Chapter 1
Valeriya shuffled the documents and put them in a folder, sliding it into a drawer in her desk and closing it. It was nearly midnight, and she had to go home to barely rest because she woke up in the early hours of the morning to return to the hell hole she worked in.
Her breath evaporated in small clouds as the Ministry official stepped outside into the icy winter air. She disapparated on the spot and landed inside her house, shadows of varying gray dancing across the marble floor, wispy clouds floating around lazily in the sky. Valeriya heard a noise upstairs and instinctively drew her wand from her inner pocket, dropping her back near the door and checking the first floor before proceeding to the second floor.
When she reached the top of the staircase, a shadow in the corner of her eye made her spin around and check, breathing a sigh of relief as it was just her cat. Just as a fresh noise registered behind her. She spun around to see a shadow darting towards her.
Valeriya turned around, and she stepped backwards, forgetting about the staircase. Where Valeriya's foot expected to be solid ground was only open space.
The shadow reached forwards as she fell back.
Down. Down. Down she went.
Valeriya fired a spell at the unknown figure at the top of the stairs. An instinctive act of self protection, only a little too late.
She tried to reach for the railing, only to succeed in having a excruciating pain tear through her arm. She let go of the railing.
Was she even holding onto her wand anymore?
Her head connected with the marble flooring. A crack. A splitting pain.
You got me, you got me good.