Seven Whole Days

Mackenna had just returned to school that Sunday evening, she had been gone a week to sort out her dead mother's affairs. She had to plan a small funeral, get her mother's corpse cremated, sell, donate and throw out most of her belongings, find a new home for her snake, essentially fire their inherited house elf since she hadn't a flat anymore for the creature to tend to and on the seventh day Mackenna returned, feeling absolutely numb. She still had yet to cry, not a single tear, she had been raised not to cry and it seemed old habits die hard. She bottled up the grief, the anger and the pain. It left her chest feeling heavy and a constant knot in her stomach along with a lump in her throat. She didn't know when she would finally break, when it would all spill out of her but knew it was getting close to that point, she could feel her walls weakening around her cold heart.

Mackenna was headed towards the woods to walk and think, just to be alone and perhaps let it all out then where nobody else could witness her mental collapse. She hadn't spoken to a single person since returning an hour prior and nobody had approached her. It were as if all was as it remained before she left, life continuing all around her but it wasn't the same, it felt chaotic and unreal and she was struggling to cope with this level of madness.

A voice broke through the barrier encasing her, penetrating into her little bubble of gloom, a familiar voice that intensified all the negative emotions of sorrow stirring within her core. Just his voice, being something that reminded her past life made her want to run to him, embrace him and cry her bloody eyes out in his arms but she restrained, forcing her face into a cold, blank mask as she spun towards him. Her stormy blue eyes were duller, murkier and hollow as she fixed her dreary gaze upon him. Then his next words, a simple and perfectly reasonable inquiry, "Where have you been?" stirred some sort of feeling inside of her, irritation and anger. She wanted to let out all her frustration on him for he was the easiest target, standing right there before her but she held back. She didn't feel like talking, she wanted to be alone. So she would walk away before she hurt him, before she'd do something stupid for she wasn't in her right frame of mind.

"I'm sorry Will..." She said flatly, her voice laced with exhaustion. "I don't feel like talking right now, just want to be alone. I'll catch you later, yeah?" She told him, forcing the faintest of smiles to appease him before turning away, heading back towards her destination and hoping he possessed sense enough not to follow her.

Mackenna felt a warm hand tug her gently back, then as if realizing she was a snake and dangerous, he released her, giving up on her so easily and it hurt that he hadn't persisted, forced her to look at him even if she would have reacted angrily a part of her wanted to be embraced and comforted. "Mackenna, what's going on?" Will pleaded with worry etched in his voice, breaking her heart further as that heavy lump in her throat grew larger, making it hard to speak, knowing she was on the verge of tears and not wanting to break down in front of him.

"Leave me alone, Will. I mean it." She commanded of him, her tone harsh and biting in warning as her stormy gaze fixated resolutely ahead of her, afraid if she'd look back at him she'd lose her nerve and her stony walls would crumble. "I just want to be alone. I- I need a break..." She blurted out, using him as a distraction for her grief. It was easier for her to show anger and fury rather than sorrow. Crying was weakness, crying was vulnerable so she fought against everything in her telling her to break and willed herself to carry on, using a foolish row to distract her and serve the dual purpose of pushing him away even more. He might keep prying because he cared and perhaps if he was pissed off and hurt he'd eventually storm off and grant her bitter solitude.

"I think we should break up, we're far too different. I don't even know why you're interested in a girl like me, broken and cold. Go back to your blessed Quidditch, Will. Find yourself a fit wench to snog, someone happy and delightfully ordinary. You deserve it." She sneered, finally turning to face him, her eyes stormy, narrowed and dark though her mask instantly faltered when she laid eyes upon him, her face softening by a fraction but she held the false mask in place, an expert liar, a Slytherin through and through. "We're too different..." She echoed numbly.

(OOC: Ughhh! Poor Will, it's killing me to write this lol. Mackenna's being so stubborn and stupid, he really does deserve so much better. She's a mental mess.)

At Will's words fierce jealousy rose in Mackenna's gut and her glare hardened as pain ripped through her chest. "Fine." She parroted coldly in a low hiss. "Weren't much of a snog anyway." She harshly lied, turning on her heel and trudging towards the forest, approaching the looming treeline. She flicked her wand harshly through the air in a swift, slashing motion silently summoning a flock of crows to encircle her, fluttering and cawing loudly.

"Don't follow me unless you want those pretty, little eyes of yours clawed out." She added darkly over her shoulder, though after that row she doubted he still wanted to, disappearing with the ugly, obnoxious flock into the forest. Once deeper into the woods, far enough to grant her the privacy she longed for she realized she was too furious to cry and instead just perched her somber self on a moss-covered log and brooded, the events of the past week racing through her head in quick, murky, glimpses. The birds flew up in the sky, encircling the clearing Mackenna had secluded herself to, keeping guard and ready to attack not just Will but anyone who disturbed her. Eventually she rose, lifting the charm from the birds she had summoned and watching with blank, stormy, blue eyes as they vanished into dust that the bitter wind then carried away. She returned to the dungeons at dusk, drawing the curtains around her bed shut and willing sleep to overcome her. As usual it never did, leaving her once more alone with her despair.