The Vampire's Heart [Sequel to the witch's heart]

chapter 13

"Good morning, El," Gregory says as he rolls over to face her in bed. He looks at her sleeping face and quickly presses a kiss to her forehead. She doesn't react so he gently shakes her. He continues shaking her harder when she still doesn't wake up. His eyes snap up to the side table and a feeling of dread settles over him. The jar is empty.

"Help! Help!" He calls into the house and is grateful when he hears Elspeth's parents scrambling towards her bedroom.

"What's wrong?" Alyth catches sight of the way Elspeth's limbs dangle as Gregory lifts her to a sitting position in his arms and stares almost as if she already knows what happened.

"What happened?" Lyle asks as he draws nearer while Alyth snatches the jar from the night stand. She hands it to Lyle.

"She drank it. She said it was poison to help her get to the...void, I think she called it. I thought I'd convinced her not to but she drank it while I slept." Gregory lays her back down as Lyle runs his fingers over the rims of his glasses.

"She seems to be fine. Her soul is still tethered tightly to her body. She's experienced, she knows what she's doing. She's ok." He concludes.

"And she's grounded," Alyth slams the jar on the night stand and begins pacing. "She will be fine but she's in huge trouble for doing this without telling anyone. Plus, she went in while in a weak state of mind."

"She can handle it," Lyle says. "But I'm concerned about that part too."

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Elspeth sits up in her field, the field of her subconscious. Her breath rises from her mouth, tangible like smoke from a fire in her chest. She looks back at the doorway leading back to her body and sees Gregory and her parents fawning over her. Well, her mother is pacing now and she knows this means she'll be in trouble when her soul returns.

She shakes her head and turns away. She can't think about that right now, she has to focus. She stands, her feet not really touching the ground because the ground doesn't truly exist, at least not in the way people are used to. To the West, at the edge of her golden field lies the forest, the place she knows so well, and beyond that the cliffs where she spends most of her time. Time folds in on itself here, she could practice magic here for eons and return to her body as if no time at all had passed.

But she will not be going to her forest or her cliffs today.

She turns to the north, where the Beyond exists. A place outside of her world that connects to all other beings, but only if one knows how to navigate it.

Her eyes trail over the lush greens of the tranquil forest and the golden wheat that brushes against its edge once more. The two planes exist on the same level but are not quite connected, they do not lead into each other, they are merely beside each other. There is an almost solid space between the two that signals the end of one plane and the beginning of another. She had created them at very different times in her life, causing them to have disconnect, lines drawn between them. The field was her grandparents' and she had spent much time there as a child. The field was the first thing to exist in her little corner of the Void. She had created it unknowingly, because she needed somewhere to be, somewhere to wake up, or else she would float away into the Void. That would not be the worst thing to happen, it's easy to still return to your body even when floating there but its certainly not the most pleasant.

The forest was a newer addition to this existence, made a few years back. She had crafted it carefully by hand this time. Filled it with memories and love. Each tree holds some part of herself: a memory, a keepsake, moments in time. The trees here grow old and die to nourish the new ones when Elspeth is ready to let go of something.

The cliffs are even newer than the forest, having been made just after the comet had passed. She had retreated into herself as she waited for Gregory to find his way back to her. The sea would crash against the cliffs and the wind would howl as she screamed and sobbed into the sky. It made her feel validated, like she was allowed to feel such pain and bitter emotions. The seas are calm now, she cannot hear them from where she stands, and Elspeth is unsure what to make of that. Do they only react to her turmoil over Gregory because that was what they were created for, or do they disagree with her anger?

Elspeth turns her back to the forest and the cliffs. It does not matter. She is not here to deal with her emotions. That will come another day. For now, she focuses on the Beyond and what she must do.

Happy holidays guys! Hope you all have been having a wonderful season celebrating whichever holidays you celebrate and if you don't happen to celebrate any then I hope that you've gotten a break since kost schools are off right now and lots of work places give off days during this time.

Anyway, I wanted to focus in on Elspeth a bit more this time and what her life as a witch is actually like. I also mentioned a bit about that year long time skipping between this book and the last.

I figured it was about a year because it was end of summer/fall I believe in the movie because Tony was in school, probably having just started the year. And the ending of the movie made it seem like quite some time had passed. But it was sunny and summery and Tony wasn't in school despite it being midday (though of course it could have been the weekend) so I figured perhaps a year had passed. Or maybe no time at all had passed but that was just my interpretation of it all. Anyway, this is the beginning of a bit of a solo mission for Elspeth but the other characters won't be gone for long, promise. Some of you probably already saw this coming, that Elspeth would drink the poison anyway, especially with the last lines in the past chapter being a out Elspeth looking at the jar that's still within her reach.

See you next chapter!