Nymphix

Chapter Five

Yeah this one was a short one, but exams man. Also I felt this chapter wouldn't be a chapter without dropping in the f-bomb for emphasis...so...yeah. 

Drop your comments, you know how much i love to read them :D

Enjoy 

Chapter Five

Katerina tried everything to break her connection to Felix, but the magic was latched on like it was one with Felix’s and continued to drain him through a steady stream. Her eyes flickered to the left where she saw a sudden movement out of the corner of her eyes. It was Mire who looked at Katerina with a fierce expression on his face before letting loose the largest ball of neon green magic she had ever seen. Everything seemed to slow down as the ball of magic approached her, radiating power in waves of heat. Katerina knew that if she wanted to, she could have stopped it but instead she let it come. When it struck her, the connection severed immediately as she flew across the room and tumbled across the floor before smashing into the wall on the other side of the room. Immediately she could feel the magic released from her body as if it knew that it didn’t belong in her body. With Felix’s loud gasp, Katerina knew that the magic had returned to him, the sound seemed to break the spell of shock throughout the class as they ran over to check if Felix was alright. Amongst the circle of people, she saw Felix rise and rub his head – he was fine, a croaky chuckle emerging from his lips. Katerina on the other hand was shaking so violently she couldn’t even sit up, but everyone was so occupied with Felix that no one remembered her. Shocked with what had just occurred in the short amount of time, Katerina pushed herself up on weak arms and attempted to stand whilst leaning heavily on the wall – but she was too weak from Mire’s magic and crumpled to the floor again. Hearing the noise, she could sense people starting to turn around and pay more attention to her. The murmurs that rose caused waves of shame to chase away the shakes, and Katerina curled up into her body, hugging herself as hard as she could in hopes that she would simply disappear. She had almost killed Felix, drained him of his magic! The guilt rose from a bubbling in Katerina’s stomach to a burning in her throat and Katerina was sure she would vomit. It was so hard to breathe, but Katerina didn’t want to unfurl herself. She didn’t want to see the looks on people’s faces. The monster she had become.

Mire’s voice seemed to chase away the chatter, but Katerina couldn’t comprehend what he was saying, and suddenly she heard the doors open and people’s footsteps shuffling out of the gym. It could have been minutes or hours that Katerina remained curled up against the wall before a set of footsteps approached her.

“I hope you realise that I had no choice.” Mire’s deep soothing voice echoed in what Katerina had hoped was an empty gym. There was a silence where the only sound was Mire’s steady breath, and Katerina’s short quick ones. Suddenly Mire sighed and sat down against the wall not too far from Katerina.

“Felix is fine. Just a bit shaken up.” He tried again, but Katerina didn’t reply. Instead she loosened her arms a little bit and breathed a little easier. As if sensing this, Mire continued to talk.

“I hope you know that this is not your fault.” This caused Katerina to straighten herself and sit up properly.

“You’re kidding right? I was the one who almost killed him.”

“Magic is alive, Katerina, it doesn’t like being caged. It was trapped inside you for... a long time. You can’t expect it to behave itself when you release it after being contained for that long.”

Katerina looked down at her bare arms, hating how prominent the puckered white scars circling her wrist like a bracelet were against her skin.

“Alive” Katerina scoffed, tracing the pattern the scars made

“I’m a fucking monster.”

Mire grasped her hand impulsively to stop her touching her scars, which was a strangely personal gesture to Katerina considering the fact that he must have been at least 10 years older and had only known her for around a week. But Mire didn’t seem to notice; instead he held her wrist close and examined it.

“What made these?” he asked in a distant whisper, but Katerina jerked her arm away so fast she almost hit herself with it.

“I-“ she faltered, sucked into the memory that claimed her whole body.

"Well if it isn't my favourite little witch!" She opened her eyes to find the murky dungeon of a room barely illuminated enough for her to see his face. 

"Guess what day it is?" He crept closer to her, the barbarous smile etched onto his face. 

"Let me give you a clue." The dagger in his hands twirled, the razor sharp edge catching the light and reflecting into Katerina's eyes. 

"It begins with a C..." He reached out and grasped her struggling hand, dragging the blade across her skin to spell out a crude 'C' shape. Katerina wouldn't give him the pleasure by screaming; instead she squeezed her eyes so tightly she saw spots and ground her teeth together while her skin knitted back together painfully.

"That's right! Christmas." He stepped back only to pull something out of his pocket. Katerina hated herself for thinking so, but it looked beautiful. The metal of the handcuffs were a matte black with iridescent pearl like symbols etched around the surface.

"And look who got you a gift" The smile stretched to unnatural proportions, contorting his face to resemble a sort of twisted ventriloquist doll. With quick fluid motions, he strapped on the cuff to her hand. The inside of the metal must have had something sharp on it, because she could feel her flesh splitting, and a soft trickle of warm blood trailing down her fingers. As soon as the pain faded to a dull ache, Katerina began to realise that there was a different kind of pain emerging from her wrists; it was leaching off the magic Katerina had stored in attempts to break free and escape when the opportunity presented itself.

"You know," He said with a chuckle, running his finger up her arm and drawing goose bumps,

"Rumour has it that if you leave this thing on long enough, it'll drain you completely of all your magic."  If Katerina could, her head would have snapped and she would have pinned him with the most hate filled glare she could muster up, but for now all she could do was sit there helplessly. When he finally realised that he wasn't going to get a response out of her, he switched the light off and left her in the pitch black again. It was only then that the tears trailed down her face as the cuff slowly drained not only the magic, but the life out of her.