The Vampire Chronicles

The Hag

The Hag

               “I know you’re mad, Sam, but you have to admit, its kind of cool.” said Devin.

               “Cool! We're kind of pressed for time here Devin. We passed the Forest of Qual months ago and Weston could regain his strength at any moment, putting the whole damn world at risk again. So no. I don’t think its cool.”

          It turns out that Madam Markham lives in the Forest of Qual, meaning we had to backtrack. Qual was one of the first forests we had checked out but Madam Markham had placed a spell on her house making it only visible to those who were told where it was by Harold the Kallibreaker, which involves getting him to talk, no easy task. So because of the spell all that we saw there was a huge lake. We had been backtracking for about a month now and we had finally made it back to Qual. All we had to do now was cross the lake, only there was no boat.

               “Maybe we have to swim across.” Said Devin.

               “I don’t know, something seems off. Just crossing the lake seems to easy.”

               “I'll go first.” He offered, a slight uncertainty in his voice.

               “Go right ahead.” I said, “Better you than me.”

          Of course no sooner than he put his foot in the water, the ugliest thing I had ever seen jumped out, grabbing his leg and pulling him to the bottom of the lake. I quickly dove in the icy water and made my way through the weeds and kelp just in time to see the creature locking Devin in a seaweed cage. I used a thick growth of weeds as cover to get a clue of what we were up against.

               “What do you want with me!” cried Devin, his voice garbled by the icy water. “I haven’t done anything!”

               “Its not you I’m after.” She hissed at him. “Its your friend I want.”

               “What do you want her for?” he asked.

               “She’s a threat and a menace and must be taken care of!”

               “What has Sam ever done to you?”

               “Its not what she’s done! Its what she’s going to do!” She spat at him. “I know all about your little quest. I know how you’re on a mission to kill Jackson Weston, the greatest vampire to ever live and I just can allow it! The source of all that evil gone forever! Just the thought of it is enough to make me sick.”

               “What are you talking about?” Devin asked. He didn’t know the details of the quest so this was all a shock to him. He knew our quest was dangerous but not that dangerous.

               “Don’t play dumb with me boy! She snapped then I heard a scream and I saw Devin being shocked by some sort of lightning omitting from the cage.

               “I don’t know anything!” Devin cried out. “I didn’t know we were going after Weston! Please! Stop!”

               “That’s when I decided to show myself. I didn’t really have a plan going in, I just knew I had to stop here before she killed Devin.

               “Hey!” I shouted at her. “Its me you want! Leave him be.”

          She whipped around, a blaze of evil in her eyes. I saw the electricity in the cage subside and Devin slumped to the floor.

               “You!” She said in an evil hiss. “What do you think you’re doing? Going to kill Weston are you?”

               “That was the idea, yes.” I said with a cool monotone voice. “So if you’ll excuse me, ill just take my friend and well get going.”

                “Oh, you’re not going anywhere!” She roared. “You think I’m going to just let you go and kill the greatest vampire to ever live, the source of all evil in this world!”

                “His reign of terror is over, Hag!” I said, the power rising in my voice, “Were going to kill Weston, even if we have to take you down with us!”

          She roared again, the evil growing in her eyes. Just then she charged at me, electricity emitting from her fingers like a sward. I tried to remember everything from my training with Lucius but everything I tried fail. She was just too strong and very different to defeat than a vampire. Soon enough she overpowered me and I was forced into the cage with Devin.

                 “So what now!” I shouted at her. “You’re just going to kill us? Lucius will see where we are and come and rescue us.”

                  “No one can find you. My lake is protected by magic, and nothing can penetrate it, not even you’re precious Lucius can save you now!”

          Just then there was a giant splash as someone dove into the water. A mystery man bolted through the weeds and kelp, through the icy cold water straight to the sea hag. “Let them go hag!” he said in a powerful voice.

                 “And what if I don’t?” she said with a maniacal laugh. “What are you going to do about it?” and with that the battle began.

          Jabs and punches everywhere, it was difficult to determine who was winning. Then I noticed something happening to the cage. Whenever she was to distracted by trying to defeat the mysterious man the bars on the cage slacked. I had a plan. Devin was still unconscious on the floor, so I shook him awake and told him to get ready to make a break for it.

                  “She controls the cage with her mind!” I shouted at the mystery man. “Try to distract her long enough to let us get out of the cage.”

                  “I can do better!” He shouted back, and quickly got the Hag into a headlock and faced her to the cage. He started mumbling to himself and the Hag stopped struggling and her face went blank. Then the bars slackened and we slid out with ease. Then the mystery man quickly shoved the Hag into the cage, mumbled a few more things, the bars went tight again and then took off towards the surface. We followed him quickly; eager to know who he was and how he knew where we were, but he didn’t even give us a chance to question him, for as soon as we got out of that lake he turned around.

                  “My name is Benjamin. I hear you’re hunting Weston.”