Goddess Gave Me You

Fate Led Me to You

Dream 

I let the scene play out infornt of me. I let the voice guide me.

I walked through the 'town', recieving glances from people every now and then, as well as a few greetings.

To say I was frightened was an understatement. Every witch I came in contact with had my heart jumping in my chest, and my breathing picked up like a bad sand storm.

I didn't know why I was here, why I was parading around in Anna's body in a what seems like a lucid dream.

"This isn't a dream, dear."

There it goes, there goes that voice again. It sounds like its inside my head. Hearing my thoughts.

"Then what is this? Why am I in Anna's body? Does this have anything to do with that woman in the woman in the woods long ago?" I felt insane, answering this random voice inside my own head. It feels like my personal space is being invaded by an imaginary person I can't see, only hear.

I could hear the voice pause, and release a breath that it had been holding in.

"You'r reliving an important memory of Anna's. This is the day that changed her life forever, and she didn't even know it. Anna was just a young girl when she was brought here. Now, listen to me Arianna. I want you to go to that house at the end of the block, hide and watch everything unfold through Anna's eyes. Then when THEY come for you, run. Follow what feels right, and when you meet HIM you'll know what you and Anna have in common. Well more like who."

Run? Run from who? Why did I have to run? Couldn't I just watch from the sideline like a spectator instead of having to relive it with myself being the main character. I was afraid of what I would see. I was afraid of what I would hear. 

In reality I was just afraid. The body that I was walking around in couldn't be more than 16 years old. What kind of tragedy could poor little Anna have to endure at such a impressionable age?

"Okay", was all that I managed to respond with. 

Not another word was whispered, as my legs began to move in the direct of  the house. With each step I could feel a dark presence and the power that it radiated.

That feeling was enough to bring me to my knees.

"AHHH." The pain was unreal and body crippling. 

I could the feel the pain flow through my body like shock waves from a bomb detonating. Tears dripped from my face onto the ground, and my tiny hands dug deep into the ground.

My crys of pain were in vain, as the sounds of the outside world drowned them out.

"Get up, now."

"But it hurts", I cried out into the air.

"I don't want to hear it. Don't let Anna's request be in vain. She wanted you to see this, and you don't have much time."

"What are you talking about? Anna wanted me to see this?"

The voice didn't respond.

"Talk to me. Tell me something."

Nothing. Fustration consumed me, and pumped through my veins.

I didn't ask for any of this s**t. 

I didn't ask to be like Anna. 

I didn't ask to relive her memory.

I  didn't ask for any of this.

If something bad has to happen it always happens to me, not like I haven't delt with enough trauma in my life.

Not a moment sooner, I felt a surge of adreniaine pump into my muscles. Giving me the strength to push myself off the ground and up onto my feet. I let this sense of directions guide my body, almost like a feeling you can't explain but you know deep within your gut your going the right way. 

My feet guided, turn by turn, street by street and, house by house till I walked up on to a house that projected an sinister vibe.

I could hear hused tones of people talking. 

Maybe two or three.

I countinued to follow the instinctive feeling that the voice earlier told me to feel for. It lead me to a cellar door quite a bit further from the front door. I could see that the latches were undone, and that I could now hear the voices more distinctly the closer I came to the doors.

I could smell hints of a foul odor, that seemed to be seeping out from under the wooden doors that covered the cellar.

Slowly I lifted the door, just enough for my body to squeeze through the small opening.

The smell erupted harder when the door was opened, and now being inside the smell was most foul. 

It was the smell of rancid meat, coming from the dead animals that were hung upside down from the ceiling; I saw as I tip-toed down the stairs. More and more animal carcases hung by their hind legs.

The impulse to vomit was hard to avoid. My stomach lurched at the sight of a small rabbit  cut from esophagus down to his gut. All his intestines in a heap underneath its body pooled in its blood.

I could feel vile clumpy food climb up my throat and enter my mouth. Within seconds my body convulsed and the contents of my stomach were spewed  all over the floor.

The little sound that came from my accident, wasn't enough to distract the people talking.

"Must be an important conversation", I thought as I countinued to sneak around the beams that held the floor above us in place.

I stopped when I found a small opening behind a built in shelf, just large enough for my slender body to sneak into.

From my position I could hear a particular male voice raise to a tone, that suggested they were in distress or annoyance.

"We wouldn't have come hear if we didn't have to. But there is no other option, seeing as you are the only one who holds the power strong enough to cast such a spell."

"This, I already know. But such a favor is going to cost you surverly."

I could hear the soft hushed tone of a woman beckoning to the man, "For the love of Goddess, just give her whatever she wants. The longer we put this off the stronger their relationship grows. Soon she'll feel it too."

"You don't think I know that Margaret! I want this over with just as much as you do, but we have to consider what we'd be giving up in return."

My breathing became hitched in my throat.

Margaret.

Margaret as in my grandmother Margaret, what could she possibly have in common with Anna?

 She could possibly be Anna's mother, aunt, sister, friend, or maybe she's an enemy?

I was so caught up, in my own thoughts that I didn't hear the people seize their chatter.

"Shhh, someone is here." The crippled old witch announced with a finger to her blackened lips.

I begun to shrink back into the brick wall behind me, trying to mask my breathing as well as my presences. Fearing that the presence the witch picked up on was my own.

Not a second sooner, thumping sound of shoes could be heard trotting down the same stairs I had previously decended from. I tried my best to get a good look at the man, but the shelf wouldn't permit it. All I could makeout was his short dark brown hair, and his coffee cream skin. From the looks of his youthful skin he wasn't as old as the man or Margaret. So he was fairly young, 17 at the most.

"Why hasn't anything been done yet? Look Anna could be here any minute or even worse..."

"Look you aren't the one with something on the line. We risk loosing Anna forever to that monster, not to mention when have to forfit up rouge slaves as well as fortunes before the process can begin. And on top of that this spell isn't 100% effective, there's still a chance that Anna will relapse." The man who I assume is my grandfather, although I've never met or heard about him from my mother, retorted.

The younger man fiddle with his thumbs, after the scolding he sustained.

"Are we going to get down to business or what? I don't have all day to fool around with wolf  problems. Choose now before the price goes up!" The woman spoke with a gravelly voice, and with a wag of her finger.

"Just do it Mark, and get this all over with."

Without a moments hesitation Mark signed away his, Margrate, and Anna's faith.

"Now bring her to me. Bring me Anna."

I screamed internally. 

I have to get out of here, and now.

Maybe I can wait until they leave then make dash for the cellar exit.

As everyone begun to leave, I heard the witch give a cold and menacing chuckle that generated a chill that crawled its way up my spine.

"You all don't have to go far, because Anna's here with us in this very room. Right Anna?" My heart contracted in fear, mimicing a what I would guess is a heart attack. I struggled to catch me breath, as everyone in the room began to panic with hysteria, as the begun tearing the room apart looking for me.

I clutched my hands over my mouth and nose, and shut tight my eyes. Maybe if I didn't see them, they wouldn't see me. And that all I could chant within my blank and bleak mind.

Chanting.

If I can't see them, they can't see me.

If I can't see them, they can't see me.

If I can't see them, they can't see me.

If I can't see them, they can't see me.

If I can't see them, they can't see me.

If I can't see them, they can't see me.

My heart rate slowed to a nice rhythmic beat, as I heard their attempts to locate me cease. I was in the clear.

I could hear them bickering amongst themselves, blame one another for not finding me. I used this distraction as a chance to escape. I statred to shimmy my out when I felt a tug on my shirt. My eyes opened. Right in front of me was the young man, who had reached between the small space between the shelf's boards, and he now had ahold of the front of my shirt.

"I have her!" he belowed to the others.

"See I told you the distraction would work!"

"I didn't say that it wouldn't work! Now Anna dear, please come out from behind there and let us explain."

I struggled with the guys hand, trying to pry his iron clad grip from my shirt. "Get off  of me! Let me go!" I shouted from behind the shelf.

"Not until you come out from behind their."

"Let go of me now you ass!" and without another word, I bit down onto the guys hand using my wolve's teeth. I sunk my teeth into his hand until I could feel his bone.

"You f*****g b***h! You'll f*****g pay for that you w***e!"

The guy begun to holler inaginy as he withdrew his hand with a hard yank. His blood pooled out of my mouth and onto my clothes. My wolf was ready to take control of  the already hostil situation. I used my extra strength, to detatch the shelf from the wall, and push the full shelf onto the others unsuppectly.

It wouldn't be long before they they toss the shelf aside and set their sights on me, so I charged up the stairs and straight through the wooden cellar doors. My legs were pumping in over-drive. Carrying me as far away as they could take me. I could hear the commotion not too far behind me, as I approached the forest.

I don't know where I'm going if I enter there.

"You'll be caught if you don't! Now run!" The voice! It was back.

My lungs ached from lack of oxygen, and legs were already battered and brusied. I can't go on like this.

"Yes you can, now run."

My legs had a mind of their own, as they started into the forest. The deeper I went the darker  it became. The abundance of tress blocking out my only source of light. But that didn't stop me. Dashing about in the unknown, until I couldn't hear them anymore. Then and only then did I stop. My body fell to the dampened forest floor. Legs and arms riddled with exhaustion. Physically  I could go on no more. My lungs were burnt out, and my throat throbbed from lack of salivation. 

I have to stay wake, I can't let the exhaustion over come me. I tried to fight it. Tried to fight the darkness that was sleep. But my body, oh Goddess my body beckoned for a moments rest.

"Just a minute or two" I told myself. I can take a small nap, I negotiated with myself. "A little nap won't hurt" I said as I curled my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around them like a comforting blanket.

My eyes flittered closed, but then open again. My last battle with the beast of darkness. My head rested againt the forest floor. Ready for the sand man to take me, but it wasn't he who lulled me to sleep. It was his brilliantly bright persian blue orbs, that ensured I was safe in his chilling arms. His dreamy words were the last that I heard,

"Sleep my little pup, they won't harm you as long as I'm breathing." And he sealed that promise with a kiss to my cheek.