My (Not So) Charmed Life

And Now... We Wait

When I finally regained consciousness, I couldn't open my eyes. 

The room was silent, but my body would not move; it was as though I were completely paralyzed. I tried to open my mouth to scream in the vague hope that someone would hear me, but my mouth refused to make a sound.

For what seemed like hours, I sat there in my forced darkness, not knowing how much time was going by. At one point, I honestly considered that maybe I was going insane; maybe I had been dreaming this entire portion of my life. 

My heart was heavy as I recalled the events prior to my blacking out, and I had no way of distracting myself from the grief that came with the knowledge that Ryan was dead. How could that happen? We had finally told each other how we felt, only for him to be killed? The rage and sadness made me want to kick and scream and get my revenge, and yet there I sat, immobile and silent, unable to move even a finger. That, to me at least, seemed like the hardest thing of all.

I must have eventually dozed off, because I was woken up by being thrust into the air. My paralysis had now been altered so that I could see and speak, but I still couldn't move my limbs. The first thing I saw was a room full of black-cloaked figures directly beneath me as I hung suspended in midair. My body, stiff from an unknown number of hours spent in the same position, couldn't even recoil in fear. 

The group gathered underneath me as I was forced to remain completely still and passive. One removed his cloak's hood and the rest followed suit, revealing Petram, Sammy and the rest of his rogue group. One figure, however, kept his or her hood on. I wondered who was under there, but when Petram began to speak, I stopped caring. I had more important things to worry about than some jerk rogue wizard who was too insecure to take his dumb hood off. 

"My my, what a pleasant little party we've gathered," Petram said jovially. The obvious joy in his voice made me more angry than anything else had thus far. Ryan was dead, and yet he was smiling and joking like all was beautiful in the world. I was relegated to staring at him with the most amount of loathing and hate that I could possibly summon, and he clearly noticed.

"Tsk tsk, little girl. You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Why, don't you want the use of your limbs back eventually?" I continued to stare at him, only adding fire to my glare at his patronizing tone. I was not a child, and if he ever made the mistake of setting my body free, I would show him just how much he was underestimating me. 

As I silently hung there, Petram waved his arm, and a vision appeared on the wall, as though he had set a projector screen there just for this moment. I would have rolled my eyes if I could have; Petram clearly wanted to have his "super villain moment." Shira and I had a joke about the villains in super hero movies. No matter what, every movie had a point where the villain made a long, drawn-out speech, during which time the hero was almost always able to escape. The villain would always be too caught up in their grand unveiling that they wouldn't notice the hero making their way out of their bonds. And now? Petram was no better than any of those idiots.

"Well men, gaze upon this: the noble ones have fallen, allowing us to capture the chosen one," he said, his voice formal and mocking. 

"They fought bravely, but not bravely enough. Now, we are in power!" His minions cheered and clapped, gazing at their leader in awe and wonder. It only made me want to puke.

I busied myself with looking around the room for a way out, checking every corner that I could see, but nothing seemed like it could be of use. And then a flash of movement behind the rebels entered the corner of my vision.

A tiny window, like one you'd find in someone's basement, had someone wearing all black crouching in front of it on the outside. I squinted, but couldn't make out a face. My heart swelled for a moment with hope that someone would be coming to save me, but then I heard a crash come from that corner.

Every face in the room jerked in the direction of the noise. Petram imperiously ordered his people to investigate it and while I hung there helplessly, the men gathered by the window. There was a loud scuffle and flashes of light from wands, but soon the circle of men dragged two prisoners back to Petram in the middle of the room.

"Spies? Or attempted rescuers?" Petram asked rhetorically. The prisoners were gagged and masked, so they couldn't respond to his sarcastic question. "Tell me, what use is a mask if you are daft enough to get caught?" His men whipped off the masks and I gasped.

Standing there were Tori and Annette. I wasn't surprised that Tori would come to save me, but Annette? She didn't know that I was a witch! This was a huge breach of magical law! If I could have spoken, or if there was a possibility that they could answer, I would have asked them, but clearly this wasn't the time to be worrying about accidentally revealing to a human that I was a witch. My life, not to mention the lives of countless others, was on the line.

One of the men whipped a curse at Annette with rapid motion; she was lying on the ground writhing in pain before I could even blink an eye. A wordless and soundless cry of "NO!" ran through my mind, and I fought fruitlessly against my invisible bonds. I watched her eyes roll back in her head, her body twitching and spasming, and for a moment I was terrified that her heart would stop.

"Stupid little girls, coming to "rescue" their friend. Instead, they can die alongside her," chuckled Petram. "What a wasted effort-"

SMASH!

Light filled the room and for several seconds, I was blinded. There was white everywhere. But the sight that filled my eyes as soon as the brightness abated was nothing in comparison.