The Alpha Twins and their Runaway Witch

94

Ariel was left alone by her captor. Rarely, she heard a vehicle drive on a road that was certainly not on the other side of the wall she could see. The faint sound of a single vehicle occasionally driving nearby was the only sign she had that time was continuing to move forward and that she wasn't frozen in place and time. The silence around her was crushing. The only sounds were her own breathing and troubled thoughts.

Then, there were footsteps. Drawing closer.More than one person, steps out of sync with each other pattering closer and closer. Ariel tried to call out as she saw someone tumble down the short half flight of stairs to the basement where she was being held. Holding her breath watching helplessly as a figure tumbled head over heals in somersaults down the stairs. 

Before the person at the bottom of the stairs had managed to get back onto their own feet. The door to the basement crashed open again. "See? There she is. Now call in the message." Ariel heard her captor instruct the woman at the bottom of the stairs. Ariel tried to peer through the darkness. Shocked when she saw Church pick herself up from the corner. Heard Church's familiar little voice calling out to Ariel with the name Gisella had given her.

Church nodded her head, picking up a cell phone that had tumbled down the stairs right after Church had been pushed down. Church was shaking as she worked the phone in her hand. Holding it up to her ear. "Hello? Is this, The Firm?" Church sounded terrified her words tumbling out in an uneven cadence. "There is a dark coven-" Church gave a street address that Ariel didn't recognise. Tears began to stream down Church's face, knowing she was sending a super natural SWAT team to raid Gisella's house of nightmares. Had no idea what they would do to the other girls still there.

As soon as the phone call ended. Ariel's captor ran down the stairs and snatched the phone from Church's hand. Ariel felt her magic being pulled from her, as the phone was shattered into a million broken bits of plastic. Each shard of plastic incinerated to ashes that fell like snow towards the already dirty cement floor.

"Behave yourself or you will be bound just like her." Ariel's captor inflected her head towards Ariel, turning and heading back up the stairs. A large lock mechanism was engaged. Sealing Ariel and Church in the dark basement. A single dim bulb trying to fight the darkness with its weak light.

Church approached Ariel carefully. She could feel the magic in the air. A lot of it, Ariel was standing perfectly stock still like a statue. "Can you move? Talk?" Ariel's eyes were focused on Church. She could do nothing to reply. Church frowned, "One blink no, two for yes?" Church tried.

Ariel blinked twice. Church nodded. Communication established. Eager to learn how Ariel had escaped, where she had been and if the two of them would be to figure out what Fi'Ahn was planning. Church was certainly glad to be free of Gisella, hopeful that the girls Bee and Gisella had been trapping might get saved by The Firm.

Church wasn't stupid. Fi'Ahn had a plan, and was even more cutthroat and sinister than Gisella could be on her worst days. Church and Ariel were in a "out of the fire and into the frying pan" situation. "Is Bee still alive?" Knowing Bee had been sent to help capture Ariel. Ariel blinked once. Remembering the vivid colour of Bee's blood as it drained from her throat.

Church wasn't exactly sure how she felt about that information. She hated how her fundamentalist upbringing had made finding real morality so complicated for her now. "Fi'Ahn snuck me out of the house Gisella has set up in. Brought me here, and took you. Did she kill Bee?" Ariel blinked twice. Church swore. For what might have been the first time in her life.  "I don't know what Fi'Ahn wants, but I don't want to find out, she is evil, she killed November, and a bunch of the new girls." Ariel was sad to learn that one of the girls she had left behind had been killed. Feeling like it was her fault.

While Church and Ariel tried to piece together what they knew and what Fi'Ahn's intentions were; The Firm's SWAT team were already well on their way towards Gisella. Who was completely unaware that anything in her own plans had gone amiss. Bee had sent the signal that she had Tuesday ready to grab. Fi'Ahn had made gateways with stolen magic, and should be returning any moment with Tuesday and Bee.

Gisella was looking forward to have the little runaway bitch Tuesday back under her control. Gisella thought that Bee was probably the kind to enjoy inflicting pain. It could be a nice bonding experience to teach Bee how to draw out torture on Tuesday. Teach Bee how to manage problematic batteries, and teach Tuesday important lessons on behaviour.

Gisella already counting her victory before it had arrived was shocked when she felt the magic barrier come down around her home. The girls working in the basement screamed as their magic suddenly became unavailable to them. Then, smoke bombs broke through windows filling the house with opaque gasses.

Gisella had no idea what was happening. This was not part of the plan. The front and back doors were kicked open with timed and coordinated precision, dozens of tactical gear clad people marched into her home and place of business. Gisella stood in her living room, where she had just been celebrating her pending victory. Gisella heard her batteries crying as they were rounded up and marched out of the house.

They had a witch that could break the binds. Gisella felt her control over her subservient coven slipping away. Her ability to mask her age being taken away from her. By the time she herself was marched out of the house, bound in layers of magical binding and physical cuffs; she was already ageing rapidly. A large Earth Fae guard made a gesture with his right hand like he was warding off bad luck when Gisella was led past him towards the waiting lock up van. Ready to be transported to The Black Tower.

***

Back at Golden Green, Marisol and Guillermo along with Binh and Alex were hunched around the monitors of Guillermo's hastily established tech set up. Watching as the Super Natural SWAT team sent over images of all the girls they had collected in the raid, and the witch who had bound all their power to herself.

Binh and Three Hours Past Midnight stared with unblinking gazes watched the photos march past on the screens. Neither Binh nor Three Hours Past Midnight recognised any of the girls The Firm had managed to rescue. It wasn't until a grey haired Gisella, in a blurred picture went across the screen that both the bird and Baku reacted.

Three Hours Past Midnight hopped on the table, cawing loudly. Binh was able to speak for both of them, on Ariel's behalf. "The last one is the witch who had held Ariel captive. We do not recognise any of the other women or girls." No one wanted to say the obvious, the house had been searched, checked with magic. There was no one else inside, and Ariel had not been found. Alex would have broken the monitor with this fist, if Binh had not stayed his hand.