Stranger Stories 3

Vibe Check

Raven wasn't sure how to feel about this.

She didn't know how she would react to Eve's death.

She had friends that could have been hurt by her.

Like Seo-Jun. The kind, mystical boy she had practiced with almost as much as she did with Nanami, and had disappeared along with almost every other spellcaster she knew.

She didn't notice the trip up the hill. Cody unlocked the door and practically led her through the house, looking for Eve. Raven knew where she was.

"The roof." she managed to say, breaking away from the daze she had put herself in. she climbed up the stairs, somehow knowing how to get around in the house she had never been in. Eventually she opened a door into the freezing air, seeing no one at first, but eventually making out the form of Seo-Jun sitting down, eyes closed. She ran to him, checking him to see if he was alright. He didn't seem hurt. He opened his eyes. She jumped back, startled. Seo-Jun's eyes were pitch black. Raven could immediately identify the spell used to do it. It was a side effect of a spell that forced the victim to do the caster's bidding. Typically broken by fire.

Seo-Jun shouted a spell. Raven almost dodged it. He would have hit her, had he actually aimed for her. A small noise came from Cody as he collapsed on the snowy roof, spell stripping away his ability to move. His eyes were quickly covered with a gray film, a side effect from being a victim of that kind of spell. Seo-Jun sat back down, his task apparently fulfilled. Raven hesitated. She didn't want to set her friend on fire. She checked on Cody. he was breathing. He wouldn't have been able to see her, but the spell had to wear off at some point. He would be fine. She looked back at Seo-Jun. He looked peaceful. He was back to sitting on the roof, snow dusting his hair and eyes closed. She knew they would open at some point. Eve would give another command.

She set him on fire.

He got up almost as soon as the words for the spell left her mouth, faltering once the flames started to burn his skin. She kept reinforcing the spell. Until they start to scream.

That was what Seo-Jun had always taught her if she was snapping someone out if his current state.

You'll know it's working when they start to scream.

Seo-Jun started to stumble towards Raven, a hoarse cry starting to escape his lips before she stopped. He crumpled to the ground, hand grasping the snow, allowing the singed skin to cool down. Raven racked her brain for any spell that would help heal him, coming up with only one to help stop the pain. She tapped his forehead and said it, hoping it was the spell to soothe injuries and not the spell to ensure someone a painless death. He relaxed. Raven panicked for a moment, but then noticed he was still swirling patterns in the snow with his hand. A shout from Sammy came from downstairs. A name. Braylen. She got up to help him, then remembered that she wasn't there to stop Seo-Jun.

She was there to stop Eve.

Sammy had pulled Raven aside at one point, after she had agreed to help stop Eve. he told her that Holly's last few words to him were to bring Eve back. That she should try to help her, not kill her. She was family, after all. But he would understand, he said, if she wasn't being reasonable and Raven was forced to kill her.

Raven's mind had been set on Kill Eve mode for so long that she didn't know what to do to try and save her. She saw a white-haired shadow higher up on the roof and decided she would cross that bridge when she came to it.

Or she would burn it. She did have a habit of screwing things up with family matters.

Eve was smiling once she reached her. "Look, I know Sammy's a bit short on friends, all thanks to me, but this is getting desperate." she laughed, eyes sparkling as she turned to face Raven. "I mean, I get that he wouldn't bring my asshole of a brother along, but a witch who's only practiced how to properly do things for all of three months, a farmer's daughter whose only real talent is in potions, and a vampire who's only figured out about half of what he can do? You don't stand a chance."

"Come back with us. We can help you."

"Oh, come on. You really want to be on that side? Really? You and everyone my idiot cousin brought along here are so... so... so insufferably noble in the way you do things. Damn you all." she called out a spell Raven didn't recognize. She had stopped practicing that kind of magic a long time ago, so the only thing she could do was throw a Deflection charm against it. Thus beginning their little dance, Eve calling out a spell and Raven deflecting it, getting closer and closer until Raven could almost touch her. And that was what she needed.

She grabbed Eve's arm, the spell she had come up with to try and get her to come back working its way into Eve, eyes widening with the realization of every little thing she had done since she started dabbling in black magic. The spell was meant to make her feel all of the pain and anguish she had caused to other people, and Raven would say it was working. Eve started shaking her head, shutting her eyes against tears. She reopened them, whispering an almost inaudible "I'm sorry."

Raven helped her up. "You're okay. We'll fix you." she started to go back to check on Seo-Jun and Cody, holding Eve's arm, but Eve didn't budge. She heard a laugh from behind her. Raven turned around as Eve snatched at a spot of bare skin on her arm. Her heart plummeted.

"Gotcha."

Raven knew that Eve was going to curse her. She had no way of preparing for what it would have been. Not that it would have been effective anyway. The first things that went were her legs. She collapsed onto the snow, white-hot pain surrounding her as the curse ran its course. Raven could only see white, almost as if she was stuck in a bubble, a bubble of pain and confusion. She heard someone call her name, panic laced in their voice. She couldn't reply. It was all going dark.