Witchling (Chronicles of Witchood) (19 page)

The Master eventually returned and he made sure to do
so with great gusto. The metal door swung open and just before he stepped in, his eyes darted towards the floor where I sat. His face dropped as the light in his eyes turned dark with annoyance.

“Well played, Amelia,” he said and remained on the other side of the door. He looked at the walls, covered in pentagrams and the massive one I sat inside.
“But a little blood has never stopped me before.”

The Master attempted to step in and I watched as his skin smoked and the smell of burnt flesh filled the room. He cried out and pulled himself back.
The Master shot me a deadly look as his true form momentarily showed in his eyes. It flashed red and the pupils were silted like a cat ’s eye. The sight struck fear in my soul and I knew that my pentacles willnot hold him off for long.

The Master disappeared for a few moments and left the cloaked figures to guard me.
They stared at me with their hallowed sockets. I contemplated making a run for it but knew that once I left the room, I would be exposed. I half expected Aiden and Ethan to burst through the group of cloaked figures but no one appeared, except for the Master.

“Do you really think you can keep me out, Amelia?” said the Master upon his return. He came with a bucket of water and before I could say anything, he splashed the water against the nearest wall.

“No!” I screamed as my blood washed off with ease. The Master lifted his hand and the water lifted up from the floor and proceeded to wipe away my hard work. I scrambled to redraw the pentagram and its circle, but it was too late. Blood was no match against water and I soon found myself soaked in a mixture of both.

The Master stepped inside and grabbed me by the nape of my neck. He forced me on my feet and discarded all
pretence of being Ethan. I screamed as he pushed me forward.

“Let me go!”

“My dear Amelia, you know I can’t do that.”

I squirmed as his grip tightened and I felt a sharp pain run through my shoulder.

“Humans are such fragile creatures,” he said. “Good night, Amelia.”

~

When I regained my consciousness, the first thought that came into my head was that if I survive this night, I will never be knocked out again. Not only was it starting to get annoying, it also left me with a sense of helplessness every time I woke up.

I found my arms and legs chained and it took me a few moments to realise that I was on a stone altar.

“What the…you’ve got to be kidding me.”

I lifted my head as much as I could and found that the cloaked figures surrounded me in a perfect circle.
I counted thirteen of them and in their hands they cradled a fire. This was not how I was supposed to die and yet, judging by the jewelled knife, it was obvious that the end was dangerously near.

The cloaked figures started to hum and the flames in their hands grew. I looked up at the ceiling and saw inscriptions drawn in black paint. It was several stars stacked on top of each other and a rune marked each tip. I counted thirteen
points and wondered what the significant of the number meant. Perhaps it was a summoning number, how I knew that or managed to come to that conclusion was beyond my comprehension. My brain started to flow with knowledge and I couldn’t help but feel strange as memories of other people’s lives seeped into mine. One belonged to a man, a wizard, the one that wrote the grimoire. Another belonged to a witch, his lover and teacher. There were also other memories of people I didn’t know or recognise, except they were all connected to the grimoire somehow over time. The magical book was up to something, although I didn’t know what, and while it was almost insane to believe that a book could help me, after all that has happened so far, the possibility was not too crazy.

The Master appeared, dressed in a red robe, and while his face remained li
ke Ethan, his eyes were his own. This was not how I was supposed to die, I thought. What happened to the ring of fire? The salt circle and the witch that was to take out my heart after I’ve been burnt by the flames? Or was the dream lying to me? Was I supposed to die like this? On an altar with thirteen cloaked skeletons surrounding me?

The Master was about to say something when
a stray shadow darted across the room. Something was obviously not right and the ritual was met with another minor hiccup. The Master lifted his hand and motioned for the cloaked figures outside the circle to investigate.

The Master picked up the dagger that sat at my head
. I saw the bejewelled hilt flashed across my face. He sliced my palm with it. I screamed out in pain as he took up the plain brass chalice and caught my blood.

I pulled at the chains and
writhed about on the altar but the attempt was futile.

“Please!” I begged as I
choked on my own tears.

The Master ignored me and placed the chalice down. He then took out a small familiar book from his cloak’s pocket. I recognised it immediately. It was the grimoire, and yet, it didn’t feel like it. In fact, it only took me half a second that he was holding a fake. The real one was with me in that horrid little house in the middle of nowhere, the one with the dead creature in the fireplace. I frowned. It didn’t make sense and I suddenly felt as if I was in two places at once.

The Master started to read from the fake grimoire without not
icing anything different about it. A gun shot rang out and echoed off the walls. Three of the cloaked figures fell to the ground, black blood oozed from their back. They dropped their flames and the fire grew around me with a life of its own. The magic kept the flames alive, despite not having any fuel to feed its existence. The Master cried out an order in a foreign language and a horde of cloaked figures descended on the attackers.

A fight ensued as the Master took up the dagger and held it over my heart.

“No!” I screamed.

The blade flew from the Master’
s grip as a corresponding gunshot rang out. The Master flew into a rage as he momentarily lost hold of Ethan’s form and allowed his sharp talons to break through the tips of his fingers. Blood dripped on the alter as he leapt from the ground and towards the shooter. I turned my head and saw that it was Aiden but confusion quickly took hold when I saw another Aiden in the corner, guns blazing and lodging bullets into the cloaked figure’s head.

“You’re alright?” a familiar voice said as he broke the chains that kept me flat against the stone altar.

“Ethan?”

I sat up and
threw my arms around his neck but my happiness was cut short when another Ethan appeared. Within seconds, I realised that my rescuers were copycats. They were everywhere and at least a dozen of them.

“No time to waste, love,” the other Ethan said, “we have to make this look as convincing as possible.”

“What?” I started.

The first Ethan scooped me off the stone altar and without further explanation, stole me from my destined death.

Chapter 19

“What the hell is going on?” I screamed at the
Copycat. The first Ethan had tossed me in the air and I was caught by another. He placed his hand over my mouth as he dropped into the tree groves. The copycat Ethan placed something around my neck. I felt the weight of the rock as my eyes were drawn to the sky. Three cloaked figures flew overhead and did not look down. We were invisible to them.

“You will have to die tonight,” he said.

“That’s encouraging. I could have died several moments ago.”

“Y
es, sweetheart, but that’s not what lady Destiny had in mind. Stand up. You need to make that walk to your death.”

“I don’t want to die,” I hissed.

“Well, hard luck, love, because you can either die by the hands of the Master or have one of us kill you.”

I stared at the
Copycat with a frown. “What? What ever happened to I vow to keep you alive?”

The
Copycat lifted his left eyebrow and held a devilish grin. Something moved across his green eyes and he allowed me to see that he had a plan. “I never said that. Sweetheart, don’t mistake me for my brother, he’s the one with the tortured soul act, not me.”

“
Well, it’s not like you’re the real Ethan.”

“No, but still a fabulous copy,” the
Copycat paused and cast his eyes towards the sky. Another group of cloaked figures hovered past and soon the sky was filled with them. Ethan’s copy stood up and helped me on my feet. It was too dangerous for him to fly or run, they would catch the sudden movement instantly. On the ground and with the stone around my neck, we remained invisible.

The
Copycat walked me to a clearing, or rather, he dragged me along until we came to a stop in the dark. I couldn’t see anything except for shadows and figures conjured up by my imagination. I felt strangely close to the end as I stood with Ethan’s copy beside me.

“Now, listen up, you have to complete the
premonition. I know dying can be hard but you’ll have to do it.”

“
No way!” I hissed, my tone filled with mockery. My body was shaking and my sewed up shoulder throbbed as blood rushed about my body in confusion.

The
Copycat smiled and mimicked Ethan’s response so perfectly that I forgot momentarily that it was not him. There was something uncanny about these copycats. They were not the same as the first one I saw.

“Why are you doing this? I thought you were supposed to work for the Master.”

The copycat sighed. “Dearest Amelia, I would love to tell you what’s going on but we’re in the middle of a little war right now.” The Copycat placed a hand on my head and looked at me with such tenderness in his eyes that it made my heart stop.

“Stop it,” I chided.

“Stop what?” said the Copycat with a mock tone of innocence. His hand dropped from my face and I took a step back. The copy remained rooted and grinned, in the same way that Ethan always did when he thought he did something fun or clever. “Sweetheart, this is my face, I can’t stop it from looking fabulous. I am fully aware of what I am. Now, go, start walking. I want this over as much as you do.”

The
Copycat shoved me towards a track. His demeanour flipped and he discarded all playful tenderness from his face.

“That hurts,” I complained as I stumbled forward.

“Walk.”

I
exhaled and stared down the dark path ahead of me. I recognised it immediately. It was the same track that I’ve walked a hundred times towards the ring of salt and fire. Nothing made sense. What were the copycats trying to do? The attack on the Master’s ritual was certainly planned in advanced, and where did all the copies come from?

Ethan’s copy shoved me again.

“Alright, alright, I’ll walk.”

Slowly and surely I placed one foot in front of the other.
I felt as if I was walking through the dream again, except, the large red moon in the midnight sky was real. Only when I walked beneath the blood moon’s light that I felt the power of the tides and the forest lean towards the red globe in the sky.

I looked over my shoulders and saw that Ethan’s copy had not moved. He stood like a statue under the red glow, his skin so smooth and perfect. The sight made me feel jealous.

“Keep walking,” said the Copy.

“Why don’t
you walk with me?” I said. The words came out from my lips in an expectedly soft manner.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because in your dreams, you walked alone. We are just here to make sure you get to your destination.”

I looked forward down the dark path. It wasn’t fair, I thought, why did I have to go through all this? And alone too. What did I do to deserve this fate? I haven’t done anything wrong. But now was not the time to reflect. I had to die and the copy behind me knew it. Even I knew it.

As I staggered onwards,
against all sense of self-preservation. I could have run away but I noticed that not a single cloak figure flew overhead. I heard them howl in the distance as the Master punished them for failing to find me.

“This is
ridiculously stupid,” I muttered to myself.

I could have veered off the track but something stopped me.
It felt like a higher force and I wondered if this was Destiny – that I should die like this, in the forest, amongst copycats and cloaked figures who are actually monsters in disguise. But my death would not unlock the seal as the Master was not there to complete the ritual. It made me wonder why I didn’t just die before. I felt like screaming. All these thoughts of death and dying was driving me to the edge of insanity.

“All I have to do is die,” I said to myself, “and everything will be over, until the next blood moon next year.”

I didn’t know what made me say the last sentence and it made me frown. There was truth in it as if by dying, I would survive. Naturally, that didn’t make sense either, unless Ethan and Aiden’s plan is to miraculously resurrect me afterwards. It would have been nice if one of them told me what was going on. What if something went wrong? I didn’t know what to think about the entire situation.

The
twigs cracked under my foot and I came upon a ring of salt in another clearing. Someone had prepared it especially for the occasion. My heart dropped as I realised that it was it. As soon as I walked into the circle, I would be completing what Ethan had called Destiny and my premonition would come true. I stood there for what seemed like half an eternity as I stared. But where was the witch? I couldn’t see her anywhere.

I cursed the creature the Master wanted to re
lease with my death. I felt like I had two choices, the first being that I get it done and over with quickly and the second being I continue to stand there and listen to my own whining thoughts about not wanting to die, not that I was to blame. I mean, who wants to die? I certainly didn’t.

“So it ends here,” said a voice. The Master appeared out of the shadows.

I took one step backwards but the Master held up a finger and the ground beneath my feet rippled. I staggered forward towards the salt circle.

Parts of the Master’s skin was melting as his claws remained out. He lifted up his hand and I felt an invisible lift me off the ground.

“What are you doing?”

“Sacrificing you, of
course,” he said with such malice that it burned my soul and sucked the air out of my lungs. I gasped for breath but my body refused to respond.

“Why?” I choked out. “Who is this master of yours?”

“Finally,” said the Master, “the question I’ve been waiting for. He is the greatest that ever was, is and ever will be.”

The force that held me lifted me up higher. I cried as a pain twisted my insides. I wanted it to end, t
o beg him to stop but my voice was lost the invisible grip that held my throat.

The Master lifted up his arms as if in prayer, the red cloak he wore slid down and revealed black marks on his skin. They looked like inscriptions, newly carved into his melting flesh that siz
zled and smelled of burnt skin. His voice rang out, deep and clear, the chant forced my eyes to roll back into my head.

Even then, I knew that this was not how I was supposed to die and true to expectations, I fell to the ground. Everything stopped and I coughed and spluttered for air.

The Master fell in the same manner, except, dead and with a dagger in his back. I recognised the hilt and realised that it was the same dagger as the one the Master slit my hand with. He was led to believe that he was alone and the attack came as a surprise.

I attempted to see my rescuer and like a dirt covered prince, Aiden stood with his dark hair framing his perfect face. For a moment, I was convinced that he was an
angel, until he pulled the dagger out of the Master’s back. The blood squelch as the silver blade slid out from the wound. He walked towards me and pulled me up to my feet. Aiden didn’t look at me and I saw that he would be the one to kill me, to keep with what he saw in my premonition.

Shaking, I tried to pull away from him but he
held me tight. His eyes were black and demonic, and it was then that I realised that he was another copy.

“Please let me go,” I begged.

“I apologize,” he said with Aiden’s voice. “But you must die.”

A tear
dropped from his eye and rolled down his cheek. I didn’t understand it. What I saw was not a teardrop of happiness but one of guilt. The copy shoved me into the salt circle.

“I need you to trust me,” he said as he took out a
lighter.

“You’ve got be joking.” I scrambled to my feet and attempted to run away. There was no point trying to reason with him. He wanted me dead despite the conflict on his face.
He threw the lighter down, muttered a spell and a bright orange flame flared up.

The copy stepped into the ring and I edged away.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Please,” I begged.

I screamed. This was how it was meant to end. There was no prince charming. The real Aiden and Ethan was nowhere to be seen. The copy stabbed the dagger into my heart. I felt the blade break my sternum, scraped against the bone that protected my heart and pierce it with its sharp tip.

The copy held onto to me as I fell to my knees.
The trees swirled around us and the flames seemed to burn brighter as I took my last breath. And then I was gone.

~

I screamed as I woke up. The smell of the dead carcass in the fireplace hit my face with a slap. Covered in sweat and shaking, I starred at my surroundings with horror and confusion.

I was dead.
I was sure of it. Aiden’s copy stabbed me.

The blood moon shone its brilliant red light down on the world. I closed my eyes and shook my head. The grimoire sat opened next to me,
its pages glowed as voices whispered in the room. After a minute, the voices disappeared and the light from the grimoire died.

The door swung opened and
a wiry dark figure stood in the doorway. His fingers flicked on the lights and tears burst from my eyes. It was Luke. My brother walked across the floor and placed his arms around me.

“Everything’s alright,” he said into my ear, “you’re still alive.”

I continued to cry and Luke kept his arms around me. It was reassuring to have him around. After what must have felt like forever for Luke, I finally calmed down and suckered up my tears.

“How did you find me?” I asked.

“The copy shoved me in the back seat and drove me here. He kept me in the shed, along with Ethan and Aiden.”

“What? Are you saying that the brothers are here?”

“Yeah. But they’re knocked out.”

“Show me.”

I picked up the grimoire and held onto Luke as we moved through the house, which was in no better state than the room I was imprisoned in. The mustang was parked outside on the overgrown driveway. We walked down the path towards what looked like an abandoned barn, the rafters broken with age and rot.

Aiden and Ethan were on the floor, their bodies so still that I was momentarily convinced that they were dead.

“No,” I choked out. Luke knew what I was thinking. He had the same thoughts when saw them too.

“They’re not dead,” he reassured me. “I checked.
”

I knelt down next to Aiden and placed my hand against his neck. Although his pulse weak, it was still there.

“What happened?” I questioned Luke. My body was shaking and it came out in my voice. I swallowed and forced myself to calm down. There was no point in freaking out, not that it could be helped, especially when one of the copies just stabbed me in the heart.

“I don’
t know,” said Luke, “I was tied to a chair and blind folded. Suddenly, the ropes became loose and I freed myself. I can’t really explain it, Amy, next thing I knew, I found them on the floor and then heard you scream.”