~YULIA
I could not breathe as I watched.
Was this how my mother died? Bloody and alone with no one to help her?
“No,” I croaked as tears welled up my eyes.
Issa said nothing as he followed Mom into the house. I watched with a broken heart as she limped with agony written all over her bloody cut up face. She held onto her left wrist where the hand had been cut off as she struggled.
Who could have done this?
A rustle of leaves took our attention away and we saw figures clad in hooded black robes following Mom into the house.
Witches.
They were in no hurry. They walked like they had all the time in the world.
“Why did anyone not notice this was happening?” I whispered as pain coursed through me.
Issa watched with his fist balled up. He said nothing as he silently watched the whole thing.
Mom pushed the door with her shoulder releasing a painful grunt as she entered the house. The hooded figures, eight in number, followed her into the house. I ran into the house and towards them. I succeeded in entering the house but a hard and invincible force hit back and I fell on my back before I could touch anyone one of those unknown witches.
“You cannot prevent anything from happening, Yulia,” Issa said in a grave voice. “This is just a memory; it has already happened.”
“Why did she not call for help?” I asked as I stood up.
Issa raised a hand and waved in front of him. The air in front of him shimmered. “Magic, they covered this place with a sound barrier.” He said. “That is why nobody heard a thing.
I watched as they cornered Mom who had a defiant look on her blood covered face with her back against the wall. The witches pulled down their hoods and I saw that they were all women.
“You could have joined us, Marianna,” One of them said. “You could have avoided this.”
“Look at you, the mighty Frostwood werewolf, missing a hand and looking all ugly from all those cuts on her face,” Another one taunted.
Mom spat blood at their feet but said nothing.
“What do they want from her?” I asked with a tightness in my voice.
“You,” Issa said as he watched on.
I could see that he was being stoic but I knew that he was just as helpless as I am.
I was not home the night this happened. Where the hell was I? With Pete and Lana at a party. I remembered that I did not want to go but Mom had convinced me to go out and have fun.
Did she know that this was going to happen? Did she do this just to save my life?
The eight women raised their hands towards Mom and began to chant together. Mom began to violently convulse. She began to rise up and scream in pain. She was very high in the air until I heard a sickening burst. The eight women dropped their hands and Marianna fell to the floor with a crunch.
“They destroyed her heart,” Issa said as he watched his sister’s dead body.
Mom died with her eyes open as blood pooled around her body.
The air around us shimmered and everything began to change shape until we were back in our room. I stared at the small orb in disbelief. There was no blood on it anymore. No one said anything for a while as the box closed by itself.
“They must pay for what they did,” I said, surprised at how calm my voice was.
“We have to find them first,” Issa replied. My face was caked with tears and my heart filled with rage. I looked at Issa, unable to help myself.
“This is all my fault,” I said in despair. “The only woman who treated me like her real daughter is dead because of me, they killed her while looking for me.”
Issa grabbed my hand and pulled me closer until our bodies touched. I leaned helplessly into his strong body and held on tightly to his clothes.
“Never blame yourself, Yulia, Marianna died protecting you, and so will I,” He said with intense passion as he held on to me. “I swear to you, they will all pay for this.”
Issa’s phone rang and at first, we ignored it but then I realized that we were in delicate times and we had no luxury of ignoring phone calls. His phone rang again and I urged him to answer it. “It could be important,” I said to him as I cleaned the tears from my eyes.
Fight now, mourn later. I inwardly told myself. Issa put the phone on loud speaker as he answered the call.
“You need to come down to the school, Issa,” Jamal’s voice said. He sounded weary and fed up. “And bring Yulia, too, I do not think there is any point in hiding this from her.”
I became apprehensive and scared by his words.
“What happened?” I asked.
“This is something you need to see for yourself, there are no words to describe this,” Jamal said.
“It’s them,” Issa said.
I knew immediately that he was talking about the cult. They had struck again and this time, it was in school. I hastily put on a pair of boots and one of Issa’s leather jackets.
The drive back to school was pensive and quiet. There was no need to exchange words. I was just thinking deeply about the things that I saw. I could not imagine the pain that my mother went through.
The faces of those eight witches were forever etched in my brain and I was never going to forget them any time soon. Issa drove recklessly at top speed and we reached Canis academy in minutes.
Crowds had gathered by the time we arrived. Right there in the middle of the school were bodies, naked and arranged to form a circle. Five male and five females. All had black roses sticking out of their mouths fully bloomed. They were all dead.