The Coven

Equinox: Prologue

Rushing water. That was the only thing she could hear. No birds, no bugs, no voice, only the sound of waves flowing, waves crashing. Light rain was falling from the sky landing in the water and on her face. It was the rain that woke her up, groggy at first but the grey sky never got any clearer from when she opened her eyes.

Lilly looked around, she could see the tops of the trees a stunning green against the light grey sky with patches where the sun was trying to come through. Feeling around the wooden raft she would always wake up on she felt cold metal between her fingers, her chain. She picked up the metal link with her ring on it and placed it around her neck.

Her bare foot slipped off her wooden raft similar in build to a dock into the icy waters she was floating on. Her foot recoiled and she touched it lightly, it was stone cold now. Looking around she saw the old cabin which had been long out of use. Seeing the cabin meant the openings in the trees were coming up soon.

The bend was coming up, she could see the willow trees on the shoreline, the vines hanging from their branches. The piles of black boulders on the other side of the shore were piled three high, three clumps of three rocks. She thought it was strange defiantly man made.

Her raft rounded the bend and her eyes went to the north shoreline. She watched and waited for the first opening. They had their backs turned to her but she knew who they were before the raft rounded the next bend. Sage stood with her arms folded across her chest, her dark gaze following Lilly’s raft.

Beside her was Darcy standing exactly how Sage was with her arms folded across her chest, also like Sage her gaze followed the raft until Lilly had past the first opening in the trees and the two girls were lost to the forest.

The fallen trunk was next, meaning the second opening in the trees was close. In this clearing there was only one body. Unlike the other two he was sitting on a tree stump, his glasses removed from his face. Sean’s bright eyes could be seen though he was at a distance from the raft. As it passed, his uncovered eyes followed it without blinking, with a look that said ‘it’s your fault.’

The second opening passed, the third opening had two bodies again. Hailey was standing leaning against a dead tree her blonde hair blowing across her face. She was looking down at her feet though when Lilly past her eyes slowly lifted from the ground following the raft.

Jake was standing beside her, his hood pulled over his hair, his arms were wrapped around his stomach. Though his posture said made him look as though he was ill, his look made him look murderous. He was blaming her too.

The water slowed, the waves soundless. The next bend had nothing but shore line and dead trees. The next break in the woods was her least favourite, the rest of them at least had some beauty to their message but this showed only death. And there was only one person left to see.

Mason was standing in the middle of the clearing. His arms steady at his sides while his glare followed the raft. Lilly crawled to the edge to call out to him but no sounds came out of her mouth, no matter how hard she tried. She wanted to tell him to run, get away but she couldn’t. Lilly reached out to him but his arms stayed steady, as steady as his eyes.

The water began to pick up, the rapids were coming. Lilly looked ahead of her and held on to the sides of the raft so hard that her knuckles turned white. The rapids formed from nowhere throwing the raft all over the river knocking against the rocks and crashing off the shore.

She was soaked from the splashing water, bruised from her body bouncing off the raft or hitting the rocks but she held on. The final curve of the rapids sent the raft flying through the air, Lilly’s body left the plank before crashing back down in the still waters. The calm before the storm.

She could hear the crashing water before she could see it. The waterfall was just ahead it’s drop deadly. Lilly took her deep breaths she only had a few moments before she would go over the waterfall, a few moments before the feeling of falling woke her up.

A few moments before she found out which one of her friends she had just killed.