The Woman in the Woods (Saul Silva x OC)

Chapter 9: Years Ago

Sasha wasn't moving, locked under a spell. She couldn't lift a hand, couldn't blink an eye, couldn't even breathe. Her aunt, despite suffering the worse of Rosalind's attack, managed to cast this spell on her. It was meant to kill as it deprived her of oxygen and slowed her heartbeat until it eventually would stop. But it also blocked both fear and pain, a merciful way to die. And Rosalind bought it. What torments she could inflict, she directed only to her aunt, convinced that there was no point dealing with Sasha. She tempted her with a quick death, but since aunt Kira didn't fear it, no bargain was struck.

Through her aunt's moans and gasps, she could hear the baby quietly cooing, when just seconds earlier she had been wailing loudly. Maybe Rosalind being a mind fairy had something to do with that. After all, Sasha thought the baby should be able to sense that her sister, Daphne, had died in the hands of said fairy. The girl, only fifteen, was lying motionless just a foot above her head.

Then Sasha heard steps moving away, growing fainter and fainter. But even before Rosalind was fully gone, Aunt Kira was moving again, dragging her damaged body through the ground, through the pain, planting an elbow, pulling and then planting an elbow again. It seemed to take forever as Sasha lay breathless, her heartbeat growing fainter, until her aunt finally was right beside her. She spoke the words, her eyes turning black, and Sasha gasped air in once again.

She underestimated how numb she got under the spell. Now that it was lifted, she felt the damage to her body, the perforation of her stomach going through her back, the way the soil clung to her through her sticky blood. She imagined she had a giant hole in her middle, but it was just a large ugly slash, loose but not a hole. She was too preoccupied with her own suffering, she didn't realize that aunt Kira was doing something else.

The old witch was mouthing words and reaching out to the sky with her hand. As her eyes turned into black orbs, black veins also cascaded down her fingers to her arms, while blood from her injuries began to float and glisten and turn into red sparks, hovering over Sasha.

"Aunt... no..."

This was it; this was why they were called blood witches. Aunt Kira continued with the chant as dark veins began to creep up her neck, inching up her cheeks. She still held her hand to the sky, concentrating the last of her energies to this spell. Sasha begged her to stop, but she wouldn't. She couldn't even allow an interruption or the spell would fail. Already, Sasha could feel it, her nerves tingling, the pain in her stomach mixed with an incredible itch as her body began repairing itself. Her aunt continued mouthing the words, until she was fully covered in those veins and Sasha's was fully encased in those red sparks. Only, then did her aunt lower her hand and then, as though touching the sparks, she pushed down and, all at once, Sasha felt electricity pass through her whole body, shocked from the very tip of her nose down to the heels of her feet. She writhed as that itch grew ever so strongly and yet her arms couldn't reach it, spasming as they were on her sides.

When it was over, her aunt collapsed beside her. Sasha sat up and touched her stomach; there was no wound but there was still a visible incoherent red line where her skin connected itself, not quite a scar yet. She looked down at her aunt as she lay dying. The black veins were gone but she was so pale and, when Sasha touched her cheek, it was so cold.

"Survive," she told her. Sasha could only nod, holding back the guilt and anger over what her aunt did. "Survive," she said again and then said nothing more.

///

Bloom was looking at the map in her phone, then at the street the taxi was driving her to. She was beginning to question Terra and the magic behind this little search. If she was going to a graveyard, it might be less creepy. Well, okay, not less creepy, but at least she'd know what to expect. Here, from lively streets and loud neighborhoods, she was getting deeper and deeper into what seemed like a ghost town. Abandoned buildings and houses cropped up on either side of the street, and what people she saw looked sketchy or maybe that was just bias. Maybe they just woke on the wrong side of the bed. Everyday. For the past two years.