Next chapter at 120 votes & 150 comments!
  TWs for toxicity, violence & gaslighting.

  "I'M DONE." SEVEN GLARED up at Draco, hating him with every fibre of her being. She hated everything about him, and took everything she had not to try and curse him again, but it was too late now, he'd be expecting it. He wouldn't however be expecting a dagger to the heart.

"What?" He spat back, every syllable he spoke practically dripping with malice. Whatever small, forbidden feelings Seven had once harboured for this cruel boy were long gone.

Even now, the way he towered over her, was like a predator standing over a fresh kill, ready to tear into her and feast. " — I said I'm fucking done!" She cried, dragging herself to stand. Even still he looked far above her. She felt small beneath him; fragile, insignificant. Seven wanted him nowhere near him — the sight of him alone made her skin crawl, so she threw her fists into his chest at full force. "Get away from me!"

Draco didn't move; didn't even flinch.

He dropped his head, so that his face was level with hers. Grey eyes flickered between green. And if looks could kill, Seven would've been six feet under. "You're a fucking child, you know that." And then he paused, staring at her. He wanted to hurt her, she could see it. She didn't blame him, she wanted to hurt him too. Then his voice dropped an octave and he hissed, "You can't keep playing house forever Seven, someday you've got to grow up."

  — And then, she struck him.

  It was not just a slap, but a closed-fisted, whole-hearted punch. And he took it, clean across the cheek, handsome head flying to the side with the force.
  For a brief moment, neither of them moved, almost as if they were both frozen in time. This was not the same boy Seven had found sitting at the edge of her bed. This was not the same boy she'd kissed on the belcony or danced with beneath the stars. This was hardly even a boy at all; this, — this was a monster.

And then he exploded. The shrapnel of their dissonance tearing them both apart.

Seven was thrown back against the bricks, her wrists in his fists, pinned above her tight enough to bruise. "Do that again." He growled; voice steady but scarcely restrained, a new-found ferality glinting behind his eyes. " — See what happens, I fucking dare you."

"Let go of me!" She wrenched her hands away, only hurting herself more in the process. And though he could have easily kept her there, he allowed her freedom.
  "Just go!" She cried, shoving him away, and this time he took a step back, " — Just fucking go!"

  He let out a hollow, mocking laugh, "What do you can go and get yourself killed going after the Sins?"

  "Well I've made it this far!" Seven snarled back, "I'm not some lost fucking puppy Draco! I'm done following you around if you're just going to keep lying and hiding stuff from me!"

  "Oh yeah?" She could see his jaw twitching beneath his facade of composure, and wondered just how far she'd have to push until he snapped. "When have I ever lied to you Seven? — What have I ever hidden from you?"

  Throwing her hands in the air she yelled out in frustration. "I don't fucking know! — That's the whole point!"

  "See?" He shook his head, a humourless grin toyed on his tongue, almost as if he found her distress amusing. " — You see how fucking stupid you sound?"

  She stared at him in disbelief, eyebrows knit together and forming a thin line across her forehead. "Why are you being like this!"

  "Did you ever stop to think — even for a second that there's some things you're better off knowing?! — That maybe — just maybe, I was hiding things to protect you!"

  "I don't need your protection!"

  " — Yes, yes you do."

  Seven had heard enough. She shoved past Draco, winding through the endless mess of alleyways until she found herself back on the city streets. The air was thick and black with smog, filling her lungs and making her cough.

  Draco did not follow, and for once, she was grateful he didn't care.

  She knew where she had to go; Seamus's words echoing in her mind.
"In the East-End sector, about five miles north from here as the owl flies. She's staked out in an old warehouse somewhere off Archer Street. Be weary of her men though — word is they have some pretty strange initiations."

All she had to do now was figure out where she was. Seven had never entered Sloth through Gluttony before and found herself unfamiliar with this particular part of town.

" — Miss, please, do you have any spare change!" Called one hooded figure cradled in the doorway of a closed down shop, wooden planks nailed across the windows.

  "Fresh meat! Pork, lamb, mutton and beef! — Two galleons a cut!" Yelled the butcher.

  Seven made her way through the bustling streets, searching for a street sign until eventually, she found one.

  Deadman's Heath.

  Though she didn't know it directly, she knew that the sign meant that the Deadman's Locke must've been near, and that was at the cusp of the south end of Sloth, five miles from the border.

She walked in silence for a while, weaving through the mess of people and at last she had a moment to herself; a moment of calm, a moment in which she wasn't running or fearing for her life.

A curling, crisp breath left her lungs, and with the sigh she left behind all thoughts of the horrid boy and the curse he'd given her. Seven rolled her shoulders and flexed out her fingers as she walked, still feeling faint traces of magic in her blood. She still ached.

And then something changed. It was very slight, but she noticed at once. Maybe it was the wind, or even the slight change in rabble, or maybe even the way the crowd seemed to thin. Whatever it was, she felt his eyes before she saw them; watery and dull.

He leaned against the pillar of a leather worker's stall, watching Seven. Something about the strange man made her skin crawl and triggered her fight or flight. She began to walk faster and then he pushed off his post, following her.

Seven didn't have to know the man to know what he was; a Crawler.

He strode after her, cutting through the crowd like a duck through water, easily gaining what little ground she'd managed. Seven felt his hand, reaching out to grab her but falling short, brushing against her arm.
She took off running. Bolting through the busy street, shoving and barging left right and centre.

The man ran too, giving out a low whistle, some sort of signal.

Everybody on the street began to clear, all suddenly just as frantic as Seven to get away.

Someone screamed, "Crawlers!" And people started trampling over one another to get into doorways or through alleyways. As if their lives depended on it, which they very well might well have done.

The Crawlers descended upon the street like the very creatures they were named after, appearing from windows, back alleys and other hidden places. Some even apparating, vicious cracks smacking the belly out of the air.

Her lungs burned, heart pounding with the terror that coursed thick through her veins and the weight of the wind that stole her breath from her tongue.

Seven cried out as the was tackled from behind, a man far greater than herself catching hold of her ankle as he dove at her. Her body smashed into cobbles with a horrifying dissonance, blood pooling in her palms and crawling from her knees as she thrashed against her captor. "Get the fuck off me!"

  She used her free leg to drive her foot into the horrid man's face, but still he did not stop, pinning her down as he began to climb her body. A bolt of fear jolted through Seven. She would not allow herself to end up like the red-haired girl; Ginny.

  With that thought her mind, in one fluid movement, she pulled her dagger from her garter and drove it deep into the side of the dead man's head.

  He let go. He fell down. She got up. She ran.

Seven ran for her life, knowing full well that killing one would not deter the rest and in a few moments, she'd have every Crawler in the district coming down upon her.

  Wicked curses, far more venomous than the one she'd felt earlier ricocheted off the buildings, several finding ground only feet from where Seven was.
  She darted about, dodging and weaving, ducking down alley ways and winding back on herself a few times.

  Her stamina was fast failing her, lungs burning and sight beginning to blur. She couldn't carry on like this.

  Slight ahead of her, two more people were running, caught on the street just like the rest of the crowd. Seven ran after them, and when they scurried into a fairly building she tried to follow only to have the door slammed in her face.

  She threw herself against it, pounding her fists and pleading through the wooden cracks, "Please! Please — let me in! Let me in — please!"

  A glance over her shoulder only made her banging more frantic. The Crawlers weren't there yet, but a few more seconds and they would be.

  "Please — !" Her cries were prematurely cut off as door flew open, Seven was dragged inside, and then it slammed shut again behind her.

***
QOTD-Who do you think is waiting inside for 7?