My F*cked Up Fairytale

GHOST OF BESTIAS - CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

As I'm pulled away from my dream, a voice that sounds similar to a screeching crow flows around me. It soon is joined by another voice that holds the same unsettling tune to it. I bring my hands to my ears, vainly trying to shield myself from the horrible sound, but I find that I cannot feel my hands against my ears. There is no pressing sensation greeting me or even a slight muffling of those voices either. 

All there is is a strange sense of silence within me. I feel as if I am present in this moment, yet it seems that only my mind is awake, not my body or heart. For, I now realize that there is no beating within my chest, just a sort of empty void. This seems scarily similar to death. 

Once I connect my current state with the thought of death, I let out a scream that finally quiets the voices that have been winding around me for the past few minutes. My scream is like the wail of a siren that begs to be heard by all of those who may be around it. It presses into me, swelling my empty chest with air and filling my barren veins with warmth. 

Suddenly, a cold chill bites at my skin, and warbled colors splash across the once-darkened canvas of my vision. Those colors paint my surroundings that lay in shades of grey, brown, and green. Eventually, I can make out a stone floor covered in various white markings and brown, rickety shelves holding jars full of unsettling objects that make me sweep my eyes away. 

A cauldron bubbling over a crackling fire lights up my view, making me pause a moment. That fire looks and sounds all too real for it to be fake. Everything here seems too real.

"Could it be...?" I whisper but my voice comes out as a detached echo that has no end to it. The words keep looping, forever running around in the space they had been released into.

That is until another, more powerful set of words clashes with my own, completely destroying them, "Be gone, you wretched ghost!"

Obviously, that shriek was not being directed toward me. I mean, I'm still alive and kicking as far as I'm concerned. That's what I thought as I scanned the room in search of who had just spoken. 

When I finally look to my right toward a corner riddled with cobwebs, I spot two small women, both hunched over with black cloaks hiding their bodies and sharp-tipped hats adding about four inches to their stature. Their opaque eyes stare up at the ceiling...at me. 

A jarring feeling settles within my stomach as I dare to cast my gaze down, only to see that my feet are not touching the ground. Instead, they are hanging in the air, as if I'm being held up by some invisible force. 

I know better than to just conclude that I have somehow earned the ability to fly. No, it doesn't just end there. I am a ghost. Questions bombard my mind, but I can't even utter out a single one, as the other small woman speaks up before I can.

"Be gone, we have not a single soul to offer you!" The woman screams, and then she turns to her partner. An attempt to quietly whisper is made but I can hear every word, "Sybil, say something to scare it off!"

"You best be listening to us! If you continue to stay, we will use your whisps for the next spell we weave!" Sybil offers me her attempt at a scary threat, but I can't seem to take either of the women very seriously when they are cowering in a corner.

I don't see why they're so terrified though, especially when they have more unsettling things lying around. I mean, they have eyeballs in jars, for crying out loud! Eyeballs that follow my every move, and I don't know how that's even remotely possible. Well, I don't know how it's possible that I've become a ghost either. 

However, I have a strange feeling that these women might be able to give me an answer. Despite their obvious fear of me, I start walking–...actually, no...more like, floating toward them. God, that sounds so weird, and believe me, it feels just as weird.

As I float toward the women, one of them grows even more terrified. "Sybil...Sybil! It's...it's coming toward us! Oh, is this how the two mighty witches of Magania will meet their end? By a soul-hungry ghost? Is this our punishment for our sins toward the King? Will we—...."

"For the sake of all the rabid rats in our land, please quiet yourself, Nimue!" Sybil shouts exasperatedly as Nimue clings onto her like a koala to a tree. Her voice then hardens as she glares at me, hand extended toward me in a sort of claw-like gesture, "I will not let you threaten me or my partner any longer! By the power of the..."

When I am mere inches from Sybil and Nimue, Sybil's voice trails off. Her opaque eyes suddenly sparkle with various shades of green and gold. It was like watching a silent firework set off in her irises.

"Sybil...? Why have you gone quiet? Has the ghost taken your sou–..."

A wrinkly hand clamps over Nimue's rambling mouth and an eerie silence engulfs the room. Now the strange colors within Sybil's irises have ceased their spell, leaving me to only gaze into an abyss of skin-prickling clearness that makes me feel the need to retreat. I almost find myself doing so until one bony finger is directed toward me.

"Oh, my holy beasts..." Sybil whispers in what can only be awe, "...might that be Cyra floating up there?"

The sound of my name resonating through the room brings a loud, powerful thump from within my chest. It almost knocks me backward, and it feels as though someone had sent one hell of a good punch into me. 

I steady myself and press my hand over my chest, eager to feel the beating of my heart again, though it is nowhere to be found. My chest has unfortunately returned to being an empty casket once more.

"Cyra...?" Nimue echos my name, making the painful thump in my chest return for only a moment's time. She lifts her head from where it was hidden in the folds of Sybil's cloak, then she looks over her shoulder to gaze at me. A familiar sparkle of green and gold lights up her eyes as she stares. "Well, I'll be damned. It seems her soul has found its way back to Bestias."

"I'm not sure how this has happened, but do not fret, dear one. We'll return you to your rightful home!" Sybil vows with a smile full of gaps.

I don't return her smile, instead, I let a frown fall over my lips before sternly announcing, "I won't go back to Earth, not when Dorian is here." 

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I'm sorry this chapter is shorter than normal, but I still hope you all enjoyed it 😬

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