CHAPTER NINETY
CATHERINE’S POV
I opened my eyes, and my vision was hazy, my head was pounding, and my body arch was arched badly.
The environment I was in was not familiar a bit; there were a lot of charms everywhere, and my best guess was that I was in a coven.
“Ouch,” I yelled, holding my head because of how much it hurt.
I tried sitting up, but I realized there was a drip connected to my hand.
“You are awake, I thought you would never wake up,” I heard an elderly woman’s voice.
Her voice didn’t sound familiar, so I turned to look at her immediately. She was seated in a chair opposite my bed; she was old, and she looked like a witch.
“Are you a …,”
“Yes, I am a witch and you are in a coven,” The woman said, smiling at me.
She barely had teeth and there was a dimple at the left side of her cheeks.
“How did I get here?” I asked her, as I managed to sit up, resting my back on the wall.
“A man brought you here; he claimed to be one of your guards; he says you are in trouble in your pack, and he doesn’t know how to say you,” She replied, and immediately, my head started to arch again.
I saw different images of myself on a fire, yelling and weeping for help, the memory made my head hurt, and my nose started bleeding.
“What is the problem? Are you alright?” The elderly woman asked as she cleaned my bleeding nose.
Immediately my head stopped arching, and my vision became clear.
“How long have I been unconscious?” I asked, wanting to know how long I had been bedridden.
“For three weeks and four days, we thought you weren’t even going to survive because the man said that the girl who was in the fire with you died,” She said, and I widened my eyes in surprise.
I was in a fire and someone died, and I survived. That was a very big miracle, although I still felt bad for the girl who died before she was saved.
“Has her burial been done?” I asked, and the lady shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know anything, I am just an elderly woman looking for my granddaughters,” She said, and I nodded my head in response.
I didn’t want to ask about her granddaughters because I didn’t want to intrude into her matters.
“Does your head still hurt?” He asked, and I nodded, feeling the pain again.
“It hurts badly; I can’t even think straight,” I whined, and the lady nodded.
Soon, the door opened, and a little girl entered inside. Her face looked familiar but I couldn’t recall when I saw her or where I saw her.
“This is Nikky, my great-granddaughter,” The elderly Woman said as the girl approached my bed.
“How are you feeling?” The little girl asked with tears in her eyes, she looked very worried and happy at the same time.
“I feel better but my head still hurts,” I answered her question, trying to give her good assurance that I was alright.
“Take this, it relieves pain,” The lady said, passing me a liquid that was placed in a black cup.
I wasn’t frightened about how creepy it looked because I knew witches were creepy, and I didn’t even know how I knew that.
I took the cup from her and drank all the content.
“Thank you,” I appreciated the little girl as I gave her back the empty cup.
It didn’t take long before my headache subsided.
“Are you alright now?” the little girl asked and I nodded my head.
“Get her something to eat; I think she might be hungry,” The elderly woman told her, but the girl was reluctant to leave the room.
“I’m waiting for her gill recovery first before doing that,” The girl said, angrily.
“You promised to do as I say, I won’t repeat myself,” The woman yelled, and then the girl frowned at the woman’s words.
“I’ll be back,” She assured me before leaving the room, leaving the elderly woman and me alone in the room.
“What is your name?” I asked, realizing that I didn’t even know her name.
“Oh, you can call me Elphaba, although people call me EL,” She said, with a smile.
“Okay, I prefer to call you El. It’s more elegant, and it suits you well,” I said, and she burst into a round of laughter, making me confused.
“People call me that to mock me, but I think you have a different motive,” She said, after laughing. I could hear some pain behind her laughter.
“I am sincerely sorry; I didn’t know you were mocked by that name; I just felt it suited a nice person like you,” I assured her, but she didn’t feel excited about my assurance.
“What makes you think that I’m a nice person?” She asked, and I was certain it was a rhetorical question, but I answered anyway.
“It takes a good woman to take me in, treat me, and house me till my recovery; not everyone would do that,” I replied to her question.
She raised her head and looked into my eyes for the first time. She had cat eyes but was covered with wrinkles and eye bags; it seemed like she lacked sleep a lot.
“I am not nice, don’t be deceived, kid; I am ripping the evil I sowed when I was younger, like you,” The woman said, making me confused. I wondered what she meant by that, but I didn’t ask her that question.
I didn’t know what to say again and the room was silent for some minutes before the woman spoke up again.
“When they brought you here, I didn’t ask him of your name; what is your name, kid?” She asked, getting up from the chair for the first time and that was when I noticed she was a very huge woman.
She looked at me for an answer, and I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out; my brain was blank.
“What is my name?” I asked the lady, confused.