tessawilliams-blog - Tumblr blog

[tessawilliams-blog]

somehow that seemed to fit julius well--tessa could picture him wandering through the carnival, dreamy look in his eye. she shook her head at question about sophie, “no, i don’t think we’ve met. is she your girlfriend? i tend to keep to myself. so, that answers the other question,” tessa said, giving a little shrug. she felt content with her solitude, but occasionally the pangs of loneliness crept in.

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“sounds like my motto through college,” tessa joked dryly, pursing her lips. at least standing in this line wasn’t so torturous when there was someone to complain with. “i’m tessa,” she introduced, “i think i’ve seen you around before.”

[tessawilliams-blog]

“i--yeah, i am,” tessa replied, leaving it at that. she had learned that revealing her status as a widow tended to make people uncomfortable. “it’s a nice night. i usually don’t come out for this kind of thing.”

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“very true, but these bartenders have got to be overworked and exhausted--besides, i’ll slip them a tip for it.”

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tessa gave what seemed like a hum of approval--though she missed the city dearly, it had been too fast paced, too impersonal when she tried to live there again after her husband’s death. “ugh, you’re selling me on the whole ‘bit the bullet and pay money for a decent drink’ thing.”

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tessa looked up, intrigued to see the woman from her jog. oh, god, what was her name again? she racked her brain for a moment before emma finally clicked again. “well, i’m not a very sociable person,” the woman retorted, trying to look ahead of the line to see how many people were in front of her. more than she could count, seeing as she couldn’t even see the bar. “you seem chatty; what have you been drinking?” she asked, sly look on her face.

[tessawilliams-blog]

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I’m so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (via zackandkellysprom)

[tessawilliams-blog]

tessa actually felt a little bit bashful at the compliment--she kept her interactions so few and far between, and hardly ever did anything to receive a response that was in any way gratuitous. she enjoyed being alone (and god, she had been alone for so long), but she had forgotten how much she missed a simple thank you. “you always this easy to please?” she teased.

[tessawilliams-blog]

“it was...well, it seemed awful at the time, but looking back it’s actually kind of nice, i think.” she said, giving a little shrug. seeing caiden putting his drink down as a sign that he wasn’t totally adverse to the idea, she raised her brows, “i  used to be an awful dancer, but once i met this older man who taught me to stop caring how i looked when i was doing it,” she said, then paused for a second, “so, do you want to dance with a kind of tipsy, maybe slightly intoxicated stranger?”

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“oh, hi julius. i hadn’t even seen you standing so close,” tessa said, greeting the young man. he was a sight for sore eyes--she had been by herself for a while now and was on the verge of just going home. “i think i can handle scolding as a punishment, but i don’t know if it’s worth the energy. i’m hoping the line will start moving. who are you here with?” she inquired, thinking it curious that the young man alone.

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“oh, fuck ‘em.” tessa said, rolling her eyes. she was growing evermore irritated with the event, and waiting in line like this certainly wasn’t helping her mood. “i heard someone say that they’re selling drinks outside, but i’ll be damned if i’m paying six bucks for a watered down cocktail when i can get one for free here,” she said, half-joking.

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“i’d be enjoying it more if i had a drink in my hand,” tessa replied, brown orbs peeking out from underneath her golden mask. truth be told, she was feeling terribly anxious but tried to write it off; “this isn’t really my scene,” she said.

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“oh boy,” tessa snarked, raising her brows, “that’s just awful planning on their parts, honestly. but i suppose the drinks won’t be so watered down now.”

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tessa smirked, her mood instantly elevated by this guardian angel’s news, “hey, thanks for the tip,” she said, stepping out of line. she was about to walk away when she asked the woman, “what are you drinking? looks great.”

[tessawilliams-blog]

tessa had been enjoying her time at the masquerade, more so than she anticipated. she had been drinking, socializing, and god, even dancing. there was a peaceful magic in the air--it wasn’t until later that she realized that this was simply the calm before the storm.

at first, she hadn’t even seen the smoke. she just heard screaming, then suddenly everything around her was moving and people were pushing into her left and right, scrambling to find an exit. despite what her therapist had taught her about staying calm, tessa could practically feel her heart bouncing to get out of her chest as her fight or flight instincts kicked in. seeing as there was nothing to fight, she frantically looked around, trying to get her bearings on the situation. and god, she was already feeling so hot.

it hadn’t even occurred to her to get down until a suited man crawled toward her and ushered her onto her knees. she ripped off her mask and let it fall to the ground, wanting to relieve at least some of her tension. she nodded when he explained the reasoning, though her hands were shaking and she looked a deathly shade of pale. deep brown eyes seemed to exude concern at her unlikely partner’s cough, but what could she do? had they been closer to the bar, she would have tried to wet rags for them to keep over their mouths. not relevant now, of course, since it was too smokey to even see directly where they were, but maybe a good tip for later. “what the fuck happened?!” she asked, her voice cracking out of terror as she tried to keep low. “do you have any idea how to get out of here? oh god, fuck, fuck, fuck,” she cursed, biting back a sob.

Almost, maybe...

@tessawilliams

Everything had been going great. This event was everything Magnus had dreamed of as a child, and he was so happy to finally be living out this childhood fantasy. There was a level of elegance to the night, and it brought out a joy in Magnus he rarely felt anymore. Everything felt so… Right. Until they didn’t. 

What started as one scream to get out, turned into a cacophony of yelling and terrorized screaming. The tent was on fire, and everyone was escaping as fast as possible. Magnus was… Not the fastest runner, but who knows if that would’ve really made much of a difference. Half of the tent crumpled into itself, trapping Magnus and many others inside. He didn’t want to think about the people who were in the other half of the tent, but their screams… Their screams made it hard to ignore. – He couldn’t focus on that. He had to focus on getting himself as well as as many others as he could.

Magnus saw many people running around and he shook his head. He could tell everyone was panicking, and he was doing his best to stay calm. Smoke rises, he reminded himself before getting on all fours. It wasn’t a huge help, but he would make even the smallest amount of help work for him. He crawled towards a woman and once he was close enough to her, he stood up, and motioned for her to get on her hands and knees to help him look for an exit. “You’d be surprised the –” Magnus then broke out into a coughing fit, using his one arm as protection. “The amount of help it gives.” He finished saying as his fit died down a bit.