THE FARAWAY LANDS OF OZ - Book One

Part Three, Chapter Fifteen: Twelve-Hundred Years Later

EVANORA

I noticed how his eyes began to weaken, the longer Noa tried to keep them open. His little body felt so frail in my helpless arms that I would have loved to run away and ignore everything that was bound to happen and pretend that it would not.
"Shh... Shh," I tried to calm him down and pressed the hem of my dress that I had ripped off without thought against the bleeding hole. He was shivering and it got worse the longer I was cowering with him on my lap. It was as if he had been caught by some serious frostbite with his body cooling down and his face and lips turning pale and purple.
"We'll be alright, baby, please don't leave me..."
"Momma?" Was the only thing he said once more, as his little hand attempted to get hold of my arm. My own sweat and tears were mixing with the blood on my hands and the puddle of red on the floor.
"No! Stay awake, my treasure... Momma is here. Momma will always be here." I moved my hand away from the wound and touched his face with my sticky hand. He was cold as ice.
"Momma loves you, my treasure. Daddy loves you too. Your aunties love you. Never forget that precious."
I felt the weight in my chest suffocating me now. The sobs grew more and my breathing shallow as I slowly began to notice that I had failed. I could not see from tears and only painful wails escaped my system, as Noa drifted away from me.
"Auntie Glinda will save you – just STAY AWAKE!" I did not mean to shout. But whenever I got desperate, that was what I did. Shout and intimidate because that was who I was after all: The Evil Witch of the East who will never find happiness, no matter how hard she tried.
That was why villains never got their happy endings in stories. Because no matter how hard they try, fate still lurks for them around the corner and punches them in the face.
"How sad... Well, I never liked children anyway. I despise them. You will replace him... A healthy woman like you will have plenty of time and resources to just produce another blight."
Noa was gone and he dared spoil his memory like that. I had long wondered how he would abuse my son and the way he finally did it was a means suitable for a psychopath like him.
"You should not have dared... So far, I have thrown only empty promises at you." I saw the silver glistening in my boot and grabbed it without giving it any further thought. I took Hardy by surprise with this. He had already put away his own weapon.
I felt the heavy metal in my hand and cocked the pistol, placing the bullet in the barrel. Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger. Not once, not twice but three times at once. Right into his manly pride. Taking his life now will be too good for him. He had to suffer before I snuff him off the face of the world forever; not worth my time and effort.
I only heard him scream upon the repeated impact of speeding metal against vulnerable flesh and ignored him entirely; Noa was far more important than some psychopath.
His life had faded out of him. My son was just an empty hull that was left. As if one had scooped him up and stripped him of his best qualities and most defining features like a carved pumpkin. It looked the same from outside but once you take a closer look, it is nothing but a mere shell.
I heard footsteps behind me and felt the tremors of the ground even before I had noticed that my family was arriving. I didn't want them to see us like this. Me, hanging over my son's lifeless body – as lifeless as him. For he was my life and love. The only thing that really kept me going was when there was no one else around. I don't know what to do without him.
Once again, I felt Glinda's soft hand on my shoulder and saw how she clasped her hand against her mouth with tears welling up in her eyes from the corners of my own. After minutes of silence and her support, the scream of pain that Zion had let go and the way Theo and Aliyah had to hold him back made me wail in sorrow myself. I looked at Glinda with needy eyes, upon which she nodded and pulled her wand out of her sleeve, beginning to murmur charms that could give him strength.
Although it is common knowledge that magic cannot bring back the dead – unless you are a necromancer and even then, the people you return remain the soulless shells; then you can make the fallen walk amongst the living again – but oftentimes the information provided to the public forget to mention a significant detail.
Sometimes, it is possible to return to someone. Not from the dead but from the space between: Limbo. This was the step before, where one relives his or her life, before moving on to the afterlife. If one acts quickly, the fallen can be brought back from Limbo.
That was what Glinda was attempting with the glowing tip of her wand and streaks of gold twirling around Noa's body. Neither of us cared about the consequences that the Elder Mages would rain down upon us for using magic in a mortal realm. Noa was worth it.
"I-I can't... Something is preventing me from reaching him." While Glinda had been casting her magic, I had dared to take a look towards where Hardy had fallen to the ground, but he was gone. An extensive line of red, leading to the saloon indicated that some of his goons must have dragged him inside and probably very far away from the scene of crime.
The gold around Noa turned red and with a sound, similar to a fork screeching across a plate, the binds broke and disappeared entirely
"Something is working against me. I think... I cannot save him. Only the powers of a Lumen Sage would have been sufficient enough to get to him-"
"-and we don't have any of those around anymore," I finished the sentence for her. It was not her fault, and I never would have thought about blaming her. I had accepted the truth, I figured: It was the fault of none other than myself.
If I had only been able to foresee everything and get myself between Hardy and my son, just on time, none of this would have ever happened.
"Ev, you're bleeding!"
I had completely forgotten about my own wound but I didn't care about it, to be honest. The more reason for fate is to get me as well and reunite me with Noa. I shrugged off Glinda's words and instead of tending to my wound, I slid my arms underneath the light body of my son and lifted him off the ground. He would get the farewell he deserved. And so would the Marshall.
I walked past Zion and my sisters, my puffy eyes meeting with my husband's. They clashed together in a well of pain, midway, and we both realized that. He was too good for me though. I had figured that out, a hundred years ago and if I had stayed true to my word, never to see him again, perhaps things would have taken an entirely different turn. We would both have been happy and not heartbroken.
But what was one to do against our humane feelings? Love may be the solution for tragedy. But in my story, I had the feeling that it did nothing else but bring me tragedy and sorrow.