BEWITCHED

Preview of A Future Chapter

(A's/N: Hello, Hey, Hi! Long time no write. I'm taking a break from writing an original trilogy that I'm hoping to publish in the coming years, and I thought I needed to return to BEWITCHED. So here we are. This Preview will disappear once this future chapter is published. Feel free to leave comments and theories on how this scene snippet happened. LONG AWAITED CHAPTER 19 IS COMING + MORE!!!)

The scene that played out was straight from a nightmare. 

The walls were charred from a fire that was nowhere in sight. 

The concrete floors were decorated with soot, broken furniture, blood, and guts. 

After killing the last of Stan's goons, maker and progeny watched in horror as the older Stackhouse sibling carried a weakened girl in his arms. 

Her eyes were shut as if in a peaceful sleep; her hair was drenched in sweat and blood; her dress was dirtied, ripped, and scorched, and her shoes were missing. 

Markings of bite wounds and cuts adorned her bare arms and legs, blood still fresh in some open injuries. 

Physically, it's as if she'd fought in a war, but from what both vampires felt, her soul was wholly shattered. 

Octavia was literally put through Hell. 

Despite Godric's thoughts calming from the hellish storm his mind was in, Eric was the first to move in a haze.

Jason stopped the second Eric touched Octavia's blood-matted hair. With one arm slung over Jason's head, Octavia didn't move or open her eyes. 

Eric's shocked expression matched his actions as his bloodstained hand shook inches from her cheek. 

Not a word slipped past the Viking's lips as Jason adjusted his grip on Octavia's body; he was not afraid of the vampires standing in the room with him anymore, but the thought of dropping her.

Bill and Sookie entered the main room, following Jason, explaining the blood-draining systems attached to Octavia in separate places on her body when they found her, buckets hidden underneath the metal bed she lay upon. 

Buckets filled slightly with her witch blood.

Menacing growls from both older vampires erupted in the room as Godric moved to Jason's left side, opposite Eric. 

With harsh words to command him and Eric to stay behind, Octavia found the willpower to open her eyes and whisper a word that barely came out.

"Don't." 

Everyone's attention fell on the hybrid as Godric took one step to the right and appeared before her face, cupping her cheek gently. 

She winced slightly, and his tired eyes dropped.

"Get...me...out...first." 

It was painful to speak and breathe, but her voice held a delicate command. Pain erupted through her body like a never-ending cycle as she glanced up to see only Godric for a moment. 

Those worried yet exhausted green eyes.

 Eric pressed his hand slightly against her head for only a second, and she immediately flinched. Then, Godric knew what choice he'd make for her. 

"Eric will stay behind to help all of you clean up and destroy any evidence that leads to the exposure of her species. She'll come with me now, " Godric said to the group before turning to Jason.

"How do you plan to heal her, Godric? Especially after what happened on the roof?" Sookie asked. 

"My maker has his ways," Eric spat in a stone-cold voice.

With a plan forged, Jason hesitated before gracefully placing Octavia in her maker's arms, unable to shake the feeling her healing journey was a long road. 

But Godric knew what needed to be done. 

Holding tight to her delicate and damaged body, Octavia used the last little bit of strength to swing her arms around his shoulders, nestling closer to his chest. He smelled of salt air and petrichor.

In the blink of an eye, they were gone—her life in his hands.  

(A's/N: petrichor is the smell of rain.)