A/N: Hi! So this is my first ever W.I.T.C.H story AND my first multi-chapter story, so any construstive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading! :D
Discalimer: I dont own W.I.T.C.H or any of its characters apart from my OCs
Chapter One: Nightmares
It's found her. She had tried to run but in this place there is nowhere to go, it is an endless abyss of darkness. No matter what direction she goes, how far or fast she runs, there is no escape. She can hear it now, it's coming closer to her, so close it's breath was flowing down her neck. She picked up speed and sprinted to an unknown destination when an invisible force pulled her to a sudden stop. She yelled and thrashed around in panic at the Thing was just behind her when she was suddenly let go and dropped down a hole that appeared just below her, she felt like she was falling for eternity but finally she landed onto a solid floor.
With a groan the girl looked up and saw a white circle floating off of the ground. Her eyes stung at the bright light but a menacing hiss made her stagger to her feet in a hurry. She approached the circle and reached out with a shaky hand, and when her hand made contact with it the light let out a shockwave causing the girl to fall onto her back with a pained gasp.
Looking up again with a grimace the girl was met with a terrible image. Her friends were all standing protectively with their parents and her mother behind them; they were all staring in the watching girl's direction in horror. She saw a hand rise in her view and it started to glow a dark pulsing purple, it pointed to the people with the palm facing them and with a push sent the orb flying in their direction. She watched as if in slow motion as they all ducked and it smashed through the wall behind them, scattering debris on their bodies. The vision started to fade just as another orb was getting ready to fire at her friends.
The girl sat there in shock at what had just happened when movement caught her eye. Black mist started to surround her defenceless body and coiled itself around her legs. The girl jumped up and tried to run in the opposite direction only to be brought crashing to the floor again as the mist started to take a shape around her constricted legs. She rolled onto her back and kicked her legs in an effort to get rid of the mist but it was futile as the mist carried on up her body and around her abdomen tightly and weighing her down to the ground with a painful force that made her cry out at the pressure. The mist had pinned down her right arm when she noticed the shadowed humanoid figure standing above her. The girls breath caught in her throat as it stepped closer to her; a quiet growling could be heard coming from its chest and through the darkness, she could make out animalistic violet eyes. Its right arm rose and it was then she noticed the sharp knife like claws extending from its fingers, she tried to move away but could not, as the hand came down towards her, she put her left arm up in a last attempt to protect her face. She felt a sharp burning down her forearm as the claws sliced through it, and let out a scream of agony.
"Will! Will wake up!"
Will awoke with a gasp as the person stopped shaking her shoulders. She sat up in bad as the light was turned on by her mother, taking deep panicked breaths as she replayed her nightmare over and over in her head. She looked up to her Mom who swiftly brought her into a hug when she saw the tears filling her daughter's eyes.
"Shh Will, its over now, it was just a dream…" Her Mom said in calm quiet tones as she stroked Will's short red hair, letting her cry onto her night gown.
She looked down into Will's brown eyes that were now red and puffy with tears.
"Are you okay now?" Will nodded shakily, "do you want to tell me what happened in your dream?" Will stiffly shook her head. Susan sighed and kissed Will's hair and laid her back onto her bed. She tucked her daughter in like she used to when she was a little girl, and slipped her hands under her quilt to squeeze her arm comfortingly. She felt something weird however, something warm, sticky and wet. Susan's eyes widened and she removed her hand and found her palm covered in a crimson red liquid. Blood.
"Will." She gasped and looked to her daughter's face to see that she was looking at her arm with wide eyes.
Along the top of her left forearm were three deep cuts that curved to the underside of the arm in a jagged style. The wounds were bleeding profusely, spreading quickly onto the bed sheets, and Susan quickly got herself and Will dressed, wrapping some cloth around Will's arm in a makeshift bandage to slow the bleeding, and soon had them in Heatherfeild Hospital. It was 3:36 am on a Wednesday morning but Susan pushed the down her drowsiness and sat up straighter in the waiting room as Will got her cuts cleaned and sewed up.
An hour later they were sitting in their apartment around the kitchen table; Will was fiddling with the gauze on her arm whilst Susan nursed a cup of coffee in her hands. Susan sighed and looked up to Will.
"Will, how… why did you," she gestured to Will's arm, "to yourself?" she finished with her shoulders slumping. Will looked at her Mom in shock.
"Mom, I didn't do this! You know I would never purposely hurt myself, why in the hell would I?"
"I don't know Will! Why would you? Ever since we have moved to Heatherfeild you have been acting so differently that I feel like I don't even know you anymore!"
Will glared at her mother, ignoring the flash of hurt at her mother's words and clenching her fists in anger as she sat onto the edge of her seat.
"I. Did. Not. Cut. Myself." She spat out through her teeth.
"Then how do you think it happened then? They just appeared did they?" Susan unknowingly reminded Will of her nightmare and she slumped into her seat again, playing with the bandage on her arm.
"I don't know," she whispered out in a defeated voice that made Susan's anger disappear and be replaced by concern at her daughters mournful tone, "In my Nightmare, I was," Will cleared her throat and shuffled in her seat, "I was being chased by, by something. I'm not sure what it was but-" she sniffed and looked directly into her mother's eyes that were so much like her own, "it… attacked me in the nightmare and I must've, I dunno, clawed myself in my sleep…"
Susan placed her hand on Will's and smiled comfortably to her, her earlier anger forgotten.
"Its okay Will, it was just a dream. Dreams can't hurt you."
Will moved around the table and launched herself into her Mom's awaiting arms.
"I hope your right Mom, I really hope your right." She mumbled into her sweater as she clung onto her tighter. She did not see the look of concern on her mother's face as she hugged her back.
~Ax~
Susan decided it was best to let Will stay at home instead of going to school seeing as she had been up for most of the night and as soon as she got to her bed she basically collapsed into it. Susan called the school the next day to inform them of her daughter being ill and wrote a note for her and placed it on the table before she left for work.
Will was woken about 3 hours later by her phone.
"Will, your friend is calling you! You are not skiving school again are you young lady?" her phone was basically yelling down her ear. Will groaned in annoyance, she did love being a guardian and the whole 'her being able to talk to appliances' did come in handy, but at times like this she could do with out it.
"Are you listening to me Will?"
"God yes, yes I am Ed now shh!" she hissed at her phone before flipping it open and lying down back onto her bed.
"Hello?" she asked, tiredly rubbing her eyes.
"WILL!"
Will yelped in shock and jumped up, juggling with her phone in the air whilst she tired to catch it again.
"Irma don't shout at her!" Hay Lin's voice carried through the speaker.
"Oh right! You've been sleeping all day haven't you?"
"I was, Irma." Will grunted, she stood up and opened her curtains, groaning at the sudden blindness from the sunlight.
"Sorry Will, we were just seeing if you were okay." Taranee said softly, even though she is a lot more confident nowadays, the Fire guardian still was shy.
"Guys, what did you think could've happened? I fell down the toilet? Got into a death match with the shower head?" she asked sarcastically whilst she stretched her arms above her head with a yawn.
"Well we were all worried, maybe Cedric or some of his brainless grunts attacked our defenceless friend." Cornelia replied.
"Aw c'mon guys, I'm not that hopeless, you all know I can fend for myself."
She was met with silence.
"Guys?" Will asked in a higher tone.
"W-well we all think you can defend yourself, but it does take all five of us to defeat Cedric you know." Hay Lin answered innocently.
"But brainless grunts, I can take them out. I'm the guardian of Quintessence for God sake!"
"We know that Will! We were just having you on, as a joke!" Irma shouted down the speaker.
"Yeah, well nice speaking to you all, I'm gonna hang up now." Will drawled out and began to move her phone away when a new voice stopped her.
"Wait Will!" Will blushed at the deeper voice.
"Oh! Caleb, hi!" she winced and face palmed herself at her higher pitched voice, a dead giveaway if her laughing friends in the background was anything to go by.
She also distinctly heard Irma say something along the lines of "Watch out girls, get too close and we might catch the 'lurrvve bug'."
"How are you?" Caleb asked, her heart sped up a little.
"F-fine! How are you?"
"Well, I'm not the one staying at home today am I?" he was grinning, she knew he was.
"Yes, of course! How silly of me…" The blush on her face was now the same shade of her hair and she sat back down onto her bed before she collapsed from blood loss to her head.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked going back to being serious now.
"As well as I could be." She mumbled.
"Huh?" he asked.
"Er, I will tell you all at school tomorrow okay? I'm still a little tired from my visit to the Hospital and-"
"The Hospital? Why were you at the Hospital!" he sounded really worried now and Will smacked her head again when she heard her other five friends say start to panic as well.
"No, I'm fine now, look I will tell you all at school tomorrow, 'kay?"
"Okay, it's not too serious is it?"
"Well it may have something to do with, W.I.T.C.H but I'm not sure."
He sighed deeply before answering back, "Okay, as long as you are fine and promise to tell us all tomorrow."
"I will Caleb, bye."
"Bye Will." He replied before hanging up. Will sighed and fell back onto her bed, staring up at her ceiling dreamily.
Caleb hung up Taranee's phone and turned to give it back to her.
"Hey! We didn't get to say goodbye!" said an affronted Hay Lin.
"She was tired and had to go anyway." Replied Caleb and he leant back onto the tree they were sitting in the shade of.
"Never mind that, is she going to be okay? 'Cuz I defiantly heard the word Hospital in your convocation." asked Cornelia with worry clouding her cerulean eyes.
"Yeah, she didn't say much but she did say that she will tell us all tomorrow."
The end of break bell rang and Caleb huffed in annoyance.
"Damn, I can't wait until this day is over, then we will be closer to finding out what happened to Will."
"Yeah… or you just can't wait to see your Girlfriend again!" sang Irma as she stood with the other girls.
"She isn't my Girlfriend!" Caleb shouted at her as he stood, a light blush forming on his cheeks.
"Well from that blush, I would say that won't stay that way for much longer."
"Taranee!" Caleb gasped out, his blush growing darker. The girls all laughed at his expense, Irma linked arms with Hay Lin and started to skip in front of their group singing Love is in the air making the other girls laugh harder.
Caleb groaned and buried his face in his hand in an attempt to cover his blush.
"Girls…" he grunted as her followed the four teenage girls who were all laughing and singing down the corridor.
~Ax~
The next day Susan's little red car pulled up outside of Heatherfeild Institute, much to her daughter's embarrassment she had insisted to give her a lift to school "Just in case" she had said, so Will now stood out from her car door with her mom leaning over the seats waving goodbye.
"Have a good day darling!"
"Yeah, bye Mom." Will replied, turning away and down the school entrance to her locker where her friends hang out before school and ignoring the snickering of the kids who had heard her Mom.
"Wow, deja vu or what?" she mutters to herself.
Will opened her locket and dug around inside of it looking for her maths book when suddenly-
"Death from above!" before she could react a person jumped onto her back making her lunge forwards until she could regain her balance.
"Garh, Hay Lin!" Will shouted in surprise.
"Will you're back!" Hay Lin hugged her tighter but let go when she heard her friend hiss in pain.
"Will, what happened the other night? And what did you do to your arm?" asked Taranee as she gently took the arm into her hands. Will looked around the crowded hallway and then looked back at her friends.
"I'll tell you all at lunch right?"
"You know, you will have to tell us sometime Will." said Cornelia, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow.
"Aaand I will. At lunch!" Will grinned, turned on her heel and walked down the corridor quickly, "C'mon Corny, we're late for math!" she called back.
"Don't call me Corny!" she yelled back as she followed after the laughing girl.
~Ax~
"Okay so spill, what happened?" asked Cornelia as she sat down with the group around the tree. Will was sat leaning against the tree with Irma sitting next to her, Caleb sat with his head in her lap and stretched out on the grass looking to the sky, Hay Lin was lying on her stomach absently drawing in her sketch book and Taranee sat leaning back on her hands with her eyes closed. Cornelia sat cross-legged on the grass and turned to Will with a demanding look in her eyes.
"Yeah and like, what happened to your arm?" asked Hay Lin, closing her book to give their leader her full attention. Will looked down and fiddled with her bandage again.
"I don't really know, one minute I'm dreaming and next thing I know I'm awake…"
"Do you remember your dream?" asked Taranee.
"It was more like a nightmare," answered Will with a shudder, "but I do, vaguely yeah. I remember a dark place and being chased by something, but no matter what I did it was still there, as if I wasn't running at all. Then the rest I can't remember much of, I think there was some sort of vision? Anyway, after that I got caught by some mist… no not mist, shadows. The darkness had come to life and it was holding me down. I saw the figure approaching me, the one that had been chasing me, and it went to attack me with this claw like hand, I raised my arm and, I was woken up."
The girls were all silent whilst they tried to absorb what Will had just said when Caleb suddenly sat up and turned to face Will, taking her arm in his hands gently. His emerald eyes met her brown with a calculating look in them.
"And how did this happen then?" he asked. Will bit her lip before taking the arm out of his hands and start to unwind the bandages.
"This is what happened when I woke up…" she answered as all her friends leant in closer to her. When she finally removed all of the wrappings her friends gasped at the arm.
Even though the three long cuts had been stitched up, they were still painful, the doctor said they wouldn't completely go away but the scars will fade some. The cuts curved around her arm and looked red and angry with some swelling in between each cut, the length of them went down her forearm and to the inside of her elbow.
"Oh my… Will that looks painful, are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine Tara; the painkillers have numbed it for now." Will smiled at her friend.
"Will I-"
"Oh My God! Did she, like, cut herself?" a childlike voice interrupted Caleb; the group looked up and saw the biggest bitches in the school, the Cheer Leaders.
"Oh no…" Will whispered to her self, she knew that if these girls found something out that it would spread around the school like wild fire, and they also had a tendency to bend the truth as well.
"Eww! And she's showing her friends! What a freak!"
"She must be like, an emo or something. I bet she has eating disorders."
"Oh totally, her Mom must like, completely hate her."
Cornelia glared furiously at the group of bimbos in front of her and stomped to her feet.
"Hey! I don't think I like you butting in on our conversation." She moved to stand in front of Will, as though she could physically protect her from their insults.
"Well I don't think I like you talking to me in those ratty clothes!"
"Yeah, like, where did you get them from? A charity shop?" all the girls laughed at the blonde in front of them whose face was slowly glowing red in anger. By now all of the group were on their feet and facing the cheer squad.
"At least we don't look like street sluts. And sister, if you wanna go chattin' about eating disorders why don't you go look in the mirror yourself? We all know that body didn't come from 'working out'." Irma crossed her arms with a satisfied smirk.
The girl at the front gasped, placing a hand on her chest and stepped back as though she were actually wounded.
"Are you, like, insinuating that I have an eating disorder?"
"No, she's not insinuating anything. She's saying you do." Taranee ground out with fire in her eyes, glaring at the people insulting her best friend.
"You little nerd, I'll show you what happens to people who shouldn't butt in." bimbo number one stepped forwards threateningly only to be stopped in her tracks by Will who now had moved to the front of her friends and in front of Taranee.
"Oh will you now? Go on then. Show me, I would love to see what it was you planned to do exactly." The two hatefully glared each other down unblinking; the blonde glanced away after a minute and Will smirked triumphantly.
"That's what I thought. Now, if you say that to any of my friends again, I'll show you what it really means to be in pain."
"Was that a threat?" the blonde raised her head to try and regain some dignity for being beaten in a fight by an emo.
"No. It's a promise."
Caleb put his hand onto Will's shoulder and stood by her side, staring down at the blonde.
"Now, run along." She needed no further prompting. The head cheerleader lead away her cheer squad, acting as though it was her plan all along to loose epically, but before she was out of sight she turned to send one last glare at Will and they all saw her pulling out her mobile from her handbag.
Will sighed and turned back to her friends.
"Thanks for that guys." She smiled weakly at them, looking down and attempting to re bandage her gauze.
"No problem Captain, just doin' our job as your faithful followers." replied Irma with a southern accent, giving Will a salute with a wink and bringing a smile to the girl's face.
A few minutes later and they were all back around 'their tree', Will leant against it with Caleb next to her, he had subtly moved his arm around her shoulders a while ago and now she was leaning more into his chest. The other girls all sat in various positions on the grass and they were all chatting happily.
Will was still trying to fix her gauze on her arm and had started to curse under her breath every few minutes much to her friend's amusement.
"Hey, do want a hand with that?" asked Caleb, placing his hand on her forearm.
"You know how to fix a bandage?" Will asked, raising an eyebrow sceptically.
"Do you think I lasted this long in rebel wars without learning how to fix a bandage?" he chuckled lightly and sat up, facing the red head that was now also cross legged, the other girls gave each other knowing looks and silently moved further away to give the two of them some privacy.
Caleb un-tucked Will's attempt and gently guided the gauze around her arm, his fingers leaving warm trails on her arm from where he touched her. He took her hand in his to steady it, trying to focus on the task he had set and not the fact that Will's small soft hand seemed to fit perfectly in his larger one.
"Thanks," Will said as she stared down at the now perfectly wrapped bandage on her arm.
"Its no problem Will." Replied Caleb, he looked up and his emerald eyes met her warm brown ones. Will blushed slightly at the look in Caleb's eyes and quickly glanced down to his lips, looking up to see Caleb do the same. Their eyes met again and slowly they leant forwards, Caleb still holding Will's hand, their eyes slid closed just when their noses were about to touch, tilting their heads to the side.
Caleb grunted as suddenly a hard object hit the side of his head, Will opened her eyes and saw the apple rolling across the grass, she looked up to find the culprits laughing obnoxiously.
"Hey love birds! Why don't you find a room?" this caused them to laugh again.
"Hey Uriah, why don't you go find a hole to fall in?" Irma yelled back, annoyed that once again, her friends were stopped before they could finally kiss!
Cornelia stared intently at the path the boys were walking away on, making three small roots quickly grow from the ground and into a loop, catching the boy's trainers and bringing them down to the ground with a large smack making all the people out side the school laugh.
"Nice one Corny!" said Hay Lin, giving the earth guardian a high five.
"Caleb, are you okay?" asked Will in a quiet voice, watching as Caleb rubbed his sore head with a grimace.
"Yeah, it just stings a bit." He replied giving her a smile.
With a sudden burst of confidence Will leant forwards and quickly placed a kiss on Caleb's temple. Caleb stared at her with his mouth hanging open and a steady blush working its way up his face. Will smiled at him and stood up, grabbing Cornelia's arm and pulling her to her feet.
"C'mon Corny, we gotta go to class." Cornelia grinned and walked off with Will and into the school. Caleb, much to the other girl's amusement, was staring after Will with his mouth still open.
"You know you're gonna end up catching flies like that." Irma said with a smirk.
Caleb didn't seem to hear her.
~Ax~
"You ssssummoned me massster?"
"Cedric, yes I have indeed. I have an errand for you to do."
"What isss it my prince?"
Phobos turned around to face his reptilian lord with a blank look on his face.
"I need you to go to the groapă al sufletelor. Alert the messenger that resides there and inform him to contact his master. I need his, talents."
Cedric winced, he knew of that place. It made his blood run cold when he even thought about it, and he wouldn't be going there again without knowing why.
"If I might asssk my liege, what is your need of this man?" Phobos glared scathingly at the snake creature, curling his lip in disgust.
"Not that you need to know but if you must…" he trailed off, sitting on his throne and grabbing a handful of sand from next to him and throwing it to the circular pattern on the floor, the pattern soon faded into a picture of a dimly lit room. On the bed was a figure that was fidgeting in it, sweating profoundly and moaning out sounds of pain. Cedric was slightly startled when he recognised the figure as the guardian of the Heart.
"My lord…?"
"Now watch her arms Cedric." The prince interrupted, staring intently at the sleeping girl. Cedric did as he was told, looking at her arms when three long red slashes spread down its length as though something in the room had done it, nothing was there however. The image faded away just when the guardian's mother entered the room.
"Massster, what wasss that?"
"That Cedric, is what I intend to find out." The prince answered harshly, slamming his fist against the arm rest.
Lord Cedric bowed low and swiftly exited the room, in a haste to escape the price's anger even if it meant having to go to the groapă al sufletelor.
A/N: Thank you for reading :)