Too Close To Home (Ivan/Apollo/Anyone)

[Simon Montague]

People died. That was a harsh reality to accept for most, but still a way of life. Still no one was really shocked when death claimed some old biddy reaching a hundred, but this would shock them. This would bring them to their knees.

****

She was a good girl, he had met her after the Hogsmeade attack, she wasn’t seriously injured just a few bumps and bruises. He tried now to think of how she was that day, her hair slightly tousled and her lip bleeding, she had a sprained wrist. She was worried about someone, two someones actually and he found that mildly amusing. Young love. Young hearts. And soon young broken hearts.

He had talked to her for only a few minutes that day and that seemed to be enough, he didn’t have time for her then, not nearly enough time to paint his next masterpiece but in the months following she had bloomed. Finally when he saw her again she was ripe for the picking and to date the juiciest morsel he had ever tasted.

He saw her at a book store, politely asked how she was doing, offered to walk her back to her friends who were far more interested in boys than books. He had offered her protection, explaining that it was dangerous for young girls to walk alone, and with his kind eyes and gentle touch as he had doctored her up…what could have possibly gone wrong with that?

She never saw her friends again…but they would see her.

***

I can’t stop thinking about you. Meet me in the woods at Sunset.

Love,
Sophia

****
Two letters were flown out to two respective suitors to be received at the same time. Sophia had been torn between the two having gone from no interests to two in such a short span of time she wasn’t sure how to handle it or which way her heart was leaning. In the end she’d be able to give them both half.

Simon had solved her dilemma for her in his own way, but not before causing her immense pain and sorrow…by the end of it she died with one name on her lips…not Ivan…not Apollo, but Simon… and she had been crying , “Please…”

[Sophia Stark]

Glossy eyed and beyond the living Sophia seemed to stare blankly toward heaven. A heaven that hadn’t heard her call when she begged for Simon to stop. A heaven she wasn’t sure she believed in anymore. Strangely though after all was said an done she had been released from her torture to a place of no pain, no suffering she worried about what would happen to the people she left behind, she hoped they would know she loved them….but then she couldn’t worry about anything anymore.

It was strange but her face seemed to be peaceful, not horrified as she had been through most of Simon’s sadistic techniques. Though the rest of her body was positioned in a grotesque fashion. She was seated stiffly against the trunk of a tree in a white dress with a large red stain in the front, she was holding something in each hand. One half of a whole, each piece with a ribbon around it and the names of the two boys she had given her heart to.

…she wasn’t sure how to handle it or which way her heart was leaning. In the end she’d be able to give them both half.

[Ivan Kresimir]

Ivan had smiled when he received the owl. And for a young man who'd already experienced so much hardship, such loss, and who carried such a heavy burden in caring for his sister, smiles did not come easily for Ivan. But Sophia was sweet, she was smart, and she could have healed the loneliness in his heart. Yes, their relationship was tentative and uncertain, but it wasn't Sophia's fault. It was Ivan and his guarded heart. He was a boy so used to keeping secrets that he didn't know how to let anyone in. So he'd kept her at arm's length. Given time, he might have opened up to her, let her in, and let her love him. But he didn't know that he didn't have that time. He didn't know that she'd also had feelings for another. And he didn't know that she would soon be gone from his life and this world.

He walked to the meeting place, unaware of these things. He was happy as he walked, and he even stopped to pick a single red rose from Hagrid's garden. He would give it to her, and watch her face light up with a smile. Or at least, that's what he intended.

But as he approached the meeting spot and the sun began to dip low on the horizon, the woods seemed eerily quiet. he stood there, waiting, watching as the sun dipped lower. Maybe he had the location wrong? He walked a little further, even called her name tentatively. Then he heard a movement nearby. The rustling of brush, the light clomp of hooves. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw it--a brilliant whiteness. He moved closer, and something turned in his direction. His breath caught as he realized it was a unicorn.

He thought it would move away as he approached, but instead, it lowered its head, seeming to nuzzle something on the ground. He kept moving closer, and as he did, he saw that there was something on the ground. The unicorn was nuzzling in, nudging it, as if trying to awaken something. But it wasn't until Ivan stepped behind a thick clump of trees that he saw what it was.

It was Sophia, lying partially propped up against a tree. She was motionless, her eyes staring, and her dress was stained with red. Ivan stopped in his tracks, staring. Surely he wasn't seeing this. The unicorn lifted his head and looked at him sadly, as if trying to apologize for not helping. Then it turned and slowly walked away.

Ivan couldn't move for the longest time, his mind unable or unwilling to process what he was seeing. With a werewolf for a sister, he'd seen more than his fair share of horrible things. But never like this. Never someone that he knew, never even a human being with thoughts and feelings and a beautiful smile. His logical brain knew he should get help, he should try to clean up, he should... What the hell was one supposed to do in this situation? This was no animal attack. This was deliberate. Ivan couldn't comprehend who would ever want to hurt Sophia or why, but there was no other explanation.

There was only one thing Ivan was sure of in that moment, and that was the feeling of his heart breaking.