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   — Dedicated to K431TH3KR34T0R
TWs for slut shaming, gaslighting, narcissistic behaviour

"WHAT?" THE WORD came weak, shallow and breathy, as if its expulsion had taken all the life out of her.

"It wasn't safe." Draco said; stern-faced and volatile "They were coming for you Seven — the Dark Lord himself ordered you dead after what you did to Lust."

  It was as if someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over her, icy chills working their wicked tendrils through her veins. "They knew all along?..."

  Seamus almost laughed, "There are cameras over every inch of this city, ya really think they wouldn't use them to look into the murder of a Sin — I mean Theodore Nott was a Sin for Christ sake — I think you've let yerselves forget that."

  Had she?

  "We got complacent." Said Draco, eyes lingering for a moment too long on her lips, perhaps reliving that night in Greed, the one where they'd danced and kissed wine-drunk beneath the stars. " — Both of us." The ring on Seven's left hand, the one he'd given her, seemed to heat up at the memory, as if trying to forever burn the scene into her skin.
  She wondered if he felt the same, or if he regretted it? She wasn't even sure herself if she felt shame for it, he had a fiancé after all.

  "Just because they covered up Lust's death doesn't mean they forgot it." Navy's lips were forced into a mockery of calm. "They're furious and have been searching non-stop for weeks now — especially after Gluttony — especially when the pattern emerged. They're furious, but they're also terrified. In two years no one had managed to catch a Sin so off guard as to be able to kill it, and now... In such a short space of time two of them — two of his Horcruxes have been destroyed."

  She was certain then; Seven had let herself grow complacent too — forgotten the true gravity of her situation. Her footfalls had become sloppy when one wrong step could be the end of everything she'd fought for.

"What do they know?" She asked, hoping above all else that the answer was minimal. She'd changed her name, her hair, what else was there? Certainly, she could polyjuice herself a new face but those effects would never last, it would only be a matter of time before it wore off at the wrong — in front of the wrong people, and then she could be worse off than when she started.

Draco's face became a mess of emotions; sickening in its sincerity. "They know that a girl by the name of Ascel Sadem, with black hair and a slutty little dress somehow managed to seduce and kill a Sin."

  "But surely if there were cameras there to know what I was wearing then they know that the Ascel they just killed on national television is not me." Even saying it aloud made her chest knot. Killed. Killed for nothing more than a name.
  Two words, ten letters, and yet it had been the death of her nonetheless.

  "There were no cameras at Lust's mansion." Navy said slowly, carefully, as if her words were paint and Seven her canvas. "We had them removed months ago, sent women to join his harem and try to convince him that rumours about his week-long orgies were bad enough for the Sin's image — not to mention some of his more risqué tastes — let alone if footage of them were to leak. Lust had all the cameras ripped from their sockets that same day and all the footage destroyed."

  "So then how did they know what I was wearing?"
  It was simple enough to guess that they had figured out her name from her invite she'd given to the guards, but there had been hundreds of people in attendance, with no cameras they couldn't possibly have been able to recall her looks.

  It was like Draco had switched again, practically snarling with distaste, "Because, in case you haven't noticed Seven, everywhere you go you draw attention." Every syllable stained with disdain. "I saw you that night, whoring yourself about with half your ass hanging out — of course people were going to be looking at you — that's what you wanted isn't it? Well it worked," Shadows worked their way into the pits of his irises, "Nott couldn't keep his eyes off you."

  It wasn't a question but she felt the need to answer it nonetheless.
  "I got the job done, didn't I?" She spat the words, a bitter taste on her tongue.

  I saw you that night.
  She hadn't seen him. Just how long had he been following her before he'd grabbed her that night in Lust?
  Had he been at Lust's mansion? Waiting for his chance to strike at the same fate, only for Seven to get there first?

  "You should've just left it alone." His jaw ticked, working to keep back all the horrid things he wanted to say to her. "You should've just left it to me."

  That confirmed it then, he had been there.

  "How the fuck was I supposed to know to leave it alone when I didn't even know you existed!" Seven snarled, coming undone herself, "Because believe it or not Draco, my world existed before you! — You fucking narcissist!"

  "That's enough." Navy snapped, and at once Seven's cheeks flushed with heat having forgotten about their witnesses. "We're leaving."

  Seamus was looking between the two of them; a strange sense of satisfaction worming its way through the scarred lines of his face. "I'll be seein' ya there, just try not ta kill each other in the meantime."

  •  •  •

  THE COMPOUND WAS deathly quiet; almost eerily so. Like a plague of silence had swarmed the halls, devouring even the slightest of sounds.

  Draco had not returned back with them and through Seven knew she should be glad, she couldn't bring herself to be.
  She couldn't bring herself to feel anything at all. Perhaps that awful, silent plague had found her too and stolen all her thoughts and feelings.

  Nothingness became her.

  It settled heavily in the hollows of her bones, like deftly shackles binding her to where she stood. She felt it in the pit of her stomach, too. As if it were her last meal, left to fester and rot. It churned and coiled, for nothing felt surprisingly horrid. So much so that she found herself longing for the ache he gave, at least that much was familiar, an old friend of sorts. It felt like home, a barren and boundless shred of a home, but home nonetheless.

Within the confines of her suffocating silence, she found herself reaching for her bag; one of her few constants. For a while she reached around the cavernous expanse, feeling over books and quills and bottles and blades, until finally, she found it.

Seven pulled out the stack of letters, dog-eared and tear-stained. Reaching for the first and smallest slip of paper, the one marked I, and carefully unfolded it. Three words stared back at her.

  Meet me tonight.

  The first of seven letters. The original. The oldest of all of them, this was the only one that had been crumpled to start with, wrinkled from day one all those years ago.
  She put it to the back, and in turn opened the second, her eyes falling on words that for the longest time she could not bring herself to read. II marked the back.

  My love,

  Our world as we know it is trying to die and they say we are to let it.
I don't know. Nothing makes sense anymore. The lines between good and bad were once blurred but now they've strayed entirely. Seven sins and seven times as sinful.
  You're not here and I'm lost, this doesn't feel right — what I'm doing, it feels wrong and I know you would hate me for it if only you knew. You'd hate me if only you knew half the things you should.
  But you have to understand, there is no right or wrong anymore, no good or bad or evil. Only the killers and the killed and I will fight until my last breath if only to see you again.

  I will see you again.

  Her fingers swept over the ink of the final line; silent in their prayer. Begging. Pleading. Wishing above all else that one day, she would be found.

***
QOTD- the reveal of another letter, how do we feel?