PROBLEM - Anthony Lockwood

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

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xxvii

please spare them they make good tea

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"WE NEED ANOTHER exit!" Lucy hissed.

Lockwood turned to them, "Lucy, go back to that place you found and see what you can find. George, Alice, we need to draw this thing out and distract it." He turned, waving his sword, "It's time we stopped being so respectful of this thing."

Lucy ran to the wall, trying to search it as the others waved around their rapiers and attempted to distract it.

Alice tapped into her magic, trying to get the witches to calm down but their screams echoed through the room. It buzzed with blood magic, with a spell seething with vengeance.

The strongest magic came from anger and rage.

They watched in horror as blood began to pour from the ceiling, eating away at the walls and dripping onto the ground. Thick, crimson, covering every surface and moving at an immense, terrible pace.

"This is not just one ghost!" George gasped.

"Lucy, what have you found?" Lockwood demanded.

"I-I'm not sure, I need time!" Lucy replied.

"They're working together, oh shit!" George cried, "This must be the five witches!"

They watched in horror as the blood covered the door, dripping and pooling onto the floor and getting closer to them. It was falling from the ceiling like rain.

Alice began to tap into her magic again, but not just a drop of it, this time she allowed herself to throw open the floodgates. Power barelled through her veins at that. She didn't care if anyone saw now, if they killed her, so be it. But at least they would be alive.

At least he would be alive.

Alice held the candle with both hands, pouring magic into it, into the room. She began to tap into blood magic, the enchatments falling from her lips like tears as she forced the witches to retreat.

They were powerful.

But she was a Deane.

The daughter of the Witch who had torn open the veil to the other side and caused the Problem.

She could feel her nose beginning to bleed but she carried on pushing the blood back from their little corner, creating a dome of magic above them that no one but she could see.

"Lucy I hope that's a door!"

"I'd like to start running now!"

Both Lockwood and George ran to Lucy as she began to tear off the wallpaper, all of them throwing themselves at the wall and trying to kick down a door.

The blood was raining down now, the five witches were screaming. Blood was everywhere, all over the ground, all over the walls and ceilings. Shining and deadening. It was pouring towards them at an immense pace, trying to get past the dome Alice had created but failing.

"JOIN OUR VENGEANCE!"

Lockwood turned and let a small scream burst from his throat as he saw Alice, covered in blood, holding her candle. Blood all over her, blood from her eyes like tears, blood from her nose, blood from her ears, blood matting her hair, blood matting her clothes.

And then he blinked, and she was normal.

Just a vision. A hallucination.

The wall gave way and they stumbled into a passage, and Lockwood grabbed Alice's arm, pulling her in with them. Alice swore loudly as she dropped her candle, leaving it in the Red Room as Lockwood slammed the door shut and all of them stood in the passage, panting and gasping.