Disclaimer: I own nothing but a warped imagination and a weird sense of humour.
A/N: Enjoy!
Chapter 2
"We're all gonna die," Bonnie says, tightening her grip on Katherine's hand. "We're all gonna die out here and they're gonna find our mutilated bodies weeks later, rotting and covered in maggots and my grams is never going to forgive you, ever."
Matt chuckles from in front where he has hold of Elena's hand who has hold of Katherine's other hand, leading the three girls through the trees. "You're such a pansy, you know that right?" he glances up at Lexi and Caroline who are just a few feet ahead of them, practically skipping through the trees in excitement. "Hey you two, wait up! Don't leave me babysitting on my own, you need to take some responsibility too!"
Katherine digs her nails into Elena's hand who digs her nails into Matt's in response. "Oww!" they both whine, lifting their hands to inspect the nail marks
"What did you do that for? I didn't say anything." Elena complains, casting her twin sister a glare.
"It was for you to pass on, you obviously understood the message because I didn't even need to ask."
Caroline snorts and laughs loudly, looking back at her squabbling friends before tripping over a large tree root and falling face first into the dirt. Instead of checking she's okay or making an attempt to help her up, Lexi drops to her knees, clutching her stomach and laughing hysterically. Caroline wipes her face on her dress, removing most of the fake blood and dirt.
She turns to her friend, punching her in the arm and lifts herself up from the ground, dusting down her costume as she squints at the outline of something ahead of them. "Is that it?" she questions, taking a few steps forward to get a clearer view.
Lexi's laughter comes to a halt as she crawls forward slightly and looks in the direction Caroline's pointing. She gulps loudly. Despite knowing the Legend, Lexi's never actually seen the cottage before, nor has she ever considered coming to look for it. In fact, she's never stepped foot within the gates that surrounded the forest.
"Yeah, that's the place." She replies and accepts the hand that Caroline offers, not letting go as they stand looking at the cottage and waiting for the others to reach them.
"You guys are real losers, y'know that right?" Matt rolls his eyes as he practically drags Elena towards the cottage. Katherine doing the same to Bonnie. "It's just an old cottage, we see them all the time. This one's no different really."
"Yeah," Caroline agrees, dropping Lexi's hand and grinning widely. "I'm the new one here, shouldn't I be the one practically pooping myself?"
Bonnie makes a face and tugs her hand from Katherine's, wiping the excess sweat on her dress. "Look, I don't really want to do this and not because I'm scared okay, I just don't. But if you guys insist, can we please just get this over with already?"
Caroline looks over at Lexi who's smirking and nods her head. "Let's go then."
~Inside~
Caroline isn't exactly sure what she was expecting to see really, maybe something just a tad more eerie and stage worthy? A huge rusty cauldron half-full of the hardened remains of the last potion the witches were brewing, bats hanging from the ceiling, cobwebs, hundreds of half-melted candles, the untraceable meows of a black cat, shelves of jars containing pickled human organs and maybe even the odd bone on the floor.
The reality is entirely different.
There's a cauldron laying on its side in front of the fire, but it isn't filled with left over potion – in fact, apart from the dust it's pretty much spotless. There's plenty of cobwebs, but apart from that there isn't much else that screams 'witches lived here'. There's no real furniture in the room, just broken bits of wood all over the place and a few large crates, all of which are covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. Caroline shudders.
"You okay, Care?" Elena asks, chewing down on her bottom lip and glancing sideways at her friend.
"Spiders." Caroline swallows thickly before nodding and smiling as brightly as possible. "I'm good though as long as none of them land on me." She glances around, ensuring there's no cobwebs or large spiders anywhere near her.
Matt sighs loudly and walks further into the cottage, Elena still clinging to his hand and scanning the area as if someone's about to jump out at any second. Caroline's fairly certain that her friends fear of ghosts isn't the only reason she's refusing to let go of his hand.
The cottage itself is just one large room with an upper floor which hugs the outer edges and Caroline assumes some of the broken bits of wood once formed a ladder to get up there. There are three separate sections surrounding the room, each divided off with a low-slung archway. There's a cabinet at the back of the one nearest her containing some large jars and there's shards of glass on the floor from a broken window.
"Well," Bonnie says, standing nervously beside the door and twiddling her fingers together. "This has been really nice and everything but there's nothing here, so can we go now?"
"Bonnie," Lexi says, moving cautiously towards the large broken window at the far end of the cottage. "We've just got here, at least let me scare the hell out of you once before we go. Like you said, there's nothing here and if I don't have you running from this place to go cry to your grams, I won't feel satisfied."
Caroline laughs loudly as Bonnie scowls at the back of her friends head. "What's out there?" she questions as Lexi leans forward to look out the window, carefully avoiding the shards of glass sticking up from the bottom of the frame. It's really dark through, the moonlight blocked by the tall trees. As if reading her mind, Matt removes his phone from his pocket and sticks on the light, shining it directly out one of the holes in the window's dirty glass.
"Look at this." Lexi whispers loudly as she waves Caroline over to the window.
Caroline walks carefully, avoiding the debris on the floor and dodging the low hanging cobwebs. She walks up behind Lexi and stands on her tiptoes to peer over her shoulder. Her gaze falls down to where Lexi is signalling and her breath hitches.
There's four long mounds in the ground just outside the window, each with a large blank headstone at the head. The grass covering the hills is patch and dead. Despite their strange appearance, Caroline knows exactly what she's looking at.
"Are they…" Caroline croaks despite already knowing the answer. A shiver runs down the length of her spine and goose bumps erupt over her skin.
"Yeah…" Lexi whispers and Caroline can't tell if she's genuinely creeped out or attempting to scare her. "The Mikaelson's. They hung them out here on that tree over there." Lexi points. Caroline hadn't even noticed it, but just a few feet away from the graves is a large tree. It's dead, the bark black as the night and there are no leaves. As she looks over it, it reminds her of something she'd expect to see a Tim Burton movie. "And buried them in their own backyard. Legend's say the towns people didn't want their evil to contaminate the cemetery."
"But there's four," Caroline comments, her brows knitted together.
"I guess the Legends have all been wrong." Katherine mutters right into Caroline's ear as she too peers out the window. Caroline jumps a little. "Easy, Forbes." She chuckles, flicking her curls over her shoulder before turning to walk back into the middle of the room.
Caroline swallows hard, her mouth suddenly becoming dry. "I can't believe they're still here…"
Matt presses his hand to Caroline's back as he attempts to get a look, causing her to jump and Lexi to snort-laugh. "Why wouldn't they still be here?" he questions in confusion.
"I don't know," Caroline shrugs, realising how stupid her question was. She steps away from the window, rubbing her hands over her arms as a chill runs right through her. "This place is like historical now, right? Do they not have laws to protect it and keep it in good condition or something?"
Lexi shrugs and wanders into the centre of the room as Matt looks out the window again. "The whole thing's more of a Legend than historical fact, I mean witches? A lot of people just don't believe in that stuff, not anymore."
"But the graves…you can't make something like that up, they're here! They're evidence." She points in the direction of the window to make her point.
"Not really. People claim this entire place was the set-up for an elaborate prank years ago that somehow got a little out of hand. There's no real evidence to support any of it." Matt states, turning his attention towards Caroline.
"Bu—the graves."
"They might just be empty mounds," Lexi reasons, "but no one really wants to go and dig around in what might or might not be a grave just to be sure it is what it seems to be…I mean would you want to go digging whatever could be under there up?"
"Well no, but there's technology."
"A lot of people don't believe the stories, but they also don't want to risk them being true. So to save a lot of hassle, people just don't come here. I mean if the entire thing is true and there's evil witches buried here, I don't think they'd take too kindly to people running a bunch of technology over their graves."
"I know…but people should be really curious and—" Caroline stops as her foot knocks up against something on the floor. She peers down, unable to see anyone but darkness. "Hey Matt, could you just shine that light at my feet for a second." Matt's turned back to the window but turns his phone all the same, brining the object into view.
A small black candle with honeycomb markings.
"Hey look," she reaches down and picks it up, holding it up in the moonlight coming from the front windows, " a funny looking candle."
The room falls silent and she looks up to see Matt, Elena and Lexi staring at her wide-eyed before looking at each other. Her eyes find Bonnie who's staring wide-eyed, her mouth hanging open as she backs towards the door.
"Um guys…you're kind of freaking me out a bit here." Caroline states, suddenly feeling uneasy.
"That's it, I'm out of here." Bonnie snaps quickly, making a break for the door, only to be stopped by Katherine.
"Bennett," Katherine laughs, holding on tightly to Bonnie's arm. "It's just a candle, it's not the—"
"—No, I don't care. That's just too much of a coincidence." Bonnie shakes her head lightly, her eyes focused on the candle in Caroline's hand as if it's about to suddenly transform into a monster or explode. "This wasn't funny to begin with but now it really isn't funny."
"Uh, would someone care to explain? 'Cause if I'm holding this candle and it's like diseased or something, I'd really like to know about it." Caroline inquires nervously, looking to Katherine who seems to be the only one not staring at her like she's the insane one.
"The Black Flame Candle." Katherine says quietly, nodding towards the candle. Elena takes a step closer to Matt, pressing herself into his wide as she grips his hand just a little tighter. "It's just a stupid folk story and that's probably part of the prank too…" There's uncertainty in her friends tone as she narrows her eyes at the candle.
Caroline frowns at the candle in her hand and rubs her thumb over its dusty surface before sighing. To her it just looks like a normal candle, sure the choice of colour and texture's a little peculiar, but there's nothing about it that screams #I'm magic!'. "Okay, what's the story here then?"
"Apparently old Eliza…sorry, Esther," Lexi quickly corrects herself but Katherine doesn't seem to be paying much attention, "cast a spell on the candle right before they died. According to the Legend, if a virgin lights the candle on All Hallows Eve, the witches will rise up from their graves and seek revenge on the descendants of the towns people who wronged them, and here's the really spooky part, apparently the candle is ever burning, as long as the flame is protected, it'll never burn out."
"Really?" Caroline breathes out, her eyes still fixed on the candle as she continues to rub her thumb lightly over the black wax.
"Yeah," Lexi laughs before knocking her shoulder into Matt's. "Come on then Donovan, I wanna meet some dead witches."
Matt rolls his eyes and Elena strokes his arm affectionately. "Shut up, Lex."
Lexi then turns her attention to Caroline, bumping their shoulders together. "Give it a go Forbes, see if you can bring the old bats back from the dead."
Caroline looks up and makes a face as Katherine chuckles and Lexi smirks. "Even if it is true, what makes you think I'm a virgin?" she questions, already digging into her dress pocket for her trusty lighter.
"Uh, people…" Bonnie says shakily, edging closer to the group whilst looking around the room. "I don't think this a—"
Lexi ignores Bonnie Entirely. "Please, don't make me laugh Forbes, you're as innocent as they come, but if that's how you wanna play it, just how many lucky guys have you got frisky with then?" Lexi smirks, running her tongue across her upper lip, "or girls, whatever." She adds with a shrug as Matt raises his eyebrows and chokes slightly.
"Thousands." Caroline quips and flicks open her trusty bird lighter before sparking it, the orange flame flickers in the darkness.
"Caroline, seriously." Bonnie's voice is shaking more than ever and Caroline feels a little mean as she moves the flame closer to the wick.
"Bonnie," Caroline says, trying to ignore the nervous knot in the pit of her stomach and the slight shake in her hand as she moves the flame closer to the candle. "It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus."
There's an intake of breath as the wick lights with a hiss. Caroline holds the candle away from her, feeling somewhat let down when the flame remains a regular colour and the hissing quickly comes to a halt.
"I knew it." Lexi says, looking towards Bonnie, "All just a bunch of—" she stops mid-sentence, eyes widening as she stares at the flame. Everyone else follows her stare, quickly noticing that the flame is no longer a regular colour, or size – it's black, large, flickering away violently and emitting a loud hissing sound.
"No way…" Lexi mumbles, her eyes meeting Caroline's as they exchange a knowing look.
There's a scream as Bonnie suddenly flies forward, landing face first against the dusty floor, narrowly missing some shards of glass. Lexi's about to laugh and mock her clumsiness when the front door slams shut, causing the entire cottage to shudder. She meets Caroline's eyes once more as a loud rumble sounds, the entire room around them shaking. They simultaneously glance towards the ceiling as the rumbling gets louder. Is that from the sky? Caroline wonders, her train of through broken as the floorboards beneath her feet start to wobble violently, lifting up at the joins as a bright green light glows from beneath them.
Matt moves forward, helping Katherine pull a shaking Bonnie up from the ground, their faces pale and terrified as they dust her off. Lexi suddenly grabs onto Caroline's arm, lifting her up from the ground. Caroline hadn't noticed she was almost on her knees, every ounce of strength seemingly gone from her body.
"What the hell's going on?!" Caroline yells over the sounds of what she can only assume is the dead being dragged up from hell. The sound of cackles and screams echo loudly through the room, hurting Caroline's ears and before she knows what's going on, the entire floor rises, knocking them all to the ground. The rumbling, cackles and screams suddenly stop, the floorboards stop moving and the entire room is plunged into pitch-black silence.
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