The True Story Of The Original Witch

Chapter 14: Love Fades

I backed away from the window, almost stumbling, as I felt my eyes glaze over with a strange sensation... one I could only described as "red." I found myself laughing as I turned back to the room, everyone seeing me in all my glory.

"I've killed your fairy godmother, princess. MY fairy godmother. My best friend. I killed her!" My laughter grew louder.

My eyes fell onto Joseph, who was slowly backing away, looking a little scared. Connor and Briar Rose bad leaned away too, Connor guarding her protectively. I looked back to Joseph for help.

"What? Is this really the worst thing I've done? I mean, I understand why those two might be afraid, but you, Joseph?" I approached him and he backed away. I halted. "Joseph, what is going on with you? You suggested killing the princess, but you draw the line at Clara?"

"Elise, your eyes." He whispered, eyes still wide with terror.

I turned back to the couple, and they both looked away from me. Briar Rose almost looked at me with pity. She pointed to the bedside table. "A mirror," she said.

To see her, the girl who I had just cursed, feeling pity for me, I ran to the bedside table and opened the drawer. A small silver hand mirror was inside. I picked it up and looked into it. Upon seeing my reflection, I dropped the mirror with a gasp. It shattered on the floor, but the glass remained tightly wedged within the frame, not a single shard leaving the mirror.

I fell to the ground, landing on my knees, my ungloved hands pressed against my face. My eyes... what happened to my eyes?

I picked up the mirror once again, looking back into it, staring at my reflection through the cracked glass.

My eyes were a deep, brilliant red. I raised a finger just under my eye and pulled down, making my eyes appear wider. The once deep brown color had disappeared. The red veins in my eyes had turned pitch black, and they seemed to be spreading through, transforming the whites of my eyes to blackness. It was still and frozen for now, but I knew that if I allowed the darkness to spread within my mind any further, it black veins would consume the whites of my eyes.

I chuckled at that thought. As if I would try and stop it at this rate. Besides, who needs light when I have all this power to myself? The darkness inside me, my mind tainted with it's infectious spread.

I stood back up, still laughing, and turned to Joseph. I didn't even turn my body. Only my head, my neck bent at what most definitely looked like a painful, awkward angle. But it didn't hurt at all. The darkness numbed me.

Of course. Clara could never have given me some of her light, even if I did come to love her. The only way to cover the pain in my heart was to mask it with the numbing sensation of darkness. And seeing as how I had just killed the originator of light magic, the carrier of the goddess Estrella's powers herself, I had just drenched my heart in darkness.

And it was rapturous.

"Joseph, I know you could get past my hands, but..." I finally turned my full body towards him. "Can you still love this?"

He was frozen. Silent. I tried to approach him, but he only stumbled backwards, falling onto the ground.

I cocked my head to the side. "What's wrong, Joseph? Don't you still love me? I thought the darkness was what bound our love so tightly," I said. "Or is this too much for you?" My mouth curved into a sly smile.

Joseph stuttered out a series of confused responses, before he finally settled on the worst. "Guards!"

Connor finally remembered himself and, despite his blindness, pulled out his sword and pointed it in my general direction, his eyebrows curled downwards in an angry glare. "You're betraying me?" I asked.

Joseph only looked away. I grabbed his face. "Look at me! Look into my eyes! Why don't you love me anymore! You loved my darkness. What happened?!" He was pressed up against the door at this rate, but I wouldn't let go of his face. "Tell me, why don't you love me anymore?!"

I could tell that the blackness in my eyes had spread almost entirely. At this rate, the white would be no more than a thin little ring around my now-red iris. In an angry, desperate attempt to make him remember that love, I pulled him in and kissed him.

"Let him... go!" I suddenly felt a tug on my back, causing me to stumble away from him. Briar Rose was standing above me, and I spotted Connor holding onto the bedpost for dear life, waving his arm around, trying to locate her. I stood back up, and still screaming, shoved her back. She fell into Connor's arms, and he held her tightly. He would never let her go, would he?

I looked back towards Joseph, still backed away from me. "I thought... I thought darkness... the evil... I thought you loved it. That's what made you love me, right?"

He finally gave me some sort of answer, but not the kind I wanted. He just... looked away. My hands balled into fists, turning back into smoldering flames. "Why did you choose me? Why does anyone choose the people they love?" I pointed back to Briar Rose and Connor. "Why did you two fall in love? What do you two have that makes your love stronger than ours?!"

I shook my head slowly, my anguished tears turning to a smile, though the tears still refused to hide. "What? Light? True love? What makes light more powerful than darkness? Why does your damn light bind you so tightly, when our darkness can shatter in a single moment? I have more power in my little finger than your 'love' could ever manifest. Even if it is evil."

No one spoke. Briar Rose still had that look of pity on her face. I wanted to scratch it off, see the skull underneath. Don't you dare look at me with such pity, I thought.

Do you know how powerful I am? I could destroy you, princess. I could destroy you. I can destroy you, I will destroy you, "I will destroy you, I will destroy you, I will destroy you, I will-" My hands went to my mouth. I hadn't even noticed my thoughts had become words. Connor was holding her tighter, and she was finally looking away in fear.

That made me feel better. To see her scared. Seeing everyone scared. Of me, of my power. It felt...

Amazing.

My laughter grew louder. I had a feeling that that little white ring around my irises was growing thinner by the second. Was it gone? I almost hoped so. I quickly picked up Clara's dropped wand, and held it high above my head.

"I will show you what power I have!" My laughter had turned wild, a cackling mess of each breath crashing against itself in an almost shattered fashion. "Let's see what power light has in the hands of the very keeper of darkness itself!" With a final scream, I raised it over my knee, snapping it in two.