Noble was…too strong. He was too…fast. He was even healing too fast. And the man had always been so unfazed by everything that had gone on, no matter what it had been. It had never been right…his reaction to dead bodies, or to the idea and the action of killing, but Ollie had looked away! He had closedhis eyes and his ears, and had pushed aside and ignored every doubt he’d had. And when Noble had told him he was a monster, Ollie hadn’t listened. He hadn’t believed him!
I should have believed him. Noble had… He had always known too much…
Noble laid there,his heart clenching as he heard Ollie hold back his sobs, the witch’s breathing getting faster and faster with what he was sure was pain and fear. He had woken up when Ollie had gotten out of bed to use the bathroom, but even when Noble had heard Ollie slow as he neared the closet door, and saw the glow of the Seers Amulet behind his eyelids, he hadn’t moved.
Instead, he’d just laid there like he’d been tuned in to the ticking of time, and was just waiting for it to run out. And it had. His time was up…
Based on everything he’d done so far, Noble should have moved. He was certainly selfish enough. He should have been selfish enough to get up and stop the man from opening that door, but he hadn’t. Something inside had stopped him, had made him continue to lie there as if he were still asleep. Guilt maybe…
Whatever it had been was gone now, the only thing keeping him in bed was his own fear of finishing the job of destroying what had been between him and Ollie. But he supposed whatever had been there had only existed because he’d lied…
Swallowing thickly, his tears refused to come, even as his heart broke. Noble carefully slipped from the bed, easilyignoring the pain in his shoulder as it was nothing compared to his chest.
“Ollie…”
The witch spun with a fearful yelp on hearing his name. The man dropping the jewelry box as he did, the Seers Amulet was sent clattering to the floor.
His face pale and tear-stained, Ollie stared up at him as if he were face-to-face with a monster. This time, Noble knew for certain that, unlike all the other times, the terror was actually meant for him. But then it always had been, the witch just hadn’t known it before now.
In the face of Ollie’s fear, whatever pleading or words he’d intended to desperately throw out froze in his throat. Because in the face of that fear, it was all useless… Nothing Noble said would ever make this better. Nothing would fix this.
Ollie finally saw him for what he truly was—a witch hunter. Amonster!And there was no way forward for them anymore. Swallowing hard as the tears finally came, he just barely managed to hold them back. But he did, if only because he knew he didn’t deserve to cry. He wasn't the one that had been wronged here. Noble was the perpetrator, not the victim…
“Ollie…I…” He trailed off, before desperately crying out, “Ollie, wait!” as the witch sprinted for the open door, and out into the hallway.
Noble hesitated for barely a second before snagging Ollie’s phone off the nightstand when he spotted it, and gave chase, as he wasn’t sure what else he could do.
He easily caught up with him on the stairs, but forced himself to stay a few steps behind, to not touch him, to not scare him any further. As if that was even possible. Everything in Noble was crying out to hold and comfort Ollie, to make it better. “Please, stop, Baby! I’m not going to hurt you,” he begged.
“Don’t c-call me th-that!” Ollie shrieked when he reached the kitchen, spinning around to face him once he was past the table. “Y-you should have never—ah—” The witch’s words cut off on a hard sob, his whole body trembling fiercely while he struggled to hold himself together. As his tears continued to trail down, the man’s expression seemed to twist further with both anger and pain.
Noble swallowed thickly, as he once again had to fight back tears. After a moment of hesitation, he started to slowly walk towards the man, as he pleaded, “Ollie…I didn’t… Can we just?—”
“S-stay back!” the witch screamed, as he clumsily scurried around the table, almost tripping on one of the chairs, before placing himself near the opening he’d just fled out of. The panic in Ollie’s eyes as he glanced around for an escape, hurt Noble down to whatever was left of his soul.
He clenched his hands, and as his right one tightened around Ollie’s phone, reminding him that he even had it, he held it up for the man to see.
When the witch’s eyes widened, his skin becoming even paler, Noble almost hit himself for making it worse. But instead, he carefully set the phone on the table as Ollie watched. Having done that, he held both hands up, ignoring the pain it caused his right shoulder, and stepped back.
When he was as far away as he could be from the man without leaving the kitchen, Noble slowly said, “I’m not going to hurt you, Ba—Ollie. I’d never hurt you. Go ahead, take it. I won’t get any closer.”
Ollie hesitated for a moment, his gaze flicking between Noble and his phone, before he finally rushed to snatch it off the table and backed away again. But as he backed away, dread slammed into Noble when he saw the man glance over his shoulder at the pantry door, making a decision he knew would make everything worse.
“Don’t!” Noble yelled as he leapt across the room to stop him, only to have the pantry door slammed firmly in his face, the sound of a lock engaging following it. Staring helplessly, he softly cursed, “Shit,” as he stood there listening to the man’s heavy, fearful breathing and quiet sobs through the locked door.
Sobbing softly as he leaned against the door, fearing it would burst open if he didn’t, Ollie took one shuddered breath after another.
“Ollie…” He flinched at Noble’s voice, at how even the sound of it almost soothed him. How it made him want to open the door and run into the man’s arms. How it made him want to forget everything, but…he couldn’t! “Please, open the door. I promise, I won’t hurt you… I never wanted to hurt you.”
“But you did,” he whispered.
It hurt…it hurt so badly. More than that, he couldn’t trust anything Noble said anymore. Or could he…? W-what if this was just a big misunderstanding?! What if he remembered wrong, or rather hadn’t actually seen what he thought he saw? Whatif Noble had just bought the necklace second-hand, and didn’t even know what it really was?!
Another sob forced its way past his lips when the guilt he’d seen etched on Noble’s face when he had stared up at him in the bedroom, flashed through his mind, mocking his efforts to gaslight himself again—God, he was so stupid! How could he have actually thought thatanyonewould actually want to be with him, given…how he was?! How had he ever thought someone—at least the person who Noble had pretended to be—would actually be interested in someone like him?! Noble had been… He’d been too forgiving…too…perfect…too accepting. And Ollie had fallen for it! He’d fallen for the lies…
Sniffing hard, he took a shaky step back from the door, even though Noble kept talking, trying not to be fooled again by promises that meant nothing. He wasn’t sure why Noble hadn’t hurt him. He didn’t know what the…thehunteractually wanted from him, but even if he couldn’t bring himself to attack Noble right now, he wasn’t going to let him trick him anymore… He didn’t know what exactly hewasgoing to do, as he was…now stuck in…a…witch hunter’spantry… At least, he had his phone. Not that he’d risk anyone else by calling them…
Looking around, while the room was still pitch-black, the details of it gradually came into focus through his tear-flooded eyes. Though he could see fairly well, he still reached for the light switch, as he didn’t need a magic-related pressure headache on top of the one he was already getting from all the crying. But just as he went to switch it on, he hesitated, as his gaze was drawn to the far wall, and the shelves there.
