Streets of Knockturn Alley

[Pale Mist]

╔══════════════╗

So wear me like a locket around your throat.
Ill weight you down.
Ill watch you choke.
╚══════════════╝

She nearly slapped him.
Her iced hand would have collided with his roughed skin and the red sting of it would have festered.
He horror and blinding fury was flashing in her eyes in a way the pathetic creature holding her still did not notice. He was in his element, basking in the poison and unable and unwilling to fight it and see what she was. See what she had always been; a demon.
He pressed deeper in her and finally exposed himself purely to her. He had ducked, that was all that stopped her hand from attempting to break his jaw. From her other hand grasping at the stole wand and stilling the blood in his very veins. Instead, her hand skimmed his hair and missed as he dipped and held her. Clung to her like a sad leech. A parasite was all he was. A toy that got possessive if played too long with. It became accustomed to the play, fond of, even. At that point, she would always disappear. Leave him broken and hit hard with the wall of reality. Defeated and left to pick up the pieces of his repeated mistake on his own. Cutting his hands in the process.
but.she.had.a.plan.

And this man. This parasite this pathetic leech of a creature kneeling at her feet and pressing her harder and harder against the wall. The maggot that had the balls to ask for her again and not had again began to slip. Show weakness. Beginning of failure.
Now again, it faced her and she wanted to step on it.

Her thin fingers found his hair too and knotted into it as he was playing with her's. Then suddenly she pulled hard. Tearing him from her body like a deep cut in flesh and throwing him against the opposing wall. Feeling the root of his untidy hair ripping from the skin covering his skull.
"Gone?" She spat, holding him. Her other hand already holding a wand that was not hers. A had that should have, now, been once more holding her real weapon and this man tells her it is gone?
"Where is it, Nott?" she hissed, voice level and flooding with acid.



 

[Essy ze Ninja]

That's why I slipped out the back before you knew I was there

And I know the way I left wasn't fair

I didn't want to be around just to bring you down

Remington Jagger Nott

Plunged headfirst into icy waters he had drifted, somewhere in between, lost in the midst of life and death, truth, honesty, lies, and deceit. When he emerged, naked, he was gasping for the air that would not come. Even now, even in his mind, the persistence of her struggle had weighed down his mind with doubts and insecurity, one never lasting longer than the last. It was a true art, he decided, to be able to endure the torment he so willingly obliged. When he looked upon her, he could see the hate brimming within, and he could pinpoint the wasted efforts of her fury, but he simply chose to never acknowledge it.

He had her, back against the wall, he was so sure now with the smirk that had donned on his features even if he didn’t know how he had done it, but he had. Still, the surprise was in abundance as she lashed out at him, more than once, and finally cracked his skull back against the cobblestone walls of Knockturn Alley, his breath knocked from his lungs as the rest of his body followed suit against the damp structure behind him. But still, that mock of a smirk hadn’t been far from his face as he lifted both hands into the air for the second time that day in feigned defeat. ”Why don’t you ask your husband, Alfons?” That twinkle in his eye suited him; he always knew far more than any man should possibly know. It had rotted him to the core as punishment, just as she burnt him from the inside out.

Had he been playing with Krina all of this time? The thought couldn’t be resisted, he had a knack for playing the role that was needed most, he could never resist. There was, no doubt, an honesty weighed behind his every word and notion, but now in the face of danger, had he just been trying to push her here?

Remington, by nature, was nothing more than a snake. The easiest misconception was how easily he would blend into his surroundings, more often than not, making it impossible to discern his way of life, or where he stands on the grand scale of good versus evil. Remington was the type of man who was so unpredictable, who was such a liar, that any and every word spoken had to be given a second doubt, was he playing up to his role? Or was it true to his nature? It could be impossible to tell, especially with that mock of a smirk that played loquaciously at his lips to surmise his inner thoughts and amusements. He crept under her skin, he knew it, but he hadn’t meant to. In truth, he had only done as instinct had bid of him, but now his instincts had manifested lecherously.

And they told him to seize what little control he could, mask the truth of his words, and shroud it with the doubt of his talent, his gift.

╔══════════════╗
Location: Streets of Knockturn Alley with Krina
Desires: Her
╚══════════════╝

I'm not a hero but don't think I didn't care

 

[Pale Mist]

╔══════════════╗

So wear me like a locket around your throat.
Ill weight you down.
Ill watch you choke.
╚══════════════╝

Awards should have been showering on her. Congrats offered and hands shaken for her success in not ripping the man apart. Not simply killing him with the easy and very much at-hand curse which was tickling the end of the falsely owned weapon she pointed at the man in between his golden eyes.
She stood over him, standing like a harpy with claps sharpened and wings ready to beat and take her away from him just because she could. Just because her disappearance would hurt him. A moment passed after he had spoken and she stood silently. Her normal mask of stone and ice and fire in her eyes replaced as quickly as it had slid down just a pause before. Cold irises of piercing green contemplating the words that had slithered out of the man's infuriatingly smirked face like the tongue of a snake.
He wand was pointed honestly and her hand barely moved as their eyes were locked in a battle. One of the many battles that their on-going game had shown, and suddenly, Krina remembered why she kept coming back.
Not only because he was broken and a toy and her greatest creation of misery. But because he was still alive. As dependent and set as he would become on her when she gifted him with her presence, he still led a life. A dark and cruel one to boot. One she could use just as he used it.
He still had his masks.
His mind.

How could she have forgotten that she had spared that in a strike of genius? Leaving his mind, leaving his life made him into two things. A drooling beast and a serpent. And she had bent him, molded him just perfectly that she could exploit both sides.
Her painted lips twisted into a smile and her eyes seemed to lose all warmth that had managed to retain.
"He destroyed it."
Not a question. She knew, because Krina knew Alfons just as well as he knew her; too well. Too terrifyingly, horrifyingly well. She knew, now, that in whatever play of events, Remington and Alfons had found each other once more. And she knew she had been discussed. In one of the wisest moves Remington had ever decided upon, in Krina's knowledge, he had given her wand to Alfons.
The wand she had 'lost' as a clue for him. Teasing him with a trail. Just like she had been basking in the delight of killing his colleges one by one; she was creating a map for him. Her unconscious had known what her large, more conniving brain had forgotten; he still had his mind. And with it, he could be competition. He could make her plan all the more fun.
Planting her breadcrumbs, she wanted him to see her in them. She had wanted him to begin to piece the puzzle together and see that it was her, so he would expect her to moment she showed up on his doorstep.
Her smile widened and she lowered her wand arm stiffly.
"I married a smart man, don't you think? He always knew too much. Understood too much. You are so similar to him, my dear Nott. Are you aware?" Isn't it a shame I did not pick you?
Her cloak billowed again under her cloak, revealing the body and curves and flesh Remington's hands had been clinging to and eating up moments before.
Fiery hair dancing in the dark wind currents and eyes flashing in the flickering light.



 

[Essy ze Ninja]

That's why I slipped out the back before you knew I was there

And I know the way I left wasn't fair

I didn't want to be around just to bring you down

Remington Jagger Nott

Her mind is made up, the love is gone; but if only, he wished, if only he was dead like her. That wistful remnant of his shattered dreams pierced past the barrier of flesh, an eminent explosive set to detonate. But he tried, Merlin knows he tried. The corruption leaked through, seeping past whimsical gold and contemplative greens, to strike against the cataclysmic destruction only barely contained under the surface. By any means, Remington had come to envy this treacherous woman, ever since the day she decreed that it was over. Her mind was up, and the love was gone- whatever was left wasn’t love, and he knew that, but hope, it had been what kept him going.

A prowess purred to life inside of Krina and a cold static shot past slits of stark emeralds, the realization had struck her sure as lightening and breathed another life into her. But a mask had been pinned to shroud the evidence of life, Krina was, if nothing else, a pristine porcelain doll. In all reality, the very foundation that had been built around this damnable woman was as priceless and fragile as porcelain, the only problem was that no one had quite understood what it would take to damage the goods. As if she already wasn’t damaged goods, but, he knew she could break more, he was sure of it. He’ll just have to keep trying until he wins. The war had progressed throughout their entire lives, and almost every battle had been lost…

It was a wonder he still maintained any morale.

The enigmatic silhouette was teasing as her words flowed against the undertow and swept around him fully, gliding over flesh and muscle until the words finally skated to his ears and then trickled down his spine insidiously. Still, with choked lungs, it hurt to breathe, eyes of penetrative wonder had emphasized the hunger in his persona as he eyed her up and down, slowly, and the wind had complied to guide the hem of her robes loosely at her side. ”Oh, sweetling,” Remington whispered his own words of poison.

”Alfons knows too much, but understands too little.” He commented, but made no motion to further any evidence of similarity between the two; it was a theory he never hoped to see come to fruition. But her mind is made up, the love is gone.

╔══════════════╗
Location: Streets of Knockturn Alley with Krina
Desires: Her
╚══════════════╝

I'm not a hero but don't think I didn't care

 

[Pale Mist]

╔══════════════╗

So wear me like a locket around your throat.
Ill weight you down.
Ill watch you choke.
╚══════════════╝

"Oh?" the word slithered from her painted, kissed lips like a snake slithering through the grass, her eyes shining as she became amused with the light in his. The gold flecked with green seemed amused and ever so superior. She wondered what he knew.
Everything, she reminded herself with an obvious chuckle of mirth. That is why she kept him around, other than his other, more pleasurable purposes.
But what about Alfons, exactly?
"What do you know about the husband I love so dearly, Remington?" she asked with a lips of her lips and a curt gesture of her cold fingers. Pale, deadly face smiling in humor as her ears awaited a, hopefully, enjoyable response. If not informative, which she doubted it was. Few knew her husband, and unfortunately, she was an expert on the man.

Alfons was similar to the man in front of her, dangerously similar. Krina's mind tried to repress all the points and facts about them. When it came to her husband, who loved her so dearly and who held her in the hardest grasp, she attempted to repress anything she could. He loved her, truly loved her, and it terrified her. His actions toward her always so forgiving and gentle, she couldn't understand it. He acted without reason and she couldn't stand it.
Even when they were expecting he -
Her mind shut it all away and she pushed the vile thoughts far.
Far from her mind and shielded her eyes unconsciously, instinctively. Not allowing Remignton, not allowing any soul, to see her inner most workings. Even in her worst state, most of what could be seen of her was only that which she allowed to be seen.
Her smile grew and her eyes watched the man she had chosen to be with over her husband. Surely, he would finally see her for what she was.
Surely, he would stop his own madness.



 

[Essy ze Ninja]

That's why I slipped out the back before you knew I was there

And I know the way I left wasn't fair

I didn't want to be around just to bring you down

Remington Jagger Nott

A breath of painted luxuries drifted past lips of feigned promises, Remington should have known better than to ever trust her, but when her arms had opened, he willingly sank into her until he drowned. He was restless; he’ll always be restless like this until he can coerce the light of his obscure darkness to fall into oblivion with him, and only him. But that, that would be like trying to capture the sun with nothing but his hands. The rough embrace of the brick wall behind him left an impending force of will to retreat because there was something about being cornered that could bother him more than Krina ever could. And she knew that, too. She learnt his weakness, exploited them well, but he had an advantage, if it could be called that.

He could make himself not care. Even if it killed him, he could do it.

”He’s onto you, Krina, whatever you’re doing. He suspects nothing good from you, I’d tread carefully if I were you.” A steely glint reflected the lull of death within the visage of carefully planted gold and intricately laced green. Whatever it meant, he was not pleased, especially with the thought of being the one left out of the loop. If Alfons had a clue, surely, Krina would already know that, but it was still painstakingly brutal to sit in the darkness and watch everyone else get to play with the toy that had been his by right. He had claimed her in their youth, but that never stopped anyone, especially someone like Alfons.

”…why are you here?” Remington finally pushed past the cloud of obscurity that had blanketed him, caressed his concern and worry to set him at ease. But now he was on edge with his back against the wall, Remington had almost fully expected her to disappear right there, like she had all of those other times he repeated this pointless question. But he had to try.

╔══════════════╗
Location: Streets of Knockturn Alley with Krina
Desires: Her
╚══════════════╝

I'm not a hero but don't think I didn't care

 

[Pale Mist]

╔══════════════╗

So wear me like a locket around your throat.
Ill weight you down.
Ill watch you choke.
╚══════════════╝

Krina watched his face as he spoke the words like a carried burden. As if a sort of pioson he had been witholding was slightly spilling from his currupted lips. A boil being punctured.
She almost felt insulted on top of the disappointment that seeped into her pale skin and made her hands even colder once his first sentence was spoken. Her husband was clever. And observant. Those aspects were among the many that she had chosen him to keep by her side in marital chains. He was useful, in a different light than Remington. Alfons' usefulness came with higher stakes. A higher risk and danger of destruction of what she would construct.
Alfons was much more likely to topple over her house of cards than Remington, whose hand would hesitate as she stood over his shoulder.
Consequently, the man's danger had put Krina on her toes and her highest instinct. She was aware that she had to learn him, see his patterns and read him at ever turn of a page. See through his skillfully crafted mask that she had not noticed until their chosen bond.
The last thing she could do with her husband was trust him.

Krina prided herself on her observance and reading of character. She felt it was her most sharpened skill, aside from her dueling. She made it clear to all, especially the man in front of her, that she understood things that went on in people's heads. And how she had learned the craft of changing it and waving the current. Krina began to feel the bitter bile-like taste of disappointment the longer his sentence and apparent warning tainted the air. Her eyes flashing dangerously in frustration that he thought she was not aware of the husband she had studied to the finest detail and modeled to memory was up to and thinking. Had she not made it clear in her understanding of how the man had done away with her weapon?
Krina had tried to be stealthy, secretive and selective about her hidden operations since they began. Targeting only certain ears and mouths to know of her actions. Her husband was to be in the dark. It was a most unfortunate events that Remington and his had stumbled into each other like blind mutts. An event that had given Alfons the understanding of what Krina was doing instantly. He too, it seemed, was committed to understanding her. Exactly why she avoided him. Remington was only suppose to know. Learn what he could and find her now. Run back into her carnivorous arms.
His continuing failures cost Krina so much. He was such a rebellious toy. Always wanting his way.

"And in that light, he understands little? He seems to understand more than you do, my darling Nott. So much more." the venomous voice traveled through the air to the rough man and caressed his throat. Seeping his skin with its deadliness.
"You might do well to learn what he is thinking, rather than what I am." her voice heightened with an undetected sign of a chuckle. Humored by how her suggestion would infuriate him and how very deep in the darkness of his own filthy oblivion he was. It was a shame, she was offering him so many hints. She had created such a fun game for them to play as she killed off his contacts and fellows, but he seemed to be losing. Forgetting to move his piece up.

"I believe he knew, and told you I would come, hmmm? The man knows me well." she smiled with lips of blood, "But he doesn't know why I came. And neither do you. It wasn't just for you, Remington. Greedy Nott." Her tongue played with her lips and her eyes sparkled as she let her words be thrown into the air to slowly fall to the ground like ash. Floating with enough time aloof to create the doubt in his eyes and regain the control they played with like fire. She wanted him to guess, she expected him to know.



 

[Essy ze Ninja]

That's why I slipped out the back before you knew I was there

And I know the way I left wasn't fair

I didn't want to be around just to bring you down

Remington Jagger Nott

This wretched game of cat and mouse left Remington on edge, the biting hints as chunks of cheese had been thrown and he subserviently slithered to gather each and every piece without ever truly comprehending the depth behind. The intoxication of Krina, his drug, had sunk into his skin and coursed through his blood as surely as his heart pounded for the gentle caress of approval. His mind would deny every accusation, of course, the thought of depending on another was simply preposterous, but was it so wrong? Even under the labyrinth of her words, Remington could find a state of solace within Krina. She was his sun, after all, she was everything that gave him strength to live on, or die, with such frivolous arbitrary means. His vision was only this clouded in sight of her, like the world had drowned.

The cursed chain of words lacerated his throat, and weighed down heavily on him, she made him choke. Fingers unwillingly dug into the structured crevice of the brick wall behind him, digging for an escape to this altered sense of reality. ”Oh, but isn’t that the point, Krina? You won’t be so prepared against me if it’s presumed that,” Remington paused to smirk, finding confidence in his words he finally pressed against Flint announcing the bulging stature of muscles that could just as easily push her aside as she had done to him, ”-your darling Nott doesn’t know a clue?”

The emphasis of superiority burst to life and left an ambient glow of dominance to lace on features so callously indifferent to the world and everything around him. Of course, that was all a lie, he hadn’t any more a clue now as he had two months ago, but she didn’t need to know that. Honestly, he wouldn’t have made it this far if his lies weren’t so believable as they were. And it was true, his lies had a tendency to blanket the mind of any doubts, ensnare the soul of every dwindled hope, and trap the thought of truth to surround the being of his choice, but he was so eloquent that it often meant that not a word he spoke could be counted on as any truth. Like a snake, no one could trust him, but would Krina fall for the same ploy?

”As much as I love this game, I don’t have the time. What is that you need, or be done with it and let me have my way with you so we can both get back to our lives.” Remington was adamant now as his hand fled the security of the brick wall to clutch at her hips provocatively, but this statement held as much truth as any other- only a shred. He was tired, but not tired enough to swat away this opportunity as if he could have it again whenever he pleased. He hoped it would force her to reveal her hand, drop the charade he dutifully ignored, and enlighten him with her ways.

╔══════════════╗
Location: Streets of Knockturn Alley with Krina
Desires: Her
╚══════════════╝

I'm not a hero but don't think I didn't care

 

[Pale Mist]

╔══════════════╗

So wear me like a locket around your throat.
Ill weight you down.
Ill watch you choke.
╚══════════════╝

"You know I love it when you get pushy." she whispered as he grabbed for her, not fragility in his touch. Just how she liked him; cold on the exterior and in action, but ripped apart and bleeding where his soul once was before she consumed it. Playing with his heartstrings; the weakest of all for everyone. From heart to soul.
His words, however, were that barrier. That border between the mask he wore and hissed false truthes behind and the inside that rarely knew much other than how to find out what it wanted to know. His voice, to most ears, altered their thoughts and changed their minds and implanted that currupted seed. It worked on many, almost all. And Krina would have been victim to his lie of assurance as well in she herself did not use the skill. Didi not know the trick.
That, along with evidence of his oblivion.
Her cold fingers wrapped around the collar of his shirt, holding and pulling him closer to her. Playing with him before she had to finish the game - he had given her little choice now. He had given her all she needed to know much sooner than she had expected. Almost like he didn't want to have captivity over her in his desperate embrace.
Her lips grazed his, like a knife. Opening a slowly bleeding wound of rawness. Easy to exploit. And then kissed his harder, making the would tear.
With each planted collision between them that fused them for a faithful second, she opened him further and further. Rolling with joy in his festering emotions and needs like a child in the snow.
Her hand once more slipping down his chest and finding what they both wanted. Deep sighs playing in her throat and erupting from her painted mouth. Passion sweeping them up like wind and locking them together as they were before.
But just as she felt him sinking once more, allowing the blinding nirvana and feeling of perfection to have him drown in her, she pulled away and denied him again. Smile jumping to her lips and never kissing him again.
Her hands pulled back and pushed on the chest she had just teased and played with and the cobbled stones of the street sang with the sound of her heeled boot taking a few steps from him.
"Your ignorance does not win me for you today. I dropped the hints but you seem to have become clumsy, Nott." her hand slipped into her heavy rob and emerged with a pair shackles, rusted and teeming with the air of a curse. The restraints that had been sitting, locked safely, in a glass cabinet on display in the Spiny Serpent. Medieval Restraints with the curse of a king. An image of the unshattered glass with no signs of break and enter, sitting empty in the man's shop played in front of Krina's eyes as she allowed him a moment to recognize what she carefully possessed.
"This is what I needed. Tell my husband what I am up to. Makes things more interesting." she winked and blew him a kiss before a loud crack announced his disapparation.



 

[Essy ze Ninja]

That's why I slipped out the back before you knew I was there

And I know the way I left wasn't fair

I didn't want to be around just to bring you down

Remington Jagger Nott

”Ha-“ Remington had all but been allowed to laugh as the impending crash of poisoned lips entangled within his own, threatening to ensnare his body and enrapture his soul. Sparks roared into the alley, the ambient danger posing as a catalyst as the glacier of his words had been defeated, rained down upon by the flaming arrows of carnal intrigue. So much of his heart and so much of his soul had been deeply invested into this woman that it had damned him from the start. As blood pumped feverishly from his heart to his core, the damage had been done. Her memory had burnt his aspirations to a crisp, the kiss had set his soul ablaze with the promise of forgiveness, as if that could be done, but worst of all, the tender and loving embrace he fell into was everything but. Steel clawed him down face first in the dirt, but he may as well have been thrown into a bed instead- it made no difference to him. His weakness cried out in the darkness, the suffocation of her will left an impending stroke of death to await his every thought, and try as he might, Remington could not fight himself. Amidst the blur of chaos, vortex of death, and sea of poison, Remington held onto a shred of light. It was what reminded him of all of the darkness he harbored. That shred of light pleaded for resolve, to flee, to run. Just run.

But when had he ever beckoned to the call of the voice of reason?

The weight of both hands slid down her form, snaking along the edge of every curve until his fingers met with flesh past the hem of her dress to teasingly mingle with the bliss of hot, wanton desires and cotton garments with mirthful reproach. He pulled her close, eliminated every breath of space in between until their bodies melted away. Euphoria finally swept him as every muscle relaxed into her, the weight of his person now more apparent as he seemed to lose control of his strength, melting into her. But just like that, she withdrew, vanished from his touch like the ghost of a memory. That’s all she’d ever be. A memory.

The glimpse of distress reached imperious gold, but became conflicted the steely glint of emerald; shocked, he seemed lost as he reached out towards Krina in vain efforts to capture the mysterious entity that had always escaped his grasp. When the appalled realization of his stolen goods dawned on him like the morning sun, Krina was gone and he was alone.

╔══════════════╗
Location: Streets of Knockturn Alley with Krina
Desires: Her
╚══════════════╝

I'm not a hero but don't think I didn't care

 

[Commander Aran]

Yia yawned as he left the shop, dodging the wizard heading into the shop and nodding to Remington, the owner of the Spiny Serpent. He smiled and made his way down the streets, he was just rounding a corner when he crashed right into the young Thomas. He helped up the boy and smiled his mischievous smile at him. "Well if it isn't Thomas!" He said, pleasantly dusting off his own muggle clothes.

 

[inMadness]

___________________,,-'{ Thomas Doyle Findeler }'-,,___________________

Thomas groaned as he tumbled to the ground, landing in a stagnant puddle, riddled with dead insects and oily run-off. He grabbed for his wand, which he only had with him due to his short-sided desicion to stay up all night drawing, and his charm had served it's purpose a time or two. He leapt to his feet, flicking the water off of him as he turned around aiming his wand at his assailant.
"What's the big idea!" He belted before realizing who it was.
"Oh, it's you. You should really be more careful." He continued dusting himself off, almost completely opposite to the rage driven reaction a moment ago. He glanced down at his worn out blackthorn, before concealing it in his robe sleeve.  

[Commander Aran]

He held his hand up in front of the timid boy's wand, "Easy Tommy, you don't want to get expelled before you even go to Hogwarts do you? It's illegal to use magic when your under seventeen." He said patting him on the shoulder. He wondered what had the boy all riled up. Still he'd talk about something else for now, "You find William? Or my bro yet?" He asked, laughing slightly, he had just come from the store they were currently at. He poked Thomas in the stomach gently, "Be careful, you don't know what you might be getting into." He said winking and nodding, moving aside for the the boy to pass or not. If he would continue down the steps of Knockturn he'd follow, someone had to protect Thomas from Roi's wrath.

 

[inMadness]

___________________,,-'{ Thomas Doyle Findeler }'-,,___________________

Thomas tilted his head in momentary confusion, glancing away.
"I don't even know any spells..." He lied; he the one. "... and I'm not looking for William or Roi" Thomas responded emphatically, peering at his now ruined attire. "I'm looking for my dad so we can leave."

Thomas glanced around the dreary streets, looking for some hopeful miraculous sign of his father.
"You haven't seen him have you; tall, scruffy, and cloaked?" Thomas asked; not that the description didn't suit half the people in the streets.  

[Commander Aran]

All the boy had to do was mention his father and his mind instantly clicked to who he saw entering the Spiny Serpent. The boy's description of his father only complied with the man he saw enter the store. He let out a loud sigh and nodded with raised eyebrows, "Yup, sadly you best not head after him at the moment." He said, he was guessing as to what the man was doing, but still he felt it better to warn the boy. "I was right yesterday, your dad, well he's seeing my brother." He said his hair turning black as he yawned. He smiled at Thomas, "Of course, you can always not listen to me and end up with these as well." He said pointing up at his cheek scar. This was the first time he actually told anyone any detail about the scars on his body.