The Vanishing

Chapter 27

They came out of the shadows like ghosts in the night. Silent, haunting, and deadly.

We tried to break free of each other but found we were locked in place. Patrick's panic stricken eyes mirrored mine before a haze came over us.

What do I have to panic about? I'm here, in Patrick's arms. I'm safe.
No, this wasn't right.
Damien was there.

Whatever forced calm that came over me disappeared when I saw his smug grin.

Stalker. Asshole. Coward.
My hatred must have shown on my face because he said, "Arden, don't look so hurt. This was inevitable. You know, I didn't even know witches were real until that fateful day at school. You know the one, the one where you tried to set me on fire."

God, if only I had finished the job you psychotic obsessive freak. You're failing to mention I tried to set you on fire after you assaulted me.

I may be magically frozen, but I still have the ability to roll my eyes at him before shifting my gaze back to Patrick's.

He was glaring at Damien. If looks could kill, Damien would be dust.
I reached out with my magic, hoping I could burn our way out of this. Nothing happened.

How did they block me? I tried to look around, but I was stuck. I tried to speak, but I couldn't.

"You're right. This is no fun." He made a small hand motion and the man behind him made a hand motion at me.

I cleared my throat. Giving me back the ability to talk is in no one's best interest.

"What do you want me to say psycho? What- you want me to congratulate you?" I spit in his direction, narrowly missing him.

He made a tsk sound. "Now, darling, don't be so rude."
"Take them." He said to his men.

"Thank God! I'm so tired of hearing your egotistical villain speech you narcissistic b-" I was blocked again before I could finish that colorful sentence.

It seems my reprieve was short lived. Before I knew it I was being manhandled by his goons. I watched as the wall of the stables became a portal like the wall in the tunnel. I wondered briefly how many more portals there were in this place, and how they got there. I'm not sure what a portal is supposed to look like, but the longer I looked at it, the more it looked wrong. I expected more black hole of doom instead of this weird fuzzy shapeless segment of the wall. I didn't have time to ruminate on that as I felt the sharp pinch of a needle before the world went dark around me.

My eyelids felt heavy, and I opened them slowly. Immediate regrets coursed through my body as I caught glimpse of the stark white room. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead as I took stock of the room around me. Almost everything in here was white. That never goes well in scary movies. Irrational fear of being locked in a hospital becoming a rational fear? Check.

I decided the best course of action was to start yelling, so I did.
"Hey! You can't keep me in here!" I screamed. I yelled some more, using every curse word I could possibly think of.

I waited a few more minutes, and when that didn't work I tried my powers. I was being blocked again. Frustration threatened to send me over the edge but I wouldn't allow it. My best guess as to how they're keeping my powers blocked is by whatever they injected me with, but maybe not. I didn't want to acknowledge the fact, but I was blocked before they injected me. One or more of the people that took us have the ability to block our powers. We definitely didn't see that coming. Why would anyone help them? A sick feeling settled into the pit of my stomach. They gave humans powers. They wanted to wipe us out using our own powers against us. I was going to die here, of that I was sure. Tears slowly trekked down my face, and I wiped them away angrily.

I'd never needed magic to save me. Until starting at Westfall Academy, I didn't even know how to use my magic. I had to figure out how to deal with my problems the human way.

Henry taught me self-defense last year and he always said "In every situation, there's always a weak point. Exploit it, that's how you defeat your opponent."
There's always a weak point, I thought.
I searched the room, feeling the wall for a crack or a seam. Instead, my hand went right through the wall. Too Easy. They want me to get out. No way they would leave this simple solution here unless it was on purpose, I thought.
I didn't wait any longer, I set off through the hole in the wall.

Why do those holes keep popping up? What do they mean? Are they used by Artemis? Am I losing my mind? Finally, my head throbbed, which brought me back to the task at hand. Philosophical questions about life and the intentions and inner-workings of Artemis kept distracting from my more immediate concerns: Getting out of here and finding Patrick.

And what happens when I do find Patrick and get out of here? We go back to school? We can't go back with Damien there. He'll only continue to abduct students right under our noses. I had to mentally give myself a shake. Damien is a pawn; inconsequential. He's not the main concern. Kids were being abducted before he came, and it will continue unless I do something about it. My mental tirade made the throbbing in my head worse as I stepped out of the wall and into a cold, stark-white room.

Patrick was staring at me in shock from the middle of the room. "Why didn't I think of that?"

I cracked a smile as I barreled towards him. He didn't react at first, as if he wasn't sure if this was real, then he wrapped his arms around me. He held on tightly and gave me a quick peck on my cheek before pulling back to look at me. Once he had deemed me free from injury, he turned and went to work looking for weak spots. When all hope seemed to be lost, we found a weakness in the far right wall. It seemed strange to me that this would be so simple, I didn't have time to ruminate on that as we stepped out into the hallway.

We noticed the goons immediately, but they didn't notice us. It was like they were entranced.

We ran through the halls almost blindly.

"Leaving so soon?" His sick voice echoed through the stark white hall.
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Its been a while! I hope everyone had happy and healthy holidays!
Setting up the ending is so difficult! But we're powering through because I can't leave it unfinished. These characters mean a lot to me 💖
I actually have the time to sit down and write now so hopefully chapters will come sooner.
Please like and comment if you liked it 😊
Xx
Jess