The Hidden Mages

Nightmares

"Mom?! Where are you?!" I yelled before running towards her voice.

"I'm here, honey. I'm here!" she cried out.

"Mom! Where are you?! I can't find you!" I exclaimed but there was no reply.

"Mom?" I whispered but, again, no answer.

.

.

A scream shot through the pitch black place I was in and I knew it was my mother. I turned around imagining the worst possible scenarios in my head, hoping that those thoughts weren't true...but they were.

For a moment, I stopped breathing. The blood in my body stopped flowing and both my eyes and mouth were wide open.

There...in front of me...was my mother.

Dead.

I screamed before running towards her body lying on the cold ground. I shook her shoulder, praying that it would wake her but she never did.

I was about to place a hand on her cheeks when her eyes shot open, making me back away, startled. Her eyes were filled with pure fear. She grabbed my arm tightly, tears swelling up in her eyes. She opened her mouth and spoke but I wasn't ready for the words that came out of her mouth.

"It's all your fault," she said before slowly closing her eyes again.

Just then, another scream shot through the darkness.

"Xavier" I managed to breathe out.

I quickly got up and ran towards his voice, squinting my eyes as I ran, as if that would help me see in the dark. And in case you're wondering....no it didn't. I ran for what felt like forever but I still couldn't find him or anyone, for that matter.

"Xavier! Where the hell are you!?" I yelled out, not knowing what else to do.

"Zoe," someone whispered, making me spin my head around so fast that I almost lost my balance.

Once I turned around, I heard scream but this time....it was from me because in front of me stood my brother with his blood all over his t-shirt. I wanted to help him but I wasn't even sure if my healing magic would work. I was about to walk towards him, when he glanced at his back with no emotion on his face, not even one. I was confused for a second at why he was looking at his back. So, I walked over to him, trying my very best to ignore the amount of blood on him. I grabbed his arm gently and pushed it slightly to the side.

.

A sword was jabbed on his back and blood was dripping from it but that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that the sword belonged to...me. It was my wolf constellation sword. So, tell me...who used my sword to stab my brother?

"W-What d-did y-you do?" he spoke before coughing out blood and dropping to his knees. I kneeled down, tightening my grip around his arm.

"I-I-I d-didn't do a-an-nything," I stuttered.

"It's all your fault, Zoe. It always has been," I heard a voice say. I turned around to see all 7 of my cousins standing there with cuts and bruises all over their faces and bodies.

"You should never have left home. All you ever did was cause more trouble," said Daphne, making me gasped in disbelief. There was no way in hell that Daphne was saying those things.

"N-No! That's not true!" I shouted but neither of them showed any emotion. It was like every emotion in their body was sucked out and all they could feel now is numbness.

"You know deep down it is. You're not strong enough," spoke Angelo.

"You couldn't even protect your own family," this time Vincent spoke with a look of pure disgust, as if I was some kind of monster.

"You're not worthy enough to be called one of the Hidden Mages," said Lucas before laughing maniacally which, not gonna lie, frightened me a little.

Nico, then, took a few steps forward but then stopped, a evil smirk appearing on his face.

"Liking your nightmare, so far?" he asked with a chuckle that sent chills down my spine.

"W-what?" I managed to ask.

"Let's see how dark your mind can become," he said before reaching out and placing his hand on my head. And just then, an electric shock went through my entire body and in a split second everything went dark...

.

"Zoe, wake up," spoke a gentle voice and I immediately knew who it belonged to.

I opened my eyes to find myself laying on a field of lavender. I got up and looked around before realizing that I was completely on my own.

"Zoe,". I turned around and saw Astra Liliana, my grandmother, standing there with her arms wide open. I wanted to run into her arms and be in her warm embrace but something stopped me. I don't really know what. Maybe it was the fact that she never told us about her death...or maybe it was because I actually believed that she would come and help us defeat Eldor...

"Why didn't you tell us?" I asked with my head down, not wanting to make eye contact.

It was silent for a while but eventually... she spoke.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I really am. I wanted to tell all of you about my death but I knew that if I did, the 9 of you wouldn't be able to handle it,". "I couldn't bare to hurt you kids after all that you've been through," she explained.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter now. We failed. At least, I did," I told her before sitting back down on the ground.

"You didn't fail. Well, not yet, at least," she said before taking a sit before me.

I looked at the lavender plants in front of me and slowly began to wonder why she would chose this place.

"Lavenders," she started. "It is said to help with anxiety," she explained, as if she had read my mind. I just nodded slowly not knowing what to say.

"You have to save them, Zoe," she told me after a few seconds of silence.

"I know but I don't think I can. If I use my strongest transformation to it's limit...I'm gonna end up like mom," I said with chills covering my entire body just by thinking about the consequences.

"There's no other way, Zoe. You have to,".

"I'm scared!!" I blurted out before breaking down, crying.

My grandma looked at me with pity before wrapping her arms around me. She rubbed my back slowly to calm me down.

I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself and I didn't know if it was just me...but the scent of lavender kept growing stronger the more breaths I took.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through all this but you can't run away from it. It's your destiny to be part of the Hidden Mages,". And honestly, it didn't make me feel any better but it was the truth and I knew I had to accept that.

"How do I defeat him?".

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