The Riddle Mansion

Thomas sighed when they were back at the Riddle Mansion. He left Xal in the shower once he entered, trying to make sense of what had happened. Eyes turned Black. Sudden Different Behaviour, only to change back afterwards. He went through in his mind, trying to put pieces of the puzzle together. He could tell Xal felt... Worried? No, more like scared, or so it seemed. He heard the running of the shower water, and got everything else ready, blankets, couch which had been slightly modified so it could be used as either a couch or a bed. He also told the House Elves to bring Hot Chocolate up for later, he would of gone and done it himself, but he didn't want Xal going off on his own or something again. He just wished he could think of something to do... Something that would help out a little, but he came up with nothing, so he just sat outside the bathroom door, waiting for Xal to come out.

Thomas waited outside for a while, still trying to make sense of it every now and again, only to shut himself down before he just exploded. He kept waiting... Xal still hadn't come out, should he? No, he's probably just trying to keep his mind off it. But then... His mind came up with all sorts of worse things, eventually causing him to stand up and try to open the door, only to find it was locked, he fumbled for his wand and casted a quick opening charm. Looking inside, he saw Xal called up in a ball. "Xal, you okay?" He asked, knowing it was a bit of a stupid question under the circumstances, but... Well it made some sense. "Xal..?" He said tentatively again, hoping he hadn't hurt himself or something.

Thomas couldn't help the wince from what Xal said, it looked as if he had just... Gave up. Not happening. His mind said to him. He sighed. "Xal. I am afraid, but that's something to be pushed to the side, right now, I don't really care if I'm scared so much I wish I could just shrink and disappear, the fact is, something happened, and we need to figure out what, and why." He said firmly. Sure, it was never something they would of guessed to happen, but it had, so now they just had to pick up what they had, and make it into something better. One thing to do would be to figure out how to get rid of whatever this... Affliction? Would that be the right word? Well... Whatever it was Xal had that made him change like that, and anything else that scared him along the way.

Thomas sighed. "Xal..." He said, trying to think of how to phrase it best. "Okay, what happened was terrible, but you had no control over it, and there was nothing you could do. In a sense, it wasn't even you. Plus, it's already happened, we can't go and stop you from doing it now." He said, before nodding and helping Xal get to his feet. "Trust me, it'll be fine." He said as he kept Xal balanced as he lead him out, passing him a towel along the way, he needed to get warm after all, and they went towards his room to get Xal into some clothes and warm.

Thomas shrugged, one thing he was trying to do was haze out the details as best he could, that way it might be easier to cope with, he tried to block out the sight of each shard of glass, forget about the visage of the guy's face, torn in terror, and he definitely wanted to forget seeing those lifeless eyes. "No apologies, like I said, it wasn't you." He said firmly. "Plus, we know you wouldn't hurt us, so we're safe." He said, before pointing to the hot chocolate the house elves had put on the table a moment before. "Drink. It should help warm you up." He said, taking his own mug, making sure there was one for his sister there too. He let out a breath of relief when he saw his sister enter the room, and quickly put the hot chocolate down as he crossed the room and hugged her tightly. "You okay?" He whispered to her, he couldn't help but see that she seemed... Closed off a little, the same way she did whenever she needed to keep a wall round her emotions. "Talk about it if you feel like you need to, okay sis? We don't mind lending an ear to help out, okay?" He asked her.