The Witch's Love ( Book I of The Witch Duology )

Chapter Five: Illusion

I was walking down a way full with white light, so bright that it pained my eyes. There was a dead silence that hummed in my ears. The brightness began to fade and my vision started to get grayish along the edges. My eyes wanted to close to a deep sleep, I suddenly felt tension and chaos in the air and my limbs were tired. And then, I was there, in the stable, fifteen years ago, nine-year old again. I felt the cold, smelled the odour of animal sweat, and heard the lightning outside.

The little girl, Irina, kneeled in front of me and was saying, "The witch? She is my mother."

I stayed dumb. Suddenly, that smile on her face vanished and she gasped around. I followed her eye line to the broken stable door. There stood a dark silhouette of a woman, short and frail-looking, but I could feel the aura of dark power around her.
For a brief insane moment, I thought my mother had finally returned to me.

I was wrong, however.

"Irina?" The woman called in her sweet, luring voice, "Are you in there, sweety?"

Irina whispered, "Oh no! Mommy's here." She swerved out of the light of the bulb and curled up in the darkness beside me. "I was running away from her. But if she sees you alive, she will punish you."

She tugged at my hands that were tightly wrapped around my knees that were pulled against my chest, just like the way she had done when the wolves came to attack in the forest, "Come with me! We will flee from the door where I entered in!"
I was drained of all my energy. I was too scared to think anything. I blindly followed what she did.

We tip-toed out of the corner as the woman continued to call her daughter. Through the stable dimly lit, Irina led me to the frail back door that was open already. As soon as we stepped out into the shimmering storm outside, our feet took up speed and we ran.

Both of us kept running without looking back, at least I did not look back. The sky was purple above; the dark clouds were retreating, lightning struck now and then. There was plague and unreasonable death in the air. We passed corpses lying around, here and there.

We stopped too later. I was surprised at how similar our actions were if compared then and now. Just like we had done when we were fleeing from the wolves, we dropped down on the ground as we reached the perimeters of Hazelwood City, panting.

She said between breaths, "Mommy always tries to teach me some weird magic tricks. Since I was four years old. Today she tried to do the same. I did not feel it was right. And I ran away. She is still finding me."

"Magic tricks?" I asked with childish enthusiasm, "Like abra-ca-dabra?"

She shook her head violently, "No. Tricks much more...magical I feel." She crossed her legs; we were back to breathing normal. "Some I like, most I dislike. I've always run away when she tried to teach me those which I dislike."

"And those which you like?" I pressed.

She beamed with excitement, "Those are wonderful! I know how to read minds, I know spells how to float in the air. I know how to move things without touching them. I can also show you dreams. And oh, I know how to heal that scar on your elbow." She reached for my hand and touched the scratch I had obtained somehow while running through the bushes with my mother during previous times of this night. When she removed her hand, the scar was gone. I touched the place with amazement. "Wow! And?"

She tried to think, "And...Oh! I could worsen that scar if I had wanted to."

I glanced at her warily. She giggled.
In our interesting conversation, we had forgotten about the dangers looming around us, "Wouldn't you show how you read minds? Tell me what I'm thinking now." I encouraged.