The Doctor's Secret Spells

End Of the beginning

Emily woke up to the taste of dust.

Everything was heavy. Her lungs felt coated in gray silt, and a high-pitched ringing screamed in her ears, drowning out the world. For a moment, she drifted in and out of consciousness, but then reality snapped back with a brutal, cold force.

She looked up through the wreckage of her living room. The roof was gone, replaced by the dark, smoky sky. In the middle of the ruins stood a figure that made her blood run cold. It was the Shadow Man. He wasn't a trick of the light or a figment of her imagination anymore. He was solid, towering, and terrifying. She tried to know if she could stand, but nothing worked. She was trapped under the debris from the explosion. After some tries, she paused and looked at the scene in front of her really well. It really was the mad from her imagination.

He was holding Lilian by the neck, lifting her off her feet. His fingers were digging deep into Lilian's neck, his hands were squeezing the life right out of her.

Emily tried to scream, but her voice was trapped under the debris. As she watched her mother gasp for air, her whole life flashed before her eyes, pulling her back to a memory from a decade ago.

It was a sunny evening, and the calm breeze was blowing against her skin. They had just moved to Carolina Creaks, a small, sleepy town where the trees were thick, and the air smelled like pine. It was the place her mom had decided they would finally settle down. A place they would soonto this day regard as home for the next nine years.

“Honey, come on in and help me unpack,” Lilian called out, wiping sweat from her brow.

Eight-year-old Emily rushed inside, her small hands grabbing a cardboard box. This was their third time moving this year. Even at eight, Emily knew she was different from the other kids. Other kids stayed in one house; they had marks on the wall showing how tall they grew. while Emily had packed boxes. for the third time this year.

“Mummy, why is it we are always moving around?” Emily asked, her voice small and curious.

Lilian stopped. She looked at the half-empty living room, then knelt down to her daughter’s level.

“You know, I really want us to see the world, sweetheart,” Lilian said softly. “After your dad left us and went to heaven, it’s just been me and you. Things are bound to change. Seasons do, and people do, too. Maybe one day we won't have to move around so much.”

Lilian reached out, tucking a strand of hair behind Emily’s ear. “But do you know what never changes? My love for you, my sweet child. It will never wither or change, no matter what happens. Always remember that.”

A strange, heavy shadow crossed Lilian’s face. “There will come a time when things will become a lot clearer. You’ll understand some of the choices I made... and the ones I still have to make. I just pray you forgive me, my sweet child.”

A single tear escaped Lilian’s eye. She quickly turned away, pretending to reach for a roll of tape, not letting Emily see her cry. "Let's finish unpacking, my girl," and maybe we can get ice cream later," Lilian said as she tried to cheer up little Emily.

The memory shattered as Emily snapped back to the present.

The heat of the fire and the stench of burning wood and smoke replaced the smell of Carolina Creaks. Emily began screaming her mother’s name, the sound tearing from her throat. Tears blurred her vision as she begged the Shadow Man to stop, asking why he was doing this, why he was hurting the only person she had left.

The Shadow Man turned. His face was a pale, emotionless mask of void. He looked down at Emily, who was pinned under a pile of bricks, and tilted his head.

“Shush, child,” he whispered.

The voice didn't come from his mouth; it vibrated inside her skull. A cold shiver went down Emily’s spine. She froze, paralyzed by the sheer power of a man she had thought was just a nightmare.

Lilian, with the last strength left in her breaking body, looked at Emily. Her eyes were filled with a final, desperate clarity." This was it, this is where I have to leave you, my sweet child.

“My child... forgive me,” she whispered, tears carving tracks through the soot on her cheeks.

She reached deep into herself, past her muscles and bones, grabbing onto the very spark of her life force. She didn't use it to fight; she used it to save.

“Spirits alike, heavens decide,” Lilian gasped, her voice glowing with a sudden, golden light. “Send thy fate which is mine to your reside!”

Immediately, a blinding white light engulfed Emily’s body. She felt herself becoming weightless, becoming invincible, and at peace all at once. The Shadow Man’s eyes flared with a hellish rage.

“You foul woman!” he roared, his voice shaking the ruins of the house. “You will pay for this!”

But before he could finish the sentence, Emily felt the world tear apart. She disappeared into thin air, leaving the physical world behind. For a split second, she was nothing but a spiritual presence lingering in the room.

In that heartbeat, she felt a tether snap. She felt her mother’s presence leave this world. The warmth was gone, and the only parent she had left was gone with it, and for the second time, everything blacked out.

A few days had passed since the sky fell.

Emily began to regain consciousness slowly. The first thing she noticed was the smell—dried sage, old wood, and something metallic. She was in a room that felt familiar, like a dream she’d had a thousand times, but she knew she had never been here before.

She slowly opened her eyes, her head throbbing. The room was dim, filled with shadows that didn't move.

The door creaked open.

An old woman emerged from the darkness. Her skin was like wrinkled parchment, and her eyes held a weight that made Emily feel like a child again.

“Good. You’re awake,” the woman said, her voice like dry leaves skittering on a sidewalk.

“Where am I? Who are you?” Emily asked, her voice a raspy ghost of itself. She tried to sit up, but her limbs felt like lead.

The woman stepped closer, leaning into the light. She looked at Emily with a mixture of pity and grave concern. She leaned down and whispered into the silence of the room.

“Oh, my child... You have no idea what you have gotten us all into.”