NIGHTS OF HALLOW

Perdita’s steps were quick on the ground as soon as Sthena sounded his warning. Knowing him, she was sure he had his plans ahead of whatever that impersonating witch had in mind.

Leaving the building entirely, Perdita walked a narrow, cleared path surrounded by trees and bushes while in search of Daemon.

On the way, she saw one of Daemon’s men approach with frantic steps. She inquired from him, ”Where is Daemon?”

”I do not know, my lady.” The man answered, his breath errant as his steps earlier. He pointed in the direction towards his left, saying, ”He had asked that I and the other men scout the area while he finished up with the witches. I have gone back to meet him but couldn’t find him nor my fellow men.”

Oh no! Perdita exclaimed in her. ”Where did you say you left him last? Lead the way.” She ordered, immediately stepping up to see what had happened. Suddenly she paused, turning abruptly to the man, and without warning she snapped his wrist with her nail.

”Ah!” The guard winced, clutching the hand that immediately began bleeding.

”My apologies,” Perdita stared at him straight into his shocked face. ”I was making sure I wasn’t speaking with a witch.”

The guard turned confused at what Perdita said, but she didn’t explain more than that. ”Come on, we have no time to waste.” Came Perdita’s command.

In no time, Perdita and the guard arrived at the scene, where he said he had last left Daemon, but not even a trace of any person could be felt or seen there.

Perdita turned in every direction, her focus sharpened as she listened for any noise that could give way to where she would find Daemon, but everything remained silent.

”My lady,” the guard called to the attention of Perdita. He stretched his hand forward, showing what he had just picked from the ground. ”This is chief advisor Daemon’s hilt.”

Without wasting a second, Perdita took the hilt from him and pressed it to the ground with her palm covering it. Her eyes closed as she focused, and when they reopened, they were a sharp, piercing green.

Shocked, the guard stumbled backwards, his eyes wide like saucers. Isn’t she a human?! He asked himself as the realization hit him at once. The lady is a witch!

Before he could recover from what he had just seen, Perdita abruptly stood up and ordered, ”Come immediately. I know where they are.”

Without saying a word of refusal, the guard followed Perdita, whose running speed exceeded that of his own even though he was a vampire.

Arriving at the house where Perdita had perceived Daemon and the others were, she signaled for the guard to go behind the house while she took the front door. She still couldn’t believe how they no longer had the upper hand, and these witches had taken Daemon and his men hostage. She only hoped Sthena was safe wherever he was with that impersonator.

Taking a deep breath, Perdita walked to the front door and knocked on it, but no response came forth.

Knocking one more time, the door flung open, revealing a scaly-looking witch whose gaze darkened on seeing her.

Without waiting for her presence to register in the witcher’s mind, Perdita’s hand shot forward and grabbed him by the neck. She twisted it to the side, the sound of a breaking bone echoing, and he fell to the ground dead.

”Thanks for the warm welcome,” Perdita muttered. She pushed the lifeless body of the witch to the side and stepped into the building.

Inside was pitch black, with not even a single streak of light entering inside. She turned towards the door, but it shut itself immediately with a deafening thud.

The closing of the door came with a whizzing sound in the air that whipped past her face, and she bent to the side, merely escaping the sharp knife hurled at her. The knife fell to the ground with a clanking sound as she adjusted her eyesight to fit the darkness of the room, and soon, a swamp of fifteen witches came at her all at once.

Attacking such a number of witches who whizzed past her every second proved hard, as all she did was defend herself while looking for an opening to launch an attack on them.

Two witches came at her, snarling and swiping their already bloodied claws at her. She swung to the side, bending as she did so, dodging the sharp claw of one of them and also successfully landing a blow on the face of the other witch.

Another witch viciously attacked from behind, but before she could retaliate, a sharp pain pierced through the side of her stomach as a short pitch fork pierced inside her.

”Ugh!” A loud cry tore through her lips, where she lost focus and her bearing. She clutched her side where blood had begun to drip from.

For a moment, she felt her head sway, her vision blurring at the hazy movement of the witches. She heard one of them cackle loudly, the sound piercing through the building and beyond.

”Poison.” She whispered to herself. The pitchfork was poisoned, and this had put her at a disadvantage.

”Why isn’t she dying?” One of the witches quizzed, quietly observing Perdita. ”She is supposed to drop dead immediately.”

”Unless she isn’t human,” another interjected, her snake-like eyes snapping in another fit of rage. ”Kill her!”

”Fuck!” Perdita cursed at her luck today. Wasting not even a second, her free hand shot up in the air, the impact stopping every one of the witches in their tracks.

Exerting her strength in focusing on the magic she had just conjured. And one after the other, the witches dropped to the ground, their bodies shattering as they did.

Putting more strength, she felt her breath hitch, pain shooting up at once along her spine and straight to her heart. She wheezed for breath, coughing out blood at the same time as her strength weakened. This made her hand drop to her side, thereby disconnecting whatever magic she used to hold the remaining witches in place.

Seizing the opportunity, the six remaining witches came up at once on her, eyes glinting evilly. However, before they could make a strike, Perdita dropped to the ground, her palm placed flat on the ground. This caused the ground beneath the witches to give way, and all of them were swallowed and buried under the ground.

The ground went back to normal again, where it showed no trace of what had transpired some seconds ago.

”My lady!” The guard, who had felt the shaking of the ground from the back of the house, had rushed in only to witness more shocking scenes that had his eye widen more than before. He stood rooted while he watched as the ground opened up to swallow the witches.

But before that, his heartbeat quickened when he saw the lady coughing out blood. He quickly rushed to her side and helped her sit up on her heels. ”What happened? Why are you coughing out blood?!”

”Go,” Perdita pointed to the door opposite from where she sat, heaving for breath, the poison still potent in her blood. ”Save Daemon and the men.”

”But you,” the guard hesitated, clearly unwilling to leave her side. ”We need to get you to safety. You are injured.”

”Go immediately!” Perdita ordered. ”I am okay, but they will not be, and neither will you be in the next coming minutes.”

A confused expression crossed the guard’s features, not understanding what Perdita was saying. He opened his mouth to speak when he felt something warm trickle down his nose and into his mouth.

”Blood,” he whispered in alarm. ”The air is infected!”

Those damn witches! The guard cursed inwardly, standing to his feet. Turning to the door, he kicked it open to have the door fall with a loud thud to the ground.

Inside, Daemon sat against the wall almost lifeless, his nose bloodied from the blood that continued to drip down. His body too wasn’t left out, as he had received a considerable amount of cuts and stabs.

”Chief Daemon!” The guard rushed in. He helped Daemon stand, ready to carry him when a hand stopped him.

”Help them first,” Daemon said, his voice weak where his vision also appeared blurry. He held himself enough as he stumbled out of the room they were locked in.

While the guard helped his fellow men, Daemon stepped into the room to find Perdita on the ground still trying to recover from the lethal poison she was jabbed with.

”My lady!” Panic struck in, making his weak limbs have a sudden strength of their own. He clutched beside her, eyes fearfully assessing her all over when he saw the deep wound by her side where blood had pulled together.

Perdita turned on hearing Daemon’s voice. Relief washed over her face on seeing he was alive even though he had sustained much worse injury all over his body.

”Leave immediately,” she weakly urged while pushing him away lightly. ”You can’t stay here any longer. I am a witch. I can stand the air, but you can’t.”

”Neither can you. You are also a vampire,” Daemon retorted, paying no heed to her words. ”You risked your life to save us. Allow me to do this much. Even His Majesty would kill to save you, so please, allow me.”

A sigh left her lips as she weakly gave in to Daemon’s stubbornness to help her even when he was the one in more grave danger.

By the time Perdita and Daemon made it outside, the air had affected them both more than before, but more greatly on Daemon, who coughed more blood on the ground, this time the blood black in colour.

The guard had also helped all his men out of the building, where not even one of them could stand, as they were still in a daze. This made Perdita place her palm on the ground again, where she tried taking the poison out of the body of everyone.

Channeling the energy to the ground, the nearby trees withered in seconds as she took their life force to heal everyone and then channeled the poison back to the ground. She did this for three more times, and the wound by her side began to heal, her breathing and that of everyone else gradually returning to normal.

”No more,” Daemon intervened by taking her hand away from the ground. The impact of touching her hand made him stumble some steps away. ”Use your energy no more, my lady.” He knew even His Majesty would be furious to know she used her energy to heal. Healing them not only took the life force of the plants around but also that of Perdita’s. He had seen her eye colour change from green to red and back again.

”Just what in the bloody hell of a poison did these witches use?!” Perdita spat, fury boiling deep within her. She spat out the blood in her mouth, wiping her mouth with the back of her sleeves.

She turned to the guard. ”See to it that your men are taken to safety. I will go see where His Majesty is.”

”You are still weak.” Daemon spoke up almost immediately. ”Stay here, I’ll go myself.”

”Given what these witches are capable of, I am in a better position to deal with them.” Perdita replied, firm in her words.

”Then I’ll go with you,” Daemon stated. ”Just in case anything happens.” He added to the suspicious and skeptically looking eyes of Perdita.