Zore

Dreading the Night

Arizona, USA

"Tempus est ut suscitaret prophetia"

"Quia venit hora ut noster-"

I jerked awake at the sound of an ear-numbing scream, its pitch getting higher by the minute. It took five split seconds to realize the sound was my own. I was drenched in sweat, withholding no memory of my identity or location.

"Azora!" That voice. So familiar I can almost recall-

"What is it? The voices, did they call to you again?" The voice sounded frantic, complementing a look of fright in its owner's eyes. As I peered into the green orbs of the woman in front of me, her beauty struck me even in the dead of the night in that it seemed a little.....off

"Zore do you know who I am?" Her question caught me off guard. Was I supposed to know this strange woman? At the stupefied look I assume covered my face, a look of trepidation passed hers. Abruptly, she grasped my shoulders and began chanting in some ancient language I vaguely recognized. A searing pain travelled through my head and I clamped my eyes shut.

"Stop! You're hurting me!" I pleaded, but the pain went as soon as it came and hesitantly, I opened my eyes, finding relief in the fact that I recognized the figure before me. My Aunt Saraphina. I grabbed her in a bone-crushing hug.

"It happened again." I breathed, tears of frustration threatening to break free. Uncertainty was my greatest enemy, and as uncertain as my future had become, my greatest fear was what awaited me, a dark and foreboding path.

**********************************************************************

Parma, Italy

Two days before

There was a storm coming. I could sense it. Even the tell-tale signs of the ants moving south confirmed my worries. If those dark threatening clouds were anything to go by, this was no ordinary storm. I could smell the dark magic. There was something else in the air, something lucid, powerful, something - something evil.

"My my, you've grown into quite a handsome young man." I stiffened, my spine tingling, that voice, it-

"Oh don't break my heart and tell me you've already forgotten your dear Aunt Saraphina." The voice held quite a sarcastic and chilling tone to it and I turned, meeting equally cold eyes, the room temperature drops by a few hundred degrees.

"Saraphina." I hissed "What do you want?" She shrugged, her calm façade infuriating me. I bristled, canines baring.

"I'm here to cash in that favour you're father promised me." I clenched my teeth, my animal instincts threatening to take over, my wolf desperately clawing at the surface.

"Go on," I growled out.

"It's about a girl, well, a witch, the fairest and most powerful of them all."