The Unveiled

Veiled Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Fear

When Agnar fell he took her down with him. She just laid there with him laying half on top of her. She turned her head when a loud sound reached her ears. A large puff of smoke billowed out of the entrance of the cave. This would be Rosen's final resting place. Because of her, her friend was dead. She was so stupid. She knew she couldn't handle this, she should have made her father listen. Made him come save Agnar, she was just a stupid worthless girl with no real talent for magic, just a child.

She looked at Agnar's face, it was laying on her arm. He was drenched in sweat from the escape, and very pale. She closed her eyes. She had to take care of him now, get him to safety. She struggled to roll him off of her and went to get the car pulling it as close as the trees would allow.

She managed to get him into a sitting position then snaked her arms through his to drag him the rest of the way to the passenger seat. She wasn't sure how she got him in but nearly fell over after she managed to shut the door. Her energy was spent, each time she blinked she had to fight to open her eyes back up.

She pulled her phone out and started to call her father, tell him she'd found Agnar and ask him to come get them. She was stopped by a rustling sound in the shrubbery around her. She started to scream before she realized it was just a snake. It seemed frightened. She knew that now wasn't the time for striking up conversations with random animals, but she couldn't help herself.

"What's wrong little one?" The snake's head jerked around to face her. She couldn't blame it. Just like a regular human would be freaked out if an animal randomly started talking to them, animals weren't used to being talked to by people either.

'I'm losssst I have no idea how I got here,' it said in confusion. 'Lassssst thing I remember I wassss having a tassssty rat and sssssome big dog with a ssssstrange old woman sssstoped in front of me. Then I wasssssss here.'

What would the witch and the werewolf want with a little snake? Her eyes opened wide with fear, spies. When the witch died they would have been released from her control. But who knew how many of them there were, or what they might have reported?

Were the witch and the werewolf working with someone else? If so they could be on their way there right now. It wasn't safe to just sit here and wait for rescue.

She stumbled around the car to the driver's seat and reached over to lock the passenger door to make sure he couldn't fall out. She started the car and as a final thought reached over to buckle him in so he wouldn't slump into the floor either. She probably should have laid him down in the backseat but she wasn't even sure how she managed to get him in the front.

She pulled back onto the road and drove at least an hour away from that cave in the general direction of home. After that she had to stop. If she didn't fall asleep soon, she'd pass out. She had no way of knowing if they'd been followed. Her father would have known, Agnar would have known, but she was practically useless.

She pulled into a dingy motel and parked as far away from the light of the sign as possible. It was late, probably a little after midnight. She walked in and the manager looked up at her, then looked back down at his television before his eyes shot back up to her in shock.

She looked down. She hadn't realized it but her clothes were torn and dirty, and she had blood soaking her right sleeve from where she staked the witch. He started to grab the phone, presumably to call the police. She held her hand out and focused her magic.

"Stop." Her voice echoed in the room. His face went blank and he sat the phone back down. "Nothing strange, just two late night customers. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, paid in cash." He nodded numbly.