The Witches Image

Chapter 3

Gray mist...the moon shone through the tops of the trees that formed an avenue...A bridge...that led over a roaring river...My bare feet on damp ground...my heart was racing. Step by step I walked towards the bridge. I found it hard to put one foot in front of the other...like someone was pulling me...holding me back with all my weight....

On the other side of the bridge, a faint reddish light appeared...flickering like fire...the closer I got, the brighter it became...there were voices...laughter...moans...when I reached the bridge, I felt the warmth of the fire on my face...the river raged beneath me...everything in me resisted taking another step. Then I could see them...dark shames moving. Moving as if in dance...A figure seemed to grow larger...it turned to face me...wafts of mist crept around it...seemed to clear...a slender figure...long hair...glowing eyes...A sharp pain in my right shoulder...then a laugh...the pain forced me to my knees...hard I hit the ground...

"Hey Lia ... Lia!". Hands shook my shoulders. "Lia wake up...WAKE UP!". I wrenched my eyes open and stared into Madison's startled eyes. She had leaned over me, her hands on my shoulders. Hot tears ran down my temples. Drenched in sweat, I sat up with a jerk. I wasn't lying in my bed, but facing the window, which was wide open. I couldn't remember opening it. The cold morning air made me shiver.

Madison got up and closed the window before picking up my blanket from the floor and tucking it around me. I breathed shakily and felt how dry and irritated my throat was.

"What...what happened?" I asked in a raspy voice, swallowing against the pain. Lia knelt down next to me again.

"You screamed!" She stroked my back and looked at me with concern. "And you were babbling something incomprehensible to yourself... I thought someone was going to stab you... You really scared me!". She stroked a strand of hair behind my ear.

Breathing heavily, I put my face in my hands, my heart beating hard against my chest. My throat was raw and burning, I had screamed so loudly. I gave Madison an apologetic look. What must she think of me.

My breathing was slow to calm, the adrenaline throbbing weakly through my veins. Madison stroked my back gently and waited for me to calm down.

"Thank you Madison!" I said in a shaky voice and tried to smile.

"Come on get up...take a hot shower...you're freezing! If you've slept all night with the window open...and the way you're sweating...don't get sick...I'll make you a coffee...come on!" she said and helped me up.

Still shivering, I trudged into the bathroom and got rid of my clammy nightgown. The hot shower relaxed my muscles. Brought my mind back to the here and now. I just wanted to wash this dream away. For a brief moment, I imagined I could smell the smoke from the fire in my hair. I closed my eyes for a moment to enjoy the warmth. I was startled by a sharp pain in my right shoulder. A scratch. But a strangely shaped one.... How...? My gaze met the nails of my left hand...It looked like blood...dried blood. Overwhelmed, I began to wash myself to get rid of the blood under my nails. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks as I wiped the fogged up mirror to look at my shoulder. Not again...why was this happening? I had thought I had left those dreams behind me! These dreams from which I woke up and realized that I had scratched myself bloody...And always in the same place.

I had already had nightmares as a child. Dreams about demons that spoke to me in a language I didn't understand. Dreams in which I saw this woman, her red eyes. Heard her laughing. At some point it got so bad that my parents had to take me to the doctor. But the doctor only blamed the dreams on my vivid imagination. After all, it was normal for children to process many things in their dreams. And have even more vivid dreams than adults. Which I would not subscribe to now. Every time I woke up from these dreams, I scratched myself bloody. Always in the same place. My parents hadn't known what to do and I'd had my first therapy session with a psychiatrist when I was ten. He had put me on medication and the dreams had really disappeared. But when I was about to finish school, they reappeared. Even stronger than before.

Then one night, I was 18 and already living on the university campus. Lucifer appeared in my dream for the first time. And just when I thought my dreams couldn't get any worse, I started sleepwalking.

It didn't take long before I was the freak who was creeping through the corridors of the hall of residence at night, scaring the living daylights out of everyone I came across. My roommate moved out and I decided to drop out of university after a while. My path had to be different. I was convinced of that.

Call it fate or a coincidence. One day I came across a flyer from my old convention. They were looking for new members. I didn't have to think about it for long. I had always realised that Lucifer was closer to me than God. My dreams had only made that clear to me.

A month later, I was a member of the unholy church. But even here the dreams didn't leave me in peace, even if they occurred less and less frequently. Even the scratching had stopped at some point.

But this time it was different. For the first time, I imagined I recognised something in this scar. A symbol. I shook my head. My mind was playing tricks on me again. I was probably still in such a state of shock that I imagined I recognised something. I dried myself off and applied some ointment to the area.

"Are you feeling better?" Madison asked as I sat down on the couch with her. My long hair was wrapped in a towel. Sighing, I took a sip of the coffee she had handed me.

"Yes... sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" I said, trying to put on a grin.

"Do you have this often? So these dreams?" she asked anxiously.

"Not for a long time... It's probably all been a bit too much the last week!" I replied.

Madison nodded, but looked at me with concern.

"Do you think you can manage the recording ritual tonight? Maybe we can ask Sister Emperor to postpone it if you're not feeling well!"

I closed my eyes and sighed. I had almost forgotten. I'd been here for a week now and had prepared for it, learnt my lines, memorised the process. But this dream had wiped everything from my memory.

"No!" I said resolutely. "I can't sit around doing nothing for another week...I want to finally belong and start my task...Besides, I can't stand meeting with Sister Imperator every day for another week...". Even though she was nice, she could get on your nerves very quickly. I had met with her every day to let her prepare me for the ritual. She had explained my duties to me and discussed my position in relation to the Dark Lord. I had been to the chapel every day. Where I pulled something out of my nose to confess. Gluttony...or envy, just to make the dark lord happy and to make sure my soul was ready.

I knew roughly what I was in for, after all, I had been through it before. Even though this ritual would be more intense, as it involved the unholy Church Emeritus.

"Yes, she can be really exhausting!" laughed Madison.

"Will you be by my side tonight?" I asked hesitantly. "That would help me! And after all, it's usual to be accompanied by a sister...and I'd feel safer if you were with me!".

Madison looked at me in surprise before grinning widely and hugging me.

"I thought you'd never ask me!" she laughed excitedly.

I had developed a kind of friendship with Madison over the last week. We had a lot in common and I felt comfortable with her. She was the only one I trusted here at the moment. She had to be my companion for tonight.

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