Something Wicked

A Story by nadia

MURDERER. THIEF. W***E. These three words, an unusual visitor, and the discovery of a new kind of power send a young witch and her friends on a perilous adventure to truth. Zaila had never

Zaila was jerked awake by an unknown force. Her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths and her eyes were darting around, searching for her surroundings. But there was only darkness. It was eerily quiet, as if someone were trying to not make a sound.

Panic slowly started washing over her.

Where am I? What happened?

Then, the familiar smell of women's cologne drifted into her senses. Vanessa. Her mind and body began to relax and she nestled her head back into her pillow cautiously. Feeling around at her sides, she sighed of relief when her hands ran across her mother's quilt.

Okay, okay.

She was in her and Vanessa's room, lying in bed. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she had just been elsewhere, and in that elsewhere, she remembered feeling scared.

Maybe just a nightmare, she told herself, reluctantly closing her eyes. Everything is fine, go back to sleep, you have to be up early tomorrow.

Even as these words floated around in her mind, she had a strange sense of...well of not-rightness about the room. She couldn't put her finger on what it was.

Then she felt it. Someone watching her from the other side. Vanessa's side.

Her eyes snapped back open, peering into the dark. She strained them, praying they would hurry and adjust.

A low creak. Something moved.

"Vanessa?"

Silence.

She cautiously pulled herself to an upright position and reached for her lamp on the nightstand next to her.

"Don't," came a whisper from the darkness.

Zaila froze.

The whisper sounded desperate, but she kept her hand hovering above the lamp switch.

"Vanessa, is that you?" She tried matching the whisper.

"Shh."

Zaila's heart started racing. The unknown was striking fear into her again. She decided to try one more time, she had to know.

"Vanessa?" she spoke a bit more sharply.

There was a long pause before the reply came.

"Yes."

Zaila sighed of relief and relaxed her shoulders. "Vanessa you should've-"

A small hand slapped over her mouth, causing her to flinch. Somebody was on the bed with her, and they had quickly wrapped their other arm around her body, squeezing tightly.

Zaila tried pulling their hand away from her mouth, and when that failed, she began to bite.

"It's me," a voice hissed in her ear.

Vanessa? But how did she-

Both of their bodies stiffened as a piercing scream came from outside of the room.

Then another came, and another.

Light creeped under their bedroom door, shadows running across it. They could hear the pitter patter of bare feet out in the hallway.

Vanessa's hand unclamped itself from Zaila's mouth and Zaila turned to her. Her eyes had finally adjusted, and were focusing on Vanessa's face, or what she could see of it.

Her eyebrows were knitted, as if she was in deep concentration, and her eyes were looking past Zaila, towards the door.

"What's going on?"

Vanessa put a finger to her lips , signaling for Zaila to be silent.

Loud clanging and more screams echoed on the other side of the door.

Vanessa slipped one foot to the floor, then the other. Zaila caught her by the arm. "V, please don't."

She knew her well enough to know exactly what she was going to do. Vanessa had always been the braver of the two, taking risks and always the first to do something. So when Vanessa made her way to the door anyway, Zaila wasn't surprised.

Zaila watched on as Vanessa pressed her ear against it, listening to all the chaos that was happening out in the halls.

After only a few moments, the screams stopped. Vanessa shifted and glanced back at Zaila, then jerked her head towards the door.

She's about to open it.

Zaila put one foot on the floor, leaning in her direction.

"V, I don't think you should-" she started, but was interrupted by a loud bang as the door swung open. Vanessa's body was forced into the wall and she collapsed with a harsh thud.

Three massive figures, covered head to toe in black clothing, rushed into the room. They were large and looked to be quite muscular. Their faces were covered with black ski masks.

Zaila sat on the edge of the bed, frozen with fear.

What are those things??

Two of the black figures leaned over Vanessa's body, and the other started marching towards Zaila.

He's too big to take down in hand to hand combat. There's only one other choice.

She chose to do the only thing she could at the moment. Her body felt weakened as he grew near her, her legs began to unexpectedly grow numb. What is this?

He was almost on her.

Zaila moved backwards on the bed, pressing her back against the wall.

Okay. Now.

She took a quick breath and held out her hand, squeezing her eyes shut. Her whole body suddenly felt electrified, but in a good way, as she summoned the magic within.

When she opened her eyes, the figure was standing there, right in front of her.

She pushed her hand forward, a blue blast escaping from her palm. It hit the figures chest but then vanished on impact with a faint "poof".

What? But-

"Nice try," the figure said tauntingly. His voice was deep, and abrasive. She was sure she'd heard it before.

Zaila lifted her hand to strike, but not before the figure grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head to the side, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Please, don't," she begged, her head throbbing.

The figure just grunted and shook its head.

There came a sharp sting in her neck, and everything went black.

© 2016 nadia

Author's Note

It's not my best, but it's being edited. Its my first stab at fantasy, and any kind of criticism would be nice :) I want to make sure the first chapters are good before I continue writing.

My Review

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Reviews

Jenny Leigh

This is quite intriguing. I only found one thing that I would've worded a bit differently.
You wrote: she had a strange sense of...well of not-rightness about the room.
I would've written it: she had a strange sense of...something not quite being right about the room.
Mind you this is just merely a suggestion and you are ultimately the writer. Now if there was a reason that you worded it the way you did and I'm not seeing it, that is perfectly fine too. All in all, I do believe this story has great potential to go farther, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it leads.