The Witch Chronicles (LGBT+)

Dying Words

I sit in a chair in the corner of the room, staring blankly up at a very elegant crystal chandelier hanging above the room.

I can hear a discussion going on around me. I can hear voices speaking, but I am unable to comprehend what they were saying. In my haste, I'd left my brother and friends vulnerable to Nora's attack. She'd come here, to Charlotte's account, and snapped Micah's neck during the ritual. Charlotte says that Porter held her off until she nearly drained him and left him to die.

Charlotte had apparently gotten off easy.

"What do we do now? There are two bodies?" Eva panics.

"Isn't that obvious?" Lucas asks as he rolls his eyes, "We ditch the bodies and—"

"Lukah!" Finn says casting a concerned glance over at me, "These aren't just bodies. We can't—"

I numb.

"Well, big Brother, what do you propose we do? Make them a grave in the backyard?" Lucas asks as he looks to Eva, then to Finn and then his eyes find me. He chuckles, "You're serious?"

The room goes silent. The words he is saying aren't hitting me. I have to comprehend these words. I search my brain for words. I have to put together the words.

Porter is dead.

What is he saying?

He's not alive. He's not coming back. I have to tell my parents. I have to take his—

And there it is.

"He's dead! He's a body now! We need to just chuck him—"

Electricity crackles above us. It surges through the chandelier above us. The chandelier acts like a conductor and lightning shoots through the room. As the chandelier crashes to the ground, Lucas narrowly avoids being smashed. Lucas' eyes return to me, an apparent rage building.

With fire in his eyes, he marches towards me and I stand ready. Finn appears between us and holds his Brother at bay.

"You could have—"

"Killed you? You're already dead." I say with no emotion. I can hear myself speak and it's like there's nothing in me. I can feel the shock wearing thin on my body and when I speak, it's starting to sound angry, "You're just a body."

Lucas is about to say something when his eyes go wide. Finn wears the same expression as his Brother does. The two of them whip around and stare Porter's body. I follow their gaze to see what they are seeing but I can't.

"Do you..." Finn asks Lucas, who nods. Finn realizes that I'm staring too and explains, "He died with vampire blood in his system. He's turning."

I know I have to do something.

I stand beside Porter's bed as I stuff his clothes into a duffle bag. My house has become a veritable dead zone as of late. Dad no longer lives here, Mom is at work a good chunk of the time and Granny...isn't here.

And now Porter won't be here.

I think about this as I finish packing the bag. I hear the front door open and close. I hesitantly pick up the bag and turn to the door to see Eva standing in the doorway. She gives me a pitiful smile and looks around, opting to be silent. I am grateful for her silence.

Anything she said now would be punishable by flaying.

"He was always like a big Brother to me." Eva says softly as she ventures to his dresser. She looks up at the corkboard filled with pictures of Porter and his friends and family. She spies the Maxim posters. She turns to me, "I'm sorry he—"