Chapter 2
To say that Mirta and Flora were shocked after reading the message was an understatement. They spent several minutes in absolute silence. Flora finally opened her mouth.
"Ca...can you see who sent you the message?" asked Flora. People often said that Flora was very cool headed, able to keep calm in the worst situations, but this was too much even for her.
Mirta checked the sender.
"Unknown number," said Mirta.
After forcing herself to calm down, Flora came up with another idea.
"Call to Alfea, and tell Faragonda to send somebody here," said Flora.
"Good idea," praised Mirta, as she dialed Faragonda's office number. "Wait, you don't have a cell phone?"
"I'm not too fond of those things," said Flora.
Mirta simply nodded, and waited for somebody to answer. But all what she could heard was a recording that said that her phone had no network coverage.
"This is absurd!" said Mirta in frustration. "I just received a message! How can I be out of coverage?"
"Mirta, calm down," said Flora, coming close to her. "It looks like we're trapped."
"Okay," said Mirta, breathing deeply. "What are we going to do?"
"The most obvious thing would be to find food and a safe place to rest" said Flora. "We don't know how many time we will stay here"
Mirta couldn't help but shiver at Flora's statement.
"Don't worry Mirta," said Flora. "We won't be here for much longer. Bloom and the others know where we are. They'll come rescue us before long. In the meantime, let's see if we can find anyone else here, like Griffin, or Lucy. "
Lucy. For a brief moment, she totally forgot about her.
"Alright," agreed Mirta. "And, since we're going to stay here for some time, maybe we could find what happened here."
Mirta's phone rang again. It was another text message.
Go to the upper terrace roof
"The terraces, of course!" said Mirta in realization. "We can also escape from there flying."
"That's right," said Flora, upbeat. "Maybe we don't have to wait to be rescued."
Both Mirta and Flora smiled at each other. However, Flora quickly frowned.
"Wait, why the upper terrace?" asked Flora. "I thought there were more terraces"
"And there are," said Mirta. "We're not going to go to the upper terrace. Come on, follow me, there's one in the first floor"
Mirta's phone rang again. Another message.
Don't try to escape. You can't. Your only hope of surviving lies in the upper terrace.
Mirta typed a reply saying that they weren't going to do that, but when she sent the text message, an error window popped in the cell's screen saying that the message couldn't be send.
"What's going on here?" asked Mirta as he looked around. "Who's sending this messages?"
Another message.
Please, trust me, I'm trying to help. you Do what I say, and everything will be fine
"I don't like this," said Mirta.
"Me either," said Flora. "Should we go?"
"What if it's a trap?" asked Mirta, suspicious.
"This place is a giant trap," replied Flora. "If whoever who is behind this wants to ambush us, there are better places to do it rather than a terrace."
"I guess you're right," admitted Mirta.
"Well, you know this place better than me," Flora just appointed Mirta as the guide.
"Okay, let me find my way," said Mirta, looking around, trying to remember which door to take.
There were three doors in the main hall. Two of them led to the stairs to the upper floors, and the remaining one to the crypt and dungeons. However, one of the stairs led to the dinning hall, in the second floor, and the other one led to the laboratories, in the third floor.
Minutes later, they arrived at one of the laboratories, where the witches practiced with potions, poisons, and other stuff. The laboratory had the same decayed appearance as the rest of the building: cracked walls, puddles everywhere, books, broken glasses and test tubes in the floor...
Suddenly, Mirta gasped.
"Flora, do you...?"
"Yes, I feel it too," said Flora, a bit worried.
Suddenly, the entire lab disappeared, leaving nothing but darkness. The darkness began to dispel little by little, revealing the inside of a cave.
Inside that cave, a lonely woman walked by, her steps echoing through the whole instance. She had long, purple hair, had green skin, and wore a long, brown robe. She also wore glasses, and sported a smile that irradiated self confidence.
Flora broke the silence.
"Is that...Griffin?" asked Flora, stunned.
"I'd say yes," said Mirta. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," said Flora. "But it seems that we're seeing a snippet of Griffin's past"
The young Griffin finally arrived at a bigger cavity, illuminated by a circle of torches. In the middle of the circle, there was a man. He had long brown hair, and wore a dark red longcoat over a purple vest and a white shirt, purple pants and black boots. The man turned around to reveal that it was no other than Baltor.
"Ah, Griffin, my dear," said Baltor, excited. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you"
"Are you...Baltor?" asked Griffin shyly.
"Yes, yes I am," replied Baltor, who wouldn't stop smiling. "I see that my name isn't unknown to you."
"How could it be?" asked Griffin "You're a legend among the witches and warlocks."
Baltor smirked at Griffin's praise.
"Soon you will be a legend too, my young witch," replied Baltor as she took Griffin's hand. Griffin was really excited.
"I want to start my service immediately," said Griffin with enthusiasm . "What will be my first task?"
But Baltor just laughed.
"Patience, my dear," laughed Baltor. "I can see in your eyes that you long to become the most powerful witch who ever existed."
"Yes," replied Griffin. "Just like you, Baltor. I want to be powerful."
"Ah, yes," said Baltor. "The life of a follower of the darkness is a quest for power. And you're no exception."
Baltor made a pause.
"You have will and potential," said Baltor. "My duty will be to test said attributes, and see if you'll make a good member of the coven."
Griffin was a bit unsure.
"But don't worry. If half of the things I heard about you are true, you'll not only be part of this group, but become one of its top rank members, like me" said Baltor. "Besides, the anicent witches seem to be interested in you."
Griffin couldn't believe what she just heard.
"The...the ancient witches?" stammered Griffin. "They know about me?"
"Of course they do," said Baltor. "They know about everybody who wants to join us."
"When I'm going to meet them?" bloated Griffin.
"Don't worry,my dear," said Baltor. "Everything will come in the right time."
The next second, Mirta and Flora were back in the ruined laboratory, wondered what just happened.