Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 5.26

THE DARK AGES
BETHANY

Bethany fled to the Forest of Sorrows. It was the only place she knew to run to.

Agony tore at her soul.

Mama, with her diamond will.

Gone.

All because of her.

All because of her weakness.

She ran, and the magic that had once refused to heed her, boiled and bubbled in her wake. It set houses on fire. It struck people down. Bethany couldn't stop it.

She collapsed into the undergrowth of the Forest of Sorrows, wracked with grief. Her magic burned the grass around her. She sobbed, and each sob hurt, as if it was edged with blades.

Mama was dead because of her. She couldn't save her; she couldn't save anyone. It was all her fault. She didn't deserve to be alive when they were all dead. She had failed them.

She lay in the grass, sizzling and spluttering with unwanted magic, and she stayed that way until the tears dried on her cheeks.

When the magic was gone, all that was left was pain.

There was a rustle from the bushes. Thinking it was Onyx, she turned her face away. How could she tell him what she had done?

But it wasn't him.

It was the strange old woman from before. She gazed down at Bethany with sympathy. "She is suffering," she murmured. "She cannot go on." Her twiglike fingers reached for Bethany's own. "Rikamu can take the pain away. Rikamu can take it all away." Those red eyes, so like the Tanerian's, blinked back tears, and Bethany had the sudden impulse to run from this place and never stop.

"Rikamu can take the pain away. She can take the sorrow away. You will never feel it again."

And that's all Bethany wanted.

To never feel again.

She took the heart keeper's hand.

"Yes," she said. "The answer is yes."