A Heart in Flames #2 (Howl's Moving Castle fanfiction)

Chapter 37: Creature of Defiance

There was a familiar emptiness inside. Where his heart used to be - where it should have been - simply became a hollow space of nothingness. Even as he lay on the ground unconscious, he could still feel the barren void that desired a lively, beating heart.

It was a different feeling, however, than when he willingly handed his heart over to Calcifer - Suliman had more sinister motives than his fire demon.

"Howl!" Kenta tried breaking through his electric prison, though his bindings consisted of more power than he was able to manipulate. Electricity was not under his jurisdiction, and Suliman was aware of that. Due to her extensive knowledge of magic and her former students, she was able to hold Kenta and Xarx as prisoners, command the mind of a doctor to keep Sophie captive, and distort the goodness in Howl's heart to complete a prolonged vengeance.

He turned to Xarx. "Can't you break these electric chains?"

"Electricity is only a minor part of light," Xarx explained, "Suliman has too much influence on the restraints she created for me to take control."

Kenta growled. The only person with some capability of destroying these bindings was Sophie. Her electrokinesis was already quite powerful, and she only had moments left before she would no longer wield such magic. Her child would inherit her abilities - or form its own - and any trace of magic would be stripped from her.

Yet she was the only one who could free them.

"We're at ten centimeters. It's time." Sophie widened her eyes as she lifted her head to see the doctor. His indifferent focus was only on fulfilling his duty, working step-by-step as a doctor would during childbirth. He had no understanding of anything other than the task Suliman assigned. His equipment was orderly, his process was organized and standard - yet he couldn't see beyond. He was a puppet on a string.

She turned to everyone in the room, hoping for a miracle to come in and stop this moment. She wanted to hit pause and go back to their small cottage in the middle of a farm town; she wanted to go back to the flower shop where she knew Lettie was only a trolley ride away; she wanted to go back to the moment she met Howl.

She wanted to go to any moment except for the one she was in right now.

"You need to start pushing."

"No!" Sophie screamed through the pain, but she couldn't hold back any longer. This baby was coming whether she was ready or not.

"Sophie." She turned to Kenta, the distress in his eyes staring at her like daggers. He tried breaking free, but Suliman would not allow him. "You must. Please, for your child's sake."

She thought of every horrible possibility, all of them beginning with Suliman completing what she had started years ago. She held Howl's precious heart with the greediest of looks, the wickedest of hearts, and the most inhumane soul a person could have. She was prepared to steal his heart and their baby. She was prepared to rip away every beautiful thing in their lives without a second glance. Allowing herself to give birth meant they were out of time; it meant Suliman had succeeded.

But as hazy as the future was and knowing nothing of what was to come from this, Sophie knew one thing - she wanted to give her child every opportunity.

Starting with its first breath.

Suliman stared at the scene before her. Everything was going according to plan, her plan. She calculated every moment, every event that led to this one in which she would receive the greatest power of all time. She was a fearsome sorceress, she knew, but now she would be nearly unstoppable. A powerful heart and a powerful child - they would reap all that they had sown, and she would be gifted for her patience and diligence to conceive such an intricate plan of demise.