Where Fire Meets Ice

Sorceress

Nala stirred and raised her head. She was bound to a pole in the middle of a large old dark concrete room. She managed to moan but was to thirsty tired and hungry for anything else. She hung her head and began crying. This was her fault. All of it. Where was she? How did she ge-

"My dearest, it seems you have woken." A creaky old voice rasped from the shadows. An old woman in a tattered black nun's garb stepped into the light. Her bright red eyes raked Nala up and down. The old woman seemed to emit a dark presence all around her.

Nala felt her throat contract in fear. "Sorceress." she croaked in a horrified whisper. Memories flooded her mind. That time as a child she had strayed from her mother in the Cathedral and had found a hidden door. Behind it was a small dark room. An altar with blood red candles stood in the center. An old nun had been chanting over a bowl. Curious, Nala had toddled over to the altar and reached up toward the candles. She felt herself slipping and as toddlers do when the are about to fall, she grabbed onto the altar cloth just as the nun finished the chant. There had been a blast of light and the bowl crashed down on her head spilling its contents all over her. The nun had screamed in rage and started after Nala. Nala raced to the exit and darted out before the old woman could catch her. She ran until she found her mother, screaming and crying at the top of her lungs. Her mother had rushed her to the hospital and Nala was treated for frostbite. Everyone told her she must have fallen into a freezer or something but no one really knew.
  Life had been fine until she turned ten. Suddenly she was plagued with nightmares of a the dark nun and the hidden room in the cathedral. Her mother had died in a car accident three weeks after the dreams started. Nala had gone to live with her grandmother two states away. But the nightmares persisted. In one of the nightmares she finally screamed at the old woman, "Who are you and why won't you leave me alone? And in reply a shaking snarl had reverberated in her skull I am the Sorceress. You have stolen my blessing from me so you must pay with your life!
  Now she stared stunned at the shadowy figure felt suddenly the sinking feeling of despair. She knew this was the end. After all, no one would be coming after her anytime soon. She went limp as tears slipped down her face and onto the floor.