The Witching Hour (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 11

"Sibyl's missing!" I groaned. I stomped past Rose and opened the door. "Marak, track Sibyl's scent as far as you can," I growled. "Do it quickly; it's fading."

I heard a snort as acknowledgement. I slammed the door shut and rubbed my eyes. She's gone, she's gone, she's gone. What will Lux say? Will I truly have to be bound by him?

Both Allen and Shadow stared at me curiously. Allen frowned. "Why would you care?"

I smacked my forehead in my frustration. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

"What wasn't supposed to happen?" Shadow asked.

"No one was supposed to disappear!" I exclaimed. I pinched my cheeks. "We weren't even gone for that long...."

"Seems as though it was long enough," Shadow mused.

Allen gripped his hair. "What are we supposed to do, Faeryn? She's gone. Who would even want to take her?"

I shrugged, starting to calm down. Just don't think about it too much. "There's not much we can do. Marak is following her scent as we speak. He might be able to find her, but don't count on it. Whoever took her most likely did it because of me, so he would know to hide her scent."

He didn't look pleased by my answer. He stormed off. I shook my head and sighed. "All right, Rose, it's getting late. What do you do to get ready for bed?"

"I have to take a bath tonight," she croaked. "Sibyl always helps me."

I bit my lip. "Um, what does she do to help you out? I can take care of you tonight."

Rose nodded and led me to a separate room. It looked like a bathroom. There was a tub at the far end of the room. "We have to fill it up with hot water," Rose mumbled.

I lit several candles in the room, banishing the dark. "Okay, I'll take care of that. If she uses soap at all, can you get that out?"

She nodded, and I found a large bucket for carrying in water. I breathed in deeply. I'll have to carry it in from the well outside.

I quickly went outside. There was a well in the middle of the street. Everyone probably used it. There was another girl there already. She appeared to be around my age.

I stopped at the well, watching her pull up her bucket. She glanced at me. She had dark brown hair with lightly tan skin. Her chocolate eyes met mine. She gave me a small smile. "Hello."

I nodded to her. "Hello."

"What's your name?" she asked. She took her bucket and backed up to give me room. "I haven't seen you before."

"Faeryn," I replied. I hooked the bucket on to the rope and let it drop to the bottom. "I came a few days ago. I left for a day, and now I'm back. What's yours?"

"Annabel," she said warmly. "Who are you with?"

I motioned with my head to Allen's house. "Allen, Sibyl, and Rose."

Annabel's mouthed opened slightly. "Oh, I heard that Allen recently disappeared."

I shook my head. "No, we went somewhere together. We just returned a little while ago, but if you see Sibyl, tell her that she needs to come back."

She frowned as she looked at the house. "Sibyl? She's not here?"

"Nope," I said. I was drawing the bucket back up. "Heard that she went missing sometime this morning." I paused. "Don't talk to everyone about it though. Just keep that to yourself. I don't want everyone to panic and ask questions."