Looking back, I realise that none of this would have happened if I had been back on time. But I wasn't back on time. I stopped on my way, parked my car on the side and admired the moon. As I was sitting there just staring at it I felt something warm up in my chest. Almost as if I was burning from inside out. I looked down but there was nothing. I brushed it off as stress. In the end I had worked for the past ten hours, helped one customer after the other, my brain was tired beyond belief by now.
So I started my car again and continued my drive back home. I could see our small house from the narrow road that lead to it, usually the kitchen lights are on, even when she goes to sleep, she leaves them on for me. But tonight all the lights were off. Leaving not only the kitchen but the house, the front porch and the narrow road in complete darkness.
The only light came from my headlights.
I parked the car before the front porch and got out. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I knew something was off. I felt it in my bones.
With every new step it felt as if the grass beneath me was trying to stop me, trying to warn me. I could feel the panic rise in me as I ran inside the house.
'Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay.' I repeated over and over in my head.
There was no sound coming from the house, no sign that anybody was even there. But she had to, where else would she be? I decided to check the bedroom first, walked through the hall past pictures of us on top of mountains, infront of beautiful buildings in foreign countries, past blossoms from flowers we bought each other, now dry and hung up on walls.
I did not have to walk into the small bedroom to know she wasn't there, but I still did.
The bed was untouched, she didn't even go to bed.
My heart was racing so fast by now that I was sure I wouldn't be able to even hear somebody inside the house if I wanted to.
I rushed back into the hall and came to an hold beside the shelf where we usually leave our keys and wallets. Her stuff was still in the green bowl. Next to a picture we took on our third anniversary. My favorite picture of us, because of the full, genuine smile she flashes into the camera while I kiss her on the cheek.
I turned around and walked into the living room. There's no wall to the kitchen so I could see the table she decorated. The food on the plates was cold, the candles all burned up. But the stove was still on and there was glass splattered all over the ground.
She was taken, I knew it the second I drove into the narrow road that lead to our small home, I knew what the grass was trying to tell me before I even touched the ground. She was gone. Livia was gone.
I didn't know what to do next, where to start looking, who to ask for help.
As I was standing in the middle of our kitchen, I felt my chest warm up again. There was that fire again.
I clutched my chest and then I felt the overwhelming need to get back to my car. So that's what I did, I ran outside, past the table full of cold food, past the picture of our anniversary, through the front porch, ignoring the grass that was almost holding on to my feet at this point. I ran to my car and drove through the narrow road as fast as I could.
If you would have asked me where I was driving I couldn't have been able to give you an answer but I did not stop, my hands confidently turned the car into roads and drove past houses and people underneath the night sky.
About twenty minutes later the car stopped in the middle of nothing, or so it seemed. The heavy fog was making it impossible to see anything.
I got out and started walking. My legs did what my hands had done just moments ago, they confidently lead the way. And then I saw a dim light though the heavy fog. There was a hut not far from here. I started running again. Something inside of me told me Livia was there.
I ran up to the hut and just as I was about to knock the door opened and I all but fell inside.
"Oh god!" I cried out. "Im sorry for-" but there was nobody here. I was standing in a kitchen, all by myself. "Hello?" I shouted. No reply.
I started to examine my surroundings.
The kitchen was filled with shelfs upon shelfs full of glasses with strange liquids. Some had tags on them, most didn't. Some were green, some were purple, one seemed to change it's colour every time I looked at it. There was a fireplace, a small fire that was also the only source of light for the whole room was slowly burning in there. There was strange blue smoke coming from it.
I took a few steps forward to get a better look at what was inside the fire, when I heard a voice behind me. "You're too late, Luna" somebody said quietly enough, that I almost did not hear her, but it was loud enough to startle me.
I turned around and was met with a pair of blue eyes that were bright like the ocean in the morning, they looked alive and mischievous, to the contrary of the old and fragile body they were connected to. The old lady was half my height and made everything in this small hut look enormous.
"Im sorry," I breathed out, "I didn't want to just storm in here, I was about to- wait, did you just say I'm late?"
"Yes, Luna, I did."
"How do you know my name?"
But the old lady did not reply, instead she walked through a door to my left I could have sworn was not there a second ago, "Follow me," she instructed.
And so I did. My chest was burning at this point. The mild warm feeling had turned into a whole wild fire. I clutched my chest again and took a sharp breath.
"It will pass," the lady said without stopping or looking back. I wasn't even sure if she was talking to me and now that I was thinking about it, I probably shouldn't have just trusted her like that. There was still time for me to run. She wouldn't be able to catch me even if she wanted to. I stopped following her and right as I was about to turn around I saw her. She was passed out, laying on the ground like a dirty cloth that fell down and nobody bothered to pick up.
"Livia-" I whispered.
The lady stopped walking and turned around to face me, her blue eyes that had looked so alive and beautiful a heartbeat ago were looking angry and dangerous now. Like a storm.
I wanted to walk over to Livia but my legs were not listening to me. They were glued to the old wooden ground. I couldn't control them.
"I already told you, you're too late. There's nothing you can do now," she said. "Now, don't make this any more complicated than it is and do as I say."
"What did you do to her?" I growled out. The fire in my chest was slowly spreading.
"I have no time for explanations right now, all in good time. Be quiet, I have to finish this potion."
"No," I cried, desperately tried to free my legs, tried to make them listen to me but they refused. I was captured here. Forced to watch her just lie on the ground, the white dress she put on this morning now full of filth and- blood I realised with a shiver going down my spine.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?" I screamed as hot tears formed in my eyes.
The old lady did not care, she did not seem intimidated by my anger. She did not even turn around. "I said be quiet," she said with a small wave of her hand and all of the sudden I could not open my mouth anymore.
'This is a nightmare,' I thought to myself. 'A horrible, vivid nightmare. I just need to close my eyes and force myself to wake up.' I closed my eyes and tried to wake up when a voice from the kitchen called out of nowhere. "Hello?" a young girl shouted.
The old lady who had just been putting a strange looking liquid into her "potion" stopped and sighed. "Finally," she said as she slowly walked towards the kitchen, "this one is even more late than you! No manners."
I watched her walk through the door. "There you are! We have been waiting for you." she said.
"I'm sorry to walk in here but your door was open and-"
"Yes, yes, I know. Your legs just did not stop moving until you were here, now follow me." She instructed as she walked back into the room me and Livia were in. She was followed by a young red haired girl, who had a yellow dress on with sunflowers all over it and a smile on her face.
I realised in horror that she was another victim of this old lady. Tried to warn her but my mouth wouldn't open, no matter what I did. I frantically waved around with my hands to make her stop but it was too late. She already was in the middle of the room. The smile vanished from her face and her eyes widened when she saw the panicked state I was in and then the unconscious Livia on the ground. "What is going on here?" she asked with a shaky voice.
"Quiet, Anna." the lady said with a wave of her hand and sure enough, Anna was immediately in the same state I was. I saw how she looked at her legs to make sure they were still there because she just couldn't feel them anymore, her lips were sealed, tears already falling from her big eyes. The beautiful dress now so out of place for what was happening right now. For the horror she was going through.
There was nothing to do for us but to wait until the lady would free us. A lifetime passed as we silently watched her put liquid after liquid into the pot. Carefully go through the pages of the huge book that was open infront of her. Anna did not stop crying and I could not help but watch Livia. Her chest was rising and falling, that had been the first thing I checked. She was alive. All she had to do was wake up now, show me she was okay and not injured, that the blood stains on her hands and dress were somehow actually not her's but somebody else's.
And then the old lady was done. And with that, the real horror began.
She opened a new page in her book and nodded at whatever she was reading. She turned back around to Anna and me. "Now, I know you are unable to see that right now but I am not the monster here," she said with a misleading warm smile, her eyes back to looking like the ocean. "I will explain what is going on before killing you all. See? I'm being decent here. And now I expect you to be just as decent and not make any unnecessary noise. I can't use any distractions right now. Will you be able to do that? Or should I keep your mouths shut and continue without another word?"
Anna and I both frantically shook our heads. We would be good.
So she waved her hand again and we could talk again. Then she walked over to Livia, who was still unconscious on the ground "I demand you wake up," she said.
Livia immeditaly started moving. She opened her eyes and looked around, her body shot up when she saw the old lady and she started shaking her head while shielding her body with her blood stained hands.
Anger was competing the fire. Both burning furiously inside of me.
"Walk over here and sit down," the old lady said.
But Livia did not obey. "I said sit down here, human!" The old lady shouted.
"Stop!" I said. "She can't hear you. She's deaf."
"Well then, I demand you to sit down here!" she said.
Livia had no other choice but to do as she was told. She walked over to the chair, sat down and that was when her eyes met mine. A weak scream escaped her lips and she shot up from the chair to walk over to me.
"I said sit down," the lady screeched.
Livia's body violently jolted back into the chair, tears were running down her face as she shook her head at me. She was signaling for me to leave, as if I could, as if I would.
I patted my chest, just over my heart. Our sign for 'Everything is okay' I needed her to know that I was alright. But she just shook her head at me. I may be okay, but she wasn't.
Anna gave a small whimper from herself. I immediately looked at Livia again. "Everything will be okay," I said slowly, making sure she would be able to read my lips. "Don't be scared."
"Are you crazy?" Anna cried back. "Nothing will be okay, we will all die here."
"No, we won't," I said.
The old lady laughed softly. She looked fascinated. I realised that she had been watching me this whole time. "You know what?" she said, "it's a shame you two have to die. I can feel your powers. You can too, can't you, Luna?" she asked. "That's why you're so confident that you will be able to escape, right?"
I didn't asnwer. But she was right. I felt the fire inside of me grow with every second that passed. I knew this could help us, I felt it in my soul.
"At this point I'm sure you all figured out what I am." I looked at Livia and saw that she was just as confused as me, she was looking up and reading the old lady's lips.
The old lady sighed at us. "Anna why don't you enlighten your blind companions?"
"She's a witch." Anna breathed out.
Under any other circumstances I would have laughed but right now, as I was standing stiff like a statue in the hut of this old lady who was brewing a potion and had control over all our bodies, this sounded like the most logical thing I had ever heard. Of course she was a witch!
"Well done, Anna," the old lady smiled. "I have to admit I was surprised at how quickly you figured this one out. Maybe there is more power in you, than I estimated."
"Makes this whole thing even sadder," she sighed again. "You see, I am 671 years old. I have seen a lot and know of things you could not even start to comprehend. I know you conceive me as powerful but I am old, even for a witch. And there are dangers out in the world I can not shield myself from anymore. The most dangerous of them all is the newly formed Sisterhood of Witches. Witches coming together to fight evil? Unheard of! And you know who they want to get rid of? Me! Outrageous."
"I may look powerful to you weak minded humans but compared to their powers, I have no chance of survival. And that is why I need you. You two have magic inside of you, powers I could not dream of. Lucky for me you have not discovered them yet, you have not have been turned. So I will use your blood and get your joined powers and then I will kill the Sisterhood. Teach all the witches a lesson. Destroy this idea before it's even fully formed. So that every witch from now on knows better than to form an alliance of any sort with anyone else beside her real sisters."
"I will kill you two and become the most powerful witch that has ever lived."
"Then let Livia go!" I cried out. My mind was not fully comprehending what I had just heard but my priorities were clear.
"Oh but I can't," she said. "You see, every powerful potion needs the blood of a virgin and-"
"She's not a virgin!" I shouted back.
"A virgin is a human with pure blood, you fool. I was lucky enough that you came with one didn't you? Spared me the trouble of having to look for one."
"Oh."
"This is madness." Anna said. "Absolute madness. Am I the only one who sees that this is absolute madness? Let us go! I demand you let us go!" she shouted.
A strong wind came crushing through the small windows on our left. It flew through them with such a force that it broke them. The shattered glass flew through the room. The old lady shrieked with horror. "Anna, try to calm down you will harm my potion and then I will have to start again."
"Good!" Anna shouted as yet another strong wind came crushing through the now broken windows.
"Yes!" I shouted. "Good, Anna don't stop!"
"Anna, I demand you stop or I will kill this virgin right now and look for another one!"
"NO!" I screamed.
And then Anna stopped. Eventough she did not know me nor Livia. Eventough she could try and spare her own life. Anna stopped.
The witch smiled again, "You're more useful than you seem," she said at Livia. "And you're quiet. A blessing! I would keep you as a pet if I didn't have to save myself." She reached out to pat Livia's head.
"Don't you dare touch her" I growled again. Ready to kill her, bite her head off if I had to.
Her hand stopped mid air. She looked at me with an amused, devilish look. "Alright."
I sighed. This was good. She was too curious for her own good. Probably hadn't talked to another soul in hundreds of years. We had to keep her talking until we figured out a way of escaping.
Anna must have thought the same thing because she asked a question almost immediately after. "Why does the sisterhood want to get rid of you?"
"Because they can sense that I joined the dark side and now they are scared," the lady replied.
My thoughts were racing. I tried to come up with another question when the witch suddenly started to laugh. "I can feel your itensions, you know?" she said. "I told you both I was on the dark side and 671 years old and yet you think you can outsmart me! Ha!" she laughed again.
I decided that I hated that sound. It made me shiver more than any shriek she had let out till now.
"Now that I have filled you all in, there is nothing else to do but to start the ceremony." She turned to Livia, "be a darling and fetch me your left hand," she said as she walked back to her boiling potion.
But Livia did not respond to her request.
"This is becoming very tiresome," the witch sighed.
"How do you expect her to read your lips when your back is turned to her?" I contorted. "Let her go, I'm sure you can find somebody who is more compatible."
The witch smiled at me. "You are still heavily underestimating me, human."
She came to an half before her pot and looked at Livia, "I demand you stretch your arm right above this pot."
Livia shakily stretched out her left arm towards the witch. A blade appeared in her old wrinkly hands, out of thin air and without a warning or any time for us to react she cut Livia's arm open and let her blood drop into the pot. Livia whimpered weakly.
"No," I breathed out. "No, please let her go. I will do anything you want. I will give myself to you, my powers, my blood, anything! But let her go!"
"Quiet, human!" the witch shouted at me.
"Anna! Do something, please!" I pleaded and that was the last sound that came from my mouth because a second later I could not open it again.
A wind did come through but it was too weak to do any harm. Anna was too distraught at the sight infront of her to control the wind. She needed anger.
It was at that precise moment I gave up hope. I could no longer feel the fire inside of me. All I felt was regret. This was the end. Anna was right from the very beginning, we would all die here.
I looked at Livia and was surprised to see that she was already watching me. She did not look half as scared as I felt, she looked content. She was saying goodbye. Her body was looking weak, but her eyes were burning with strength. She had always been able to do that, show strength in my weakest moments.
I could not bare look at her anymore. I closed my eyes and wished for one last wonder.
There was a horrible loud bang. I opened my eyes and expected the pot to have blown up but everything looked like it had a second ago. I looked at Anna. Did she control the wind? Was this her? There was another bang and the door flew open. Four women dressed in colorful dresses ran inside.
"This is it, Demora!" one of them shouted. "What do you even think you're doing? This is against every rule we have!"
"Screw your rules! A true witch is not bound to any rules and you know that!" the old witch shouted back.
The four women surrounded her. "Surrender and we will do no harm," the blonde one said.
"I would rather die than do such thing!"
"Then, you must die," the blonde woman said.
"Rosalina-"
"Do you have another solution, Azura?" Rosalina countered at the young black haired witch. She didn't reply and so Rosalina continued. "In the name of the Sisterhood, your power's will be taken from you and along with them will your life, Demora."
"Alright, alright, I am surrendering," the old lady shrieked as she took a step forward. And then out of nowhere she threw the blade she had used to cut open Livia's arm at the third witch. It hit her right in her chest as she fell to the ground. The other witches let out a scream and the old witch was about to fade away into thin air as another strong wind flew across the room, this one was so heavy, so strong, it took the old oil lamp on the wall off and hit the old witch. She passed out from the force.
"Who is controlling the wind?" Rosalina shouted.
"It's this one," the fourth witch replied pointing at Anna.
"Azura!" The blonde witch shouted. "Free the younglings!"
And with that Azura ran over to us and whispered a few words at our unresponsive bodies. First, I could talk again, then I could move my hands, then my legs and then, the fire came back. "Livia!" I cried out as I ran over to her. She had been bleeding out this whole time, all the colour was drenched from her body.
"Livia!" I shouted as I shook her unconsious body. "Livia! It's over Livia! We're free! Wake up!" But she did not respond. She did not even move. I turned around to the witches. "Help me! You need to help me! Please!"
"It's too late for her." Azura said. The others were huddled around the witch that got stabbed.
"Demora is not dead, we need to leave immediately." Rosalina said.
I turned back at Livia. "Please, wake up." I said as I shook her. "Please, for me."
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Anna. "I'm sorry I couldn't save her."
"Shut up, she's not dead!" I shouted. Livia wasn't dead. She couldn't. Not now. Not ever. Not because of that old witch.
The fire inside of me exploded into my whole body and so I closed my eyes and let it burn.
"Rosalina!" A voice behind me shouted. "She's transforming!"
"What? Not now, youngling!" Somebody violently shook me. And then I saw Rosalina step infront of me. "NOT NOW!"
I knew she was referring to the fire, but it was too late. I would let it burn, and I would let her burn. I shoved Rosalina away from me and walked over to the old witch. She was still unconscious. I knew what I had to do, although I had never done it before. I kneeled down and touched the wooden floor and then everything catched fire. The room erupted in flames.
"Youngling!" I heard Rosalina scream behind me. I didn't care. This witch would burn to death with me here, they could leave.
"Sisters, grab onto a youngling and leave! I will take Esmeralda with me."
I felt a hand on my shoulder. "No!" I shouted. "No, leave me here!"
But it was too late. An unbearable force took me away from the room, it kicked all the air out of my body, I felt like I was being crushed under the weight of a rock and then it was over. Everything was over. I was not in the hut anymore, I was standing in a swamp. In the middle of water, surrounded by fog.
"No!" I shouted again. "What did you do?"
The other witches were busy carrying the wounded one and ignored me completely.
"What about Livia?" I screamed.
Rosalina finally looked at me, "She was dead when we arrived. There was nothing else to do."
"Why did you leave her body behind?" I screamed.
"Do you expect me to put my sisters into danger because I want to save the dead body of a mere human?"
That was it, that was all it took. I ran over to her. Ready to punch her right across the face. It was difficult to walk though the muddy water and before I was even half way through, the air was kicked from my body again as I fell to the ground but I did not land in water, I landed on wood. The last thing I saw before passing out was a door next to me. I was in a room, what room, I did not know.
When I woke up, I was laying on a bed. I was wearing a long white dress, like I was about to be buried. And then I remembered Livia and everything came crushing back to me. I got out of the bed and saw that there was another one next to mine.
I slowly walked out of the room, fearing for a moment that I was still in the hut. But I walked into a much larger room. A big fire burning and heating everything. It almost looked cozy, I would have almost liked it here.
"You woke up!" It was Anna. She walked over to me, I noticed that she was wearing the same dress I was.
"Where are we?" I asked hoarsely. I must have screamed too much. My voice was gone.
"Azura was kind enough to take us in while we transformed."
"Transformed?"
"Yes, don't you feel the power running through your veins? Can't you sense the energy?"
"We're witches?" I asked in disbelief, still convinced this was a nightmare.
"Yes," Anna nodded. "I woke up two days ago. The witches said it's normal to rest for 24 hours while your heart burns up and the transformation is complete."
"How long have we been here? How long did I sleep?"
"We have been here for three days. You slept for the whole time," she explained. "Azura thinks your body had to fight your will to die and that's why it took longer."
I didn't say anything back. The force of Livia's death hit me again. I wondered if it would just do that for the rest of my life now. "Is the old witch-"
"She's dead." Anna said. "You burned down the whole hut. The fire inside a witch is only there to burn the heart and transform one, the witches say its rare a witch can just transform that fire out of her body. They all have never seen another witch do that. You see, there are thousands of witches across the universe. They used to have alliances with witches outside their families but it got forbidden. Now they started that again, for the sake of peace. Rosalina and Azura are in the first Sisterhood since thousands of years. The old witch wanted to destroy them to continue the path of the dark side and-"
"You've been talking an awful lot to these witches."
"They just want to help," Anna shrugged.
"I don't need any help. I just want to go home."
"You can. But first you need to learn a few things. My lessons haven't started yet either, I wanted to wait for you. The only thing Azura helped me with, was my special powers."
"Special powers?" I asked.
"Yes, remember how I could control the wind? Turns out I can control not only that but nature as a whole."
"So what, my special power is fire then?" I asked.
"See that's what they thought, too. But Azura said you did not come from ashes. You will have to see the council to find out your power."
"I see." I said looking down.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Anna said quietly. "I can feel you mourning. It's heavy."
"Yeah." I didn't know what to say. I wondered how this fire could burn my heart out when I could still feel it break? How was it fair to not have a heart anymore but still feel heartache?
"Anna, I'm back!" A voice called out from the other room.
"We're here!" Anna called back. Azura walked in, followed by Rosalina.
"I see you finally woke up, then," the latter said.
I felt anger rise up in me just from the sight of her.
"Stop being so melodramatic!" She said. "We too lost a sister that night."
"She wasn't my sister." I said.
"No, can't you sense her feelings?" Azura said. "Rosalina, they were lovers."
"I don't care if she was her mother. You should be thankful. We saved your life in the end."
"I will kill you." I growled.
Before I could even start walking towards her, fire erupted from Azura's fingertips.
"Stay where you are," she demanded. "I know it's difficult. I can feel your pain. But we are your only hope, let us help you."
"Besides," Rosalina added. "Your future lies with that youngling," she pointed at Anna. "It's clear as day, we can all feel it, you would too, if you would only allow yourself to."
Rosalina's words made me forget my anger. I was taken aback and turned around to look at Anna. She nodded weakly at me. It was almost unnoticeable but I saw it. And then I remembered how she had risked her own life to spare Livia's, and I realised that I owed her this. I owed her my companionship.
"That's better," Rosalina said. "You learn quickly. I like that."
She walked past us into the kitchen. "Now come, eat. You will need all the energy you can get. Your lessons start tomorrow."
Azura followed her and left me alone with Anna.
"I can understand your rejection but I hope you can feel my compassion is genuine. I wish I could have helped her," Anna said softly.
"It's not your fault," I replied, equally softly.
"I can feel our paths aligning," she said. "I think I've always known this was the end. I think I've always waited for you."
I knew Anna's words were genuine. I did feel our paths alining as well. Had I been waiting for her I did not know. That didn't matter right now. I would obey, I would learn, I would find my powers, I would allign. I did owe her in the end.
"I can't stop your pain but maybe I can soften it," she said gently. "With what you did to the old witch, with us being born from that, know tomorrow's at peace. And we will have many tomorrows from now on."
I nodded at her. "Thank you," her words meant a lot, although they could not stop my tears. I needed time. This darkness inside of me would fade, it was not mine. I could feel that. I would be alright, bathed in her light.
