The Enchanted

Chapter-28

I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. My head was hurting terribly. I could feel blood trickling down from the wound. I tried to put up my hand to my head but to my horror, I felt ropes around my wrists. I pulled at it and bit into my skin, making me cry out.

The events of last night came rushing back and I gasped. Frantically, I tried to free my hands as I took in my surroundings. My head was still throbbing and every movement I made took too much effort. I was in a darkened room I couldn't recognize and I was all alone. It was silent all around and my hands were bound tightly together with rope.

My hands were skinned through and I still couldn't get the rope off. I was exhausted. I slumped back against the wall. I never should have stayed with Ethan. Azari had warned me- no, I couldn't think of her right now. I needed to think straight.

Taking the support of the wall, I managed to stand up somehow when I heard some commotion outside. Someone screamed and the door flew open. I saw two limp bodies being dragged inside.

"Well, well." said an amused voice, a voice I knew well. "Look who's awake."

"Caleb." I breathed. "What's going on?"

He laid the two limp bodies next to me and closed the door. My eyes adjusted and I saw two more motionless bodies lying next to the ones he'd brought in.

"Is this some sort of prank?" I felt confused.

He looked at me strangely.

"I suppose I hit your head too hard. Well, there's nothing I can do about it now."

"You hit me?" I said slowly. I gazed around and felt my blood chill. I'd finally recognized where I was. I was in the old warehouse where I'd seen the murders being committed.

"It was you." I breathed out. "You killed everyone." I felt my heart tug painfully at the betrayal at the hands of the one person I'd considered a friend.

"Why?" I choked out. I was so shocked, I couldn't even cry out. Nice, friendly Caleb was the cold-blooded killer I'd seen in my dreams. He had killed so many people and he had shown no remorse. I felt disgusted and horrified but above all, I felt afraid.

"They had magical blood. I needed it for the spell," he said simply.

"The spell?"

"Yes. I stole it from Sarah. Nearly got killed while making my escape."

"Did you truly kill all those people?" I whispered. I couldn't believe it. I needed to hear him say it. I was trembling at his casual words. He'd betrayed and murdered so many people and he didn't seem upset. I felt unnerved.

"Yup." He rolled his eyes. "I had some help though."

"Moro?"

I remembered how I'd always seen the two of them together wandering about at night.

He nodded.

"He wanted to back out though." He snorted. "Weak-willed fool. Now, I am going to sacrifice his useless ass as well."

"You hateful creature." I was shivering in rage now rather than fear, seeing him look so indifferent while talking about the people he'd slain, the hurt he'd caused. I remembered those mournful wails and those horrifying dreams. All because of him. I wanted to kill him myself.

"Easy there, drama queen." He sighed. "You haven't asked me what the spell does."

I glared at him.

"Oh, we have to wait till the moon comes out again, so we might as well talk." He yawned.

"The spell requires me to kill people because, in order to take something, you have to give something."

"What could you possibly need that requires you to take the life of innocents?" I spat out.

"I need the life of an innocent back. I need my grandfather back." For the first time tonight, I saw raw emotion on his face- sorrow and anger.

"He died in a car crash, you psycho," I yelled. "It wasn't anybody's fault."

"Wasn't it?" He sneered. "Your precious Burmonte's killed him and took over his land and made it look like an accident. My grandfather was the only one who understood me and my need to take back what's ours. And now he will rise again and bring glory to our name."

He looked insane with the power-hungry look on his face. I felt truly terrified for a moment.

"So, Ethan killed him?" I asked to keep him talking and also because I actually wanted to know. Was everyone in this town a murderer?

"No. It was Rufus." He spat on the floor.

"What do I have got to do with all this?" I asked, feeling bewildered.

"Banshees are pretty useless in general, but they do have an enormous amount of magical power. I sensed you had some sort of power the day I met you for I'd been looking for my 'victims'. I knew a spell which told me you were magical somehow. Since you had no apparent powers, I followed you around for a day or two to see if the spell was correct."

I remembered how I'd felt someone had been following me on my second day in this town and shivered. I'd been so clueless.

"In fact, I'd wanted to talk to you in the store but Moro had found the correct ingredients so I'd had to rush." he continued. "I was so disappointed. But then you, my pretty little banshee invited me over and I had a golden opportunity to run the spell on you again."

I hated myself for not seeing this coming. Caleb was not in his right mind. I finally felt the impact of his betrayal as tears ran down my cheek. I was shocked and disgusted and miserable at the same time. It felt like my heart was going to break under all this emotional duress.

"I could not get you alone to try and figure out your powers- Sabrina was always hanging around you. That's why I tried to plant suspicious thoughts about her in your mind." He sighed.

"It didn't matter because as soon as you left her, you went over to Ethan's side. I tried to tell you, again and again, to stay away from him but you didn't listen to me. Do you have any idea how truly annoying that was?"

I hung my head and tried to tune him out. I didn't want to listen to this anymore. I wanted to run far away from this town and leave all this behind. Azari's loss was still preying on my mind. I'd thought I would have felt better on knowing who the killer was but instead, I felt worse.

"I only found out about your powers tonight." he droned on. "I'm afraid the librarian gave you away. After that, the similarity between you and Azari was easy to figure out."

I understood why she'd warned me tonight. She had somehow known Caleb was coming.

"Pity what happened to her." he went on. My head snapped up, daring him to continue. I would slaughter him if he spoke about her. He had no right to do that. Surprisingly, he seemed to get the message and left me alone after that.

I tried not to think about his deception or about how much it hurt. I had to get out of here. I struggled to look for some way out but the door against which Caleb was leaning seemed like the only option.

The other four figures hadn't stirred while Caleb was talking to me.

I didn't know how many hours had passed when Caleb opened the door and moonlight streamed in. He took a small vial of clear liquid and spread it across the floor. The smell of roses filled the room. The spell had begun.