Obliterate

Chapter 5: Bloodstone

Adam

Adam had been given the toughest task out of all his fellow witch hunters. He had to ensure Morgana did not remember anything about who she really is. He had to keep her brainwashed and without powers for long enough that the witch hunter council was satisfied the experiment was a success. This was the first time he had been assigned as guardian for a witch and they had assigned him the most powerful and notorious witch of all.

He couldn't help but worry that he was doing his job right. He planned to just take each day as it comes and to follow his training to hope that he didn't fail his task.

Morgana was in the bedroom getting ready for the day whilst Adam sat and watched the news. It wasn't real news of course, just the witch hunter produced news for this fake city. Most of it was a load of rubbish made up to make the city feel like a real place but occasionally there was something worth mentioning on there. Something that was real news for the city.

Adam was wondering whether they had decided to report this week's murder on the news in the end. It was the only reason why he had the news on at all. Usually he wouldn't bother but he was interested to know what they would and wouldn't reveal to the rest of the witch hunters and the witches in the city. They were often very careful what they would present to witches as they didn't want to undo their brainwashing but at the same time they wanted to see how much witch culture witches could be exposed to without undoing the brain washing. That's what had led them to using names such as Heck's city for this first experiment as a way to subtly have a witch related word used all of the time hopefully without undoing any brainwashing.

Adam was worried about the smallest thing undoing Morgana's brainwashing. Being the most powerful witch in the world he feared all it would take was the mention of a spell of rain or a broomstick and all her memory would come flooding back to her.

As the murder has clearly been an attack by a witch whose brainwashing had clearly been broken, he wondered just how much of the brutal murder would be shown on TV. Would they mention how the body was used for some kind of ritual or would they just say they had been murdered? He was worried that Morgana would walk into the room at the wrong minute and would see the words sacrifice and ritual on the screen and it would immediately remind her who and what she is. He had the volume low so that she couldn't hear it and his hand hovered over the remote ready to switch it off if needed.

The buzzer went for the door and Adam jumped up, remote still in hand, and let Lydia in.

"Has it aired yet?" she asked in a whisper, worried Morgana might hear.

"Not yet."

"Did the witch finder general tell you what would be said?"

Adam shook his head. His dad often kept him in the dark about things. He might be a Hopkins but he was still only kept in the loop on a need to know basis.

The both sat on the sofa and continued to watch the news, waiting anxiously to see what would be revealed.

They finished the weather forecast and suddenly breaking news flashed across the screen. The reporter went on to say that a murder had happened in one of Heck's cities churches last night. They went over to the vicar who had found the horrible scene and they explained what they had found when they got into work in the morning. The reporter went on to describe how the body had been left in some form of ritual sacrifice pose and for anyone who might know anything to please come forward to assist in finding the killer.

Adam switched the TV off as soon as the story had changed to something else.

"Do you think it might be her?" Lydia asked, moving her head towards the bedroom where Morgana was. "What if she is only pretending to be brainwashed?"