The Sacred Seven

Chapter 6 - Not Every Nightmare is a Dream

Trigger Warning - Mention of Gore and Violence

Lillith ran through the forest, barefoot and poorly clothed, digging her heels into the wet clay. She forcefully pushed the branches out of her way, feeling twigs scrape the surface of her skin and dragging herself through a thick barrier of thorns.

Panting, she came to a halt in the middle of nowhere, leaning her hands against her knees to catch her breath.

"Brutus!" she wheezed, whisper-shouting into empty air. "Brutus where are you?"

The whole way into Crane residence, she kept chanting spells under her breath. Spells only her familiar could hear.

"Brutus!"

Her throat felt raw from the icy air and the witch had barely any saliva left in her mouth to soothe her dry pipes. Her pupils were stretched wide as she scanned her surroundings, her eyes watering at the sensation of cold air and fear to blink.

Suddenly, there was absolute silence and Lillith held her breath at the realization.

The wind stopped blowing. The leaves stopped rustling and the hair on the back of her neck rose.

Snap.

Without hesitation, Lillith bolted forward.

Dirt engulfed her beaten skin, staining the milky colour with charcoal as she fled. Her hair was floating in the air behind her as she trailed ahead, escaping the creatures lurking in the shadows.

During the night, the monsters couldn't divide between a mortal and a witch.

The heiress ran and ran until a sharp pain stabbed her in the chest and she was snatched down onto the ground with a yelp, tripping over a root of an old tree and rolling down a hill, on the bottom of which she fell unconscious.

The world went silent.

The ringing in her ears drown out any other noise and she was left lying in the dirt, in the middle of nowhere, all alone.

It felt like hours until the pain finally subsided, letting the witch wake up from the sudden slumber.

Everything hurt.

Lifting herself on her elbows, she let out an animalistic groan, panting in agony. She blinked a couple of times to clear her blurry sight, only to gasp in terror as her brain processed the sight in front of her eyes.

Lillith backed the other way in panic, crawling away from the ground soaked with fresh blood. The sticky liquid was sparkling in the moonlight, covering her shoulders and hands, and she furiously wiped them into the damaged fabric, looking around with pounding heart.

Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed a mass of damaged flesh and at that moment, Lillith forgot how to breathe.

An animal was lying on the ground, torn apart, flesh shredded off its body. Inwards were randomly thrown all over the place and she pressed her hand against her mouth, feeling her stomach turn.

She felt sick.

She slowly approached the fresh corpse, however, once she neared it just enough, her heart sunk to her stomach.

"No."

Her knees buckled under the weight of her body, and she collapsed on the ground with her mouth agape, trembling. No noise came out of her throat. Her vocal cords seemed to be completely paralyzed, just like the rest of her body.