Nearly Witches

Chapter Six

The letter in her hand wasn’t a bill; it wasn’t a letter from her father, and she had never seen the handwriting before. Her day was normal, more had been done on the English project during lunch and her Irish dancing class had gone well; but now she was left with this handwritten letter and no way of knowing how it had gotten into her letterbox.

Now she was starting to panic. Her heartrate was increasing, and her breathing had quickened, putting the letter on the table as if it had burnt her hand. She had been so concerned about the return address, that she hadn’t looked at who it was addressed to and how it didn’t have an address on it.

The thing that made Alysanne’s heart and breathing pick up; was the fact it wasn’t addressed to Alysanne Byrne or Kellen Byrne. No, it was addressed to Artemis Agrotora and Alysanne was sure that Agrotora was another name that Artemis was given. At least it wasn’t Artemis Huntress; something that Tribe had joked to her about last night.

‘It’s not going to bite you,’ Nymeria told her amused as Alysanne continued to look at it as if it would come alive and try to kill her.

“I know that,” Alysanne told her while closing the kitchen curtains, going over to her laptop where the footage from the houses security systems could be accessed. “But it’s a handwritten note addressed to Artemis Agrotora and the only person who’d call me that is Mors; which means I was followed.”

‘That’s not good,’ Ghost said.

“No, means he knows where I live,” Alysanne said as the camera cut out, great, he knew there were cameras and temporarily took them out. Now she didn’t know who delivered it, meaning that she didn’t know if Nymeria or Ghost would be safe during the day. “Mors know where I live, meaning he might know who I am, that means they knew about father and that might mean he’s life is in danger for the dangerous s**t his daughter does without him knowing the reason, this is just great and dainty.” 

‘They might not know,’ Nymeria pointed out.

“I highly doubt it,” Alysanne told her putting her hand on top of her head as she walked around the table, unless they had followed her last night or before that. That would mean they didn’t know her name; or Ghost or Nymeria’s. It wouldn’t be hard to get her name now; all it would take was stealing a letter from her letterbox or following her to school or running her licence plate.

There were so many ways for them to find her name, if she was feeling brave enough she would go outside and drive her car into the carport. But she didn’t, not until she was ready to leave as Artemis and from the back door, not the front.

She had gotten comfortable, and that had been her downfall.

“Highly, highly doubt it,” Alysanne told them as she walked around the table, the piece of paper sitting innocently on her table and she was tempted to burn it. “If they don’t have it now, they’ll get it. There’s one High School in town, I’m the only one with two different coloured irises.”

‘Someone could be playing a joke,’ Ghost suggested.

“That would be low and would mean I don’t who the person who sent this,” Alysanne replied, stopping before sitting down. “Better the enemy you know, then the one you don’t; it’s also unlikely that two people are using the name Mors.”

Alysanne didn’t know what she was going to do, if there was anything she could do at all. Couldn’t go to the police, they might have been fine with her last night in front of Elena and her brothers, but that didn’t mean they would help her with this.

It also meant she would have to tell them her name and no thanks. Alysanne wanted no one to know she was Artemis. That she was the person the papers nicknamed Artemis and the Huntress, and unlike Mors.

She knew she wasn’t the Goddess by any means. For starters; Artemis was a twin and she was an only child. Her parents had been married to each other for ten years before she had been born, her mum had told her that she had been a miracle baby.

But she had a feeling that Mors might not see that. The old gods had been reborn, did that mean more than the Greek Gods? Did that mean Native American? Hawaiian? African? European? Asian? The old gods of the pacific? Middle East?

“Someone is playing a horrid joke, or they’re mentally aren’t all there,” Alysanne whispered to herself; it was a horrible joke. One that made her confused; on one hand she wanted to grab her bow and arrow, hunt them down and make them wish they hadn’t tried messing with her sanity in the first place.

And on the other, she wanted them to get the help they needed. Was it right to kill someone who was trying to get help in the only way they knew how? Could she turn her eyes away from someone who needed help?

“A horrible, horrible joke,” Alysanne whispered.

‘Just read it,’ Nymeria told her.

“I should burn the damn thing,” Alysanne told them, picking it up by the corner and glaring at it as she leaned back in her chair. Putting it to the side as she looked at her laptop, she should look up more information about underworld myths; the similar stories that had appeared around the world and humanity’s curiosity about what happened to them after they died. “I have homework to do anyway.”

The underworld was only really in myths when someone broke into the underworld, which was normal in Greek Myths, but appeared in Japanese and even appeared in Assyrian or Babylonian mythology.

Through she found just typing in underworld mythology brought up mostly Greek Myths, but Alysanne could put that down to mainly researching Greek Myths in trying to understand Mors and why he had named himself after the God of Gentle Deaths, it was the Erinyes that were known for violent deaths or there was a God or Goddess that Google wasn’t bringing up for one reason or another.

Mors, that damn letter from Mors. That was going to drive her up the wall, she might as well feed Ghost and Nymeria before she punched a hole in the wall; which was a sign that she needed therapy more than she thought she did.

Not that she could tell anyone the reason behind going; once something was written down or saved onto a computer meant someone else might see it and that would put her life in danger along with her father’s and her partners.

“I should burn the damn thing,” Alysanne said as she looked at it, pinching her nose as she looked at her partners eating their cow tongue. It was a gross thing to touch, but something that they enjoyed when she found it. “Curiosity really did kill the cat.”

‘And satisfaction brought it back,’ Ghost told her after finishing his cow tongue.

“And if I’m not satisfied?” Alysanne asked him.

‘Then you’re dead,’ Nymeria told her. 

“I’ll open it,” Alysanne told them, before opening it and blinked when she spotted the edge of photos. Taking them out she ignored the letter, but the photos made her blood boil as she looked at them.

There were pictures of children in cages, someone had sent her photos of a human trafficking ring and her danger sense hadn’t picked up on it. Meaning that they were outside of the city and her range, she couldn’t keep the photos and Alysanne knew that they could put her prison and she was annoyed that they weren’t going to be easy to burn.

It was earlier than she would leave, but there was nothing she could do without a location, even if she knew how many guards there were and how many adults were walking around cages in the middle of the day. This was the reason they needed more people looking in the forest for this thing, these children were going to suffer and Alysanne didn’t think many people would care about stopping this from happening in the first place.

“Okay, Alys, there’s a letter,” Alysanne whispered to herself as she put the photos on the table and picking up a piece of paper that looked like a hand-drawn map; she still couldn’t tell where it was and that annoyed her to no end.

Why tell her about something and not give her a location? Why would they give her this information and not the police? Lastly, the last thing had given her a location and warned her that they would be moving in the morning and they would be going to an unknown location.

“I’ll need to burn all of these; don’t think the police are going to care that I never wanted them,” she said, she couldn’t be caught. Artemis couldn’t be caught; she was a vigilante and not a hero.

She wasn’t Tribe or Captain Justice. Did Alysanne think she was above the law? Nope, she didn’t kill everyone that broke the law; human traffickers were among the people that she didn’t care if she was sent to jail for killing; along with anyone who tried to harm children for no good reason.

There was a difference between abuse and punishment.

“Don’t think Mors care if I get caught,” Alysanne muttered, and it was Mors that had sent her this for whatever reason. The writing on the back was solid proof of that: Artemis; protector of the wild, maidens and small children.

‘What are they?’ Ghost asked her.

“Photos, locations and a map of a human trafficking ring just outside of town,” Alysanne told them as she looked at the time; it would be too light if she went now. “Artemis is going to be busy tonight, but first food. Don’t need anyone fainting on me.”

‘Captain Justice? Tribe?’ Ghost asked her.

“Children are more important, won’t get any sleep otherwise,” Alysanne told them pinching her nose and looking at them. “I need time to study the map anyway, and I need to also eat. Maybe having a burner phone won’t be a horrid idea.”

‘Forest?’ Nymeria asked.

“Forest,” Alysanne agreed. “It has to be tonight, they’ll be moving everyone in the morning and according to the note Mors left, they’re not like him and aren’t trained in the art of dodging arrows or birds.”

‘And they don’t know we’re coming,’ Ghost added.

“And they shouldn’t know we’re coming,” Alysanne agreed looking at the pictures then at the old-fashioned fireplace. She could maybe hit them under the wood until winter, there wasn’t any reasons for the police to come to her house before that and no reason for them to come even after she had burnt the pictures.

No one would look at her; if she continued to be careful, no one would know, and she would be left alone to continue. The forest would be left to bury the memories of what happened, bury things that people wouldn’t give a second thought until it appeared on the news.

She would need to keep the map and letter on her, just in case she forgot. “I should make something, pasta.”

If she was going to remove pieces of scum from the earth, then she needed to eat something; even if it meant she would be a villain in some people’s eyes but at least she’ll be able to keep a child from being harmed.

“We need a plan,” Alysanne told Nymeria and Ghost, as she boiled the kettle, grabbing the pasta and salt from the pantry. There was a chance she won’t be going to school tomorrow, since there was a high chance of being shot.

That would mean she would need to text her father before the school got hold of him; wherever he might be.

“This won’t be easy,” Alysanne continued as she leaned against the countertop; maybe she could ask the wolves or bears to go in first? Maybe even rats, the man were bound to have food for them to steal and there was a cliff in the area that she could take shots from.

At least with this group, she knew what their end goal was and that was more than she could say about Mors. Somehow she doubted she would ever know Mors end goal or what he was aiming for, unless he did the normal villain thing and monologued his entire plan; either to make fun on how stupid she was for not picking up on things he thought were obvious.

“Mors isn’t going to die,” Alysanne stated, her hands on her hips as she eyed her pot and then her partners.

‘Nope,’ Ghost replied.

‘We can try,’ Nymeria told her.

“That we can, even if what he told me make no sense,” Alysanne said narrowing her eyes towards the kitchen window. “Anyway, eyes on the prize for now and I’ll need to track down one of my old phones, don’t need a sim card to call the police; they won’t be able to track it if I destroy it.”

Those phones would be in her bedroom, the ones that would take several trucks to destroy them and where she could drop them without the screen breaking. It would be perfect to put into her Artemis outfit.

“We’ll leave early, go through the forest to avoid Tribe and Captain Justice,” Alysanne told them, looking at the map still on the table. They would wait, if they were pissed off about it, then that said more about them than it said about her.

Alysanne didn’t even know if they would allow her to explain, or if she would be out for a few days and then return. For the children, she knew it had to be done, Alysanne didn’t want a child to be forced into the s*x ring and be scared by paedophiles or people from people who didn’t care that they didn’t want to be there.