Amaranthine (Editing)

Chapter 17 - The Witching Hour

Chapter 17: The Witching Hour

Stacy and Liam were sitting directly across from each other, the only light in the room coming from the flickering candles surrounding the bowl in the center of the circle. Stacy had her eyes fixed on Liam—although I knew she couldn’t see him yet. She looked so focused and…serious—a look I never actually seen on her until that moment—Liam on the other hand looked bored and completely unamused.

Stacy began chanting quietly under her breath, and from what I could hear—which wasn’t very much—it wasn’t in English. The flames from the candles began to grow, splashing more light across the room. Her voice was getting louder with each word she spoke, then the pictures on the walls started shaking and the rest of the furniture followed, making me jump off the sofa with a soft yelp.

“Bring the necklace!” Stacy yelled at me. For a moment I couldn’t move, the sight of Stacy’s eyes—pure white—had frozen me where I stood—staring with my mouth agape. “Ri, the necklace!” She yelled, I looked from her to Liam and even he looked surprised at the sudden intensity of the situation.

I stumbled forward, and the moment I crossed the circle every light in my house seemed to come to life. They continued to get brighter and brighter until I couldn’t take it anymore and had to squeeze my eyes shut—even that didn’t help. I heard a scream, and wasn’t sure if it came from me or Stacy. Probably both.

Suddenly, one by one I heard the distinct sound of light bulbs popping and shattering into a million pieces and raining down onto the hardwood floors. I crouched down next to Stacy trying to take cover—Liam would be fine, it was us mortal corporeal beings I was concerned about.

What could have only been seconds felt like minutes until the bursting of the lights finally halted. Slowly I peeled my left eye open and was met with the glow of the candles which somehow managed to stay lit. I looked at the floor around us and saw that the tiny shards of glass were everywhere…everywhere except for the inside of the circle. “What the fu-”

“Rileigh!” Stacy cut me off before I could manage to get three words out, “Put. The. Necklace. In. The…” she enunciated each word slow and demanding then screamed “bowl!” making me jump back—just an inch, with my eyes wide. Who knew this little giggly red headed cheerleader could be so forceful.

I looked down to see I was still in fact gripping the necklace, and without a second thought, tossed it into the bowl.

The moment I heard the ‘plop’ of the necklace landing in the water was the same instant the tiny flickers of light from the candles burst into monstrous sized flames and I was violently thrown backwards and sent crashing into the furthest wall of the living room. I landed in a heap with a loud ‘thump’ on the floor.

My head throbbed from where it cracked against the wall, I lifted my fingers to the back of my head where it hurt the most and when I removed them there was a warm liquid coating each finger—blood.

I glanced around the living room trying to find any sign of Stacy or Liam, but all I saw was fuzzy darkness and an orange glow—great, my vision was blurry, that was seriously one hell of a hit.

A small groan sounded from somewhere near the front door. Holding my head with my right arm, I used the other to push myself up into a sitting position. “Stacy?” I called out making me wince in pain from the loudness of my own voice.

Another groan came in response.

A knot formed in my stomach, Oh God! She’s probably injured pretty bad if she can’t even answer me! I tried pulling myself up so I could go and check on her, but I must have sprained my ankle because an intense—almost agonizing—pain shot up from my foot all the way to my knee when I put pressure on it, making me collapse back onto the floor.