Author's Note: Santuary Bino. Having to use . as paragraph break
Prompt: Fata Morgana
Will Zimmerman wasn't sure exactly what he had been expecting, when he decided to come back to the crypt on a remote Scottish Island. Perhaps more Keepers, watching over The Morrigan, although he wasn't sure if any still lived after the slaughter at the Old City Sanctuary. Perhaps Cabal soldiers, watching for signs of trouble and ready to eliminate the competition. The Cabal had come storming into the Old City Sanctuary, guns blazing, to retrieve what they considered to be their property. The Sanctuary team had seen things differently, telling the girls they were free and did not have to be controlled by any master. Had they chosen to, the three sisters could have killed everyone who stood in their way, but instead they chose to go with the Cabal, in exchange for the lives of those who had tried to free them. That encounter had shaken everything Will believed in, for he had truly believed that Danu and her sisters were modern women, kidnapped and held for nefarious reasons, but not witches from the middle ages. Looking at the entrance to the crypt, Will could see no Keepers in evidence, nor any sign of activity around the area. No guards, no watchers; nothing to stop him walking into the crypt and taking the girls back to the Sanctuary again, for good this time.
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Walking carefully into the darkened crypt, Will was both surprised and dismayed to see the three stone coffins, still arranged as they had been the first time he had entered this place. The symbol on the floor showed signs of decay now, lichen growing over the intricate pattern on the surface. The decay bothered him, made him worry that by killing the Keepers last time, they might have left the girls unprotected. He stepped on to the symbol, waiting for the green liquid to fill it as it drained from the stone coffins, but nothing happened. Seriously concerned now about the safety of the girls, Will pushed at the lid of one of the coffins, moving it away with agonising slowness and stunned by what he saw.
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The coffin was empty. They all were.
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The girls were gone, and with them Will's chance to make amends with Danu and her sisters, for not believing them when they tried to warn him about who they were. He fell to his knees on the rough stone floor, slumped against the side of the coffin in despair. He had hoped to free them, help them see that they did not have to be slaves to anyone, especially as the Cabal had fallen. He sat there for some time, listening to the faint sound of the ocean crashing against the rocky shoreline, thinking of all the things he could have shown the girls about the present time. He pushed himself to his feet, ready to leave the crypt and return home to tell Helen they had missed their chance, when his gaze fell on a hint of white in the coffin beside him. He reached in and pulled out a small piece of folded paper. Opening it, a smile began to tug at his lips as he read the words inscribed in a dark ink on the paper. Taking a deep breath, he nodded slowly to himself and turned to leave, tucking into his back pocket the scrap of paper, which read:
Will, thank you for our freedom. Know that, now the Cabal are no more, we can truly be free. We go now to a place, far away from people, where we can live out our lives in peace, without fear and without masters. Peace be with you, always. Danu.