The Last Witch

Into The Onion - Ep 4

Crickets sang along with the owls. Little lights twinkled in the sky all around the crescent moon. Large illuminating shadows of trees marked the cold dirt of the forest grounds. All was still until the group arrived in the Pride's old Den. Frightened songbirds flapped away. The sound of them took Aliss's memory back to the night it all began. Things seemed so simple back then.

"We haven't thanked you formally", Yoon and Xian approached her, "but thanks. For coming for Kimmy and being there when we couldn't". "You're welcome anytime. And Kimmy has always been there for me. It was time I saved her for a change". Aliss responded. "We don't know how long we have but you need to know what that woman was looking for".

Aliss put on a serious expression. "I'm listening". They both rolled their sleeves. Symbols and letters were written in red ink on both of them. "Ovriso bar cisse imae gu?" The first sentence she made out did not make sense. "Who's older?" Aliss asked suddenly. "We're twins". Xian rolled his eyes. "Well, someone came out before the other, right?" Aliss's eyes went wide considering how they would have come out at the same time. Yoon chuckled and said, "I'm older". "Phew! Switch sides". Yoon moved to the right and Xian to the left.

The writings formed a circle. "Locked away for eternity, allies made to watch the key. Never should the truth suffice. For of Night, the book lies", she read the words, "did the Watchers explain what the riddle meant?" "No", Yoon dropped his arm, "we were hoping you could tell us. These words would soon appear on Kimmy and we'd like if you could find it first". "Let's break it down. The..."

"Hey, Aliss! I'm gonna go", Penn called out, "we'll talk in the morning, yeah?" "Sure". And he left.  Meadow and Onyx also excused themselves, leaving Kimmy talking to Leati. "Back to the riddle", Aliss stroked her chin, "'locked away for eternity' clearly means it was locked away. 'Allies made to watch the key', that's you. What I don't understand is why the Watchers would make a key for something they wanted locked away forever?"

"Maybe they didn't want it locked away forever?" Xian shrugged.

"Eternity means forever genius". Yoon mocked.

"Whatever reason they had for making the key is not the problem", Aliss brought them back to the real matter, "'never should the truth suffice. For of Night, the book lies'. There's a big secret and the secret is about the Creatures of the Night". "How can you tell?" They asked. "'Night' is written in capital. If it was about the sky, it would be in small letters", she explained, "what lies in this locked place is a book. And from our dearest place, the book hold a lot of power. Power someone is willing to kill for".

Almost immediately, Aliss's eyes rolled to the back of her head. Her body seized up and she fell to the ground. "Aliss!" Kimmy shouted on seeing this. Aliss could hear the voice but she could not move from the dark plains her mind had been transported. She looked around the black space. "Hello? Is anyone here?" Her voice echoed.

Aliss sighed and started walking which she discovered was a mistake. Her legs fell through the black space and she found herself screaming at the top of her lungs. After what felt like minutes, Aliss stopped screaming since she hadn't reached impact. The black space slowly folded into gray cloud. The cloud began to show images  that seemed out of order. Her eyes managed to catch something before she made impact and her pupils rolled back into place.

She jerked up with a gasp. "Oh my gosh! What happened?" Aliss's disoriented self could only say, "I saw the book". They helped her to her feet. "What book? Do you want to give me a heart attack?" Kimmy shoved her. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that was going to happen", she shrugged then faced the twins, "I saw it. There were these images but it was all out of order then I saw the Watcher symbol on a huge black book". "Did it show where?" "I'll have to shuffle through everything I saw but I know what it looks like and I know the riddle. We have the upper hand".