The Curse of Achlys

The night was dark and cold, the silver moon glowing brightly in the vast sky, surrounded by golden twinkling stars. Laughter and screams rang out through the air as trick-or-treaters ran about in glee, with their Halloween bags filled with candy. I stood on my undecorated porch, watching as everyone had fun, enjoying the night of terrors.

I smirked. If only they knew what real terrors were about to come. I looked up at the sky, relishing in the feel of my magic swirling inside my blood, getting stronger as the night wore on. Just one more hour. I thought happily. One more hour and we will rein. 

"Excuse me, miss?" A little boy's voice asked.

My smile slipped off my face, as I looked down at the little brat who had disturbed me from my thoughts. He was no older than six or seven years old, clad in a Batman costume. He was holding out a medium sized bag, with a Batman symbol on the front of it, a few pieces of candy inside of it.

"Trick-or-treat!" He exclaimed happily, his eyes bright with excitement. I stared at him blankly.

"We're not handing out candy," I said bluntly.

The happy smile went down a bit, as he slowly put down his bag.

 "Oh, okay." He pouted, sounding dejected. Seeing how it was almost midnight and most of the houses had started taking off their lights, he probably wasn't going to get any candy.

I scoffed. His fault. Who goes out trick-or-treating this late anyway? However, even with this thought in mind, I still told him to wait for a minute, before heading inside and getting the different mini bags of candy my parents had originally bought for me to give out. 

Opening them up, I walked out and dumped the contents of the candy into his bag. He stared at me in amazement as I filled his bag to the brim with sweet treats.

"That's all I have. Go away," I told him, crumbling up the plastic packaging. 

"Thank you so much, miss!" He shouted out excitedly, running towards his dad, who was standing at the end of my driveway, waiting for his son. It was obvious from the expression on the father's face that he was exhausted and judging by his clothes he probably worked in a business or a law firm. 

The boy's father shot me a grateful look and took his jumping son's hand and walked him away. I stared after them, watching as the boy continued to talk animatedly and as his father listened intently, nodding and giving him a small smile filled with love. It was sickening.

"That was nice of you," a cold voice said behind me. Tensing up, I turned to face my grandmother's hard wrinkled expression.

"It was logical," I replied in the same cold tone. "My parents would have been mad if the candy was still in the cupboard, the boy had no candy and probably wasn't going to get any, it was a win-win solution."

"If you didn't want your parents to be angry, then why not hand out the candy in the first place?" She inquired.

I didn't say anything. 

"You know, Scarlet Rose, it's moments like these, that make me question whether or not you've gone soft," Grandmother said, moving closer to me. 

"Don't be ridiculous!" I spat. "I'm still the same witch that I was when I was kid."

She regarded me for a moment. "We shall see," she then looked up to the sky. "The time is nearing. You must go to the spiritual grounds and prepare for the ritual. Gather the others," she commanded, before going back inside. 

I glared at her retreating figure and quickly took out my cell phone. 

Head to the park, now. I typed out on Snapchat before sending it.

Looking up at the moon once more, I thought about the history I was about to make. I'm not soft, I'm cold hearted. I repeated in my mind. Taking a deep breath, I took my leave and set out to Hollows Park. 

As I walked through almost deserted streets, my head swirled with thoughts about the ritual, about the biggest moment in all of witches history. The enslavement of all mortals and the ruling of the most powerful witch alive, Achlys. 

But is it really worth it? A small voice within my head said. Is it really worth all this destruction and pain for power that I already have? 

Yes! Yes it is! I mentally shouted at myself, shaking my head of the ridiculous thoughts. It's worth everything. I finalized. But why? For that, I didn't have an answer.

Finally reaching the park, I shook off the lingering doubting thoughts and made my way to the small lake at the back of the park, deep within the forest. Reaching the lake I see the other witches already there, waiting about.

"Finally!" Exclaimed Ciara, jumping off the tree branch she was on. "You know for such an urgent message, you sure took your sweet time coming here," she huffed, blowing the stray strands of her red hair away from her tanned face.

"I thought you said you lived ten minutes away from here?" Noelle asked, munching on a Twix bar.

"I walked," was my reply to her.

"You walked?" Repeated Ciara. I nodded. "This is one of the biggest nights of our lives, and you walked?"

I nodded again. 

"What the-"

"LANGUAGE!" Shouted Jayline, laughing.

Ciara whipped her head towards Jayline, glaring. "This isn't funny! We have been preparing for this moment since we were first able to use magic, people!" She heatedly stated, slowly turning around to face all of us. "This is what we have been waiting for -- what all witches have been waiting for and you're all acting like we're at a goddamned sleepover party! I mean for God's sake, Sydney showed up in a Halloween costume! She didn’t even come dressed as a witch, she came as a freaking fairy!" 

We all turned our heads towards Sydney, who blushed and down casted her head from our gazes. She wore a violet purple dress that was tight at the top, but flowed loose at the bottom, reaching mid thigh. The dress had soft pink designs woven into it and two medium sized dark purple wings, also with pink designs, attached to the back of it. She had laced pink stockings on with violet purple flats. On top of her head, she had placed a dark purple wig on with pink highlights in it with a black headband holding the hair back. 

“Well, it is Halloween,” Noelle said, adjusting her blue framed glasses.

“Yeah, let her do what she wants. It’s not hurting anyone,” Jayline stated, twisting a piece of her honey blonde hair.

“Oh really, cause it’s sure as hell hurting my eyes. I bet that even her ancestors are looking down upon her in disgust. Though it’s probably no different from everyday. Going off about how it’s probably a bad idea to bring my great ancestor, Achlys back - the most powerful witch in history, mind you - all because she pities the pathetic mortals. It’s absolutely atrocious! A shame on her family, a shame on the witches-”

“Ciara,” I interrupted in a monotone voice. “Don’t think that just because you're a direct descendant of Achlys that you can look down on the rest of us. No matter what your relations are, you’re still the weakest one out of all of us. You’re terrible at making potions, you’re an abomination when it comes to natural skills and instincts, you're horrible at making spells, and above all you’re horrendous at casting spells. You may be a descendant of Achlys, but you’re one of the worst witches I’ve ever seen.”

At the end of my speech, Ciara’s face was as red as a tomato and the other witches - minus Sydney - were sniggering at her humiliation. I glanced up at the moon, before speaking again. “The hour is getting late, we should begin the ritual now. Jayline, make the pentagram,” I ordered.

“Okay,” she said, still laughing. Reaching into her bag that was placed next to her feet, she took out a paintbrush and a can of white paint. 

I looked at Noelle. "You've got the candles?"

"Hahaha, yeah I got the candles," she replied, taking the multi colored candles out of her own bag.

"Syd, the spell book?"

Sydney nodded, showing me the old leather bound book, that she was clutching tightly on her arms.

"Ciara, the dagger?" 

She rolled her eyes, before ruffling through her purse looking for the dagger. After a few seconds, her movements stalled and she stood rooted in her place.

"The dagger, Ciara." I demanded. She ticked her jaw, not responding. I turned to her, glaring. "Ciara, do you have the dagger?" Still no response. "Ciara, answer me! Do you have the dagger?!" We were all looking at her now. She stood still, her face glowing a dark red, tears forming in the corner of her eyes. I moved towards her. "Ciara . . ." I started slowly. "Where the hell is that dagger?"

She closed her eyes, the tears now streaming down her face. "I-I don't know."

I froze, as did the other girls. A sinking feeling welled inside of my stomach, chills running down my spine.

"C-Ciara, what do you mean you don't know?" Sydney asked quietly, worry and fear laced in her voice. 

"I mean I don't know!" She snapped. "It was in my purse, but now it's not."

"You lost the sacred dagger?!" Shouted Jayline, horrified.

"No!" Cried Ciara. "No, it just - it was in my purse, but now it's not!"

"And what exactly do you call that?!" Noelle yelled. "You frigging lost the dagger! Do you have any idea what you've done!"

"G-Guys please calm down," Sydney spoke weakly.

"Calm down? How do you expect us to calm down?! We can't complete the ritual without that dagger, the dagger which she lost!" Focusing my magic into my hand, I formed a ball of wind, before shooting it at Ciara. 

Ciara flew back two feet, before crashing into a tree and falling in a heap onto the floor.

"Sc-Scarlet!" Sydney exclaimed in surprise. The other two gasped in shock. I never lose my cool. Never.

Shakily getting up, Ciara held out her hand and a long chain encased in fire appeared. Holding it tightly, she swung her arm back and whipped the chain at me.

Swiftly, I flew into the air, creating strong gusts of wind to keep me up. The chain completely missed me and instead hit the tree behind me, cutting it in half - the wood from where it was cut burned black. Taking a deep breath, I pushed out my lips, as if I were to whistle, and blew hard, mixing my magic with air in my breath. 

Ciara flew back again, crashing into the same tree, her top tearing at the back. Gently floating back down to the ground, I formed another ball of wind and aimed it at her.

"Stop!" Sydney screamed, coming between us. "Just calm down! O-okay? We-We still have time. Maybe the dagger just fell out of her purse when she was coming here. M-Maybe when you fell, Ciara," Sydney said, whipping around to face her. "R-Remember, you said that when you were coming here, y-you fell down in the middle of the forest. Maybe it came out of your purse. We still have time, we could look for it."

I stared at her for a few moments before letting out a deep sigh and dropping my hand. "Fine," I spit out.

Sydney looked around at the rest of the witches. "Well?" They all slowly nodded. 

"We should start now, if we want to get this done before the Soltix ends," Noelle said, while looking up at the moon.

"Let's go, c'mon," Jayline urged, going to pick Ciara up. 

After we gathered our bearings, we took off, running through the trees, to reach the spot where Ciara fell. My heart was thumping erratically, fear coursing through my body, as we ran. I could feel the overwhelming amount of power that I had before, slowly slipping away. If we don’t get that dagger, we’ll miss the last chance we have at resurrecting Achlys and everything that we’ve prepared for would have been for nothing.

But is it really that bad? Would it really be that bad if Achlys never came back? There’s that annoying voice again. I may be annoying, but it’s the truth, whether you like it or not. I clenched my jaw. It's not the truth, it's not the truth, it's not the truth. I repeated in my head.

"We're almost there!" Ciara informed us, running faster. We followed her lead, increasing our speed as well.

It's not too late. We can make it. We can complete the ritual. We ca- 

I collapsed. The surge in my powers had vanished. Raising my head, I noticed that the other girls had collapsed as well, looks of anguish on their faces. Soltix had ended. We failed. 

I stared at the ground in disbelief. My throat burned. My eyes stung. My chest constricted. I screamed.

***

"AHHHHHHHH!"

I jumped up in startle ment at Scarlet's scream. Looking at her, I watched as she banged on the forest floor, tears streaming down her face, screaming.

"WHY?!" She shouted. "We were so close! We could've done it! We just needed more time! We just needed time!" I felt tears slip down my own face at the pure pain in her voice, but I had no other choice. We had no other choice.

I looked at the other witches - Jayline, Noelle, and Ciara - and shared a look with them. No regrets. We did what we had to do. Scarlet may not understand now, but she will. I know she will. It was the only choice.

The Curse of Achlys should never come to be and now it won't.