Scream. [Shelby]

[Draven Slayter]

Now it was morning and Draven had the headache of a lifetime. Not to mention his eyes were dappled with dark circles, evidence of no sleep. It was around four thirty in the morning; it had been four hours since he had sent Shell to the hospital. Since then, he had had a long talk with Keegan, and explained why it would be a fantastic idea not to mention any of the nights "activities" to Shelby. At least until Draven found a good reason to tell her everything that had happened. Besides that, he had much bigger problems to worry about. Such as the fact that he hadn't acomapnied Shelby to the hospital, and no doubt she was going to be pissed off beyond all belief.

'Well, I'll just have to come up with a good reason for that.' Drave thought to himself as he sat at the edge of his bed, the bridge of his nose pinched between his thumb and index fingers. To say the least, it had been a long night and he was exhausted. As much as he hoped Shelby was alright, and was glad about going to visit her, he was definitely not looking forward to the screaming he was sure she was going to do to him. After all, he had given her no story as to why she had been laying on the ground, back nearly broken, before he apparated her to St. Mungo's. Simply, he had just sent her there, and then sat to begin thinking of what his options were on what to do.

Shaking his head to himself, he knew that his story probably wouldn't be that solid, but it was now or never. Taking a deep breath, he gathered up enough courage and apparated to St. Mungo's.

It was an odd little hospital, like so many other aspects of the wizarding world were. But he found a receptionist and navigated himself to the room Shelby was staying in. His palms were sweaty as he slowly grasped the door handle. For a moment he stood there, trying yet again to muster up the courage to do this. And then the moment was final, as he twisted the handle and let himself into the room.

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[Shelby Crescent]

Frozen. Still. Alone. Cold. Emotionless.

Shell was staring at the mirror across from her, where there was a sink and her green glass sitting on the counter next to the plastic sink. For some reason lately the doctor's started to worry about her becoming too introverted and to herself since the accident and since being in the hospital for mental illness.

Her hair was dyed brown and her eyes looked sunk into her face, every feature seeming faded; almost like her glow and energy was absorbed by the room feeding its gloomy appearance and atmosphere. This place could drive anyone insane by one glance at it. Her eyes were now a dark shade of blue, almost midnight black when compared with the white walls and her brunette hair.

Hearing someone twist open the door handle her eyes automatically shift rapidly to the doorway, seeing her former husband standing there. He seemed nervous, almost not wanting to even be here. Who would want to come see her? She was a crazy old bat losing everything she had held so close and dear to her through her nibble pale fingers.

Just staring at him, she inclines her head that felt so heavy to her right now. Her back was either broken or severely damaged and either way Draven was in trouble. Ever since him coming back to her house it had been nothing but chaos. "So you finally decided to check in on me huh? I don't need you anymore so go. I know I'm the last thing on your mind anyway Draven. Just like everyone else."

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[Draven Slayter]

His heart froze. It was cliche, but it felt like time had stopped for a moment. When Shell turned to look at him, it was all he could do to keep his jaw from dropping. He noticed the bleak features of her face: the sunken eyes, the lank brown hair, etc. This couldn't be her. This simply could not be the spontaneous woman he loved. At first instinct, Drave thought he had gotten the wrong room, that clearly the receptionist had misguided him. But then her face contorted into several looks: anger, disappointment, melancholly. They were looks he had grown used to seeing over the last ten months or so, and it was the only thing that made him believe it was truly her, however sad that might have seemed. He sighed with exhaustion, already knowing she was about to cut him into bite-sized pieces with her words, as he shut the door.

Draven had already accepted the fact that their meeting here today was going to be life-changing. He had known it the moment he had walked in on Ruby fucking his little brother. Things were rearranging themselves big time; for the the better of the worse, he didn't know. By the look in her no-longer-sparkling-eyes Drave deduced it was already not going well. This thought did not make him panic or feel guilty, however. Over the past months he had grown used to her cold stares, her ranting and raving at him, her merciless guilt trips and a number of other things to follow those. It was like he had developed his own personal immune system to her cruelty. In fact, the words she had just spat seemed to have no effect on him at all; he was completely numb. In the past few months they had spent together, when Rubalyn hadn't been occupying her body, Draven had come to a very distinct and profound discovery: he was a pushover.

"Stop it. Now." His tone was not commanding, but it was firm. He was tired of being the scapegoat for the shitload of crappy things going on in Shelby's life. Yes, he loved her and wanted to be there for her. No, he could not do this all the time. Yes, he understood Shelby was under a great deal of pressure and seemed to have the luck of the number thirteen. No, she didn't understand that he too had his own misfortunes. She had to realize that he was more than just her support system. What he needed to do was make her comprehend all of this...if she'd let him. "I need to talk to you." Drave said, dragging a random chair over and sitting it directly next to her. "So before you say anything I want you to listen to what I have to say. Maybe it will change your perspective on things."

This had ben part of the plan he had been rehearsing on the way over here. The plan was to make her sit and listen before she had a chance to get a word in edgewise. Hopefully this way would make her open her eyes. All he wanted was Shell in his shoes for two fucking minutes.

"A year and a half ago, I left home for two weeks without saying a words and came back with a half brother. When I returned, the only thing you had to say to me was how pissed you were because I didn't call. Nevermind the fact that my father was on his deathbed, nevermind the fact that I was in awe of the sibling I never knew of. But I was sorry, and tried to spend the rest of the time making it up to you." This was how his monolgue began. "Second, about seven months ago-" Draven lowered his voice because he didn't want anyone overhearing, "The Ministry kidnapped me and held me hostage. When I returned, you had divorced me and tried to move on. I don't blame you for this. But, you had other relationships and still had the nerve to ask me if I still loved you." There was so much rage built up it was a miracle he wasn't screaming into her face. "Now, Rubalyn took over your body for the umpteenth time. Not only did she manipulate me, but Keegan got sucked into it too. I did the only rational thing at the time, and you don't know how sorry I am that you were hurt in the process. But don't immeditately start making snap judgements at me, because I'm fed up with that kind of bullshit. Somehow, I'm always the one at fault. I'm the one who's always messing up the relationship. And yet you are the one fucking strangers behind my back." Draven already knew she was going to bite back with her whole, "I have trust issues, blah blah blah" ordeal, so he beat her to it. "And I know you have problems trusting people, but this borderlines on insanity. For as much as you cry about nobody truly loving you, you seem to forget what's been right in front of your fucking face all along. I think I've been trying to make this work between us more than anybody."

This whole thing was about to unravel. He had yanked at the fraying thread of lunacy.

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[sorry it took so long. i hope i wrote enough? lol]