Sweetwater Redemption

Chapter 1: The Lost Garden

"Wait!" Cheryl shouted at Toni's back as she walked away. "Where are you going, and why won't you talk to me about this?"

Toni only grumbled and continued to walk away. Chery asked her the same question again, this time silently.

"You sound like a crazy person. Why wouldn't I walk away?" Toni finally responded.

"After all you've seen, and after knowing me, how could you possibly think there aren't witches in this world?"

Toni spun around and Cheryl's heart ached at the sight of her disheveled appearance.

An angry red, and jagged, scar ran up her forearm. Other cuts and bruises littered her entire body, with her tattered clothes hanging off of her in pieces. She looked exhausted, and frail. Cheryl couldn't help but feel guilty, knowing her thirst was the main reason Toni was in such a state. Regardless, it wasn't the best time to push Toni on the topic.

"I am fully prepared to believe there are witches in the world." Toni huffed, "I'm just not one of them. I'm too tired to talk about this right now. I just can't Cheryl."

"Okay" Cheryl nodded and raised her hands in surrender. "I'll drop it, and we can go. Any suggestions on an immediate safe house, or some place we can claim safe-haven?"

Toni's shoulders sagged as she remembered she couldn't go back to her grandpa's house, and there probably wasn't anything left of Thornhill to go back to.

"If only your face didn't melt off at the cabin. I'm sure my grandfather already left." Toni paused to run through several other options, many of them deeply unpleasant. "Okay, I can only think of one place right now, but I think we will be safe there for now."

Toni rattled off some directions, providing a mental picture of where they were going, and allowed herself to be picked up.

They blurred their way along the Sweetwater River, and then through the woods. Cheryl had to stop several times for Toni to point the way, but they still arrived within a few minutes.

Cheryl looked at the house before them and shuddered. She eyed it's sagging gutters, splintered stairs and boarded windows with obvious disdain.

"If you wanted to stay in a remote hut with questionable safety and lack of comfort, there were plenty closer to where we were." Cheryl said.

"None of them have running water and probable electric. Also, none of them are Sweet Pea's house. If he made it out, he will make his way here."

"This will do, and I'm sure he made it out just fine. There is a gaggle of Serpents on foot, approaching at human speed, I'm positive of it." Cheryl said in an attempt to make her feel better.

"There are no more Serpents, and they could be dead for all I know. Meanwhile, I'm trying to find a place to shower and take a nap..." Toni's eyes darted through the surrounding trees. "We should go back, I'm fine now and so are you."

"They aren't dead. We will look for them if they don't show up soon, but if you go out looking for them and they go looking for you because you aren't here, that won't be helpful to anyone. Sweet Pea seems perfectly capable of getting them out of there to me. He will show up." Cheryl assured her. "In the meantime, lets get cleaned up and you need rest. You're no good to anyone in this shape."

Toni rocked on her feet, looking unconvinced. Her eyes were heavy and legs shook out of exhaustion. There was no other choice, and she knew it.

"Fine. Only because I'm sure I smell awful and a power nap will help me clear my head."