The Making of Witches

Chapter 5

Lore awoke to a pounding headache and streaming sunlight. She groaned and blew hair away from her mouth, letting her eyes adjust to the light. Everything hurt, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. A piercing pain was hammering away at her skull and an incessant ringing filled her ears. Her hands were still bound behind her and as Lore hauled herself up off the floor, she twisted against the bindings to the best of her abilities yet nothing came of it.

She heard a snicker and her head whipped around to see the girl prowling towards her, her movements feline, beautiful and jarring at the same time. She approached Lore slowly, smiling, and Lore took the opportunity to survey her surroundings. She was sitting in a large clearing, the woods surrounding her on all sides. She could almost hear the chatter of people in a village nearby yet the criminal girl seemed calm. In the daylight her features were easier to make out. Her skin was pale brown and littered with little scars and cuts, no part of her unblemished. Her eyes were large and a deep brown similar to the bark of the trees. Her hair was limp and hung in oily sections, small braids scattered here and there. Her clothing was almost as torn and ragged as Lore's, a brown leather jacket covering most of her chest though it was cut here and there. And most surprising of all- she was wearing TROUSERS! Baggy, scuffed things that were held up by a belt and were most inappropriate for a lady. Then Lore reminded herself that this criminal girl probably didn't care too much about etiquette.

Fear coursed through her mind and she could feel the fire struggling within her, raging to burn, raging to ruin, raging to destroy. She struggled on the ground but it made no difference as the girl squatted down to face Lore, smiling. What was her name again? Kirran? No - Keelin.

Keelin's smile was unnerving in the way that an animal's smile was terrifying. It just seemed so wrong. Everything about her was wrong. A disjointed, limping energy seemed to radiate from the girl that sent shivers down Lore's spine.

"Welcome back, girlie. 'ad a nice dream, did ya?" Lore growled as one of Keelin's long fingers hooked around a lock of her curly hair and pulled.

"Where am I?" Lore snarled, yanking her hair back. Keelin simply smiled before hauling her up by her bound hands, the ropes cutting into her skin harshly. "Who are you?"

"Well, you are on the ground and I am an ordinary gal just like ya. That answer good enough for ya, girlie?"

Lore rolled her eyes but within she was terrified. Lore always knew where she was. Her entire life had been centered around one place, one town, one set of houses, one path, one way to cling to forever. Not knowing where she was had never been a part of her life. So to be thrown into a situation where everything was new and nothing was known was possibly the scariest thing out of the whole ordeal.

"On we go, girlie. Swift is waitin' and Swift don't like to be kept waitin'." Keelin pushed her forward and Lore's feet had no choice but to walk or fall to the ground. So she trudged on and on with a terrifying girl pushing her forward, getting closer and closer to civilization with every step.

There were almost no trees and the dirt path was widening into a road. Lore filled with dread, realising that in this town there would have had to be posters with her face on them. She would be recognized and killed on sight. Her lip began to tremble and she felt sweat on her brow, shaking softly. She had never known fear like this.

Not in the hall, watching her best friend die.

Not when she was chased out of her home by pitchforks and screams.

Not when she woke in the night and felt as though even the trees were out to kill her.

It was the kind of fear that wraps around your heart and squeezes tighter and tighter as you realise you are walking towards death and there's no way back. And she was walking the path of death, straight towards its black heart. And she was being pushed along it by a criminal girl with a terrifying limp and a wicked smile like no other.

"You've gone awful quiet, girlie. I expected a tad bit more buckin' an' screamin'." Her voice broke the silence and pulled Lore out of her mind, out of the depressing whirlwind that was her thoughts. And she felt strangely relieved that Keelin was talking, glad for at least a companion, even if she wanted to kill Lore. She hadn't realised how much she had missed just talking to anyone, being with anyone, existing in their world. Because no matter how many problems she had faced in Bellweather, she had never been alone. And now the loneliness was eating her alive. So she was glad for the words, glad for the jab, because now she had something to respond to. Maybe this would be her last comfort on the road to death. Maybe this was the last small pleasure she would experience before she was taken to hell.

It took a while for Lore to reply and when it was it was with a defeated sigh.

"Who is Swift?" Her voice trembled like a dandelion in the breeze, quiet as a mouse. Keelin halted in her tracks, pulling Lore back with her. She sucked in sharply, preparing for a terrible consequence. Instead, Keelin spun her around so the two girls were facing each other, tugging Lore's chin towards her eyes so she could stare deeply into Lore's face. Suddenly they were very close and Lore could feel Keelin's breath on her face, see every cut or scar on her face, see every detail of the strange criminal girl laid out before her.

"Say that again, girlie." Keelin's voice was quiet, questioning, yet so forceful the answer was pulled from Lore's mouth faster than she could think.

"Who's Swift?" Keelin pulled her closer, inspecting some unseen thing in Lore's expression. Lore could see the intrigue in her eyes, seeing a question rapidly forming.

"Where ya from, girlie?" Lore squeaked, terrified. Keelin towered over her, pulling her chin so close their noses were almost touching. Her eyes were wide and flitting. Her fear choked her and the words lodged in her throat, unable to be heard. Keelin answered for her.

"Far from 'ere, I'll say."

And as quickly as it had happened, the moment was over and Keelin spun her back around, pushing her forward. The charged air dissipated and Lore let out a sigh of relief, her body finally still after what seemed like hours of shaking. But one nagging question was still left unanswered in her mind.

"So, who's Swift?" Keelin made a strange sound from behind, something between a sigh and a scoff.

A long silence hung in the air before Keelin pushed her forward again. 

"I'm almost startin' to feel sorry for ya, girlie."