Puddlebrain

Chapter Forty

"A witch who does not know her own powers," sneered the girl. "You are nothing! Join us and we will be everything!"

"NEVER!" she shouted, standing and turning to face their attacker.

"THEN DIE!"

The girl suddenly shrank down to her original size, the air being pulled from Billy and Puddlebrain's lungs to the fill the void left behind. Puddlebrain staggered but held her place. Her friend wavered, his body shaking as the lack of oxygen served to emphasise the agony shooting up from his ankle. The light seemed to shiver and dip as if it, too, was affected by the change in air pressure.

The flickering increased slightly, then pulled in towards the Multitude. It hung about her like a haze clinging to a river – not quite trapped, but not wishing to move on and leave its host.

"What's happening?" whispered Billy.

Puddlebrain didn't answer. She was entranced. Magic was at play. A dark magic. A power so much greater than her own. It was sure, where hers was untested. Strong, where hers had so long been slumbering within her slight frame. She was just the youngest sister, downtrodden by her siblings. She had yet to find her place in her own family, let alone the world. In the eyes of her family, she was the butt of their jokes. How was she meant to combat whatever this girl – this Multitude – really was?

'Do your witchy things,' Billy had said. It was all she could do, but first, she needed to know what she was facing.

"What are you?"

The girl looked at her.

"We... are... the... Multitude!"

Each word was spaced out evenly, spoken in a calm monotone. Each word drove home a feeling of dread. Each word was a stab in the eye of the witch.

With each word, the girl's body shook and blurred. At first, it looked as if she was moving to the side or back, but then Puddlebrain realised that wasn't the case. The Multitude was... multiplying!

The flickering continued, becoming a pulse of darkness in the light. As it beat a heartbeat's throb, a shadow stepped away from the girl. Another. And another. Continuing on, the cave behind her rapidly filled with murky imitations of the original.

"Meet the sisters who look down on you," she said, a sinister glee coating her words until they dripped menace. "Meet the villagers who fear you and whom you despise."

The voice didn't just come from the girl. Every one of the shadowy versions of herself spoke in unison. Rather than being deafening or echoing, the voices fell flat, devoid of emotion or substance. The words crawled towards the pair, taking on a life of their own, spidering over the stone floor.

"We are once more what we were before, when your father fought to vanquish us. We are what we were before the Grimace stood against us. Yes we are more now. We are all."

"My father? What do you know of my father?"

"We know you are a shadow of him."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Puddlebrain shouted, her fear forgotten, trampled by the anger that was building inside of her. How dare this creature speak of her sisters like that? She knew exactly how she was treated in her home! But it was her home! Her sisters! Her life! And her father? He was her memory alone!

"YOU!"

The shadow entities swarmed together around the girl, morphing into a solid body of black that started to soak up the witch's light. It lunged forward at Puddlebrain, a hundred dusky tentacles stretching out, the night reaching for her.

There was a deep screech of agony and Puddlebrain was pushed back by a pain wracked gnome. Billy, his weight fully on his wrecked ankle, threw himself in the path of the Multitude's onslaught. He vanished into the veil of darkness, his screams drowning in the sea of nothing that engulfed him.

Puddlebrain landed sharply, pain jabbing at her back from the hard floor. She lay still for a second, stunned, then scrambled to her feet.

"NOOOO!"

Thought was something she could not afford. Fear, of the Multitude or of her own abilities, had to be put aside. Her sisters were possibly lost or perhaps trapped inside the creature. She would deal with that soon. She had only one objective. Only a single fixation.

The malicious cloud attacking her friend.

She raised her hands and spread her fingers. She searched for the spell she needed to bring forth her magic. She needed something. Instinct had escaped her and she had to entice it with a spoken word.

The shadows retreated, dropping the limp body of Billy. As Puddlebrain watched, he lifted up and... dissolved. He dissolved! His body faded, turning to smoke, and joined the mass that was swirling around the girl.

A girl who now advanced on the witch.

Puddlebrain could have stepped back. She might have run. She did neither.

She knew the word. A name.

"Billy."

She brought her hands together, clapping them loudly. Light, brighter than that which had filled the cave and been diminished by the Multitude, exploded from between her fingers. It surged outwards, a blinding radiance that wrapped around the witch with a whirlpool of luminosity.

The Multitude reacted quickly, drawing the shadows into itself and hurling forwards.

Light and dark collided. Witch and creature. One and everyone.

Puddlebrain kept the image of her fallen friend at the forefront of her mind. She kept her hands clasped, imagining it was her hand holding his. She clung on to the hope that he was trapped and not dead. And she used that hope as a beacon.

She spoke the word again. Louder this time. With heart and meaning and rage.

"Billy!"

The vortex around her flared even more brightly. It became hot, the light taking on a burning intensity as it spun. It was the Multitude's turn to scream. Whether in anger or pain, Puddlebrain didn't know and couldn't care. She could feel it slipping through the barriers she was conjuring. It slid tendrils into the minutest of cracks in her defences, tendrils that seemed to lick her skin in taunting hatred. She recoiled, wavering slightly but, when she felt the Multitude attempt to grip her harder, she fought back.

"BILLY!"

There was a blast of searing heat and Puddlebrain felt as if something had reached inside her and ripped her guts out through her throat. She gagged, but held her resolve. She squeezed her hands tighter, ducked her head and clenched her teeth.

The Multitude quivered violently, its vibrations shaking the witch's jaw. There was an abrupt lull, a pause in the chaos, and the churning darkness was ripped from Puddlebrain's maelstrom. She released her hands and the whirling spread, a tsunami of radiance washing over everything. The girl fell to the floor, her arm raised over her head in defence.

"Don't hurt m..."

Her voice was, once more, that of a young girl. Innocent. Plaintive. Terrified.

She didn't finish her sentence. The tidal wave hit her and took her body with it, the girl shattering into innumerable tiny pieces and being washed away.

Puddlebrain collapsed on her knees. Her face was buried in her hands as she sobbed.

"Billy..."

"What?"