Chapter 21 - A story about a witch. Part one

***Warning! This chapter contains parts with sexual violence***

*Once there was a young girl. Free in spirit and in love with life.*
*Her village was tucked away in the greenest of forests, surrounded by the most beautiful mountains.*
*A narrow river meandered through the land where she lived and ended in a waterfall down into a beautiful lake.* *The water was the cleanest and clearest ever seen and some said it had healing and rejuvenating properties.* *The young girl loved the water and often visited the waterfall to swim in the lake.* *Her father was the villages shaman and her mother a white witch,* *so the magic in the girl was strong.*
*One evening, the girl was walking home from the lake.* *The sun had set,* *and she was enjoying her walk amongst the creatures of the dark.* *She closed her eyes and followed the movements of a flock of bats,* *leaving their cave in search for food.* *She chased fireflies and caught them only to release them and see how they light their way.* *She sang with the nighthawk and hooted with the owls.*
*When she arrived at her home,* *her parents had a guest.*
*It was a man she never seen before,* *so she knew he wasn’t from the village.*
*The stranger was tall and handsome,* *with a smile that made her blush.* 
*His broad shoulders promised strength and security,* *his lips and body endless nights of pleasure.* *The girl was at the age when she noticed these things and she couldn’t take her eyes off the man.*
*He declined the offer of staying for supper,* *but promised he would be back the next evening.* *As he left, he kissed her hand.*
*The next evening,* *the girl waited for his return and after the sunset,* *she heard the knock on the door.* *The man stroke her cheek and told her she had been on his mind the whole day.* *He explained he had some trades with her parents,* *but wondered if she would like to take a walk with him after.* *She gladly accepted and went to do her chores while waiting.*
*After their walk he followed her home and kissed her hand as the night before and asked her if she would like to see him again the next night.*
*The girl was happy to accept.*
*On their third walk on the fourth night they walked hand in hand through the forest,* *talking about everything that came to mind.* *As they stopped,* *the girl noticed they were outside the bats cave and she gave the man a questioning look.* *He looked deep into her eyes,* *his,* *the color of gold,* *and she felt a little embarrassed about her plain gray.* 
*Because of the magic being so strong in the girl,* *she could easily feel his dark aura,* *she had the first night they met,* *but as she was a girl in love with the beauty of life,* *she chose to see the beauty in front of her, with hope of making his aura brighter.* *He leaned down and took her lips with his.* *The kiss started of soft and tentative but was soon deepened and more demanding.* *Little did she know,* *it was the last minutes of happiness she would feel in a long time.*

A single tear wanders down Zandra’s cheek. Her gaze is far away from the girl in her story.
“Do you want to take a break?” I ask her, concerned for the old woman who normally feels so strong and fierce.
Zandra comes back, she looks at me, a sad but warm smile on her lips. She pats my hand.
“No..you need to know this, to understand.” she says
I take her hand between mine, giving her a smile back while cursing at myself in my mind for being so rude to her earlier, and wait for her to go on.

*As their lips parted,* *the man leans his forehead against hers.*
*- I wish there was another way.*
*That was the last thing she heard before everything went dark.*

*The man returned to her parents,* *his eyes dark as he told them they would never see their daughter again if they did not help him.*
*The man told them he was cursed,* *bound to live his life alone in the dark.* *He was strong and fast but a single wood stick could kill him.*

“Ambrogio..” I whisper’d

*He wanted two things.* *The power to create more in his image and his for heart to be protected.*
*The girl’s parents knew the depth of the dark magic he was demanding,* *they knew the chance for their survival was slim.* *But they needed to save their daughter,* *so they cast the spell.* *When the words were spoken,* *he was given two tasks to be completed before the next full moon,* *only a few days away.*
*To create something dark and evil in his image,* *he would have to destroy something as pure and innocent as his contrariety.*
*To put stone around his heart,* *he would have to make a pure heart filled with love shatter.*
*Before leaving the girl’s house,* *he turned to her parents and,* *in a swift move,* *he ripped out the father’s throat.* *Before the mother could scream,* *he bite down on her neck,* *draining her into her last heartbeat.* *As he reveled in the taste and the feeling of the magic in the blood he just consumed,* *he turned and headed for the cave.*

“I swear to God, if I ever get my hands on this devil..” I spoke to myself, not realizing I interrupted Zandra, almost afraid of the sting of her cane Callum told me about.
I hear her chuckle low, as she just read my mind before she goes on…I knew it!..

*The girl woke up sometime later.* *Her head was throbbing with pain and the side felt sticky with dried blood.* *Her surroundings were dim,* *just a few torches lit up the room,* *and she knew she was in the cave.* *She is lying on a bed without a mattress,* *just a thin quilt on the boards under her back*. *When she tried to move,* *she found both her arms and legs tied to the bedposts.* *She can feel the panic rise in her chest and she tries to scream for help,* *only to hear a muffled sound due to the cloth in her mouth.*
*Movement against one of the dark walls caught her eye.* *The handsome man she had come to hold close to her heart steps out in front of her.* *He is watching her in silence as he strips out of his clothes.*
*When he is fully naked,* *he climbs the bed and settles himself between the girl’s spread,* *tied legs.* *He rips her dress in half and tear her breeches from her lower body.*
*As she lays naked in front of him,* *he stiffens.* *His eyes turn dark and he lower himself and enters her in one hard thrust,* t*earing her apart.* *He stays on top of her,* *pumping in and out of her bloody privates until she finally passes out from both the pain and the blood loss.*
*This went on for three nights.* *When the bats returned to the cave in the morning,* *he was just finished licking the blood from her.* *When they left to hunt in the night,* *he came back and tore her apart, all over again.*

*The next time she woke,* *she could see beams of sunlight in the far end of the cave,* *where the opening is.* *The man was gone.* *So were the ropes around her limbs.*
*Every movement was like hot lava in her body.* *But the fear of being caught by the man again was greater.* *She crawled out of the cave,* *naked and bloody,* *scratching up new wounds on her body.* *She continued over the forest floor,* *and when the pain became too great or her vision to dim,* *she curled her body into a ball under a bush to keep herself hidden.*
*When she finally reached the lake,* *she let her body slides down in the cold water,* *asking it to heal her.*
*As the full moon rose in the sky,* *the girl crawled out of the water and headed for the village,* *in desperate need of her parents embrace and kind words.*
*As she reaches the house and opens the door,* *she is met with darkness and silence.*
*She finds a lamp and manage to light it.* *When she turns around,* *the last piece in Ambrogio’s spell is completed,* *as her heart shatters from the sight.*