GLINDA
"Where the hell are you taking us?"
Evanora was out of her mind, dragging us around the entire town. People might start to stare and talk but then again, what people...? "We have to talk Glinda."
By the Virtues, what? I hadn't done anything wrong, why did she want to talk to me? "What did I do? I just-"
She squeezed my hand so that it hurt, and I yelped from the pressure. "Quiet! You didn't do anything. We just have to go somewhere more discreet."
I nodded. I think I was getting her now...
She led us through the streets which were empty as usual. The only people we saw were quietly sitting in their houses and enjoying the time with their families. We kept walking until we reached a butcher's shop and took a sharp left turn. We faced a disgusting-looking building that had been left empty for what seemed like decades.
"I'm not going in there!"
Evanora turned around and finally let go of me and her husband. "Trust me, it's not that bad on the inside." She waved us to follow her and continued walking towards the building and entered the ruin. We did so hesitantly.
"Are you kidding me?" The inside definitely didn't look better than the outside. If I had to be honest, it may have even looked worse. But my words didn't seem to dissuade Evanora at all. She kept walking towards the moist counter, leapt graciously over the tabletop and reached below it.
Everything was white and when I opened my eyes, I thought for a second that Evanora had teleported us through time again. But upon my question, she only shook her head, "This is Vincent's place – the third wheel – and according to him, this cloaking device is one of the last spells in this country."
"And will he know that we are here?"
She interjected before I could continue, "Oh, he probably knows by now... But I have the feeling the he can be trusted. He is a Van Helsing..."
I felt my own eyes grow. "What?! And you decide to come here out of all places? He is with the king!"
She raised her hand. She reminded me of the king. By the Virtues how I had grown to dislike him...
"I doubt it, Glinds... If that was the case, we would have been exposed by now. He had an entire day to tell him or Isabel."
She had a point. I hope she knows what she is doing! We took a seat at a round table, in the far corner of the room. Evanora remained behind the counter and took a bottle of Irish Cream and five glasses from behind her.
"Don't you think, you're a bit intrusive, honey?" Zion asked her but she only raised her shoulders.
"I would be if I won't pay. But I will." She grabbed into the deep pocket of her trench coat and pulled out a couple of yellow crystals and placed them on the tabletop, before she walked around it and joined us at the table.
You see, in Oz, we do not use any money but rather the crystals that grow there in abundance like grass. Yet again, this method of payment holds only a sort of symbolic value since it was centuries ago that my grandfather established it.
Here on Earth, we were more than rich.
"So... What do you want to talk about?" I asked her while she aligned the glasses in front of me, Zion, Aliyah, Theodora and herself, filling them to the half with thick, caramel-colored liquid.
"This entire situation, obviously," She replied, as she slammed the cork back into the bottle with her palm. "I see how we are all suspicious of this king and I wanted to hear your thoughts."
I nodded as she continued and took a big sip out of the glass. Baileys was my favorite and I think she knows that. Just trying to soften me up. Could not say that it was not working though. "I think he's making a big mistake, if you ask me. This is just as big a mistake as incinerating an entire population of Goblins..."
Evanora raised her hands in defense. "Don't look at me! It was mother who threw Ruby's sword into the caves."
"She's right."
They were such a fitting couple, Zion and Evanora. The way he defends her and places his strong, masculine hands on her soft ones, warms my heart. But I was getting distracted.
"Nevertheless, we have to stop the king from wiping out the Vampires!"
Evanora moved her hand from under Zion's and took mine into both of hers. "I know, Glinds; it's wrong. But we won't be able to stop him from committing the crime."
I was just about to say something back, but she moved one of her hands to my cheek and looked into my bright blue eyes with her own dark green ones.
"That doesn't mean that we cannot do our best to work against him. Create our own plans. That way, he'll think that we help him kill the Vampires but in fact, we'll only have helped him stop them." I had to smile. Evanora knew her handiwork. Better than anyone else. I took my glass and raised it high into the air. The others followed my example, and we drank to our new and own plan...
*
EVANORA
An evil laugh echoed through the darkness of the night. I could not even see the hands in front of my eyes. Only a small white spot in the far back of this space indicated any form of light existed.
I felt my body move without me actually trying. The light got closer as it grew and transformed into a bright orb of white. I saw my hand stretch out and my fingers contract to touch this strange appearance.
As soon as I felt the warmth of the energy on my nails, the flash brought me to my knees, where I was engulfed in darkness once more, as the orb disappeared.
I opened my eyes and saw a figure facing me. Blurry, at first but then it became clearer and clearer as my eyes adjusted. Although everything was black, I could see the colors of the figure as bright as day.
"Dad..." My own voice sounded distant, as I spoke this single-syllabled word. It was as if I didn't speak out of my mouth, but the vibrations moved from around me. I saw father's figure in front of me and the sight scared the nerves out of me. He did not look like himself at all. His skin, hair and eyes were white, and his once blue robes were graying, as were his teeth and nails. He was a walking corpse.
Behind him, I heard the laugh once more. And as it grew louder and louder, another figure appeared behind him, and I knew who it was even before I could even see her.
As Morgana walked around father and traced her hand around his face, her face twisted into a malicious smile. I could not move at all. Not even flinch at this disgusting creature. "Hello, honey. Have you been missing daddy, lately?"
I wanted to scream; to tear out her eyes and break every single one of the 206 bones she possessed. Another laugh escaped her lips. She held out her hand and collected the darkness from around into her palm, forming a sharp blade that rested heavy in her hand.
Now that the darkness had disappeared, I could see where I was, the Emerald City. I looked into the Dark Witch's eyes and saw them flicker with malice. She closed her thin fingers around the dull side of the spear, gripped it and run it straight through father's lifeless body. Once, twice, ten times. Until there was nothing more left than a punctured and empty shell.
"NO!" I screamed, as the senses returned to me, and my nerves regained their conscience. I lunged forward from my kneeling position and held out my hands, thrusting that bitch against the throne and grabbing her by the temples.
I felt the current run through me, flow from my toes to my fingertips, closing the circle right through that filth's brains.
Her agonizing scream made me want to do things to her, even worse than that. She screamed on top of her voice, trying to fidget out of my grasp. But it remained strong, and I would never let go of her, until I would get what I want: Her death.
"NO, STOP! HE WILL NEVER FORGIVE ME!"
With that I jumped to my feet, clutching my sticky chest with my equally sticky hands and finding myself in a room inside the king's castle that I had grown to recognize as a safe place.
"What has become of me...?"
The remainder of yesterday, we spent walking around the city and its suburbs. London was a ghost town. No people dared to leave their houses, leaving the streets empty all the time. We sat down at a café, having tea and pastries for each of us, before we got to a general store, buying bread, cheese and some sweets for a picknick in the meadows surrounding the city.
We laughed and enjoyed our humble meal but it was the best lunch I have had in a long time. If only mother – if only even father – would have been there. They would have enjoyed watching Marcy play with the grass and the trees and the little beetles, more than any of us did.
Even I couldn't help the constant smile as I distantly looked at her while she had found refuge in her own little world. The twelve-year-olds nowadays would never be even slightly able to appreciate even an inkling of nature.
Too invested in their devices and such. I couldn't help but notice that as soon as Marcy had been forced to part from her own ones, she was a totally different person whatsoever. It also helped her deal with what Morgana had done to her.
Aliyah was waking up increasingly less because of the little girl's night terrors. But the scars on her forearm still shone scarlet and were healing slowly.
Now it was morning, and I was already anticipating the opportunity of talking to Isabel if I would be able to. I changed from my sweaty nightgowns into my new day-to-day outfit and tossed the cream-colored robe onto a pile of unwashed clothes. Zion was just waking up, as I had put on my coat.
"Good morning, sleepy." I walked over to his side of the bed and leaned over his head, taking in his moss-colored eyes. I moved closer and placed my lips onto his for a quick good-morning kiss.
He smiled into the kiss, and I disconnected. He took his arm from under the bedsheet and rubbed his one eye with a fist, as he stretched the last bits of sleep away. His voice sounded rough from a good night's rest. "Morning. How have you slept?"
I moved my hand over his unshaved cheek, scratching along his two-day beard, and tucking loose streaks of hair away from his face. "Alright. Just a bit exciting during the end but quite refreshing. You?"
He rested his weight on his elbows and pulled himself into a sitting position to be eye-on-eye with me, since I had seated myself onto the edge of the bed. He looked at me in a way as if he knew exactly what I was talking about. I had checked multiple times after I had woken up to see if he was still asleep. And, he has not been. But without him saying anything, I felt his comfort.
"Fine too. You want to know what I dreamt of?" He replied and I raised my eyebrows in question. "You."
I bit my lower lip and looked to my right for a split second, blushing, before I placed another kiss onto his cheek and forced myself to the door. I wanted to spend every single second with him here in bed, laughing at his jokes and blushing at his playful comments but duty called. Once this was over, I would follow this dream of mine. I promised that to myself. "You're a charming one, are you? Now, if you don't wake up and be ready in five minutes, they will have started without us! Come on; get up."
He laughed in his cute and wholesome way, but it reminded me of my dream, and I frowned, turning to leave. I was only able to see him shake his head, before his amusement turned to worry and I moved out of the room, down the hall and back into the weaponry.
I was amazed that I had found the way back, even though I had not paid any attention to my surroundings, at all. As I entered through the small door and into the large room, my sisters – except Glinda; she was watching Marcy now because of her refusal to fight and Marcy was way too young to do so – the king and Isabel were already waiting for us, involved in conversation.
"Zion will be here any minute, we can start," I said to announce my arrival. The king clapped and rubbed his hands together, smiling behind his brown beard.
"Splendid! Now, Isabel: you can take over."
The girl stepped forward and only now did I notice how different she looked. Isabel had laid off her grey servant's dress and had swapped it for a very elegant and neat suit. She had her white and frail hair tied into a high ponytail with a few streaks of hair hanging loose in her face. She wore black pants and boots with a grape-colored blouse, underneath a white coat that finished at hip-height at the front but continued flowing on the ground in the back. She looked stunning.
"Thank you, my liege. Now! You all know what we're going to do and why you are here: We are going to finally attack the perpetrators of this entire situation. For that, you shall first pick a weapon of your choice which will be imbued in holy water to be able to kill Vampires."
Just as she finished, the door opened and Zion finally joined us. He snuck onto me and grabbed hold of my hand. I squeezed his in return.
"We'll choose our weapons now," I whispered into his ear, as he moved down to kiss my cheek. He nodded and we moved to the racks and crates of weapons along with the others. No one seemed excited to do so. Well, no one except Theodora; she was ecstatic, really. But nevertheless, no one really dared to search through the crates and racks.
With careful steps, Zion and I took the liberty to move forward. Swords, axes, halberds, crossbows and even modern clockwork pistols and rifles were only a small part of the arsenal. For fifteen minutes we searched for the arm that suited us most, while we were stared at by the king and Isabel, uncomfortable in our skins.
I tried out the swords: Glinda's, not my expertise. I tried out the axes: too heavy. I tried the halberds and although I was very comfortable with the staff and quite proficient, those were not quite well balanced for my taste.
In the end, I decided to go with a crossbow, something I had always longed to try out. I picked up the weapon and a bag of bolts and walked over to the king and his servant. The other three joined us in another five minutes.
Zion had chosen a blunderbuss and I laughed at the sight of him with this massive engine. Aliyah had gone for a pair of hatchets that functioned as both melee weapons and pistols. An engineering breakthrough. Theodora went for a pair of simple daggers.
"Perfect. Now that we are all settled, follow me upstairs to talk through our tactics- The king will say farewell for now..." The man waved us off, as we walked back out of the room and upstairs into the kitchen. The perfect opportunity for me to have a real talk with Isabel.
We walked up the stairs and she led us through the kitchen door. I deliberately went in last. And at this point, I didn't care whether or not I showed who I was, I needed answers! After everyone had gathered around the table, I closed every door and window with a quick swish of my hand and nodded to Aliyah to seal them with a rune. I and my sisters did not really need to talk for us to understand each other. Isabel had just began talking when we began our magical assault.
The only one who didn't want to participate in this was Theodora, who sat down on a chair in a corner. She had been too excited about our attack and was disappointed now that we disturbed her that moment. I could feel that.
"Who are you?" Was the first thing, the girl asked. She was not afraid. Rather determined, as if her own suspicions had been confirmed.
"Don't let yourself be bothered by that. We are travelers from far away and were sent here by the Black Fairy."
The corner of her mouth moved upward, and she snapped, "What do you want?"
"We want answers! This place is cursed, and you know that. Yet you and the king keep your secrets. Should I tell him about your relationship with Vincent?"
Her eyes grew and she stood up from her chair, definitely afraid now. "We just went together to retrieve the holy water. The king doesn't usually let me go meet him and does so himself. Getting the supplies would have been an exception because of him having to deal with businesses of his own. As to secrets: There are none that I know of. Vampires have taken over the city and we have to stop them. The longer we chat, the stronger they get and there won't be any way for us to get into their castle and kill the couple; the leaders."
I looked at my husband and he shook his head. She was lying and now it was my turn to snap and smile. I swore to myself that I would uncover every secret here and I will not rest until I do so. "You cannot fool us, Isabel."
The girl was looking left and right, clearly fighting for words. None of us said anything. We needed her in uncertainty and at her most vulnerable.
"Vincent is my uncle," She began and all of us continued our silence. "Our goal is not to kill the Vampires. At least not for the king. The only secret that I am holding from you is what they did to my family. They purged them down to the two of us. We want to kill them to restore glory to the name of Van Helsing."
I nodded thrice. "We won't tell him if you keep quiet yourself."
She replied in the same manner.
"Perfect!" I clapped my hands and all of us took a seat at the large kitchen table. "Let us hunt down some Vampires!"
We began talking about tactics and our opponents, way past nightfall, pretending like nothing had happened. The hunt was on, and I had no idea if I would be able to get any sleep before the big day tomorrow. This interrogation had been too anticlimactic for me, and I had really hoped to uncover secrets that I still felt persisted.
*
THEODORA
All those days, I couldn't have been more excited. My hands were itching to get back to action and now, my longing was finally satisfied. All of us had woken up early to prepare for the battle in the best and most effective way possible. I had no idea if I hadn't gone rusty and personally had to put in a bit of time for practice.
By noon, we were more or less ready to move out and meet the Vampires with force. Finally. I was almost at the point of not being able to compose myself. I was beginning to get jittery, and my legs itched with the desire to get going. I was not ready for what was expecting me but I wanted to go. I cannot live without some action in my life.
"What are we going against, I mean, how much can we expect?" I asked Isabel, running from the back of our convoy to talk to her, as we moved to the lion's den.
"Our last intel told us that the Van Falls have grown to numbers of several thousands. But at the castle will be only a few hundred." I nodded at her reply. I had almost done flips when she said that we had to go against several thousands and was disappointed when she said that at the castle would only be some hundred. Anyway, at least something...
We walked out of the city, past meadows and little forested areas of a brilliant green color. I recognized these trees and grasses. This was the way we had first trotted when we had first arrived here, guided by the Black Fairy. I hope that she will return to us in the end. After all the trouble she had put us through that was the least we deserved.
It turned out that the ominous castle that we were all walking to was in fact the scary mansion that Evanora had spotted on our way to London. What a turn of events yet it didn't surprise me, as this building basically radiated dark energy and was comfortably hidden behind tress and hedges – the perfect base of operation for taking over London.
Isabel led the way up a graveled path to the entrance, followed by Evanora and Zion and me and Aliyah forming the tail. I took out the two daggers from my boots, the second I saw the group of Vampires that guarded the door. Isabel passed a bottle of holy water to us, in order to infuse our weapons with it.
Although the others only pretended to do so, I had other plans in mind. By pretending to pretend, I was doing not only myself a favor but also the innocent inhabitants of the city at the foot of the hill. They would be able to sleep at night, once these abominations are six feet under.
Isabel picked up her pace and once we were all running, the Vampires met us with equal force as they squealed for their friends. But what was she doing? Isabel threw her weapon aside and charged the enemy head-on. This girl had signed her death-sentence although it appeared like she had no control over her own body in that moment.
And instead of falling victim to the sharp claws and teeth of the animal, several lines etched upon her bare skin, glowing pink. At first, she appeared surprised by this as well, her blank expression returning before vanishing entirely. She did not let all of this distract her from her goal: killing those Vampires. She picked them up, one by one and threw them against the castle's wall, not leaving even a single one of them for us.
"Isabel, what is that? What are you?" Evanora asked carefully and slightly afraid. As the girl turned to face us with loose streaks of hair hanging over it, not only had these new tattoos begun to glow pink but under her right eye were three dots and the eyes themselves had turned from amber to a glowing neon rosé. The girl we had met those few days ago had vanished and before us stood a woman of grace and power.
"Oh, I have a lot more to tell you than that. Now that this trip lifted the spell. If I had only known that it would take being in a familiar environment for it to do so, I would have gone here much earlier!"
What was she talking about? This exact same thing was apparently going through the brain of the others for Zion was scrunching his eyebrows together, Aliyah had moved her hands to her hips, resting the hatchets on top of them and Evanora had just opened her mouth to ask her something in returned when a silver blade, sticking out of her stomach, made us all gasp. The Vampire moved up from behind her, showing its fangs when it smiled upon its achievement.
"NO!" I heard Zion scream, but I was faster. The fingertips of my right hand turned an ugly lime green, and fire was spurting out of them, enclosing the blade in my hand. I lunged out to the back, before I tossed it through the air between the Creature of the Night and myself, making it spin.
The combination of fire and holy water was what killed the beast as the blade landed right between its eyes. The space began to glow, and the abomination squealed in agony, as its skin began to boil and expand until the head could no longer take it and burst. The creature was immediately dead.
Now, I no longer cared about the citizens. They had almost taken my sister and they would pay for it. Zion hurried to his wife and took her into his arms. We were all panicking. The only one who could help her now was Glinda and there was no way to get down to London fast enough.
"Take her to my uncle's. The one called Glinda will be there." How? What was she? Where had she been and how did she know all of this now? My head – and probably everybody else's head – was spinning from the number of questions I was cycling through.
The howl of Vampires brought us back into reality. We had to leave, yet we could not break off our attack. They – and us – had fought so hard to go through with it that it was impossible to let it go in vain.
"Zion, take her and leave – we will manage." The man looked up with his panicked eyes and into mine.
"Are you sure?"
I nodded and looked at my other sister, who agreed as well. Isabel bowed down to the married couple, whose life together had been hell up until now. I was not jealous at all. Isabel placed the back of her hand on Evanora's forehead and packed Zion's shoulder with her other one. "I'll have to take you, she has not much time left. Will the two of you manage?"
"Yes. My sister's life is more important than ours, right now. Do what you must, Isabel." Aliyah was faster than I to come up with a reply. We stood there, waiting for the Vampires to come as Isabel's marks and eyes glowed pink again and she disappeared with a blinding pink light, taking Zion and Evanora with her. Had she been the Black Fairy all along?
Aliyah and I stood back-to-back, in front of the entrance to the castle and were anticipating the Creatures of the Night to strike at any moment. Let's hope that we'll, in fact, manage to take out the Van Falls on our own...