If Kaitlyn's body was being suspended by strings, then those strings working together were very easily able to move her. It hurt, like a thousand pinches were dragging her body in the direction of her choosing without any regard for her own input. The two of them walked down the hall, to the hall connecting the Teacher's Wing, to the Screaming Door. Eliza opened it with the key and led her down.
Kaitlyn tried to beg her to stop, to tell her it hurt, but not only would her lips not move but for some reason even her telepathic abilities weren't responding. All she could do was watch as her body was jostled and jolted around like an obscene puppet.
The whole time, Eliza kept her palm pointed at her student, this apparently being the connection that kept whatever awful ensorcellement had her going. She took her down to the ritual site which hadn't changed much since before. The biggest change was now there were three more pillars, each with familiar colored flames burning within. One sea blue, one burning red, and one soft amber.
So she had killed Taylor too.
Their posts were surrounded in a circle of their blood. Eliza forced Kaitlyn's arms up, and then removed her jacket. The sound of something clanging to the ground alerted Kaitlyn to the fact her knife had been revealed.
Eliza picked it up and held it to Kaitlyn's face.
"I see you spoke with Mrs. LaBeaux. No wonder you're so stubborn about this."
She moved Kaitlyn's hand so that it was palm up and then slid the knife across it. It stung like fire, and Kaitlyn wanted to cry out but once again nothing came.
"She probably told you she was forced into this. She wasn't. She's not even Atticus' wife."
Kaitlyn's palm twisted downward, and her blood began to trickle on the floor.
"I honestly have no idea what she truly is," she continued almost like it was a realization, "but she helped me understand the ritual and dealt with my..." she paused, looking for the word as she looked at her hands. The horrible scars and putrescence reached well beyond her hands - that must have been why she was always fully covered. "Condition. Her only price was that she got to examine the students. I have a feeling we should kill her. But without knowing more I might do more harm than good. Yes, I can only say one thing about her for sure."
Kaitlyn's hand began to move around in a circle, surrounding herself in her own ring drop by drop.
"She is a liar. A deceitful little creature with plots within her plots. Whatever her end goal, you should never trust her."
This revelation shocked Kaitlyn a bit. Mrs. LaBeaux had seemed so nice and compassionate. An elegant and refined victim. And yet there was truth to her words. Looking back, Kaitlyn had felt funny every second she spent in her presence - like there were things she should be doing or asking, but never did. Like she was a piece being moved across a board. Had Mrs. LaBeaux directed her back?
No, she had been fairly adamant that Kaitlyn not go. That she kill Eliza. What was her end goal? Kaitlyn didn't understand but someone's actions were seemingly so contradictory concerned her. Maybe the devil she knew was the better one in this case.
There would be time to ruminate on the matter later - people were arriving. Dressed in black and red robes, they came down from the stairs and out from the lab. Most of them had their faces obscured by the hoods of the robe, but she recognized the green tuft of hair sticking out of one, and the ring on the finger of the other.
Sasha and Mrs. Westson. She could sense Nikolai here too. Some of them were familiar, others were complete unknowns. All of them gathered into preappointed places.
"Nikolai, take over would you?" She asked.
Nikolai held out his hands, just as Eliza had done, and Eliza flexed her fingers as if she hadn't moved them the entire time. Which, Kaitlyn realized, she hadn't.
"She didn't cooperate eh? Dumbass."
Eliza glared at him. "Shut your mouth. You know she can hear you still."
Nikolai shrugged, assuming his position while he held her in place. Eliza stood in the center of the circle, her eyes glowing as the ritual's magic was already beginning to fill the air. Her skin began to bubble and churn as she reached her hands to the sky.
"Kaitlyn. Are you ready?" She asked.
She waited a moment for a response, but even if Kaitlyn could give any motion or indication at all of her desire, she wouldn't have. Eliza smiled.
"Just kidding. I know you are."
Everyone began chanting some unknowable ancient words, as Eliza began making strange, arcane gestures in the air with her hands. They were precise, snapping into place almost instantly before slowly and elegantly clearing the air. A burning rope of black suddenly sprung into being, tying her to each of her friends. Kaitlyn had never seen such a dark, empty, voided black, so dark that not a single ray of light escaped it.
One by one, each of the souls of her friends began to lose its color, turning an empty and formless gray that gave Kaitlyn a very eerie impression that something had been taken away. As if to answer her fear, the rope connecting them turned bright white as Edelweiss' went completely gray. It turned a light cyan as Clifton's faded. Then Richard's red was added, turning it to a pale purple. Taylor's amber entered, shifting the color to be a lavender. She thought that was the last one, but she was wrong - it became a lot brighter of a purple as her own color was added. Kaitlyn felt all her power being syphoned from her, drained like a funnel into this single rope.
Suddenly, another set of eyes opened and she was gazing not at the ritual site, but deep into the very bowels of space. She was at the bottom of the world, at the place Eliza had found. She could see thousands of millions of strands of energy stretching around and everywhere. She instinctively knew this was the Thoughtweft. She grabbed a black string, and it pulled her along so fast that in the blink of an eye she was out to Pluto, and went even faster. The only blessing was that it was all happening so fast for her to process. In minutes, she was slowing down again, heading back to the surface of the planet. She landed somewhere - she wasn't sure where, but it was somewhere.
"Found it!" Eliza shouted. "At last, at last!"
Kaitlyn snapped back to the ritual room, the image of the place she couldn't see but knew was there being held in her mind as she felt her skin cracking.
"Nikolai, you can let her go now."
Nikolai lowered his hand, and Kaitlyn finally felt back in her own body, which had been an even more unpleasant experience than being booted out of it. Suddenly, all her senses were her own again, a participant in her own experience instead of an observer and the sensation was indescribable and unpleasant. She was aware that she felt very, very exhausted, and looked at her hands.
Cracks of blue, red, amber and white broke through her skin. Her eyes went wide in horror.
"It's okay, Kaitlyn," Eliza assured. "It's almost over."
Eliza spoke words in a long forgotten language. Words that rattled their air themselves, and the world began to scream as it was torn open. A thick, black tear ripped open above her, reminding Kaitlyn of the tears from which That Thing emerged. It shuddered and shook, widening as it split open.
"By the will of my soul, by my power! Bridge the gap between the distances, and bring my desire!" She commanded.
The crack split open, forming a swirling black vortex over the Elder Symbol that engulfed them both, erupting through the roof and through the sky and through the stars and through the galaxy itself until it came to that spot so very far away...
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Eden's Gate
HororEden's Gate Orphanage and School was established over 100 years ago as a place for psychic children to safely learn and understand their powers in a world that often cannot or will not help them. Indeed, the world is a dangerous place for people who...