Abe Sapien and the Witch

Chapter 23

Chapter twenty-three

She got a bout of hiccups, and Abe helped her to drink some water that Liz fetched for her in a glass, as her hands had been operated on once they had returned and were encased within special casts. A nurse had come along and injected a heavy painkiller through the drip that was attached to her arm, and once that began to kick in, Abe lay her back against the bed with great care, straightening her hair around her head as the odd tear still flowed from defeated eyes.

"Who did this to you, honey?" Liz asked, patting her shoulder and she turned her head towards her, clearly groggy from the painkillers. Abe placed gentle fingers on the exposed skin of her arm, hoping for an answer.

"She says his name is...Laufey," he said, repeating her thoughts to the duo. "He's a powerful Warlock, and the leader of her old coven." Red and Liz looked from each other to Abe, concern in their gaze as he continued, "she says that we caught them unaware tonight, so he couldn't take her back with him. Now that he knows she is alive though, she'll be easy to find as long as she hangs out with the B.P."

"Wait, so the witches know about us?" Liz asked, taking a seat in a plastic chair by the bed. She nodded, her eyes closing for a moment before opening again. "She's really feeling the effects of the medications now; her thoughts are jumbled and difficult to read...Ok...she says that yes, they are aware of us. We've bested enough of them over the years to make them quite sour with us..."

He pulled back, shaking his head a little to clear his thoughts. "She is remembering what he did to her, he broke her fingers one by one just for the fun of it, I...I can't watch." he said, and Red reached over from the plastic chair he was now sat on to squeeze his friends' shoulder. "That's understandable, buddy. Do we have any idea what those witches were all doing there tonight? It's odd, there were so many of them there in an abandoned old house...why?"

"From what I could gather, they were assembling for some sort of ritual, that's why there were dark creatures infesting the area- that house was one of their meeting ranges it seems. He was surprised to see her, from what I can glean it seems he thought her dead. When her mother slit her throat and she disappeared, they all assumed her to be deceased. He killed the mother when he found out."

"Wait, why would he kill her mother, if they all wanted her dead for helping you? I'm confused." Red said, leaning back into his seat. Abe looked back towards her as she gazed up at him with sad, dull eyes. "I'll try again..." he whispered, reconnecting their touch.

"So...ok...He told her that he killed her mother when he found out what she did, he tortured her in front of the coven then killed her. Slowly. Oh..." he said, standing up then facing towards the gap in the curtains, his hands at a loss in front of his chest as he processed whatever information he had learned next.

"What's wrong?" Liz asked, about to rise as well. "He, um...well he was angry with the mother, because he thought she had killed his...fiancée."