Witch Hunt #Wattys2018

Chapter 17

"Eris?" My voice cracked as I looked at my long dead sister

"I take it this isn't what you expected?" She asked, smiling and stepping towards me.

"No." I said, backing away, hitting the wall, "No! You're- You can't be a witch!" I yelled

"Now Rose," She tsked, "That's not very nice."

Thoughts swarmed around my head of how this couldn't, and how it was real. Then I realized what it meant, her being here.

"You're going to kill them." I gasped

Eris shrugged, "Yes. I am."

"Your own family?" I asked, "Eris," I pleaded, stepping towards her, "don't."

"Family?" She growled, "After my "death" what did they do? Have another daughter! They replaced me!" She yelled at me

"Jane is your sister!" I argued

"THAT IS NO SISTER OF MINE!" She screeched, "THAT IS A REPLACEMENT! THEY WANTED ANOTHER TO PROVE THEY WEREN'T BAD PARENTS!"

"No." My father whispered, looking up at her. Eris snapped her head towards him. "We didn't want to replace you." He said, Eris scoffed, "Please Eris." He begged, "Don't do this."

Eris waved her hand. In it a black knife appeared. "I have my orders." She said. In one swift move her knife flew through the air and landed in my father's throat.

My mother screamed and jumped away from his body. It fell to the ground, and his blood poured out onto the wooden floor. I screamed, "How could you? He was your father!"

"He was no father of mine!" She yelled summoning another knife, "And she's no mother of mine!" She pointed the knife at my mother.

In a sudden burst of bravery I ran myself into my sister. I knocked her to the floor, her knife clattered as it fell out of her hand. "How dare you!" She gasped.

"From what I understand," I said holder her bony hands down, "You earned this punishment!"

Her brown eyes filled with fury when I threw her words back at her. "Get out of here!" I yelled at my mother.

"Fighting this is worthless!" Eris sneered, "Mira will still kill you!"

The screams outside of the house grew louder. From the corner of my eye I saw fire.

"You're my sister!" I screamed at her, "I cried myself to sleep after I thought you died! Why do you want me dead so badly?"

She scoffed, "I didn't want to stay with Mira at first. I missed you. I missed our father and mother. I missed my husband! Then Mira how none of you really cared for me!" She hissed. "He and our mother had that other child! My husband remarried! You didn't even attend my funeral!"

"Father wouldn't let me go!" I cried, "I begged and begged to go, but he wouldn't let me!"

"You had no problem breaking his rules to see Thomas!" She spat

I gasped, my grip loosening on her wrists. She didn't miss her chance and threw me off of her, then tackled me, "I want to kill you!" She hissed. "But that honor is Mira's alone!" She summoned another black knife, "Thankfully for me, she said nothing against hurting you." She jammed her knife in my arm, just under my shoulder. I let out a scream as the blade cut through my skin.

Getting up and leaving me on the floor, she walked to the door. "Mira will be back soon," she said, "and she's allowed me watch your death. She's promised a slow, and painful one."

I pushed myself to my feet, the knife stuck in my arm burning with every movement. I held the handle and pulled the blade out, holding back my scream as I did so. The blade itself was small. Just as long as my finger, but it was a knife, and that was all I needed.

I held the knife in the hand of my uninjured arm, ready to throw when Eris gasped. She looked at me, then at whatever was outside. She grit her teeth, "Don't leave." She then slammed the wooden door shut leaving me alone in the house.

I tried the door, but Eris wasn't foolish. She had placed something outside of the door blocking me in. A smile formed on my lips, so she thought. I ran up the stairs, into the room I had slept in for most of my life. Inside, nothing had changed. The only difference being the made bed. When I had been caught my mother had obviously made it, unable to leave anything untidy. I threw open the chest that held all of my old dresses, and tore the sleeve off of one.

In my time with the Witch Hunters I hadn't learned a lot of medical things, but I had learned basics. Like how to make a bandage.

I tied the sleeve around my arm, and then threw open the window. I looked down at the ground. After a deep breath, I jumped. After I landed I let out a groan. My arm screamed at me in pain. I clutch my wound with one hand and held the knife with the other.

At first I couldn't tell what it was that Eris was so upset by, until I rounded the corner of the house.