Alice into Darkness

Fiery Sparks

This was her first time stalking somebody as a ghost, but Alice just placed a complete trust on her predatory instincts and she already knew that everything was going to be fine.

Miss Layttel remained a good distance behind her targets to start with, but as the minutes passed the magical ghost began to gain more confidence and she drew closer and closer to them... Every sound from the town had been replaced by just the wind whispering between the snowy trees, and just a few ravens could be seen flying from one tree to another sometimes.

"You'll have to wait for me a little, Eileen" Alice thought, trying to somehow force herself to transform into a physical person once again- "I just want to make sure that they shall never hurt you again..."

Elsa and Elliot laughed about Eileen for some time, they could not have enough about how stupid her hat was and they also discussed new plans to keep tormenting her for weeks and even months to come... at first everything was fine, it seemed that this was just an ordinary evening after a boring day at school and yet they eventually realized that something was not quite alright.

"What is it?" Elliot asked, surprised that his sister had suddenly stopped and turned her head to have a look behind them.

"Nothing" Elsa replied with a low voice, sighing as her pale green eyes scanned the forest with great caution- "I just felt something really weird, like somebody was hiding around and watching us walk... A forest thug, perhaps? Who knows, maybe we should stop taking this shortcut like dad always says..."

"Come on, we are not cowards!"

They continued their journey back home, Elsa was walking a little faster at this point and Alice finally discovered where the Stallgren siblings actually lived: There was a large and beautiful cottage not so far ahead of them, she could see abundant smoke coming from its chimneys and Alice realized that it would take her targets no more than a few minutes to get there...

"Come on, Alice" she thought, already fearing that her plans to murder those kids would not work after all- "You are running out of time... Change back! You can do it!"

This was the last moment to attack since it was necessary to destroy them without witnesses, her magic returned all of a sudden and then a very physical Alice Layttel appeared out of nowhere just a few yards behind Elsa and her brother-

"You two shall leave Eileen alone..."

Elsa and Elliot just hopped with surprise, they turned around with their hearts beating fast and they could see her at last: The eerie Alice stood between the snow and the trees all quiet and silent, her orange cloak rippled a little in the cold wind and she displayed a wicked smile as she stared at them with those lifeless and violet eyes...

"Wh-where... Where did you come from?!" Elsa gasped, truly scared at the sudden apparition of this woman- "Who are you?"

"That does not matter" Alice replied with a low voice, still displaying that unnerving smile as she advanced a few steps towards them- "What matters is that you run... Fast..."

"You stay away from us!" Elliot threatened immediately, drawing a small knife from a pocket of his uniform- "What do you want?"

The alarmed siblings decided to stand on guard, so they just stared at Alice as she came to a halt and raised her hand to aim at them... Alice laughed, there was a flash of white light and after that Elsa gasped as every bit of color was stolen from her brother like it was nothing but paint dissolving into water.

Alice's hand quickly absorbed the colorful sparks just like it had happened at the shop, and Elsa screamed at the top of her voice when a white and black Elliot just collapsed on the snow throwing up blood...

"Elliot!" Elsa cried out, trying in vain to help her brother- "What happened? Elliot! No, no!"

The girl retreated in silent shock, Alice looked into her teary green eyes and then Elsa could see how those fiery sparks were flying and swirling around Alice's hand... Miss Layttel stared at the sparks without even knowing what was going to happen at this point, and just an instant later the dazzling sparks transformed into a terrible red flame.

"Fascinating..." Alice whispered, admiring the cold beauty of her magical fire and already imagining what her new power would be.

Elliot suddenly fell into convulsions of such violence that his spine was broken like a twig, the snow all around him was grey and black with blood and Elsa was just trying to regain control of herself while her once beautiful face was deformed by sheer terror...

Alice laughed at Elsa for a few seconds, she knew that those were the last moments of the girl's little life and then she released a blast of that dazzling red fire straight at her target.

The screams of agony and terror were just as high as those of Mary that day at Layttel Manor, and Alice enjoyed the view of Elsa as she ran like a torch that glowed and cried between the trees... The burning girl managed to travel a good distance before she collapsed, the cries came to an end and then she was nothing but a smoldering pile of bones and ashes on the snow.

"How about that?" Alice whispered to herself, looking at the grey corpse and the scorched bones with cold and total satisfaction- "This just keeps getting better and better..."

Alice vanished as she voluntarily transformed into a magical ghost once again, this time she discovered that she could just fly between the trees with unbelievable speed and it took her no time to travel all the way back to Saint Adelaide.

The gardens were deserted, the wind now threatened to transform into a storm and a sad and lonely Eileen was just sitting on a bench beside a tree...