Witch Hunt #Wattys2018

Chapter 15

The next two days followed in a similar pattern. We had breakfast. Aliza, Seraphina and I would do our chores and after lunch one of them would have guard duty, so the other two of us would end up throwing knives.

Three days after my ceremony the sky was covered with clouds.

"I don't think it will rain until this afternoon." Aliza mused as we walked to the dining hall that morning.

"You've been wrong before." I teased. I had been correct about when the snow came, not until three weeks after we had, had our argument.

Aliza glared at me, "That was the only time I've ever been wrong!" She argued

"What about when we were children?" Eliana provided, "You thought it would rain, and it didn't."

"I was a child! That hardly counts." Aliza defended as the three of us laughed.

We had just stepped in the door when I caught sight of Michael. He had avoided me in the time between our argument and then, that being the first time I had seen him since.

"I'll meet you at the table in just a moment." I excused myself, "I need to have a word with Michael."

I stomped to the table where he and his cabin mates were eating.

"Good morning." I greeted, startling Michael

"Rose!" He gasped, "I didn't think you wanted to talk to me."

"I want to know why." I simply put, glancing at his cabin mates who looked very confused.

Michael took me aside and asked, "Why what?"

"You know what." I hissed, "Why can't I have an assignment!"

"I already told you why." He told me

"That can't be the only reason." I snapped

"Rose," he said reaching for my hand, which I pulled away, "that's why." He sighed
"What do you mean?"

"Rose!" He groaned, "You can't stand to let a man touch you! If I let you go with a group, there will be men in it! If I send you, you would be a danger to yourself and your group!"

I gasped. I could feel the tears welling up behind my eyes, but I refused to let it show. I opened my mouth to tell him how he was wrong. Instead of my response, screams were heard. Screams from outside of the dining hall.

All at once the talking stopped. Michael and I made eye contact, and I knew we, along with everyone else, were thinking the same thing.

I pulled my knife out of my boot, and we ran for the door.

The chaos outside was like nothing I had ever seen. Witches and Hunters alike ran rampant. A girl laid on the bottom of the steps, with a stick stuck in her stomach. Her blood stained the stone steps.

I gripped my knife, and ran down the stairs, almost tripping as I did so. A man, looking so starved I was surprised he could stand, reached for me. I swung my knife, slicing his hand. I reached to girl and listened to her breath. Her shallow breathing flooding me with relief. With some struggle, I was able to pick her up. She whimpered slightly at the sudden movement.

I looked at the nurse house and all the ground that stood between me and it. I then looked at the dying girl in my arms. I clenched my jaw, and broke into a run. The space between me and the house became smaller and smaller until, a witch tackled me.

The girl fell out of my arms and I hit the ground. The witch pulled me up and smiled wickedly. She took the pendant of Michael's necklace in her hand, and yanked it off of my neck.

"How-" I gasped only to be cut off

"You think I wouldn't recognize my own magic?" She taunted

My brain searched for an answer as to what this could mean, and it took me far too long realize.

"You- you're Michael and Seraphina's mother?" I gasped

"Where are my children?" She hissed, pulling my up to her face

I balled my fists, "Somewhere here, fighting against your side." I hissed back

She screamed and threw me to the ground. Her bare foot kicked me in the stomach. I could feel my knife in my boot where I had put it when I picked the girl up. I pulled my knees to my chest, giving her the impression I was shielding myself. I slipped my hand in my boot and gripped the handle. I pulled it out quickly, and threw it. I hit her knee, causing her to fall to the ground. I scrambled to my feet and pulled the knife out of the wound. I raised my knife, prepared to kill her, but my arms wouldn't lower. I no longer saw her. I saw Thomas. I froze unable to do anything.

Michael and Seraphina's mother saw this, and almost took her shot. She was able to wrestle the knife out of my hand. She stood above me and raised it to kill me, but it never reached me. The knife plunged into Eliana, who had stepped in front of it.

I let out a scream that burned my throat. When she fell I held her in my arms. She stared up at me, her face twisted in pain. The hole in her chest leaked blood, that blossomed across her chest. Michael was at her side almost immediately. As he cradled her, I looked up at his mother who stared at her son.

An inhuman like scream left my lips as I rammed my body into hers. She hit the ground with such force, that she didn't get up. Her eyes were shut, but the movement of her chest told me she was alive.

I took my knife out of her hand, and raised it to killed her, when Michael took it from me. His tear stained eyes told me all I needed to know. She was is kill. I wouldn't take it from him. I stepped aside and watched as he plunged the knife into her chest.

Behind us, Aliza had arrived at her sister's side. Her tears ran down her face as she sobbed. Though she wasn't dead yet we knew. We knew there was nothing that could be done for her. The hole was to deep. The puddle of blood to large. Aliza held one hand, and Michael held the other. The both whispered to her how much they loved her. I was unable to give any parting words. What could I say to the girl that had traded her life for mine? No amount of thank yous would suffice. I wouldn't mean any of them. She didn't deserve the fate she was given. Instead I watched in silence as my friends pain filled face silently lost all emotion. Her brown eyes lost the light they once held.

Thought the battle was still going on around us, none of us had any fight left. I knew that if Mira took me, I wouldn't be able to defend myself.

Eliana's blood stained my hands. It stained my dress. It stained the ground. Everywhere I looked there was blood. The girl had bled out after Michael's mother had attacked me. Michael's mother's blood covered the grass.

When a man grabbed my shoulder, I was barely aware of it. I only noticed the cut on his hand that bled into my shoulder. Two other men hit Michael and Aliza in the head with two rocks. They crumbled onto the ground next to Eliana. They looked just as lifeless.

The man tossed me into a carriage, and inside smiling at me the woman behind all the death.

Mira Alden.