Chapter 56- Whispers In The Wind

Ruby opened the front door and waltzed into her childhood home. Her time away had made her stronger. She knew where everyone was. Her sister Pearl had contacted her within her dream. Gloating on how Crystal would finally face trial for all her sins. Pearl was an idiot. Ruby had tried to make her see sense, but like her other sisters they were just brainwashed servants to her mother.
Ruby had packed up the moment she woke up. Her promise to her father had stayed with her. She would protect Crystal, first she needed to find his diary. What other secrets had they been hiding?
***
It had been two weeks. Fourteen long days and nights she had spent in the little cell that held nothing but a camp bed and a makeshift toilet. She had missed thanksgiving, not that her mother celebrated it, but she had thought about sneaking out and checking out the parties. Tough luck. She had been held captive by her coven.
Her name had been echoing through the walls. Slowly she was turning crazy, pulling at her hair, and banging her head against the wall. She had thought about taking her own life just to make it stop. But she couldn’t. She wasn’t that type of person. She wasn’t allowed visitors and suffered with her loneliness.
Then a miracle happened. Margon had appeared. She had come to her in all her glory, telling her to be strong. Her long-lost grandmother. The strange old woman from Athens had given her the strength she needed and with it she had snapped out of her depressive state ready to fight. She didn’t know if the woman had been a dream, hallucination or not, yet it didn’t matter. She had gained the strength she needed to carry on and keep fighting.
She knew what she had to do. She had to make the coven see the light. See that they were just puppets to the elders and her mother. They were chess pieces that were easily moved and replaced.
How? She had no idea. She wracked her brain. Her mind going backwards and forwards with possibilities.
Margon appeared once again. Just a shimmering hue, yet Crystal knew it was her.
“Child. You are looking in the wrong place. Your strength is inside of you,” she whispered.
“I don’t know what to do,” Crystal confessed.
“Not many of us do. Listen to your heart. Follow your instinct,” she closed her eyes and listened to her heartbeat. When she opened her eyes Margon was gone. But she knew what she had to do. She had to show the coven who she was. What she could do. After all, they followed the strongest link. She had to show them she was stronger than they could ever imagine.
***
Ruby slowly walked up the stairs to her parent’s room, now solely her mothers with soft footfalls, trying hard to not alert any of the staff to her presence. The bedroom door squeaked as she pushed it open and she held her breath, listening to hear any indication that someone had heard her. Nothing. She proceeded into the room. First, she looked in every drawer. The wardrobe and under the bed, she checked all the average places that people hid things. She came up empty handed.
She walked towards the window and the floorboard squeaked. Pausing she took a few steps back, carefully watching the floor. Again, it let out a groan. Pulling back the rug and lifting the offended floorboard up, she smiled. Inside laid a pendent and a brown leather pocketbook. She had found what she needed.
Ruby hurried home with the items proud of her accomplishment.
***
In one days’, time her daughter was to stand trial. She still had things to sort to ensure the elders didn’t rule in favour of her death. She had to sway them and show them that Crystal was worth keeping alive. She had come so close, yet it felt like she had been pushed backwards. Dam that daughter of hers. She was a wild card.
What on earth had made Seth Carmichael call her out into the forest she didn’t know? All the covens suspected that the wolves were behind the killings. After all it was their memo. Every other day another young woman was found. Always a witch from the nearby covens, yet not one of the Carmichael’s own had been found. They had all gathered for a meeting and Pearl had used her abilities to determine if the wolves were behind the attack. She was adamant that the wolves were innocent, and she had never been wrong before.
However, Jeanette was starting to doubt Pearl. Why would the wolves just take the legs? Was it for dark magic? Part of a sacrifice spell? The killings were getting out of control, they needed to find the culprit quick before things escalated and they had a war on their hands.
“What is the meaning of this?” Seth asked as soon as she came into view. Her eyes caught the carnage and her hand shot to her mouth.
Bodies, a dozen of them all female, only the top half of them lay in a pile. Around them was a symbol that was drawn in the blood of the victims. Jeanette felt bile rise in her throat as her eyes caught the words written on the forest floor. “She’s mine,” on the trees another message read. “Crystal,”
“I…err…I don’t know,” the words stuck in her throat as she realized that someone else wanted Crystal, that someone was another demon. Damon let out puffs of air from his nostrils and marched forward. Jeannette could have done without is random presence.
“She’s mine!” he roared at the top of his lungs.
A gust of wind swept past them, its chilly fingertips racking down Jeannette’s back.
“Mine,” a childlike voice sang.
“We finish the deal!” Damon spun around and barked at Jeannette.
“Christmas day,”
“You can have her back for your day. But she belongs to me until then!” he roared, and Jeannette had no option but to agree to his plans.
“Tomorrow,” she whispered. Damon evaporated in a puff of black smoke leaving Jeanette alone with a seething Seth.
“You made a deal with a demon?” he asked her coolly. Yet there was venom behind his words.
“I had no choice,” she answered like a naughty schoolgirl.
“Then explain,” he waved his hand like she was nothing but a servant which angered Jeanette.
“I have to re marry and quickly or I lose my place as head of the coven. If that happens then people in my coven will see Crystal dead. Then what for us? We need her. I did what I had to do,”
“You fool. He gives you a husband and you give him your daughter? You can have one of my guys to play husband,”
“Do you think Damon will just leave me alone? Leave Crystal alone?” she asked him.
“Oh, don’t worry about him. I will make sure he does,”
Jeanette was at a loss. She knew full well that Seth couldn’t kill a demon. It was impossible.
“Who do you think did this?” She asked Seth.
“Teke,” he replied, which explained nothing to Jeanette. As she walked back to the community, she kept glancing over her shoulder. She swore she was being followed.
As she reached the edge of the forest that led to her backyard, she took one last look behind her. Shaking the feeling away she turned around finding herself face to face with a black-haired girl who was suspended in mid-air. Her lower body missing.
“Mine!” she screamed, and Jeanette spun around running for her life. She tripped and scrambled over the forest floor until she exited near the old oak tree.
Looking back into the forest she was alone. The young demon girl was gone. Taking a deep breath, she noticed that the ground around the oak tree had been disturbed.