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ELSA MARIA

The Shadow Witch

The witch of shadow with a self-righteous nature. She continually prays for all of creation and drags all life equally into her shadow without breaking her posture. One hoping to defeat her must know the blackest anguish.

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I was a young lady at the age of 12 who lived before the start of World War II. I lived in a cold, quiet mountain town that many Jewish people resided in.

Each day at our school, we would do normal school things. Read pages from our dusty textbooks, or recite our multiplication tables. Most of it was peaceful, at least for me. There was a young boy at our school who was the least-liked in our classroom. He was made fun of for liking to read instead of play outside, and from being quiet instead of being wild and rambunctious like the other boys.

Some days, after school, he would be sitting in a tree, crying, and I wanted to end it. I wanted to make him happy, and end his suffering. I wanted to end the aching of his emotions.

One day, during the afternoon, I walked home from school. On the way, I heard a rustling in the bushes, and so I went to go and check it out. I found an injured white fairy, one with a fluffy tail and pink, fluffy ears. I picked up the delicate body and carried it back home with me. Eventually, the fairy woke up and said to me:

"Hey there! Thank you for saving me, I might have died. My name is Kyuubey, and I am a messenger of magic."

A messenger of magic...

"If you can accept the fate of fighting witches, the corruption of the world, then I'd be glad to grant you any wish."

Any wish? I thought of my classmate, and thought of the pain caused by his Jewish classmates. What's the best way to get rid of pain? To kill it.

"I wish that every Jewish person would suffer from the same pain that he faces everyday."

The next day, at school, we received news about Hitler killing Jewish people, and that he would be a growing threat to all Jews. Since our town mostly consisted of Jewish townspeople, our safest bet was to stay quiet and remain neutral in the war. However, the next few days, school was canceled. The same thing happened for days, weeks, months, even years.

The war continued. We even heard that millions of people were dying, we remained as a quiet, old mountain town. We struggled to stay hidden from the rest of Europe, and no person was able to leave or enter the town.

But then, the most despairing event of my life happened. You could hear the troops marching into our town, the fires beginning to crackle and burn. People began to panic, and most innocent men and women were shot on sight. Children were crying, screaming, and crouching in their houses. Adults were scrambling across the streets to find a safe hiding place, but most of them were found and either arrested or shot. I, however, was still at the school cleaning the desks, when I heard screaming outside. I dashed to the entrance to see who it was, and found my classmate laying there, suffering from the wound in her stomach. I rush over to her and carry her inside the small building, telling her it would be alright. Right when I finish my sentence, she just stares at me and dies in my arms. A girl I knew just goes limp, in my bloody arms. Instead of mourning for her, I just leave the building, anxious to escape the trauma inside the building.

I dash towards the church, the safest place I could ever think of at that moment. As I scramble to the old building, and occasionally trip and fall, I see the young boy from school also trying to reach safety. I grab his hand and continue to run towards the church. We pant as the church was right in front of our eyes, but a Nazi soldier approached us and aimed his pistol at us. I panic and try to run, but the boy, the boy I made a wish for, the boy I actually loved.. Just falls. Hard, onto the ground. Why? Because the Nazi shot him. Shot, with a pool of blood forming around him. I scream, and the Nazi points his pistol at me as well, and I try to dodge, but the bullet finds it's way to my delicate elbow. I wince in pain, but I manage to carry him into the church.

I place his body on the smooth flooring of the building. The blood was streaming from his stomach, and he didn't have much longer to live...

I cry. I just cry, begging for him to live, a task impossible for him. I didn't even know his name, but right there, while he was laying in his own blood, I named him Sebastian.

Sebastian.

Ah, what a nice name for a simple boy like him...

However, he just dies, in front of my very eyes. It takes me a long time to process this.

Everyone in my town was dead, injured, or in the process of a painful death.

My crush and classmate died in front my very eyes.

My arm was in sheer pain.

And...

This was all my fault.

I walk up to the front of the church, and drop onto my knees. Tears well into my eyes. My wish... I didn't want it to turn out like this... If only I didn't save Kyuubey... If only I hadn't made such a cruel wish...

Then pain hit me in the face, so very hard... It was all my fault millions of innocent Jews died, it was my fault he died, it was my fault this whole war between many countries even started.

Soon I could smell smoke. Smoke from the fires that began to destroy the building. Smoldering, hot flames that crawled closer and closer to me. Instead of leaving and exiting a building, I kneel down infront of the large Star Of David, and pray.

Pray for salvation, for this terrible nightmare to just end.

To see the luminous, white light of peace once more.

I let my last tear drip from my cheeks and let all the pain burn away from my body.

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