Raven Hills

Chapter 5

I turned around to see who it was and to my horror, it was Lily. She had been captured by the bad guys, and was brawling her eyes out. I gestured to Hope that we needed to save her and she agreed as leaving behind someone who was in need of help was not Hope's style.

When we were about to approach them, the woman who was holding Lily in her hand, to my surprise, used spells to keep us on bay. Hope and I tried our best to fight against her without harming Lily but it was difficult. So, instead of wasting our energy, I grabbed Hope's hand and shook my head to gesture her that we should try another tactic instead of carrying out this rally of spell fights with no results.

So, I thought of an idea but it was a risky one. But still I needed to try my best so as to not regret anything later on. Thereby, I put forward a bargaining chip, and that was, I called out to the witch and shouted,

Hey witch! Instead of carrying out this fruitless rally of battles, why don't we bargain some conditions. My condition is that you leave the little girl alone. Don't hurt her and we'll satisfy your condition. So, name it, what do you want?

And as if she had been waiting for this moment itself, the woman smirked. She thought for a moment and then came her, not at all satisfactory request.

Fine. Since you guys are willing to bargain something for this tiny little girl, the thing that I want is the boy whom you had just rescued from the truck from the passengers seat.

Holy crap! The plan backfired. I had thought she might want money or something material thingy, who would have thought she wanted the one person for whom we had set out on this rescue mission. Sigh.

I looked with a troubled expression towards Hope, she was thinking about something really hard and so thereby came in the voice in my head once again.

Listen, we're going to give them the boy and then rescue the little girl.

This was the first time Hope had suggested an idea of leaving someone behind and so, I was baffled, like seriously. I mean, of course, I wanted to save Lily but I also didn't want to sacrifice someone else to rescue her. So, I was confused and when I was about to ask her, she again spoke in my mind,

To specify, we're going to pretend.

It was then that I understood what Hope was aiming for. She briefed me on what we were going to do. First of all, we would pretend to send the boy out to them and ask the woman to send out Lily as well at the same time. And then, when they would be crossing over to the opposite direction, I would signal Lily to run, along with the boy, towards our direction and then Hope or I would use a spell to attack the enemy team and then we would all escape from the warehouse.

Our plan was, in my opinion, full-proof, there were no faults in it if executed properly. And so, we were ready to carry out the plan. And thereby, Hope went and brought the boy as if dragging him, I could make out that he was reluctant through his expression. But, he was nonchalant in his actions, he didn't struggle back and do anything that seemed suspicious. He just walked alongside Hope. I was kinda feeling guilty and I wanted to assure him that we were really there to rescue him and the other girl and that we would not leave him behind, but that was not possible at the current situation.

The woman was delighted. She was acting so restless and was almost starting to walk towards us in an attempt to get him, as fast as she could, but then I stopped her by showing my hand and I spoke out,

As your condition, we are going to exchange the two people. But this has to be done at the same time. You send out the girl to us and we'll at the same time send out the boy towards your direction.

The women nodded in satisfaction and was ready to send Lily to us by pushing her, we also brought the boy and pushed him from the back. Both of them started to walk slowly in the opposite direction.

This time was crucial as we needed to make sure nothing went amiss. Hope and I, both were ready to take action and the Professors too were ever ready to take any actions and so, we counted, One.... Two.... Three.... Now!!

And so, I shouted,

Run.

Lily heard my voice and she started running towards me, the boy too stared behind and I nodded. He too without amiss started to run back. Hope was now using spells to harm the enemies. She used incendia to start a fire everywhere and since there was oil in certain spaces, the fire escalated in no time. And so, it was time to escape.

I was ready to give Lily a tight hug as she was reaching me, I spread out my hands to hold her tight. But, as always, something had to go wrong. When Lily had almost reached me, a thing came flying towards her direction, I couldn't make out what it was, but it was just the next moment that I realised what had happened.

Lily was finally in my arms, I held her tight, I was relieved, even though we had only met each other a few hours ago, there seemed to be a strong connection between us. I was glad that I could keep my promise. But, something was wrong.

Lily was not moving, I shook her and called out to her but there was no response. And as I was holding her, my hand touched something, the sensation was that of a thick liquid and when I looked into my hands, to my horror,

Blood.

There was blood gushing out from the back of Lily and then I realised the thing that had come flying behind her was none other than a knife, the same knife the woman was holding in her hands while holding Lily, and I saw her, that sinister woman was smiling after her success and she was ready to escape with her lackeys from a different route.

Hope seemed to be calling out to me, but I couldn't hear it. Tears were falling down my eyes. The promise that I had made with Lily to protect her could not be kept and I had failed to save someone, someone who had become precious to me. And just like that the enemies escaped and Hope after seeing what had happened just kept quiet along with the others.