Witch Doctors Inc: SEASON ONE (Completed!)

Part 6.12

LILY

When I open my eyes, I'm in the Forbidden Place of the Forest of Sorrows. Rikamu peers down at me with her large, unblinking red eyes. Onyx, now a cat again, nuzzles my elbow.

"Onyx," I murmur. I feel woozy and weak. The darkness presses up against my consciousness like a silent and steady wave.

Rikamu looks over her shoulder, where Bethany (or Bethany's heart, as I now know her to be) hovers with her hands clasped over her chest, eyes wide with worry.

"Rikamu, you've got to hurry. I can't hold the darkness back for long."

As I say the words, I feel their truth. I don't have the strength to push the darkness down far enough. It's still there, dangerously close to the surface, and my will is faltering. I need that strength to keep my body going.

"Rikamu cannot fight the shadow," the heart-keeper tells me. "The shadow is where it belongs."

"No, Rikamu." I sit up, pushing Onyx aside. "I need you to do what you did last time. I need you to give me Bethany's heart."

Bethany gasps.

Rikamu draws back with the sound of twigs cracking. "The heart is not hers to take," she mumbles to herself.

Bethany steps forward. "I want to go to her," she says to Rikamu. "She is not the one, but she is close enough. When I am near her, I feel almost whole."

"Rikamu cannot give back what does not belong," Rikamu replies.

"I'm the Dark Witch reborn," I argue. "You can give her heart to me."

"No, no. You have your own heart." Rikamu pauses to listen to the wind playing in the trees. "No one can have two hearts."

"You need to try, Rikamu. You broke the rules in the Dark Ages. I know you did. You gave the Dark Witch her heart back."

Rikamu shrinks back. "It was not to be done," she whispers. "Rikamu broke the rules of Light. She broke the rules, yes, and the dark one, the one that burned, was harmed."

"And the Dark Ages ended," I correct her. "You prevented the suffering of millions with that action, Rikamu. You saved us."

"Rikamu, please." Bethany's face is a kaleidoscope of emotion. "I do not want to be alone any longer."

"Rikamu cannot give back what does not belong," Rikamu repeats stubbornly.

"Rikamu." I take her bark-like hand, the hand of a goddess who had lived longer than even myself. "You serve the Light. I know what I'm asking you to do is against the rules, but it's necessary. If you don't do it, the Dark Ages will return for a second time. There will be so much pain and sorrow. You will not be able to take it away. The Forbidden Place can't hold all the world's hearts.

Rikamu, you serve the Light. You have to decide what that means to you. Do you follow the rules, or do you do what's right?"

The rainforest echoes with my ultimatum.

"Decide," Rikamu whispers. "Rikamu must decide. Rikamu serves the Light. She serves the humans."

"Protect us once again, Rikamu," I urge her. "Don't let us suffer."

"I want to go with her," Bethany pleads. "I want to be happy again."

Rikamu's red eyes move back and forth. She looks to Bethany, then back to me. "So much suffering," she whispers. "Rikamu could not help. No, she could not do her duty. So much suffering."

"Rikamu, please," I say, one last time. I close my eyes against the weakness.

I feel rough fingers against my chest. A warmth emanates from them, making the waiting darkness shudder. The warmth grows. I feel afraid and guilty. I feel unsure and helpless. I feel sad.

But I feel. I feel everything, and it's like I'm alive again. I didn't know I'd been so dead.

The warmth rushes through me, filling my body with feelings both pleasant and not. It burns where it touches the darkness in my mind. The darkness shudders, recoiling.

But there is resistance. My soul fights the warmth, fights to reject it. Pain stings my chest. It bristles in my veins. Rushes through my blood like a shrieking poison.

I hold fast against it. The darkness is receding, but it isn't far away enough. Pain holds me tight, squeezing my soul, willing me to let go, but I don't. Even if it kills me, I won't. I won't be the reason my friends suffer. I won't be the reason the world plunges into misery.

My consciousness spins. Images flash in my mind, blurred and painful. Onyx sitting in my nursery, teaching me to put shoes on. Holding my nanny's hand at my mother's funeral, because my father wouldn't hold mine. The first time I saw Addy's sunshine smile.

Then the pain is gone.

I open my eyes slowly.

Both Onyx and Rikamu are watching me with apprehension.

I breathe deeply. The darkness is gone. Well, not gone, I suppose...but pushed down far enough that I don't feel it. There's something around my neck too. I glance down to see a thread of light glimmering against my skin. At its end, resting on my chest, is a deep ruby-coloured pendant in the shape of a heart. It has a hollow glow, like that of blown glass.

"It is Bethany's heart," Rikamu explains. "It could not be integrated. No, it is not yours to take, not fully. But it is close to you. It will feel almost whole." She cocks her head. "You are missing a piece of your heart. This heart can fill that space, as long as it is worn close."

The pendant winks, as if to agree. I turn it over in my fingers, studying its muted beauty. Bethany is in there. A glimmer of fear remains, but she is content. Whole.

Tears well up in my eyes. "Thank you, Rikamu."

But the heart keeper is not listening. Tears have sprung forth in her own eyes, thick and pearly. "It cannot be," she whispers. "After all this time?" The tears flow freely down her face.

Alarmed, I reach for her.

She faces me, and I start with shock. Her lips are stretched in the oddest manner, making her eyes smaller and crescent-moon shaped.

Her face hasn't looked like this for thousands of years.

Rikamu is smiling.

"He is calling Rikamu back," she tells me, cheeks shining with what I realise are tears of happiness. "The Light One is calling Rikamu back."

The rainforest shivers with a barely-there breeze. There's a voice in the leaves, in the bark, in the earth. It doesn't have a proper sound, but I hear it, and I know Onyx and Rikamu do too. It's telling Rikamu her task is finished. That she need not be alone any longer.

Rikamu clasps my hand. Her skin is warm with fallen tears. "Goodbye, shadow," she says.

There's the sound of wind rushing, though the forest is still.

And Rikamu, the last goddess, is finally home.