Night Witch

Chapter 28

When Karina woke up, the only thing she could smell were ashes.

It had been an uncomfortable night; finding a way to rest her shoulder had been near impossible. As a result, her hours of sleep were few and far between--the fact of which was emphasized by how long laundry had taken. Even with Lilith helping her, the work had taken forever.

She groaned and sat up, hissing in a breath as pain rippled through her body in shock waves. She really needed to treat this wound, and soon.

"Get up, girl."

Baba Yaga. Karina scrambled up as quick as she could, hurrying to her feet.

"You smell like soot." The woman, short as she was, managed to reach up and take a chunk of burnt wood from out of Karina's hair. "And you're dressed in it. Get washed. There's a trough of water for you outside to get clean in." Baba Yaga threw the wood back in the hearth. "Get to it, girl."

Karina walked outside, stumbling like a newborn deer. The water was cold and the bark that hadn't been scraped off of the inside of the trough was rough against her fingers. Still, Karina splashed herself with the liquid and ran wet fingers through her hair. It felt good. She hadn't washed in ages, and even though she didn't have soap, this was bliss.

Once done washing, Karina cupped her hands together and dipped them in the water to drink. It had an undertaste of earth, of wood.

It tasted good. It tasted real.

She took a few luxurious gulps of water before wiping her mouth on her arm and hurrying back inside. If there was one thing life at Olga's taught her, it was to always be quick. Any time she wasn't, she'd get a sharp pinch or some impossible task to do.

Baba Yaga was standing in the doorway. "You're to check and see if each of the skull lights is on, on the fence. Then come back to the house."

Karina frowned. The instructions were vague enough, but she was used to that; it was more the question of what a skull light was that gnawed at her. She opened her lips to ask as Baba Yaga turned away. "Uh--"

Baba Yaga looked back over her hunched shoulder, her face made of gray hairs and one too-bright eye. "Don't ask any questions, Vasilisa. Questions don't lead to good answers around these parts."

She slammed the door and was gone.

Karina sighed, rubbing her fingers together. Skull lights. They had to be around here somewhere...

She scanned her surroundings, trying to find them. There was the house, and then there was the trough, and then that yellowed fence with the balls of blue light over it--

Oh.

Karina clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the scream. The skull lights were literal skulls, emanating blue light from the heads.

And that meant...the fence was no unknown material at all. It was bones.

It's not that bad, Karina.

But it was. Each head another nightmare, another day without her parents. Each skull a fire that burned to bright yet not enough at all.

She could see her parents' faces on them. One after another, a different expression--laughter. Anger. Sadness. And the looks they both had as they died. Her lips pressed together, like a stopper on a bottle of emotions. She would be fine. They would be fine. Only--

There was that one time, in the Forest, that Vasilisa had taught Karina to slide over ice in shoes. Karina had been too small and too clumsy to be able to do it well, but Vasilisa had looked more graceful than a czarina in that moment. Vasilisa had spun around on that frozen stream, her boots making no noise on the ice.

And then there was the time that time Archibald had taught her to skip stones on that same stream in the warmer seasons. He had wrapped his arm around hers as, together, they flicked it into the pond. He told her that he used to do this to pass the time on his travels when he was younger. She'd lived those stories.

And then, the time that Vasilisa had cried when a baby had died after a birth. It had been early in the morning when Vasilisa had come home. "The baby didn't live," her mother had said, right before breaking down. It had been a quiet day in the Hedge household.

And finally, the time Archibald had only been a corpse on a string, hanging from a noose of his own invention. And that time that, at the ripe age of eight, she felt more alone than she'd ever been, even with a sea of people around her.

She was drowning then, and she was drowning now--just in different things.

She went around the perimeter, reliving every moment. Checking the lights.

All but one was lit.

She rubbed her fingers together. This was so wrong. Not just these horrible memories, but the fence itself. She was torn between wailing and screaming and crying, one emotion shaking her body after another. She held onto the bone fence to support herself, gripping it with white-knuckled hands. How many people lost their lives to this fence? How many mothers had been killed, how many best friends lost? How many people had suffered to protect this horrible yaga?

You need her, Karina. You need her you need her you need her NYX SAID.

She hated this life. Why did everything have to be an open wound for her? Why did people do bad things, why did people die?

Why did everything hurt?

"Lilith," she whispered, a tear tracing down her cheek. "Take my emotions away."

The feeling was bittersweet, the memories fading with the pain. This was what it felt like to shatter one million times and then another, what it felt like to lose her mind. She missed everything and nothing at all, missed her mother's smile and Hans's face.

No. Not Hans. Not the killer.

Her blood turned to ice. He was a representation of everything gone wrong, of everything that should but shouldn't be. He was one of the reasons she was at Baba Yaga's; since he didn't want her to go, and his intentions were evil, she was here. It wasn't just because of Nyx. It was because of everything that Hans wanted her to do, too.

She steeled herself, walked to the door and knocked on it. The door swung open almost instantly. "Well, girl?" Baba Yaga asked, looking somewhat more cheery. "How many are lit?"

"All but one." Her voice felt cold and unnatural. It was too calm to be hers, but too low to be anyone else's. "The bones--where."

"Oh." Baba Yaga waved her cracked hand in front of her face. "That's a story for another time, those bones. And thank you for the lights check. I hate doing that. So tedious." The crone put a clawlike hand on Karina's shoulder and steered her into the house. "Now come with me."

The door slammed behind them.

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the late update; been swamped lately! But what did you think of this chapter? Please comment your thoughts, and don't forget to vote if you enjoyed!