What If?

Chapter 13

Women started coming towards the Essence. An old woman clawed at Natalie, trying to attack her. Another disheveled woman threw a piece of cabbage at Laurel. Joyce was in shock and frozen. She didn't know what to do! But a scraggly old woman grabbed the collar of her leather jacket and started shaking her.

"No! No! It's okay!" Joyce tried to tell the woman, but she shook her more violently.

Around the room, all six of the Essence were being physically attacked by the outcasts. Food was flying everywhere and there was punching and kicking. Screams from all sides of the room rang through the air.

The old woman screamed in Joyce's face, "Take your filthy ways out of Breecrest you no good wretch!"

Joyce tried to twist out of her grasp, but the old woman was surprisingly strong.

"I can help you!" She tried again to tell her, but more outcasts were moving in to help the old woman. Joyce didn't know what to do. She tried to think what she could say to make them understand. But she couldn't without giving away her true identity. 

So, she made a split second decision to use her magic.    

Joyce closed her eyes and focused.

She felt energy go through her and suddenly the outcasts were dazed and confused.

Joyce ran from them and tried to look for the door.

"Gwen!" Tamaya yelled from across the room, "Go to Evanmere! It's the next village from here--" She dodged a punch, "It's a few miles North! We'll meet back in Shadowmouth!"

Joyce realized she wanted her to get out. She spotted the door and made a break for it. But a young woman with black hair and dark circles under her eyes threw a punch. Her fist hit Joyce's collar bone hard and knocked her off her feet. She tried to catch herself, but stumbled to the floor. Joyce crawled and then rolled out of the way of the girl. She scrambled to her feet and pushed through multiple outcasts and ran out of the door and into the street. 

***

Jeana was tossing and turning in her bed. Her sleep had been disruptive lately and she had blamed it on her followers not finding the woman in red.

But really she was begining to sense the woman in red's power...

She was sure that's what it was.

When Adelaide had first told her that she saw her in the forest, Jeana had felt nothing. But in the recent weeks, she felt a feeling getting stronger inside her. The woman in red's power was growing...

Perhaps it would become stronger than her own...

Jeana was scared.

She didn't want all the men to come back to Dungannon. She still hated them so much. All of them. They were no good scum that didn't deserve to be in the presence of women. All they ever cared about was their dominance over women. It wasn't right!

They treated their wives and children like dirt. Jeana certainly felt that with her father. Her father treated her and her mother like prisoners in their own home.

Jeana had been extremely grateful when her father had died from the plague several years ago. She had felt like her whole life was starting over! But her mother mourned the loss of her husband. 

Jeana could never understand why her mother had felt that way.

He had made her suffer more than he had Jeana. Her mother had always taken the blunt of her father's blows. Jeana was grateful to her mother for that...

That was the only good thing that Jeana felt toward her mother, Mirabelle.

She could have taught me magic! Jeana thought. We could have ruled Dungannon together, without the nuisance of men. But obviously Mirabelle didn't share Jeana's opinions.

Why had her mother hidden her magic from Jeana?

She never told her about magic. The only information Jeana had found out about magic was from what she had heard from her friends. 

Jeana had always assumed she was especially pretty. But she never attributed it to magic. Every man she ever encountered was smitten with her. Jeana had loved it! Such power and adventure she had! However, she never liked any of them. The only thing she liked was the power they gave her.

Men. Stupid. She thought as she lay in bed.

At the moment, the men issue was taken care of--

--But the woman in red issue was not.

Jeana had to prevent the woman in red from ruining everything.

***