There is no love
There is no trust
The sky above
Is made of dust

So lay on down
And close your eyes
No one survives
(No one survives)

Jason was alive. He was alive, definitely living, and it felt like the breath she'd been holding for months had eased. Her little brother was. . .not safe, maybe, but safer. Safer than her, and that was what counted. What she now had to worry more about were the younger children-- Sarya and Leah, Lysianassa. Tybalt didn't know his parents, couldn't remember them. He'd been able to remember he was a Squib, and that was it. He didn't even know if Tybal was what he'd been named or if it was a name given to him. Hill was. . .chosen, she thought. Maybe.

If proof wasn't able to be found, and the other sister-pair turned out to be magical as well, they would be locked up here, forced away. She'd visited Heather once or twice-- consoling her, lying through clenched teeth. Jason was the one both of them had been more worried for, because Medea refused to let Heather tel her that she was worried. She was an adult, for fuck's sake. She'd gotten through Sand and she would get through these prejudiced excuses for human beings.  And Lysia-- well, Cass wasn't magical, but she and Jason were. It had clearly skipped whatever, it had been from their mother's side who wasn't magical, so it had to be recessive for them. No matter what Jason's dad was, who he was, Medea had still had what their mother had not. So Lysia could get it too. That couldn't-- Sarya and Leah had a chance, and Lysia had none. She could only hope her niece wasn't magical.  

She was still getting used to all the star names, and while she'd done well in Astronomy, she wasn't quite sure why they'd really been picked. Was there like, a star fetish or something?   

made a wish on a mountain top

But an avalanche came and washed away

Pyxis was better than Kolna in damn near every way. Jesse should have been happy to be at the school and not at that damn rats nest of a building. Or those damp, dark mines. He should be grateful for that, and he was...sort of. Once the news had hit Pyxis about the changing policies in the Ministry any gratefulness he had dissipate. Now all he wanted was out of the damn place. If he didn't have to be at Kolna anymore then he certainly didn't want to be here. Not when he had a much better place to be. Not when he could be home. When he could be seeing her instead. 

It had been exactly one month since he had expressed his feelings for Truly. One whole month since he had finally made her his, and here he was. At Pyxis, sitting in the garden, wishing like hell for a cigarette. It hadn't quite been a month without one of those, but damn did it feel like it. This place was better than Kolna but it lacked the freedom. The freedom to get a drink, grab a smoke, sneak away. Those were all distant memories and now he was stuck in these three little buildings. For how much longer he wasn't quite sure. He supposed that he would be graduating soon. Possibly around the time that he would have at Hogwarts. Before all this shit happened...

He was bitter about missing that. Not being able to graduate from his beloved school was a stab in the heart and he wished even harder for that damned cigarette. Why did he have to think about all this downer shit? About missing Truly and graduation and fucking cigarettes? It was probably a symptom of nicotine withdrawal. Anxiety, irritability, depression... They had been in school nearly a month and the pack he had managed to bring with him was gone but the craving remained. Jesse's sat fidgiting, running his nails over the length of his thumb on one hand and scraping his teeth against the thumb on the other. He stopped as he heard another student enter the garden and he found himself quite grateful to have a distraction. "Hey," he called casually as he looked over a the girl.

No one survives

So lay on down,
and close your eyes

She tensed at the sudden noise.

A casual hey was little enough, if she'd been aware there was someone else. She'd gotten good at guessing if Serafina Nott was in a room, one of her creatures were, or Nott himself was. But living, breathing ones? No. She hadn't noticed and the sudden noise broke her out of being alone.

Her left hand slid down to her pocket where she'd smuggled her knife in, her right into a fist. Thank fuck that they hadn't been too thorough in checking, that technology wouldn't work because she was sure that X-ray machines would have spotted it. There was that rumor they did at one of her old schools, after all. The knife wouldn't help usually, but she always felt safer. Something more than the peice of shit stick she had that she'd ended up making into a shank at the Nott's place. More useful that way.

She'd gotten a few punishments while here-- too mouthy, mostly, and refused to see the school 'nurse'. Wasn't that worse than what Sand did, and truthfully, she in some some of way preferred injuries healing naturally. Besides, what would make her any different than the sick fucks working here otherwise? So no, she'd take her bruises and injuries, whatever they might be.

She didn't recognize the voice, or the kid. Little surprise here-- she'd had next-to-no friends, caring only about her brother, and sometimes Qiuyue and Murdina.

"Hello," she responded cautiously, not bothering to bite down on her accent. She didn't peg the kid as a threat, let her fist relax somewhat. "I disturbing you?"

☆ @jesse , 281 words☆

❤fai