✦ ❈ ❈ ────────────────

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐏 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐊𝐈𝐄𝐒, 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐖𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒, 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐓, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐒 awoke Jesse from his deep slumber. His hazel eyes were met with beams of light as they fluttered open and a sense of warmth coated his body.

"What happened?" Jesse groaned, pressing his hand to his forehead as he pushed himself to a sitting position. It took a moment for his vision to adjust to the bright lights but he quickly realized that he was no longer in the basement of the Shrieking Shack. The more he looked around, the more he realized that he may not even be in the Shrieking Shack at all.

He was sitting on the black and white checkered tile floor of a small kitchen with white cupboards and yellow walls. Through the oven window at his feet, Jesse could see a sheet of chocolate chip cookies rising under the dim light and to his left, he saw a middle-aged woman standing at the table filling a pot of lilacs with dirt. A bowl of freshly picked strawberries sat next to her and Jesse could feel his stomach begin to rumble.

"I was wondering when you'd wake up," the woman smiled, continuing her task without looking up.

"Aunt Veronica?" Jesse asked, squinting his eyes to see her face better. "Am I...home?"

"Of course, silly," Veronica laughed. "Where else would you be?"

"About time," another voice joined Jesse and Veronica. Jesse watched as a brown-skinned girl his age walked into the kitchen with a juice box in hand. She took a long sip from the straw as she stared down at Jesse.

"Isabell!" A large smile erupted on Jesse's face upon seeing his twin sister and best friend. He immediately pushed himself off the floor and wrapped his arms around her in a hug.

"What's with you?" Isabell asked, pulling away from his tight grip after the hug lingered too long.

"N-nothing," Jesse stammered, trying to think of an answer that would make sense and coming up empty. Whatever this was...reality, a dream, an illusion...he didn't want to leave it quite yet. As a distraction, he grabbed the juice box from Isabell's hand and took a swig.

"Hey!" Isabell cried, hitting him on the shoulder in protest with a playful smile.

Isabell took a seat at the table where Victoria was working, resting her head in her hands and watching as Victoria smoothed the dirt over the roots of the lilacs. Jesse slowly followed, sitting in the chair next to Isabell. A smile spread across his face as he took a deep breath and inhaled the tranquility of the moment. Nothing felt better than being home. Which reminded Jesse...

"What are you doing home, Isabell?" Jesse asked. "Shouldn't you be at Hogwarts?"

Isabell turned to look at Jesse but the look on her face caught him by surprise. Her brows were furrowed together and the corners of her mouth were turned down in a scowl. A darkness shone within her eyes, turning them nearly black.

Startled, Jesse scooted his chair back away from Isabell. "Wh-what's going on? What's wrong?" he stammered.

"Don't go looking for him," Isabell said sternly, a sharp tone puncturing her voice. As she spoke, the room began to grow darker. The sunlight that had been filtering through the windows just moments ago disappeared behind a thick fog that pushed up against the glass and threatened to choke the house. Rows of goosebumps ran up and down Jesse's arms and the back of his neck as a chill settled over him.

"Wh-who?" Jesse asked, cowering in his chair. "Isabell, you're scaring me."

Jesse looked to Victoria, attempting to find any ounce of comfort left in the room, but a look similar to Isabell's spanned Victoria's face as well.

"A.S.," Victoria answered in a deep voice.

"Why not?" Jesse asked. Despite the fear circulating through his body, Jesse felt the need to keep asking questions, even if they were questions he felt he shouldn't ask. His leg nervously bounced up and down as he waited for an answer; for the wrath he feared might follow it.

But then, suddenly everything returned to normal. The fog cleared away, allowing the sunshine through once more. Jesse's goosebumps disappeared once the light reached his skin, warming him back up. He could smell the chocolate chip cookies, strawberries, dirt, and lilacs again; which he hadn't realized had gone away. A wave of relief flooded Jesse when he glanced between Isabell and Victoria and found that they were no longer scowling at him, their frowns now replaced with vibrant smiles.

"What did you ask me, Jesse?" Isabell asked. Her cheeks were glowing but a dark glint still shone in her eyes, like a warning.

"Um..." Jesse stammered, trying to to think of a response that would prevent the darkness from coming back. "...I asked what you were up to!"

"Just hanging out with Auntie Victoria and making cookies," Isabell answered, the dark glint now fading from her eyes. "Oh, speaking of!" Isabell shouted, jumping up from her chair and rushing towards the oven. She slipped an oven mitt over her hand and pulled the hot baking sheet out, letting it clatter onto the countertop once the heat pierced through the mitt and touched her skin.

"They smell delicious, Isabell," Victoria said warmly.

"Who wants to be my taste-tester?" Isabell asked, waving her hand over the cookies to cool them down. She turned to look at Jesse with a raised brow and a knowing smile. "Jesse?"

"You know I can't say no to that," Jesse laughed nervously. Even though everything seemed to have returned to "normal", he was still slightly scared.

Isabell grabbed a cookie, passing it to Jesse and staring at him expectantly as she waited for him to take the first bite. Jesse's eyes didn't leave hers as he slowly raised the cookie to his mouth. His mouth was filled with a rich sweetness as he bit into the soft dough, but the longer the cookie sat on his taste buds the more bitter it became.

"What did you put in these cookies?" Jesse asked between chews. He couldn't tell whether the room was becoming darker again or whether his vision was fading, because Isabell's form slowly disappeared from view.

Jesse collapsed from the chair onto the ground as he slipped out of consciousness. The last thing he saw before he lost his vision completely was Isabell's eyes, which had turned completely black, and the last thing he heard was her warning:

"Don't trust Scarlet."

──────────────── ❈ ❈ ✦ ❈ ❈ ────────────────

A/N: Sorry again for the delay in updating. I'm all finished with finals now though so I should hopefully be able to return to a semi-normal updating schedule. There won't be a new chapter next week, unfortunately, since my family is coming out to visit me, but after that I'm going to try to return to a chapter a week.

As you can see, this chapter was a little different and only featured one character. Don't worry, each of your characters will get their own solo chapter similar to this! I wanted a way to delve a little more into character background and to make the story longer because I'm starting to near the end of the main plot (not including alternative endings) and we're only six chapters in lol.

What do you think Isabell's warnings mean?