Chapter 79- Into The Thorns

Crystal watched the ghost out of her bedroom window. They had surrounded the manor. Hundreds maybe thousands of them, they didn’t move, they stayed in the same spot. What were they waiting for? Were they the only ones left? That thought vanished as she watched Martha stride through the gates and down the driveway. The virus had spared the batty old woman with the grumpy face. Typical.
The ghosts let her past like she wasn’t even there. Perhaps she wasn’t the one they wanted. A shiver ran down her back. Before most of them died, they wanted her dead. What if they had taken that agenda to the afterlife and were waiting to strike? She couldn’t think like that. She had too much to deal with without adding another, what if? To the situation. However, she would be cautious and prepared.
“Hay,” Levi said as he entered the room closing the door behind him.
“What do you think they want?” she asked as he came up beside her.
“To move on. Whatever it is I guess we will find out sooner than later,” he replied.
“I hate waiting,” she grumbled.
“Father needs our help scanning the books,” Levi said, and she rolled her eyes. She was never the best student. Now that she was orphaned and married, school life shouldn’t be on the menu.
She followed Levi to the living room where a bunch of witches were gathered. Around fifty of them spanned the room and the adjoining dining room.
“Is that all that’s left?” Crystal whispered.
“Around three hundred in total. The others are working on other things,” Levi answered.
Seth passed her a stack of books, and she widened her eyes at him. It was going to be a long morning.
***
By mid-afternoon, her eyes were stinging from the constant staring at the yellowed pages and the writing had become nothing but black blurs. Slamming the book shut she stood and stretched her aching legs. She had been sat on the floor for hours and they were yet to find any possible answers.
“I am going for a walk,” she declared to the room and angry glares met her.
“You got a problem with that Martha?” she asked snarky.
“It’s about time you took responsibility….”
“Oh, like you. Killing, scheming, lying. No thank you,”
“You think you’re better than me?” Martha asked with surprise.
“I don’t think, I know,” Crystal grinned.
“Leave her, let her go. The books won’t help us,” Perl defended her, and Crystal looked at her in shock. It was the first time Perl had her back and she didn’t know how to respond. So, she said nothing at all, and left the room.
Crystal paused at the front door. Thinking over going outside. The ghosts were out there. Then a surge of strength ran through her. She wasn’t going to hide. Sit back and wait for them to make a move. Becoming a prisoner of the manor was something she wouldn’t allow.
Flinging the door open she stepped out and began to march down the drive with pride.
The first flutters of snow began to fall, and Crystal’s heart ached. Soon it would be Christmas and her birthday. Her eightieth, but it wasn’t going to be a special day. Instead, it was going to be a day struggling to live in a world her mother had created.
The closer she came to the ghost the colder the air became. The iciness seeped through her clothes, turning her skin numb and into her bones. Crystal’s teeth clattered together as her entire body shook from the plummeting temperature.
Side stepping the first one a shiver ran down her back and her breath caught in her throat. The second one she was ready for.
She had made it mid-way through them when her mother’s form glared at her.
Her mother shimmered in and out of existence until her form was solid and real. Like she had never passed, her eyes were cold and menacing as she advanced on Crystal. She caught a glance of a knife as her mother wielded it in her direction. Her movements were fast and swift; Crystal had trouble dodging each strike. The knife embedded into her shoulder, and she screamed out from the pain as her mother’s vice like hands clamped around her neck lifting her from the ground.
Her oxygen was cut off and she desperately tried to prey her mother’s hands away, while her legs dangled like dead weight.
Her vision was turning black and the pressure in her head threatened her skull to explode.
Suddenly she dropped to the ground and her mother was gone.
Chocking and coughing her eyes darted around. The ghosts were gone.
“Are you okay?” Levi gripped her hand and pulled her from the ground.
“My mother tried to kill me,” she stuttered. Still trying to pull oxygen into her aching lungs, she was a ghost, how did she touch her? Become solid? Her jumbled mind scrambled to figure out what had just transpired. “There was no one there,” Levi said looking around.
“I was in the air. She had a hold of my throat!” she yelled.
“No, you were just screaming. Your feet were on the ground.” Crystal knew what she had seen and felt. Why hadn’t he seen it too? Her mother had tried to kill her.
“Come on, let’s go back,”
“No, I am going for a walk,” she snapped and made her way to the end of the driveway. Touching her shoulder, her face wrinkled into a frown. There was no evidence of the knife wound.
“Crystal?”
“I am not gonna be locked inside. I need air,” she replied as she exited the manor grounds and onto the streets.
She wanted to go to the woods where it had all begun. Maybe just maybe there she would find the answers to end the nightmare that had just began. It was a task she was willing to try. After all the books were useless, she needed something, an answer to her prayers.
The forest had become dark and forbidding like the sun couldn’t penetrate the evilness that surrounded the trees. She shuddered as her foot stood on the rough soil and she entered the darkness.
Through a surge of sickening fears came her mother’s voice, “You can’t stop what has been done,” followed by a crackling laugh. Her fear vanished. If the voice did really belong to her mother, then the woman should have known by now when someone told Crystal she couldn’t do something her determination would set in. she liked to prove people wrong. Push herself to the limits and feel the adrenaline surge through her body.
“The forest is different. We should go back,” Levi said with caution.
“I am not a baby Levi. Danger is all I have ever faced.” They were silent as they continued the trek. The further they went, the darker it became. It was like the forest had sucked the light from the world.