NIGHTS OF HALLOW

Back inside the hut, the witch’s hand raised in the air with the knife in hand brought it down on Sthena’s chest with speed and strength to immediately end the pureblooded vampire king.

However, before the knife could touch the fabric of Sthena’s garment, he was nowhere to be found on the ground. This caused the witcher to aimlessly hit the ground instead, and the impact had her slump to the ground.

The witcher’s eyes widened in disbelief, not understanding what had happened. She sharply turned, her wide eyes searching for the pureblooded vampire on the ground seconds ago.

”Looking for me?” Sthena remarked behind her, and she spun around to see the king standing before her, tall and strong.

Wasn’t he paralyzed? The Witcher questioned, now doubting what her eyes were seeing. ”How?” She uttered, the shock apparent in her voice that cackled as she spoke.

”How am I standing before you unharmed?” Sthena questioned back, a sly chuckle escaping his lips, his eyes glinting evilly.

”Impossible!” The witcher exclaimed, gripping hard on the knife still in her hand. ”There is no way you or anyone else could survive the smell of my ritual.”

Sthena regarded the witcher for a while, and he said, ”Bold of you to think you can capture me.” The smile disappeared from his face the moment his eyes locked directly upon the witcher.

”You were coughing blood and could not—”

”Walk?” Sthena completed her sentence. ”Do not be a total dimwit now. With a few faking coughs of blood and appearing as though I couldn’t stand made you think you had me hostage?”

”And your little spell of making me not use my ability?” Sthena scoffed. ”How stupid of you to think that it would have an effect on me.”

Sthena walked towards the witcher while she tightened her grip on the knife, her eyes vicious and ready to use it. ”If your little magic worked on me, do you think I would still be alive and be the king till this day?”

This cunning vampire! The witcher snarled within her. To think she had thought she had successfully captured him while all along he played her the fool. She couldn’t die like this, never!

The witcher, the next second, stood and swung her arm holding the knife across Sthena’s face, but the pureblooded vampire had moved from his position even before she could successfully mark her aim. He was too fast for her.

Not waiting, she sharply turned, but the pureblooded vampire’s arm came up faster than she could see and struck across her face. She stumbled backwards, the knife flying away from her hand in the process.

”I’d advise you to save your energy, little witcher.” Sthena clicked his tongue, shaking his head at the futile and clumsy attack from the witch.

”Don’t come any closer!” The witch shrieked, visibly afraid of what the vampire might do to her. She needed to find an escape.

”The moment you appeared before me in the form of Perdita was the time I itched badly to shred you into pieces.” Sthena’s gaze darkened, the rage from the earlier encounter returning. To have another fake Perdita appear before him while he had lost the real one was the last thing his patience could take. It had been because of the witcher saying she had somewhere to show him that had made him change his mind.

He had always known. The witcher shifted, attempting to stand, but her body remained rooted to the ground. Her eyes narrowed, and anger mingled with defeat washed over her, making her scaly skin crawl in fear.

”Don’t tire yourself out. I gave you a comfortable position on the ground.” Sthena casually remarked without turning to look at the witcher. ”Now, let’s get into what I came here for, shall we?”

”Why did Vetis ask you to create those dummies, and what do you stand to gain from it?”

”You are never going to get anything from my mouth!” The witcher snapped at Sthena’s question.

”Very well then,” Sthena nodded. He went to the pot still being brewed. ”Perhaps your body will be a better ingredient to whatever you are cooking up in this pot.”

To this, the witch didn’t respond; instead, she said, ”You may think you have achieved what you came here for, but I tell you it is far from it. You may have the power now, but it won’t be so when we take over.”

”By we, you mean, you witches?” Sthena turned back to watch her. ”I should make an example of you to your fellow witches on what would happen if anyone dared cause chaos in my kingdom.”

He took a steel-carved bowl beside the boiling and scooped the content of the pot. ”But before that, why don’t you have a taste of your medicine?”

”No...no! Don’t come close to me with that thing!” The witcher snarled, eyes fearfully watching the pureblooded vampire approach, a maddening smile on his face.

”Seems you fear your own creation?” Sthena grabbed the witcher’s mouth and forced her mouth open. He then made her drink the potion she had been brewing, which was intended to boil with Sthena inside.

The witch gagged, wriggling her body to get free from Sthena’s strong hold, but every attempt proved futile as every drop of the potion went down her throat and into her stomach.

Not long after, the reaction of the potion began to have its effect on her. Her lips down to every place the potion had touched burned with a fiery sensation that made her eyes roll back in pain. Her insides burned and churned as though they were inside the hot pot itself being boiled by the hot coal.

Sthena took the witch by the leg and dragged her along as he walked out of the hut. But before he left completely, he scooped another bowl of the potion and poured it all over the witch, making her shriek loudly, the echo resounding throughout the forest.

With a snap of his fingers, he set the hut on fire, the flames rising up to the sky with a thick black smoke.

Taking the witch by the leg again, he dragged her along the forest floor; the burning from the potion he fed and poured on her, coupled with the contact of her scalding skin with the ground, left the witch’s scream trail along the path Sthena walked.

”Sthena!” He heard his name, his steps immediately coming to an abrupt halt. His eyes fell upon Perdita, who approached him with quick steps, and behind her was Daemon.

He breathed out, the inaudible sigh of relief from his lips making his head calm from all the raging thoughts in his head. But the look of relief was short-lived when he took a whiff of the blood on Perdita, a patch of dried blood visible on her.

Perdita, approaching with Daemon, felt her tensed shoulders relax when he saw the familiar red hair and the face that had etched themselves in her head.

”Sthena!” She called out, quickening her pace to get to him. She threw herself at him, not bothering with the darkened, worried look on his face. All that mattered was that he was safe and she was with him now.

Sthena gently pushed Perdita away from him, his eyes still narrowed. He questioned, ”What happened to you?” And his gaze went to Daemon, who bowed.

”Milord,”

”I am fine—”

”You are not,” Sthena sharply interrupted. His eyes assessed Perdita from her head to her toes and back at the side of her stomach, where the deep wound had continued to heal, and this made the frown on his face deepen.

Perdita exhaled, explaining, ”I was caught up in a fight with the witches, and I was outnumbered. One of them stabbed me with a poisoned pitchfork.”

”They are all dead now.” Perdita added to calm the already furious king, whose gaze questioningly turned to look at Daemon.

”My deepest apologies, Milord. I failed to protect Lady Perdita.” Daemon’s head remained bowed, not attempting to look at Sthena.

”Please do not blame him. The witches captured him and his men, and I had to step in. This was how it happened.” Perdita explained. She took the hand of Sthena and squeezed it reassuringly.

”How did this happen, Daemon?”

Daemon raised his head but didn’t look Sthena directly in the face. He replied, ”I was stabbed by a poisoned dagger. The witches had taken the form of one of my men, and before I could realize what happened, it was too late.”

”How are you now?” Sthena inquired, a look of worry now etched on his face. He could see the wounds that were yet to heal all over Daemon’s body. For them not to have healed meant the cuts came from a poisoned knife.

”I am slowly healing, Milord. Her lady took some of the poison out of my body...” Daemon’s voice trailed when he realized he had just said what he shouldn’t have.

This time, the questioning narrowed look landed back on Perdita.

”Why don’t we finish up with what we came here for? It has been a long night for all of us.” She quickly interjected. ”We should be happy this is finally over. And before I forget, there is a building where I saw dummy-looking like bodies.”

”Must be the ones they had planned to awaken using the potion this witch was brewing.”

”Awaken?” Perdita quizzed.

”Yes,” Sthena nodded. ”Unfortunately, they needed my blood to complete the ritual, and I still don’t know the reason why.”

”They used this as a perfect opportunity to execute it.” Perdita added to the words of Sthena.

”What will be the next move now?” Daemon questioned this time, his gaze falling on the witch who lay on the floor still groaning from the excruciating pain on her body.

Sthena grabbed the witch’s leg again and began walking, and Perdita and Daemon followed him.

”For now, we will dig more into this and the reason for creating what they had begun creating. Not to add the blood pills I saw, I need to know what exactly Vetis has planned.”

”Vetis is behind this as well?” Perdita turned to look at Sthena, and he nodded to her question. He went on to tell them everything the witcher had said back at the hut.

”Taking heads from the grave of pureblooded vampires to create dummies, the presence of blood pills, and the potion to awaken them by adding Sthena’s blood in it.” Perdita listed all they had discovered from the investigation they came for. ”What does he aim to achieve from all these?!”

”The headwarden’s son, did you find him?” Perdita asked, remembering the man who had wanted to save his son.

”Not even a bone.” Sthena replied just as they stopped in front of the building where Perdita had seen the dummies.

She sighed, her heart heavy from the news, while wondering how the Headwarden will take the news.

By the time they left the building after conducting more investigations, another hour had passed. The once bright sky had now slightly darkened as grey clouds hovered above the people of the Vamlone kingdom.

Daemon left on the instruction of Sthena to inform Headchurch Donovan and other church members of the discovery they had made and also the proceedings to be followed.

Right now, Sthena had the witch and three other ones he had caught to be tied with a rope to the back of the carriage. The rope was long enough to have them dragged on the ground as the carriage moved.

They arrived at the main street of Blackfang town a little later after Headchurch Donovan and his fellow church members had made their presence known in the town.

A large hay had been placed and a circle drawn round it, and this attracted a lot of the town’s people to the scene.

”Greetings, Your Majesty, my lady.” Headchurch Donovan bowed in greeting, and the others followed suit.

”I’m glad you could make it in time.” Sthena acknowledged, staring back at the Headchurch member.

”Chief advisor Daemon has briefed me on everything, and I must thank you for taking such a hard task upon yourself.”

”Of course, I did promise my people I will always seek their well-being.” Sthena replied, his gaze moving to the side.

Donovan followed his gaze to see the witches tied behind the carriage. ”Do you think it is advisable to bring them out in the open? It might cause an uproar.”

”Absolutely not.” Sthena shook his head, his index finger following the movement of his head. ”This is to teach the witches a lesson and also make them think twice about doing anything foolish.”

Though most people know the witches have gone extinct, a few of them had also heard about the sighting of the witches. Sthena knew it would surely cause an uproar and speculations. However, on the brighter side of his aim, this would also make the other witches take a step back in whatever they planned to do. Because now, a lot of watchful eyes will be on them, especially the humans who would immediately burn any one of them who caused them troubles.

”Your majesty,” Headwarden Anthonio greeted, his head bowed low. ”Headchurch Donovan.”

”You came right at the moment.” Sthena clicked his tongue. He then said, ”Unfortunately I must inform you, your son didn’t make it.” He broke the news.

A long silence ensued on the side of Anthonio, his hand clasped before him quivering in a tightened grip. He sucked in a deep breath, and he said, ”Thank you, your majesty, for looking for him. I shall proceed with the next steps.” The Headwarden stepped away from them, walking towards where the stacked hay and the witches were tied to the poles beside the hay.

Perdita’s eyes followed him, and beneath the man whose face appeared void of any emotion, she could see the hurt in his eyes and the breaking of his spirit.

Headchurch Donovan then stood before the people to address them. ”Greetings, everyone,” he began.

”Everyone must be wondering what is going on for some minutes now. The answer is here.” He turned to look at the curious gazes fixated on him. ”Following the killing of the woman that happened some days ago in this town, His Majesty had conducted an investigation of what happened, and today, he captured the masterminds behind that mysterious death.”

People began to murmur among themselves, their attention now fully on Donovan while their hateful eyes drilled holes on the captured witches.

The Headchurch member continued, ”These witches had devised a plan to create something heinous, and today we have put an end to their plans.”

Donovan continued to narrate what happened while leaving out the stealing of heads from the graves of pureblooded vampires, as this would cause an uproar among the high members of the society.

”This will be the fate of anyone who dares to cause any problem in this kingdom.” He concluded his speech. He raised his hand to signal for the fire to be lit when one of the people spoke up in question.

”Are the witches not extinct? How come there are many of them who not only have planned this but have also infiltrated a major town like ours? How can you and the king assure us of safety?”

”To answer your question, I’ll only say this: witches are gone extinct doesn’t mean they don’t exist and that they don’t reproduce. The reason why this was brought to your notice is to make everyone aware of the situation and also to take precautionary measures in protecting yourselves.”

”How can we protect ourselves? Shouldn’t the church eradicate the witches totally?” Another town member voiced.

”The humans fear the vampires and also protect themselves by treading carefully and also not stepping out at night. Does this mean all vampires should be eradicated for the safety of humans?” Donovan questioned back. As expected, the vampires had nothing to say as they gritted their teeth in anger.

Donovan paused, turning towards Sthena. ”His Majesty the king has also promised to dispatch more security all around the Kingdom to avoid cases like this one from happening, but that does not mean you shouldn’t observe safety measures for yourselves.”

”With that being said,” Donovan waved his hand for Anthonio to continue. ”These witches shall be burned for the crimes they have committed.”

By the time everything was concluded and the time to go back to the castle reached, Perdita could feel every inch of her body throb in pain. She sat inside the carriage with her head rested on Sthena’s chest and her eyes closed while the carriage swayed from side to side.