The rain was pouring down, thunder and lightning booming in the distance as a teenage girl running on an old beaten path that leads into a forest. As she ran tears streamed down her face. She was wearing a blue flannel nightgown and she had bruises and scratches all over her body. She was barefoot and the muddy ground cached her feet with mud. Her short brown hair was dripping with rain. The moonlight shone on her pale face. She got to the edge of the forest and stopped for only a few seconds before she started sprinting through the dense forest.
She ran, tears streaming down her face. As she ran through the bramble bushes jumping over tree roots scratching up her legs, she tripped over a giant tree root, slicing up her knees. She sat on the ground for a few seconds catching her breath. She stood right back up and kept on running once again.
After about ten minutes of running, she found herself at an abandoned farmhouse. The house had holes throughout the wooden walls, the windows were cracked and broken, bushes and weeds were growing throughout it, the door lay crooked on its frame. The girl ran around to the back of the house through overgrown bushes and weeds. She stopped in the middle of the yard and fell to the ground landing hard on her knees. She winced at the pain. She moved some overgrown weeds out from in front of her revealing a gravestone. The name on the gravestone could barely be made out due to neglect but it read, Maat Cleomenes.
"Hey, Maat, it's been a while." The girl said through her tears. She paused before saying anything for a long time, just looked up into the stormy night sky. Tears started to stream down her cheeks, and the rain was pouring down hard making her soaking wet.
"After you were murdered." She paused. " Dad tried to find the person who killed you, but they were long gone. All we knew was that you were sacrificed to an evil God. We don't know which one though, because no evil God calls for the sacrifice of infants as far as we've found. " She looked up, the night sky was pouring down on her face.
"Dad went out trying to find any clues on who or what killed you, he never came back. It's been eleven years since you died and he left." She sobbed for a few minutes not saying anything until she wiped the tears off her face, but the rain just made it covered in water again. She chuckled.
" When dad left, Mama couldn't keep up with the farm all by herself, because I was too young at the time to help her. She had to sell the farm, dad's life work. We ended up moving in with Aunt Kali. " She paused her face looked like it was both stricken with fear and anger. "Aunt Kali hits me when Mama isn't looking, and now that Mama's sick she's not looking a lot." She looked down at the bruises and scrapes on her body and she pounded her fists onto the wet ground. She started to yell, "Mama's sick, and the doctors don't know what's wrong with her. If only you were here, I would have someone to talk to, dad wouldn't have left, and I wouldn't be hit. I wouldn't be sitting in the forest crying like a baby, why did have you die?" She sat there screaming words that no living thing could understand through her tears.
" I love you, Maat, but Aunt Kali will notice I'm gone soon. " as she stood up she saw a flicker of light come out of her hand, and she smelled smoke in the air. What was that she thought. She flicked her hand once again, but nothing happened. Must've been nothing. She started to run through the forest, but this time she wasn't crying sad tears, she was crying because she was afraid.
As she ran through the forest and got to the old beaten path a giant three-storied mansion appeared in the distance. It was humongous and beautiful, it was had large windows and light blue curtains hung up elegantly on the inside. The house was lit by candlelight. Standing right under the lantern that was hung on the front door was a woman about fifty years old, she was wearing a purple and black dress, and her hair was black and streaked with grey, it was tied up in a tight bun on the top of her head. Her face had a permanent scowl angry, horrid. The girl stopped running as soon as she got close enough to see the woman. She fixed her hair as best she could, wiped the mud and blood of her knees and nightgown as she approached the woman.
Once she stood in front of the woman she looked down at her feet avoiding eye contact. The woman just looked down at her, that scowl filled with disgust and anger. After a few moments, the girl opened the large, red front door and walked inside.
"Do you know what time it is, Hekate?" The woman asked in a demanding tone.
" No, Aunt Kali. " Hekate answered softly while sitting down by a large coat rack. On the coat rack was a large winter coat, hanging out of the pocket of the coat was a handkerchief. Hekate grabbed the handkerchief and started drying off her hair and then wiped the remaining mud off her knees and feet. She continued looking down as her aunt scolded her even more.
"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Kali yelled as she raised her hand and struck Hekate across the face. Hekate looked down at the floor her face growing red. She finally looked up at Kali fear in her eyes.
" Yes, Aunt Kali. I'm sorry I won't do it again. " Hekate said in a monotone voice.
"Go to your room, now!" Kali ordered while pointing up towards a beautiful staircase that spiraled to the third floor.
"Yes, Aunt Kali." As Hekate stood up, Kali finally realized that she wasn't wearing any shoes.
" Did you go outside barefoot? You're a lady and the last heir of the Cleomenes family act like it! " She struck Hekate across the face once more.
"Yes, Aunt Kali, I won't do it again." Hekate turned around and started walking to the staircase. She walked up to the beautiful staircase until she came to the second-floor landing. She walked down a long hallway and stopped right in front of a large oil painting of a family of five all framed in a beautiful gold frame. A middle-aged man was sitting in a chair with a brown-haired boy and girl sitting on his lap. The children looked to only be about three years old. The man was brown-haired just like the little ones. A black-haired girl, about the age of ten, had a humongous smile on her face. She was standing in front of the middle-aged, black-haired woman.
Hekate focused her attention on the black-haired girl with the giant smile.
"Mama said you used to be happy until Castor went missing." Her eyes wandered over to the young boy. "You went out into the woods with Aunt Kali and never came back, just like dad. What happened to you? Aunt Kali still blames herself for your disappearance." She paused for a moment. " Why did you have to let go of Aunt Kali's hand. If you hadn't done that Aunt Kali would be happy and I wouldn't be hit. " Her face started to become red, it felt like a fire was building up inside of her. Her feet were the first to light and then it slowly grew over her entire body and into the floorboards and the walls of the house. She didn't feel anything, didn't see it happening.
All she felt was the feeling of being dizzy and light-headed. All she saw was a blurry mass of yellow and red in front of her. She fell to the ground unconscious. Kali came running up the stairs when she saw the wall of flames she ran out of the house calling for help.
Two dark figures slowly walked up to the stairs
YOU ARE READING
Spellbinding
FantasyHekate Cleomenes has a power hidden within her, and very powerful people want to use her for it. Her younger sister, Maat, was sacrificed to an evil god when she was just a baby, her dad disappeared, and her mother has fallen gravely ill leaving her...
