Night Witch

Chapter 9

The doll leaned forward. "Processing...his injuries. Too...toxic. More...energy."

"You would say that, wouldn't you," Karina muttered, then sighed. "Take whatever's strongest right now besides my revenge, if you can. I know I'll get my emotions back later no matter what but I need...I just need to get revenge." Her eyes glittered, and her first clenched. "If I survive then it'll be something that they didn't plan. And I won't be under their thumb anymore."

Lilith leaned back, her button eyes glimmering dully in the dim moonlight. "Revenge...is not...an emotion...Karina. You will one day succumb...to the Ancestors...of Sin if you take...such a path."

Karina scoffed, but pressed her fingers against her skirt to keep them from flying out of nervousness. Was the fact that she was a yaga so sinful, especially now that she was acting upon her power? Was her faith in the Ancestors so false?

Yes, whispered a tiny voice in the back of her head. The only Ancestors you believe in are your parents. The only Ancestors they are are of Sin a and evil; according to Olga and Moracia, they aren't really Ancestors.

What do you really believe, Karina?

"I..." Karina squeezed her eyes shut. "How do we even know those Ancestors are evil? All we know is what we are told."

She examined her fingers, which trembled like dry autumn leaves that weren't quite shaken off of branches when winter came. "What do I believe, Lilith?" she asked softly and was met with silence. And then: "Why should I believe in what Moracia taught me?"

Why should I believe anyone but me?

Karina swallowed the hard lump in the back of her throat. She had to decide soon. Every second was a second closer towards death for Hans, her tool of revenge. And that was what she needed. Revenge and survival.

"It's the only way it can be done, isn't it?" she asked calmly, her resolve surprising herself. "Do it."

"I...have a choice?"

The yaga pressed her lips together. "Yes."

Lilith spread her cloth arms wide and a low humming noise emitted from her body. The stitchings that made up her mouth were stretched into a wide smile.

Karina reached her hand out towards the doll. A shock as though she had just plunged her entire person into ice water rippled through her figure as soon as her hand grazed cloth. The sensation began to drain away the more time went by, and Karina felt her shoulders relax and slump in a strange relief. Felt herself breathe easily, felt her chest hollow out like a gutted pumpkin. This was losing power, but it was so...so refreshing. So freeing.

So dizzying.

The Forest of the Dead spun around her, dark trees whirling into abstract images. Cloth girl and human boy turning into monsters in her mind, glowing red before joining the darkness that burdened her thoughts.

Her last thought was a shout in her personal darkness: Revenge and survival.

****

"Hello?" Something shook her shoulders.

"Are you dead?" Poked at her stomach, an action that made her feel oddly giggly. A high pitched sound escaped Karina's lips. "Because if you are I'm not sure what to do."

"I don't really want to bury you," said Hans's voice, "because that's work. Maybe I could eat you, but that's gross. And I don't really want to abandon you either. Or drag you over the Forest of the Dead. So, um, wake up?"