Keeper Of Souls

Chapter 1.10: From Present to Future

IT HAS BEEN SO LONG. Sorry. I wonder if anyone even reads this lol Well, here you go. 

Katarina woke up, startled, and most importantly cold. The air was filled with a frigid coldness and it gave her chills all over. She struggled to sit up, dragging her body across the dusty ground. Harper was out cold and the horse wasn’t breathing, an unpleasant smell brewing around him. Kat closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Avilla could come looking for her at any point in time. This was not okay and this ditch was not safe. Reluctantly, she shook Harper until she roused from her sleep.

 “What? What’s wrong?” Harper shot awake, her hair wild on her head. It caused Kat to fall over into a fit of giggles and then those giggles turned into sobbing. “Come here.” Harper pulled her into her arms, holding her close. “We are going to be okay. We will get you home.”

“T-the horse is d-dead and what if Avilla c-comes back for us?” Kat asked in between sniffles. 

“Shh, we will be fine. I hope you rested up.” Harper untangled herself from Kat, standing up in the ditch.

“For what?”

“Your magic may come in handy again. With enough practice, you’ll be able to access it longer anyways.”

Kat swallowed hard and stood up next to Harper. “What do we do now?”

“I wish I knew if Clast was okay, that would make me happier. We need to find a way out of this ditch. Oh, and to make you feel better about the horse, it never would have made it out of this ditch by the way. It’s better that it died falling in instead of starving.”

That hit Kat hard and she turned away. “Do you really want to know what Clast is up to?”

“Yeah, I do, but we have no way of knowing so, forget it.”

“Yeah we do.” Kat turned back to face Harper’s frown. “Just don’t distract me.” Rolling her shoulders back, Kat closed her eyes, thinking of the here and now, the here and now of Clast.

The dark ditch faded around her and a darker room replaced it, one where it was freezing and only a little bit of light was allowed by a single candle in front of Clast’s face. The candle illuminated a little of her face that was sweaty and scrunched with pain.

“Good God, you get a kick out of this, don’t you?” Clast gave an emotionless laugh and the woman trailed her long dark nails across Clast’s chest.

“I do, I need you to know that you can’t run again, understand?” the woman threatened.

“Screw you, I’ll kill you, I swear I will. I killed Avilla and I’ll kill you next.”

Kat gasped. Jesus, the girl was heartless. She fought her fellow villagers and now she was killing evil villains. At least Avilla wouldn’t be coming back for her.

The woman’s eyes flashed and she roughly grasped Clast’s chin in her hands. “Look here you little girl, I will bash your head in and then throw you into a pit of fire. Shut your mouth.”

“That’s all you got, a pit of fire? That’s not scary at all. You should come up with better villain threats, woman.” Clast laughed some more and Kat smiled. She was a strong girl.

The woman threw back her hand and slapped her, and then Clast started screaming. “Not so brave now, are you? Are you?” She slapped Clast again and again and each time Clast let out a wretched scream. Each time the woman’s hand made contact with Clast’s skin, dark lines covered the surface of her skin, which in turn caused the pain.

“Go to hell!”

“We are already living in it.” The woman clasped her hand around Clast’s throat. “Say goodbye to the world you know.”