The Bewitching - Book 1

Chapter 13 - Memories of a Lost Love

Elyssa awoke with her head pounding. The pain shot down her whole body and her eyes ached. It was as if she had been through a bloody battle and she had lost, beaten to near death but for some reason allowed to live so that she could endure the pain over and over again.

The last thing she remember was Dantes holding her in his arms and their lips as they connected. It had sent a shock through her body, not to mention the tingles she felt as his fingertips had run long her skin. The feeling lasted for only a few minutes and the next thing she knew she felt as if she was falling into a deep hole that wouldn't end.

As she fell she saw pictures of the past, of long battles and blood shed. She could hear the screams of those murdered in cold blood as they begged for mercy. And then there was Dantes and herself, always standing by one another's side and she watched as they tried to fight off the massive tides of armies. She watched him die, over and over before her eyes in his futile attempts to protect those that couldn't protect themselves. She saw the tears fall from his eyes and hers over those they loved, as they held each other tightly in a vain attempt to comfort one another's loss.

And then he was all alone, sitting in the same cove she had earlier dreamed of. In that instant she could feel his pain, far greater than all the pain beforehand, greater than any pain he had suffered during his battles along her side. She watched as he slipped a small box into a crack in the wall and then covered it with stone. It was the worst kind of pain anyone could endure, it was the pain of heartbreak, and she felt every bit as he had felt at that time. Then once again everything went black.

She awoke lying upon a cold floor. The corridor she found herself in was made completely of stone. It would have been completely dark except for what appeared to be a few lone torches every thirty feet or so lining the walls ahead of her. In the distance she could hear what sounded like water dripping methodically against the ground, sending an echo back and forth down the long hall.

She rubbed her eyes, still feeling a bit dizzy. Her head was now pounding menacingly within her skull making her somewhat thankful for the such little lighting as anything brighter would have been unbearable at this moment. Where was she, she wondered to herself. Was this a manifestation of her mind or did she somehow actually wind up somewhere else. She looked back behind her and it was an exact replica of the corridor in front of her from what she could tell.

From what she could gather it really didn't matter which way she went as neither looked very inviting. With a shrug of her shoulders she slowly started making her way towards where she thought she heard the water coming from, although the way the echo was bouncing off the walls it was hard for her to tell if she was correct.

She tried as best as she could to be quiet as she wander down the long hall, but each step she took also echoed eerily. As she came upon the first torch she removed it from the ornately decorated sconce that hung on the wall. She couldn't help but examine the sconce more closely once the torch was in her hand.

It was somewhat large and shaped like an infinity symbol. On one side of the infinity symbol, attached to the outer ring and facing inward was what appeared to be a very detailed carving of a demon type creature. It's fangs protruded sharply from its mouth and it's eyes were large and bulging. On the other side was a carving of a man who seemed familiar to her. He too was facing inwards towards the center of the symbol.

In the middle of the infinity symbol was the carving of a woman which is what protruded from the wall to hold the sconce. She was carved as if the upper half of her body was coming out of the wall, her hands holding the outer portions of the symbol and blending into the outer rings where the demon and man had been carved, and the symbol itself held directly in front of her face as if she was looking through an oversized pair of glasses. It was as if the demon and man on each side were fighting over her in the center.