Of Ashes and Vows

CHAPTER 5

The cold water ran across my skin, dragging me back to the present, but my body felt distant—numb. My pulse slowed. My breath shallowed.

The words wouldn’t stop. His voice rose, pressing into my skull.

Then—nothing.

A hollow silence, stretching into forever.

I gasped, realizing too late that I had stopped breathing. My body sagged against the wall, motionless. My vision blurred.

And in the next instant—my house, my world, was gone.

Erased.

Another vision, so I thought.

I stood behind the oak tree towering my form, my breath shallow, my pulse drumming in my ears. The field stretched endlessly around me, vast and empty.

Before me three figures stood in a jagged line against the dying light. A man, a pregnant woman and a hooded presence stepped in the sticky stench of voodoo craft.

Then the words, sharp as they were said.

“Just do it, kill the child.”

The words sent ice through my veins.

It took only a second to recognize him. The stance, the tone, the merciless edge in his command.

Father!

My mother hitched, tears streamed down her face in silent rivers. She shook her head, barely able to keep herself upright.

“Please…” her voice cracked, swallowed by the wind.

She wanted me…she fought for me.

And yet his shadow loomed over her, over the child she carried, over me.

The hooded figure did not move or speak, not yet. The moment stretched, stretched too long.

I couldn't breathe.

“We can have many more, as much as you want.”

The words from his lips pierced my chest like a flaming needle. I collapsed to my knees, drenched in sweat, struggling to breathe and not feel the literal wound that now exists as a scar over my sternum.

He tried to take her hand but she bade her rejection.

"What has come over you, Hrothgar?"

Her voice wavered, thick with disbelief. She pulled her hands away from him in disappointment, her lips trembling.

He exhaled sharply, his gaze cold, unyielding. "She can make sure it happens. Her magic can allow it. This isn’t of the goddess, Brie—it’s different."

“Belief against our creator is turning from the moonlight, you have cursed your life meddling in magic and witchcraft.”

She stared at him, searching for the man she once knew. But he wasn’t there. He had never been there.

The tears stopped. She took a few steps back and vowelled with a striking tone her refusal.

"No!"

The word rang out.

Then she turned. She ran.

The weight of her pregnancy did not slow her, nor did the terror clawing at her heels. She ran.

"Get her!" The witch’s voice shrieked into the air, raw with urgency. "We cannot prevent the rising chaos without the blood of that child!"

Footsteps thundered behind her. Figures I had just observed at the moment stepped forward from the shadows, wolves…they were wolves. My kind. Many betrayed the moonlight siding with witchcraft, so I thought, but what if I was the error the moonlight desperately tried to erase even if it meant having allies with magic?

The hunt had begun.

I watched her race, determined and aimed to survive. She wouldn't dare give up, not now she has survived this long.

“Help! Somebody please help!”

Her tears enveloped her screams. Birds flapped their wings as they flew from their nests. Tears rolled down her eyes, her voice quaking. Her feet stumbled over roots and rocks but she pushed through, very much determined to protect that child's life at all cost. That child…my life.

In the dense and shadowy depths of the forest, she ran desperately. Worry etched round her face and she didn't even fear what beast could be within these woods. I chased after her, like this was my reality, following every foot mark she left behind and chasing after her tears. Her breath came in ragged gasps, the weight of the pregnancy added to her struggle.

They pursued, heavy footsteps and harsh breaths echoing through the trees. She could feel their presence closing in and so could I. I felt everything, saw it all but couldn't even interact with anything.

I saw the sharp and thorny spikes on tree barks, I tried to brush my palm over hers to protect her from them but I phased through her, and through the thorns. Branches scratched at her skin and leaves clung to her hair as she maneuvered through the bushes. The sounds of the forest; chirping crickets, rustling leaves, seemed to grow louder raising her terror. But every shadow she perceived, every footstep she heard and every voice that commanded a search heightened her senses and persuaded Her to keep going.

Her mind raced as she thought of me. I knew because she watched her belly in tears, rubbing it…me, with her open palms. She scanned her surroundings for any sign of safety, any place to hide or call for help. Her heart pounded in her chest when she saw there was none but an endless stretch of trees.

"Help me! Help me!" She cried out in desperation. This was her giving up, this was her limit. She casted her knees to the ground and bruised them on her weight.

Her screams clawed, desperately, at the sky. The birds fled in a frenzy, their wings slicing through the dark clouds, vanishing into the night like omens of something far worse.

"Somebody, please!" Her tone lowered and her breath began to get silenced.

No one answered. No one came.

But something did.