Healing // d.m.

| 15 |

  IF looks could kill, Gabby would've conjured Sectumsempra a million times and Catherine would have been slaughtered. They were sitting in her living room couch, staring at the unopened black box. Smalls was even hiding behind Catherine, slowly taking peeks at Gabby's fuming face.

  "So he's after this?" Gabby looked at the box.

  Catherine nodded. She explained again about Harold coming in the other day, demanding to find his possession. Him mentioning the stone and about the new haircut revealed a tattoo behind his neck that she never knew he had.

  "Why the fuck am I just hearing about this now?" Gabby said almost too quietly.

  "Don't kill me, Mrs. Flick" she tried to joke but it made it worse.

  "I don't understand why you're just telling me this now! When I specifically said to tell me if there is any danger or if anything happens to you!" Smalls whimpered at her blaring voice and proceeded to chew her stuffed racoon toy.

  Catherine hugged her knees on the couch. Pulling the cap of her soft hoodie over her head. "Well I'm telling you now Gabs..."

  "Two weeks after the threat has happened! What if it was too late? What if the person came back and tried to destroy your house again? What if they hurt him?!" Gabby pointed to her dog.

  Smalls stopped chewing and the toy squealed as it hit the ground. His mouth was hanging wide open.

  "No one is going to hurt you Smalls." Catherine assured him, tossing him a cookie. She then glared at her friend. "You're scaring him, stop."

  Gabby grunted, "You could've gotten hurt, don't you know that?"

  "But I didn't. So all is well."

  Gabby sighed dramatically and put her hands on her forehead like she was dizzy. "When are you going to accept that there are people who care and would help you?"

  "I know Smalls care-"

  "Exclude animals." Gabby deadpanned. "Cathy... "

  Both of them didn't say anything for a little while. Gabby reached over and held both of her hands and she felt guilty for not telling her sooner. To be honest, she was scared to death that night. Smalls must have been immobilised until the intruder left. Her house was a whirlpool of chaos. Some items were fixable, some not so much. The first thing she did after calming Smalls was run upstairs to check on the box. She had put an invisible charm on the box and hid it under her bed. Her room was a total mess as well. The foot of the bed broke and her mattress askew up in the air. Her blankets ripped to pieces and one door of the wardrobe cabinet barely hanging on, the other gone. She was relieved to find the box still there when she lifted the charm.

  It must be Harold's doing. There was no doubt in her mind.

  Gabby touched the box and shook it gently. Catherine heard a hard thudding sound followed by some shuffling of papers inside. They both tried to open it but simply couldn't and the longer they tried, the hotter the box got and it became painful to the touch.

  "You need to get rid of this." Gabby told her.

  "How? I can't really toss it in the bin can't I?" Cathy looked at her. "Maybe we should open it first."

  "I'm telling Greg. Maybe we should hand it to the Ministry, maybe they know how to open it?"

  It was a good idea and Catherine had debated that choice, but if that box contained any of her mother's possessions she would want to keep it. Handing it over to the Ministry means everything inside belonged to them. The fact that Harold was after it made her even more curious about it and even more determined to open it first.