AN ACOLYTE REVOLUTION:BOOK 1:THE BEGINNING:CHAPTER XLVII:RITUAL

After being pacified by the witch, Mary dried off her tears and it was only when she became sober that she came to the realization that her underwear was missing and wondered where it had fallen off. The witch who had taken her to the pool wasn't aware of this and she wasn't going to say anything about it so she kept it to herself as she remained stagnant in middle of the pool without having to pull her clothes off. She felt the coldness of the water refreshing her pale sinews which slowly ease all the brutal pains she felt earlier and felt like taking a cool swim around the pool but she was instructed not to move rather, to allow the tranquil effect of the water ease her strain nerves as well as every feeble muscle around her body.
Her entire body became wet and soaked with the liquid including that of her cloth when she had entered into the water and had swarm to the middle according to what the witch instructed her to do.
For five minutes, she remained quiet as the still water savoring the profound silence that had densely filled the entire cave with its serene noises.
The tip of her foot barely touched the sandy water floor of the pool since the pool was shallow and was rather not too deep enough to swallow her height. Everywhere seemed too dark for her to see the witch's Visage clearly but she could see her black stature behind the podium putting on a black robe which she wasn't wearing earlier when Mary entered the pool.
Before long, Mary could hear her muttering some incantations from the spellbook that lay open for her read out the spell scribbled on the large pages which was needed for the charm to work as part of the rites required for the ritual ceremony to take place.
The tempo of her words begin to rise solemnly till the climax made her shrieked out in repetition of the incantations. Then her voice died down and at first, there was no response. Everywhere looked quiet to her as it was as usual. But two minutes of silence was turned into a violent one wheb the whole cave began to shake violently while Mary began to feel uncomfortable staying in the pool for too long. The ripple effect inside the cave soon affected the stagnant water and it was suddenly turned violent around Mary who felt a bit afraid seeing harsh ripples of the water itself thrusting upward and splitting into drops before splashing into the against the rough edges around the pool. It became more frantic and energetic in its tussling with itself around the sacrificial victim whose courage began to dwindle down little by little as every single in her sight except for her self was undergoing a tremendous trembling of the caverns. Two hefty stones from above on the roof of the cave unexpectedly pulled out from their places and fell down into the pool but she was lucky enough to evade it in time to save herself from being crushed to death by the falling rocks.
As she scrambled for safety, two to four human hands came out from below the pool and grabbed her by the elbows. Then kept pulling her down into the water. She screamed out for help from the witch and kept wriggling her body around to free herself from the grasp but her super strength as a vampire seemed to have left her completely. She tussled with the energy she had in her muscles but the hands were powerful and she couldn't seem to break free from their clutches as they toss her down into the water. Then she sank below into the water with the hands pulling her down to thr depths of the shallow pool that now seem bottomless like a deep chasm full of water. In the midst of her tussling with whoever was bring her down, she suddenly woke up from sleep only to behold the witch sitting on a rocky ground beside the podium but was dressed in the outfit Mary recalling she had worn earlier before her entering into the pool. Her eyes spun around the every corner of the caverns checking if she had arrived at the gates of hell already only to find out that she was still inside the cave. It came as a shock to her that her clothes as suddenly dried off and Mary searched herself if really she felt the same outfit she recalled wet with her body when she was drowning had now become dried completely.
"You're awake",
The witch said noticing her utterly shocked and appalled by her discovery that the clothes hsd dried off.
"I... What happened to me...I thought...",
She stuttered unable to comprehend nor could she explain what was wrong with the whole occurrences.
"You died",
The witch completed.
"Excuse me?",
"I said that you died",
She became silent and even more confused when the witch clearly told her what she thought had happened to her.
"That's absurd. I must be imagining things or was it a dream?",
"Figure it out and do the math",
Came the witch's respomse.
"This isn't real",
Then tell me what is real, my dear?",
"I'm a vampire. We vampires don't die unless we get stabbed in the heart",
"But you just saw that you did",
"No, no, that was an illusion or my mind playing tricks on me",
"You felt it right?",
"What?",
"The whole thing. It actually did happen but not in reality. Rather, it happened in your head",
"Then it's a dream",
"I didn't call it so",
"You just said everything was in my head",
"Yes I did say that but that's how the ritual works",
"The ritual?",
"Yeah. Don't you remember the reason why you came here? I'm sure you do recall for you to remember the fact that you are vampire",
"Stop playing with my thoughts",
"But it's true. You do remember everything including what you just went through",
"Then how come my wet clothes became dried up all of a sudden, huh?",
Mary questioned indignantly.
"It's because of the mirror dimensions. What you just experienced is a personal reality that cleanses your curse as a vampire. Now you can walk on daylight like any human does. You've done this before but it seems like you have experienced a different turnaround, haven't you?",",
Mary became puzzled. She couldn't remember the last time she experienced something like this though her mind deduced that the only reason for her being here was to get the spell to be able to be a day walker like a human being but this time was different because the incidents she experienced were so real that she find it hard to believe that ot existed in another dimension or perhaps it could be a dream like she had earlier thought.
The witch sensed her confusion and stood up before her to clear her doubts.
"Don't get your head wrapped up with too much thinking. By the way, Bertrand is waiting for you so you better leave now",
"Alright",
"If I may ask, how long have you known Bertrand?",
"Him? Since I was a little girl he saved from a plane crash years ago",
"You mean you decided to become a vampire just to please him?",
Mary nodded timidly. The witch kept quiet ruminating deeply about what to say next.
"Do as please but if you are in trouble, don't hesitate to contact me. I'm always available in your sleep so there's no need to give you my phone number. Be gone, then. I need to get things ready for my meeting with my brothers",
She ordered and walked away to the other side of the cave but she stopped halfway when she remembered something that she should have told Mary.
"The way out is front of you. Just follow your Instincts and you can get outta here as you please",
She shouted and her voice echoing around the whole cave.
Mary obeyed and soon, she was out of the caverns.