14 Jan 2025, 03:03
This Pain Wouldn’t Be For Evermore
Sage stepped off the train that guided her from the chill of London to her Kent home. There, amongst a small crowd, stood Cassie and Kora. Kora was jumping up and down, waving to her older sister. “You’re back, you’re back!”
“I am!” Sage swept her little sister into a hug. “I missed you two!”
Cassie took Sage’s trunk from her and smiled. “Didn’t I just ship you off to school?”
“Very funny, Mum.”
Mum. It was only the second time she had referred to her as her mum. Still new, still an undiscovered feeling with how she felt, calling this woman ‘mum’. But she knew Cassie. She knew Cassie. If anything, Cassie deserved the title more than Christopher ever would.
Sage began walking with them through the station, telling them the latest Hogwarts news. “... and I’m a prefect now, so that’s cool.”
Cassie stopped short and covered her mouth with her hands. “Prefect!”
“That’s good, right?” Kora asked, tugging on Cassie’s arm so she would start walking again.
“It’s more than good! It’s… wonderful!” Cassie was smiling just as wide as Autumn Willows had been in that picture. Happiness, for two very different reasons. This time would Sage get to keep the smiling figure for more than a year?
---
Upon arrival to the Kent home, Cassie sent Kora up to her room, claiming she needed to read one of her books. Sage marveled at home and how she had forgotten the silent floral beauty that she lived in. A sweet perfume of tea stained the air, marking Sage’s clothes as if it were saying she had returned home.
Cassie sat Sage down at the table, her once happy expression gone solemn. “What really happened with Christopher? There’s no way you could be this happy after seeing such a figure in your life.”
“It… It was fine the first day. He gave me a copy of this muggle film he liked, we walked around the city for a bit, nothing much. We… We stopped by my mum’s grave, too. Before I left, though, I called him out. He had moved everything about me into storage and told me he mourned me.”
“He mourned you?”
“Yes. He kept saying he felt he lost me, lost all three of us. He didn’t even seem to care though. He didn’t care. All he could see was my mum in me, I could tell. Her face in mine, her death in my leg, her witchcraft in my eyes, everything we share in me.”
Cassie put her head in her hands and started mumbling to herself. “He wants summer with you and Kora.”
"But... What about summer camp? That's where I see my friends! That's my time."
"I know, I know. Just... God, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do."
Sage squeezed her eyes shut and put her head on the table, bouncing her leg underneath."What if he really is sorry?"
Cassie left her chair and put her hands on Sage's shoulders. "We don't know that for sure. But what do you know about your dad? Does he fix easily? Does he apologize? How long did it take for him to come back last time? Six. Years. Six. That's- It's just- It's ridiculous is what it is! He can't do this to his daughters- his wife!"
Sage's lip trembled as she held back an avalanche. Cassie was right; Christopher would probably never truly love her as he had before the accident. Eleven years ago. Sage, a two year old at the time, had been unloved by her father since then. His love, forced as it may have been, was never real.
Sage felt paralyzed by the realization. "Do you still love him?"
Cassie let her breath out with a winter's sigh. "I can't. Not like this."
Could Sage still love him? Cassie may have never been able to feel that way about her husband again, but could Sage? Could she forgive him? Christopher had lost her for eleven years. Lost her. Could he get her back knowing she'd never be able to give him peace? He didn't even know the new her.
"I want to be able to forgive him. But-"
"Shh. Sh. It's okay. It's gonna be alright. You don't have to forgive him now, or ever." Cassie took Sage in her arms and hugged her with a mother's hug.
After a few moments, she stood and turned on their enchanted radio and began brewing a pot of tea, keeping her eyes trained on Sage the whole time. "Tea?"
Sage's mouth was dry, barely able to form words. She accepted a cup. She couldn't help but wonder if Christopher would have made her a cup of tea in that moment. Sh doubted it.
"So... What do you think?"
"About?"
"Summer with your dad."
Sage thought for a moment. "Maybe. I just want to see how things go until then..."
"That's reasonable. I'll have to ask Kora what she thinks, although I bet she wouldn't care in the least." Cassie craned her neck to look up the stairs and stood. "I'm gonna go ask her now."
"Cassie, wait."
"What's up?"
"Did... Have you thought more about the divorce?"
Cassie wiped her eyes. "Sage, I can't do this, pretending with him anymore. It doesn't work, and I have fallen out of love with Christopher Willows."
She turned, and left Sage with more shards of a heart. Would she even get to stay with Cassie? Would she ever get to feel whole again?
So this was the great loss of her life...@Brookline Quinn as requested
