Hidden Magic

Chapter Fifteen

I am standing in a dark forest, I don't bother struggling anymore, completely resigned to my fate. Each time I arrived in this strange dream-like memory what was blurred in darkness before, is partially revealed, more and more with each dream, sadly even if I knew this wasn't truly happening, it never made the pain any less real, any less brutal to endure night after night, to feel the cuts on my wrists only to wake up and realize they were never there.

I hear that same twig snap, my head whips up unable to stop this reaction, to keep from looking at her, to see if anything has changed. Seeing that beautiful woman, who I now knew to be called Tabitha walking towards me, that dreaded knife glimmering in her hand, even in this dark forest. I don't move as she stalks closer towards me, no tears trail down my cheeks or whimpers leaking from my throat, I am merely expectant, bracing to endure the pain I know is coming.

She raises her knife and swings the blade down at me, no mercy in her eyes at all, resolute in having to this for some stupid reason that I still don't know, even after enduring this dream more than once. I whimper, expecting the pain and yet still not quite managing to smother the scream I wanted to release as I feel the burning in my wrists, feel the warm blood dripping down my arms and onto my head after she savagely slashed through my wrists, I knew this dream was being showed to me for some reason, I knew that, and yet while I endured the pain, I could only think of it as torture.

"Tabitha, please don't do this!" The words burst from my mouth with a strange desperation, I knew these weren't my words, having already spoken them before, that whoever I was replacing in this strange dream-like memory, had known Tabitha, had been friends with her.

"I'm sorry, it has to be done, you have to be sacrificed, this is for your own good, you won't die, not truly, but you will change, become strong, strong enough to save us." Her mouth moves through more words and yet the sound doesn't reach me, as I see her finally mixing things into the goblet, this was the place that had always been lost to me before, cut out in blackness.

Though it isn't long before she is shoving the goblet against my lips, forcing me to drink it, the need almost seeming manic, like something else forced her to do this, or something convinced her it was the only way, I struggle against her but there is no point, that same liquid still goes down my throat, and it burns like acid, there was no way my blood was the only thing in there. She finally lowers the goblet and laughs, this crazed maniac laugh that makes my ears ring and then bright light is hitting my eyes, blinding me. "Your death will not be the end, you will save us, even if my own death is the cost for the salvation of the rest of us." I stared at her in shock, her words changed from last time.

I glare at Tabitha, the hate filling in me, mine and yet not, the burn in my chest, the rapid pounding of my heart, it's thudding echoing loudly in my ears. I scream and feel as if my heart leaps from my chest, no not my heart, something else, something strange, and powerful, the purpose for all of this suffering, the reason Tabitha was doing all this, I know it, the reasons are on the tip of my tongue, my mouth forms words, but no sound leaves me as darkness surrounds me, Tabitha's laugh echoes around me as the darkness slowly fades and I see her outside the pentagram, a flaming torch in her hand, I glance around in panic, seeing a strange sort of smoke around me, but seeing no flames. "Don't Tabitha! Please!" She stares at me resolutely, no pity in her gaze, but no cruelty either, as if this was inevitable, that it had already happened, and only I didn't know it.

"The sacrifice is not complete, if I stop now, it will have all been for nothing, the death of my family will mean nothing. The pain will be momentary, but it is necessary, I'm sorry my friend." She drops the torch and the pentagram of twigs lights up with flames immediately, roaring with a speed that I didn't think was possible, I watch as it circles the pentagram, lighting each of the men I love on fire, the burning flame waking them up when my voice had not, their screams echo in my ears as they begin burning alive, and then the flames begin to head to me, Tabitha staring at me solemnly, I whimper as my feet begin to burn, but she shows no reaction to my pain, simply lifting up the knife still covered in my blood and tearing it savagely across her throat, blood sprays out, wherever it touches the flames, they turn from orange to red, her dying body falling on the flames, which rise higher and burn hotter and they turn a dark red, black smoke rising off the flames, and circling above us in a strange cloud, it rumbles, reminding me of thunder, I eye the cloud uneasily, trying to ignore the burning pain of the flames eating away at my body, it lights up with red light and then a large crack sounds and I see a flash of red light before everything disappears from me.