AWAKEN ; benny weir [2]

four

"What do you mean she's awake?"

"I saw Ellie in that fog like what I saw in your head," Ethan continued, pointing a little frantically at Benny. "She was talking to me and knew what was going on, but—!"

Ethan slammed the breaks on his continuation, wondering if he should keep explaining what he experienced in front of Benny. 
"But, what?" Sarah questioned, pushing Ethan's explanation.
"S-She wanted me to leave," he related. "Ellie kept saying that 'he' was coming and that I needed to get out of there."

Benny and Sarah shared confused glances to one another, until Benny spotted the look on his grandmother's face. Looking down upon her, Ms. Weir wore a look of disbelief and sorrow as she gazed at the witch.
"Grandma, what's that face for?"

"I've seen this kind of sorcery before," she grievously told the teenagers. "I knew Stern used black magic, but... I wouldn't think he would ever stoop this low."

"How low did he stoop, Evelyn?" Sarah regrettably asked.
"Kids, Stern has trapped Ellie in her own mind," Ms. Weir stated.

A moment of silence filled the room. Ethan and Sarah glanced to one another at a loss for words, while Benny's throat fumed. He wanted to scream. It should've been him.

"Why would he only trap Ellie?" Ethan asked, breaking the silence that could only sit for so long. "Why wouldn't he just trap all of us? We're in his way enough—!"

"—He wants her bracelet," Benny dismally informed.

"But, he already has the Lucifractor," Sarah countered. "He shouldn't need Ellie's bracelet."

"Well, someone killed her mom for it, so why wouldn't he want it?" Benny blurted.
Ethan sighed at Benny's change in attitude. His usual happy-go-lucky, optimist personality had thrown itself out the door. Seeing his friend like this was eye-opening, as Ethan finally realized how much Benny depended on Ellie to keep him grounded.

"Stern may be using Ellie to get to the bracelet," Ms. Weir offered. "That is, if he didn't steal it from the explosion."

"You said she knows what's happening, right?" Sarah asked Ethan, who nodded in response. "What if we asked Ellie a couple questions, Ethan can go back in her head, and she could answer them through Ethan? Simple."

"Yeah, except it's not," Benny stopped, impatiently picking at the calluses on his fingers. "Black magic can't be knocked off by a little spell or by using Ethan. We would have to use a huge amount of power to even see what's going on."

"...I might have an idea," Ms. Weir said, peering to her grandson.

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Ellie trembled as she sat on what felt like the ground. The surrounding wasteland of white fog felt suffocating as she bounced her knees up and down, anxious and wary at the unsettling space. She wanted to wake up from this hell.

"He's not going to come back, is he?" a damned voice questioned from the mist.
Ellie angrily looked up from her knees to face the evil that had tortured her for days: Stern. 

"I-I don't even know how Ethan got in here," Ellie gulped to the malefactor standing before her. "...Please, just let me wake up. I-I won't tell Ms. Weir."

"We've talked about this, Prince," Stern condescended, shaking his head in disappointment. "You aren't leaving this trance until you tell me where to find the bracelet." 

"I swear to God, it flew off my wrist during the explosion—!"
"—BULLSHIT!"
Stern's voice boomed around Ellie's brain, causing her to instinctively shield her ears in a panic. It felt like she was surrounded by a thousand bells alarming her of danger.