Blood Vengeance [COMPLETED]

Chapter Forty - Submission

Hector shook the witch's hand, and Selene felt the interaction went beyond her comprehension. There was a level of agreement beyond that which had been openly discussed, and she was being excluded.

"What will you do with Cecily?" she asked, looking at her friend, lying so helpless on the floor, her features soft, at peace.

"Cecily?" asked the witch.

Selene pointed, indicating the recumbent woman.

The witch turned to Hector. "She is?"

"Yes," he said nodding.

"Then we should begin with her." The witch smiled and glided over to Cecily, with a quiet ripple of liquid fabric. She knelt down by her side, never touching the floor, and placed her hands on Cecily's body, gently shaking her awake.

Cecily groaned at the forced movement and opened her eyes, blinking and rubbing at them.

"What? Who are you?" she asked.

"I come to take your soul."

The sinister meaning was lost on Cecily as she absorbed the features of this beautiful creature, so fine and delicate, formed as though by winter's frost itself, delicately traced on cold glass.

"Hector, you can't," said Selene, tugging at his arm as she grasped the reality of sacrificing Cecily.

"Don't pretend you really care, Selene. Don't you remember back at Stanley Hall? You were always telling the girls to keep their heads down and not make a fuss. That was the way to survive. Well," he said, glaring at her, "it still is. If you want to live you'll let her do this, and you'll keep your mouth shut."

Selene wondered then what kind of person she was. Was it cowardly to let Cecily be sacrificed in this way?

"What does she mean? Selene, what's going on?" said Cecily, a latent alarm in her tone as she sat up and looked over to where Selene and Hector stood, side by side.

"I don't know," shrugged Selene.

"You are payment, for what I am going to do for them," whispered the witch, her words cool and soft, like a spoke a lullaby.

For some reason, which Selene could not understand, Cecily nodded, became pliable and willing.

"You will come?" asked the witch.

"I will come."

"You will give your soul?"

"I will."

"Then stand, child, stand for me," she said, clasping Cecily's hand and urging her up. All the while, Cecily gazed, captivated, at the beautiful woman who meant to kill her.

"No!" screamed Selene, and she made a move to run but Hector grabbed her and clasped a hand over her mouth, holding her tight to his body.

And then she was helpless, forced to observe as the witch pressed her lips to Cecily's and kissed her, and cecily met her lips with a physical compliance that appalled Selene.

Cecily's eyelashes fluttered and her chest heaved as the witch appeared to be sucking the very life force from within her.

And only once Cecily's body hung limp, still upright only because of the force behind the witch's kiss, did Hector release Selene. Such was the impetus behind Selene's struggle that when he let go of her she tumbled to the floor, only to see Cecily's fall to the floor beside her a moment later, her eyes wide and lifeless, unseeing.

Selene sat up, pushing herself away from the dead body, skittering across the smooth floor, and covered her mouth with her hands to stifle the great gasps of distress that threatened to explode from her mouth.