The honeymoon

“This cannot be happening” I scream as I run through the old narrow streets of Gokayama. the cobble stones are loose, and I struggle to keep my balance, as I fall and scrape my knee, I hear the roaring sound of fire, I duck just in time but feel my hair being burnt. “come here you traitor” He yelled from behind me. “Don’t fire ball me I’m your wife, what’s wrong with you!”     Let’s start from the beginning.   Kenneth, my husband, and I are part of the Luna coven, we were not brought up to be witches but found our way together and grew together. We came from very different back grounds and had very different lives, Kenneth was brought up to be a god fearing man, and slave to women where as I was brought up able to explore and be the person I wanted to be, I had the freedom to do so.   We met in the 8th grade and became the best of friends and discovered that we both had power. We knew we were meant to be just by one touch, we felt a spark, and the energy around us was always heightened and electric, as young teenagers we always felt something for each other but never acted on it until we turned 16.   On my 16th birthday, it was so magical, so romantic, Kenneth took me for an amazing picnic in the forest, a forest I might add that later turned out to have our Luna coven meetings in, the forest was full of rich greens and damp with mushrooms popping up creating fairy rings. Once we had eaten, we decided to make everything official, we looked into each other’s eyes and got lost, slowly moving towards each other, every inch of space between us filled with electricity and excitement, our lips finally met and with a spark and intense passion, we kissed   I know you must be wondering how did we learn that we are witches and enter into our coven, this was by complete accident, after our first kiss we had somehow alerted the Luna coven that there were witches in the area and they found us, it took some convincing on my side as I am more of a logical person than someone who believed in magick but they successfully convinced me and turns out Kenneth and I are two of the strongest witches the Luna coven had ever seen and they are one of the strongest covens in the northern hemisphere.   10 years later, we were preparing for our wedding, picture this, a white wedding and by white I mean a forest full of trees that have lost their leaves, covered in a thin layer of snow, a perfect clearing with the ground covered in a thin layer of snow, naturally fallen trees used as seating, the most beautifully set up alter with the colors of black, cyan, and silver. Now I know you must be thinking, a wedding in winter with everything covered in snow, we bust be crazy. But you see being a witch and powerful one at that and having an amazing coven we can put up a warming barrier, we were not cold and not hot, everything was perfect. Everything is going as planned, and we leave for our honeymoon, we decided to go to Japan as we both love the Japanese culture and lifestyle.   Its been 4 days since we arrived and I notice Kenneth acting paranoid and he refuses to tell me what’s going on so I followed him, being a short dark-haired woman, I blend in well and can’t be seen easily. I notice Kenneth going into the Ainen temple, and I stop and think, I must be going crazy he is just going into a temple, that is until I follow him in, I stop dead in my tracks. This is crazy. I could not believe my eyes, to see the man I love and cherish be surrounded by dark figures with red eyes. I couldn’t move I was frozen in place, all I wanted to do was run to Kenneth and pull him out of the trans, I don’t understand, why is this happening? Why is the purest witch I know in the middle of demons, chanting with the demons? I am scared and then it hit me, the smallest fireball, the pain to my shoulder jolted me out of the fear and into fight or flight, I shot back an energy ball just big enough to disperse the demons but not strong enough to hurt my husband, I turned and ran, I ran as fast as I could but being the clumsy self that I am I was struggling to stay on my feet, this is bad, this is really bad. “Come here you traitor” He yelled from behind me. “Don’t fireball me I’m your wife, what’s wrong with you!” “How dare you disperse my demons, I needed them, I need their power! I need it for her, she is my goddess she needs to be stronger and you ruined everything.” He yells as he walks slowly towards me, his eyes glowing the brightest red. What the hell is he talking about? Who is this Goddess person? I sit confused for a moment only to realize he doesn’t know who I am, he doesn’t see me, he sees an enemy, and if I don’t start moving, I am going to be in a world of hurt. I get up and run, I only make it a few meters before I stop dead in my tracks facing a very old, short Japanese woman, she starts speaking to me in a low voice but it is a language I do not understand, I hear Kenneth laughing behind me, it was an evil laugh that ripped through my chest, I need to stay calm, think clearly, how am I going to get out of this? I look around me and see an embankment going into a river, I am most powerful when I work with water, water is my element, I know that Kenneth cant use fire magic in the water and I can swim out far to wear his fireballs won’t hurt me. I make a run for it, I don’t see the ledge that catches my shoe and sends me flying down the embankment rolling down and hitting everything I possibly could on the way down, I feel the heat behind me as I finally get to my feet, a fireball has connected with my back and I scream a scream that you can feel in your soul, I look back at Kenneth, I notice his eyes flicker back to normal and I worried, and scared look in his eyes, but just for a moment before they flicker back to the evil red. He is still in there I think to myself as I swim out to a small island in the river. Fireball after fireball being thrown at me as they try to reach me, try to hurt me, but I am just strong enough to block them as I try to heal myself with the water, the water is dirty and burns my skin, I do not have time to purify the water first. I notice everything go calm, I cant see Kenneth or the old lady, I relax slightly allowing myself to feel the pain and look to see what I have damaged, but before I can consider cleaning up and healing properly, I notice a thick black sludge now surrounding me just on the top layer of water. Oil! No, no, no this is not good, I see Kenneth and the old lady laughing. “Kenneth don’t do this, please. You are a good witch, you are a good man, I know you are in there, please, I love you, come back to me.” I yell out trying to get a glimmer of the man I love. It is no use, and just before they light the oil, I shoot a weak yet effective energy ball, but doing this caused so much pain I dropped to my knees and let out a scream that anyone around us would have felt in their body, soul and spirit. And then I heard it, I heard him scream my name, I heard the horror and fear in his voice, and then nothing, complete silence, complete darkness. I fainted.   I feel so dizzy, my body aches, I open my eyes, but everything is so blurry, it takes me a while to realize I am tied up, suspended from the ceiling. My vision starts to clear up and I see the black figures floating around me, every so often I feel a small pinch on different places on my body, they are shooting fireballs at me, not big enough to cause damage but big enough for me to feel. I watch as the one closest to my face flies off at high speed, I suspect it is to tell Kenneth and the mysterious and dangerous woman I am alive and waking up. I hear Kenneth’s voice. “Don’t move” he whispers faintly. I don’t dare move a muscle, and let the rope slowly turn me to face the woman, I finally get a good look at her, she has long black dead hair, she is short and thin, she looks like with the smallest breeze she will blow away into the wind, she has glowing red eyes that burn into your soul, she is wearing a black cloak that is swaying with her body, she looks sick. “take it from her” she demands. Kenneth flinches, I can tell I have my husband back, but he looks terrified. “I said take it from her!” she now yells “Take what?” I ask “No, no, no! she can’t be fully awake, we need to knock her out again, Now!” she yelled I looked at Kenneth with astonishment and confusion. “What the hell is going on?” Kenneth looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. “Just let me explain everything to her and she might help us willingly, she is my wife, she loves me she will understand.” “you have one minute, make it count,” she says as she walks away. “Kenneth I know you are in there, please come back to me.” I cry out “Keep your voice down love, it’s me, I am back, you somehow brought me out of her trans, but I need you to listen to me now, I don’t have a lot of time. That woman is my Grandmother, and…” “your Grandmother? What the …” “Yes my grandmother, and if you don’t let me finish, she will be the death of both of us, for once in your life just listen and do as you are told. When we first met, my grandmother warned me about you, she said that if we stay together I would be in constant danger because you never knew you had magick, your magick became chaotic, uncontrollable, and dangerous, she asked me to put a spell on you to contain your magick, when she spoke the spell to be a small ball of light appeared and she put it into the promise ring I gave you when we were 18, that little pearl that always glowed when we touched, that was her, but what we didn’t realize is that you are so much stronger, you have been unintentionally draining her magic for years, and if you don’t give it back she will die.” “Is that such a bad thing?” I ask rolling my eyes “Not now, you see at our wedding and the weeks leading up to our wedding she had placed subtle little hints about coming to Japan and lured us in, she didn’t think I would willingly help her because of my feelings for you, and I didn’t want to at first which is why she put me under a trance and kept demons on guard, you see my love, in order for us to pull that ring off your figure we are going to be putting you through so much pain that I can't bear to watch, I told her I would help only if we do it while you are unconscious and cannot feel the pain.” “Okay I understand, but why not just come to me and ask me, why not come to us and ask us? Why all the secrecy?” I asked “Because I did not tell Kenneth the full truth, you see by taking that ring off it will break the promise he made to you and his feelings for you, well they may completely disappear, and if he knew this and if you knew this, neither of you would have agreed, but lucky for me I have both of you trapped in here and you don’t have a choice.” Kenneth’s grandmother said as she walked out of the shadows. “What do you mean my feelings will disappear, we fell in love long before you even knew about us,” Kenneth said with his voice shaking. “I knew about the two of you before the two of you knew about each other, and I watched and watched, when I realized this was getting serious I blocked your magick but I could not get to Lilly, so I made you do it using apart of me, everything was going perfectly well until she became pregnant, two months ago, I started getting weaker, I couldn’t figure it out, then it clicked, there are is a second soul attached to that ring, your child’s soul, and I don’t care if I kill the both of you I will not die, I will defeat you and rip this marriage apart, you an no longer have my grandson.” She spits out at me. “oh, I’m sorry are you doing? I was falling asleep there you babbling baboon.” I giggle as I say to her They both look at me astonished, Kenneth looks so scared and confused and unsure of what to do. “How dare…” “Ah no. you see you don’t get to decide about my fate or my child’s fate, but you see I get to decide your Fate, right here and right now. If you had been watching me so closely for the past two months, you would have seen me get so much stronger, and I’m sorry Kenneth I hadn’t told you yet I was going to surprise you, and dam these ropes are uncomfortable.” I say as I flip out of the rope and lower myself down. “Nice try with the rope but I was getting bored and uncomfortable, once I had learned that I was pregnant I made sure that my baby would be safe always, I am not yet sure how strong I am and I don’t think you want to find out, Kenneth my love, I know she is your grandmother and I know you hold her dear to your heart, but you need to decide right her and now, I will give her back her ring and your child and I will die, or you let me take control of this and she will live but barely, with no way to hurt anyone ever again,” I said to Kenneth anxiously awaiting his reply. “No, my love you know what,” he said making me very nervous. “I am tired of my family trying to get in the way, leave her as is and let her rot slowly.” “Are you sure? She can still come after us” I asked him Kenneth’s grandmother started to laugh; it was one of those oh you're f****d now laughs. Everything goes black, you can’t see in front of your face, and complete silence, I quickly blasted a white orb to give off light, I am alone, Kenneth and his grandmother are gone, I run towards a door, as I open it I see the faintest red shadow in the distance. I try and follow them but my legs are on fire, I don’t know if I can go much longer, I am wounded and exhausted, I keep pushing forward but eventually I feel my legs start to give out, I once again collapse and faint. I wake up to a lot of noise and I am freezing, I can just barely open my eyes, but I open them enough to see that I am in a hospital, I do not realize it but I am thrashing around violently, I feel a small pinch on my arm and I am out again, they must have given me something, whatever they gave me has helped me to astral project, I am now standing next to my body watching the doctor work and everybody moving frantically around me, I don’t quite understand why everyone is panicking until I see my dirty, beaten, covered in blood body. I am shocked, I slowly back away in complete disbelief, I run outside of the hospital and see that I am at the Gokayama hospital, it is small but efficient enough to help me with what I need. I can climb up onto the narrow roof while astral projecting and look around to see if I can see any sign of where Kenneth and his grandmother went. I see a faint red glow around a black cloud from a couple of blocks away, I notice that the red glow is getting stronger and brighter. Suddenly I feel a tugging at my body, it feels like something is tugging at my heart, I rush back down to my body and I find that my body is fine, peaceful with no one around, but I can’t shake this feeling, it is getting stronger and stronger until the snap, I sharp painful snap, I am pulled back into my body and sit straight up. What was that? I can feel that I am healing, I get out of bed and get dressed, I rush out of the hospital without being seen, I will deal with the consequences later, I run towards the red glow that is now big enough to see from the streets, I must look crazy or something, everyone is staring at me as I am running through the village, I’m getting closer, and I realize with everything happening I can’t feel Kenneth anymore, I stop dead in my tracks a couple of hundred meters away, no, this can’t have happened, she somehow managed to break our bond. How is that possible, she is nowhere near strong enough to do that, I look up and see Kenneth hugging someone, this woman has hate radiating off her, making me cringe at the feeling, what is going on? No, no, no, I remember Kenneth’s mother saying one day she will ensure we have broken apart, that must be her, she is the only one I know in Kenneth’s life with hate of this magnitude. She looks up at me with the evilest smile on her face, all three of them are now standing in a line watching me, how can she be so strong, I can’t go against them while I am injured I need a body of water and I need it now. I notice a small alleyway to my left, I can see a pond, I make a run for it just missing the fireballs being blasted at me, why do they have to use fire, they are right behind me now, I don’t think I am going to make it, no, I have to make it for our child and for Kenneth. I jump high enough to disorientate them, making them look for me, I can slip into the pond. I’m not strong enough, then it hits me, at our wedding, when everyone was dancing and entranced by the beauty of the forest, Elizabeth, a friend of mine that practices dark magick had told me that if I need to use dark magick to protect myself, the blowback won’t be as harsh, and I remember her teaching me about blood magick, we practiced on animals so she could teach me how to take just enough blood from a being to use black magick and not enough to kill the being, while under the water I notice I am in a pond full of different fish, none big enough for white I need, but enough fish to take a small amount from and not harm the fish around me. I concentrate and pull the small amounts of blood I need from the fish, it seems easier than normal, I notice all the fish facing me, they are willingly helping me, I get enough blood to be able to manipulate it and help me, I am healing faster too, I can feel myself get stronger, I am ready. I pull myself out of the water, Kenneth, his grandmother, and his mother are waiting for me, I walk slowly toward them, I feel the warmth behind me, they tried to hold fire behind the pond so I wouldn’t notice and get hit by behind, my protection barrier has stopped the flames, I can see the concentration on their faces, they realize this isn’t working, I smile at them as I carry on walking towards them, I am now a couple of metres away and I can tell which amount of energy and power is coming from who, Kenneth’s is less than his grandmothers and he looks like he is being tortured, I smile at him and I see him smile back, they have not been able to break the link completely, I sigh with relief, I look over to his mother and see she is angry and worried, his grandmother looks scared and tired, the majority of the power is now coming from his mother, and I know I am strong enough to beat her.   I need to get closer to Kenneth need to touch him to kiss him but how? That is it, I put up a barrier around his mother and grandmother, made of blood, this completely incapacitates them, I run up to Kenneth and kiss him like I have never kissed him before and in that instant, our link is back, this means he loves me for me and we are not bound by magick. “Hi Lilly,” he says with a smile “Oh boy am I glad to have you back, but we have the small problem of your mother and grandmother,” I say to Kenneth “Yeah I am tired of this now, I know you can use black magick and I know you can get away with it, if we don’t end this now, they will never stop, kill them,” he said Now I know I am a good witch and a white witch but I am overcome with anger and I can see Kenneth is furious, I don’t want to do this but if I don’t my family will be at risk and I can’t let that happen. “I’m going to need some of your power to do this, hold my hand, please, and help me,” I say to Kenneth Before I started, I made sure that what we were about to do would not land up hurting Kenneth down the line and that this is what he really wanted, I could feel it on him this is what he wants. I focus all of my energy onto the barrier I put around Kenneth’s grandmother and mother, I make it smaller and smaller, I can hear them scream, I look over to Kenneth and it looks like he has no emotion left, their screams get louder and louder, I can’t take it, I drop to my knees releasing them. “I can’t do it,” I say softly. I feel the air move next to me, it felt like a bird flew past me. I look up, all I see is red, I see their blood in the air I can smell it, I can taste it, I look over to Kenneth he has the dagger I bought him for his birthday in his hands, his eyes look black, he panting as if he has just run a marathon. “What did you do?” I ask him. “I wasn’t going to let them threaten us any longer, I knew you couldn’t do it, I knew it would break your heart to do it, so I did it for us, for our daughter.” He said to me. I jump up off my knees and run to him, I hold him close because he is taller than me, when I lay my head on his chest I can hear his heart beat, its normal, no fast rhythm, no skips missed, Kenneth’s heart is just as it was before all of this. “Now, how do we clean this mess up?” He asks looking down at me with a smile. “Well, the advantage to blood bending, I can clean the blood you have to incinerate the body’s,” I said to him We get started no cleaning, as I am pulling the blood into the air, a black cloud of evil forms above us. The wind starts to pick up, it feels like a tornado is forming around us “I don’t like this,” I yell out to Kenneth “Don’t worry I will stop it all now.” I have dispersed all of the blood and with a bright flash Kenneth has incinerated the bodies, it starts to rain heavily on us, and all of a sudden our bodies relax with relief we can barely stand now, but we help each other back to our little in, and collapse on the bed, exhausted. This is the first time in what seems forever I can sleep peacefully, and deeply. When we wake up in the morning the sky is the bluest, I have ever seen it, the snow is starting to melt, the birds are chirping, the wind has an icy feel to it but it feels refreshing, I cant believe all that happened in just three days, it felt like it was month. I look over to Kenneth he is still sleeping, I decide to go have a shower and relaxing bath, while in the bath I hear Kenneth wake up, he walks into the bathroom, smiles and says “good morning gorgeous, how are my two girls doing?” “I’m sorry did you just say two girls?” I ask Kenneth in shock. “Oops, I though you could tell?” “No, I can’t but oh my god I can’t believe it we are having a girl.” In our joy and excitement, we didn’t hear the commotion outside, all of a sudden, we are laying on the floor, the building crumbling around us. “Not again!”