"I think I’ve seen enough," A familiar anonymous voice spoke in the dark, leaning on a tree and surrounded by the darkness of the night. In front of the person stood that catacomb Raziah had come across the other day.
"No one deserves a happy ending." The voice added and then snapped its fingers. At that moment, each and every one of the graves began to tremble. The quake grew wildly till it suddenly burst, exploding the debris as certain bodies began to emerge from under it.
The bodies that stepped out were fully clothed, and they didn’t look dead one bit. The only dead thing in them was their eyes as their flesh was still looking human. They were so dark and sinister, the sight was chilly and ghastly like an impending danger. A total of about twenty-five of them stepped out from the ground, cracking their bones.
The anonymous figure still stood by the tree, a sly smirk forming on the person’s face as the person’s eyes found two people standing in the midst of the walking corpses. It almost seemed too good to be true. The Peaceful night...was about to turn into a nightmare.
Raziah jumped from the bed as soon as she woke up from sleep, moving away from anyone she saw in the room. Fabia had been lying next to her and had also woken up, startled by the woman. Raziah was sweating profusely, her chest moving up and down in heavy breaths.
"Are you ok? You had a nightmare?" Fabia approached her, but Raziah didn’t say anything. Her fingers wouldn’t stop trembling, and she was afraid to tell herself that it might not have been a dream.
"What time is it?" Raziah glanced at the window to see that it was dark outside with a few candles lighting up the room, "Where am I?" She asked.
"It’s almost midnight, and we brought you somewhere you can get better quicker. I don’t know whether you remember him, but Bellerus came over a while ago to check up on you."
Raziah was in deep thought. She didn’t say anything. No, that dream or whatever it was had been far too dangerous. She wouldn’t even be able to go back to sleep.
"I need to..." She was uttering when a loud bang filled their ears, and the earth beneath them trembled. Caius who had been fast asleep in the other small bed woke up from the noise and quickly moved closer to his aunt.
"What was that?" He mumbled, gripping his aunt.
Like a loud whisper, everyone inside the forest could suddenly hear the Crown witch speaking into their ears, the warning and urgency in his tone, "Someone is trying to break the barrier. Everyone stay calm, it will be taken care of."
The loud noise came again, stronger than last time, and shook the building. Raziah almost lost her footing, and worry filled her. If she recalled properly, only a witch allowed to enter could open the barrier. Does that mean someone else is trying to let themselves in?
"I’m scared." Caius cried, burying his face in his aunt’s chest as the bang sounded again, louder than the last time. Another came almost instantly, and then another, and another.
And it continued that way till most witches were covering their ears with their palms.
Raziah grabbed a hold of something before the quake threw her off.
"We are leaving, now!" Acacia appeared out of thin air, holding Cleo in her arms. The baby was fast asleep as if the noise wasn’t bothering him at all. There was a look of fear in her eyes as she stumbled closer to them, "We need to head somewhere safe!" She yelled.
"What is happening?!" Raziah shouted back.
"The forest is under attack. They’re trying to get in!"
Something began dripping on Acacia’s cloth, and she shivered when she saw blood and figured she was bleeding from the nose and mouth. Immediately, she pulled Raziah with her and flung her to where Fabia sat.
Once the three women were touching each other, She quickly cast the spell to get them out of there. But instead, they found themselves standing directly on top of the cliff, staring down at the witch’s town below.
"Oh God...," Acacia’s head was pounding. Someone powerful was interfering with her spells which had caused her to involuntarily bring them here instead of somewhere far. The witch responsible for this had to be powerful and she might not be the only one getting affected by it.
Fabia rushed to her side, "What is going on?"
"Both of you need to run to the other side of the forest," Acacia groaned, "There’s an emergency exit at the very back. They should let you out. Go!" She added and began to cough out blood. Her body had gotten incredibly weak, and she quickly passed the child to Fabia before collapsing to the ground.
The sorceress was still conscious, and Fabia had handed the child to Raziah and was trying to check Acacia’s pulse when the loudest bang of all came through. It sounded like a mini bomb had just been set off in everyone’s ears, then...it was followed by something even louder.
A shattering noise, like broken glass. It exploded fiercely all around the forest, and the shockwave it released brought up something like a sandstorm. It was deafening, and a loud ringing filled everyone’s ears for a short while.
Everyone around had stumbled back and fallen, with Raziah who had Cleo lying on her chest while she struggled to get back on her feet.
The silence that followed was one she hated so much. Her heart hurt so much. The realization was overpowering.
She couldn’t feel the presence of the barrier around the forest anymore.
It had been... shattered. They were truly under attack by someone very powerful.
"Do you know where Bell is?" Raziah asked the sorceress who was still shivering as she looked around, utter disbelief written on her face.
"Acacia! We do not have time!" Raziah tried again.
"Wherever he is, he might just have been affected by the rest of us," She murmured, looking like she was staring at a ghost.
Raziah turned around to see a faint image walking toward them through the sand mist in the air. It was still far, but there was something very sinister approaching them. And it didn’t look like it was just one person.
"Caius, Climb on Fabia’s back and hold her tight," Raziah ordered, then turned to Acacia, "Can you manage one more spell for a safe landing?" She asked.
Fabia and Acacia looked at each other, wondering what the Princess was up to.
"I used my last strength to cast a protective spell on the baby," Acacia replied. No wonder he wasn’t affected and still sleeping soundly.
Once Caius was on the doctor’s back, Raziah handed the child to Fabia, "Go through the back and escape,"
"You have to manage one Last spell because I’m going to push you off this cliff. Make yourself land safely," Without waiting for another word, Raziah already had Acacia rolling off the cliff. The least she could do for herself is to make sure she was safe.
"What are you waiting for? Run!" Raziah yelled urgently at Fabia.
"And leave you here?"
Raziah glanced back to see the figures were getting more defined in the storm, "Yes, I will hold them off. Take the child and run!"
"Raziah! I don’t know if you would be able to..."
"I won’t know till I try. And for all I know, all the witches that could have helped us could be getting affected like Acacia. I do not have the time nor energy to keep convincing you, I need you to run as fast as you can, now!!"
Fabia gave her one more worried and anxious look before she took off. Since she’s stayed in the forest for a while, she knew exactly where the emergency exit was located. It might not even be there anymore now that the barrier has been broken.
With that taken care of, the Princess turned back to see the figures more clearly. They were three of them, and just like her gut had told her, they had the same dead eyes like the corpses from her dream. It hadn’t been a dream. Three of them were here. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
And they were nothing short of incredibly powerful.
Powerful enough to make her take a step back.
Two males and a female.
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