Chapter 9 - ARIZONA
1073 Words
Where is she? What did you do to her?
I remember her voice as I open my eyes. I know what she saw when she looked at me – a monster. I wish I could tell her everything. That I was going to die and I was so scared that I wanted my mother. She wouldn’t believe me and I don’t think she is a bad person for that…After all who would believe the terrible cruel creatures who killed…who tortured…who thought it was ok to kill little children younger than I am.
“What happened to you?”
It takes a moment for the world to focus around me. I see the uneven walls of a cave, fuzzy mould climbing through it like a bad drawing. Thick green covers it’s large opening. For a minute, I think I’m home and the horrid night had been nothing but a nightmare but the happy feeling doesn’t last long. This is not the Witch’s part of the woods. I can tell by the bright colours, the pretty beams of sunlight…
“Are you, ok?”
I turn my head slightly. She is there. The dark-eyed girl with eyes as black as the stone walls of my home. I remember telling her to go…
“Why didn’t you go home? I took down the spell, didn’t I?”
“You passed out.” She says simply, placing her hand on mine. “It wasn’t right leaving you there.”
“You can’t help me.”
“Who said I wanted to help you? I just wasn’t about to let a…” She bit her lip as if she didn’t want to say the next word. “…a child die alone in the woods. Even if it’s a…”
A monster…
I want to scream that I wouldn’t hurt anyone. That I hadn’t hurt anyone in my life. That I chose to die than…But I know it would be of no use. She would simply see it as trickery. The Witches using their messed up magic to…
“Thank you.”
She raises her eyebrows. “ I have never met such a polite Witch.”
“You have not met any Witch.” I laugh a little. “If you had, you wouldn’t have been surprised when my Glimmer wore off…”
“Is…Is this how you are supposed to look like?”
“Our magic is born from death and blood and tears,” I say, trying not to remember that day again. My mother, the kindest person I have ever known in my life transforming into a rotting thing with long sharp fingernails…Three little fairies lost in the woods…She hadn’t meant to go hunting that day, she told me afterwards. It was just so tempting…Their magic, blood, and flesh were just too powerful to let slip away. “Every time we kill…Every time we use our magic…”
“Did this happen because…” She looked genuinely horrified. “That spell…”
“I wanted to get you out. I didn’t even stop to…”
Her face fell and she turned away. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “You don’t know where she is, do you?”
I sit up, startled by the sudden change – the switch between hostility and genuine grief. She was hoping, I realize that I would have some answers for her now that she helped me.
“You were alone when I found you,” I say. “I am sorry.”
“The other Witches out for hunting…Do you think anyone of your group found her and…”
Her face is still turned away, yet I can feel the last ray of hope draining away from her. I want to help. I do. But how am I supposed to do that when…
“I was not part of a hunting party.” I blurt out the truth. “I was sentenced to die.”
She looks at me incredulously for one moment, then asks the obvious question. “Why?”
And just like that, I tell her everything, feeling every bit like the i***t everyone accused me of being. Did I expect her to feel bad for me? I don’t know. Or maybe she, realizing what kind of a weakling she was dealing with, would just let me die in this cave and… That…
“I’m sorry, er…”
I smile a little at the change her voice had taken. She sounds like me now – confused, scared. The magical child she helped turned out to be a wimp and I don’t think she’s too happy about that part.
“Ari. My name Is Arizona.”
“Adrian. I’m not going to lie. I was hoping you would be able to tell me where Fi is.”
Her story is told as well. I can feel her anger, her helplessness…I’m angry too. That I can’t help…That I have to tell her that her sister is…
“No...I will not believe that until I see her…” She sighs. “I promised her, you know…I promised her that I would fight the big bad fairy to keep her alive if it comes to that…”
“Can you…” My eyes widen. “Can you do magic? How…”
For the first time since I met her, she smiles. “No. It’s…It’s just something big sisters say to…” Her voice breaks slightly. “To keep little sisters smiling.”
“Oh…I don’t have a sister.”
Or a mother…
Even though I am not supposed to call her that, Luna always insisted that she’s my Mama and that she would protect me from the bad bad fairy. That she would die before she let anything happen to me…
“Would you help me find her?”
The question was surprising and so very foolish. I have just about a few days to live. I have probably used up all my magic helping her get away from that spell. Why would she even ask the help of the most useless person she could …
“I…”
“I don’t have anyone else. My mother is probably curled up in a ball somewhere, utterly broken and I can’t go back to her and ask for help. Nobody in our settlement will help anybody. I just don’t know what else to do…I don’t know how on earth to possibly get a message to Rosa…Please…”
“I don’t know how much more magic I can do…”
“I don’t want your magic, Ari.” She says. “Just…I just don’t want to be alone.”
She turns away again, quickly wiping away her tears. I feel her pain deep inside my heart.
Would you rather stay here and waste away the time you had left? Or would you rather try to do something useful?
“I can only help you till I…”
“There must be a way to help you.” Adrian picks up my hat from the ground and squashes its pointy top. “We’ll find it.”
“You don’t…”
“You help me. I help you.” She says matter-of-factly. “What do you say?”
- Writer
