Chapter 13: Wrapping Things Up
The Witch, after taking a few deep breaths, demanded to see Cape Breton's wound. The teenager had his rifle pointed close to her head as PEI helped Cape Breton over to the bound woman. Keeping one eye on her, the Islander carefully unwrapped Cape Breton's bloody and paler-than-usual arm. The witch then muttered something under her breath for a few minutes, then squished her lips together and spit on the Caper's wound. All three men couldn't help but grimace at the action.
"There." She rasped out bitterly. "I stopped the curse. He should be fine now, 'specially with his power." She stared down at the wound, which already appeared to be healing.
Both Islanders exhaled in relief, Cape Breton relaxing now that he didn't have to exhaust more energy fighting off the bewitchment. The teenager, however, still kept his gun on her.
"J'uno ye can take tha gun offa her." PEI told him, eyeing the rifle nervously. "She looks loike she's gonna collapse soon."
"I wanna know why you're after Renée." The teen demanded to the Witch, ignoring PEI's statement.
"Renée pissed 'er off, so she started stalkin' her as a werewolf 'r somethin'." The Islander responded before the woman could speak up. The tanned youth hummed at the answer in thought.
"What'll ya do after we release ya?"
"I'll probably go after her again after healin' up." The Witch responded boldly, glaring up at the adolescent, who in turn scowled right back, frown deepening and finger appearing to almost touch the trigger. Cape Breton sucked in a breath, while PEI's eyes widened.
"Wait!" PEI left his brother's side to stand almost in between the Witch and the teen. "Jus' let me try somethin', awroite?" The teen gave him a suspicious look, but slowly nodded after a moment, his grip on the rifle relaxing, but only a little. The Islander knelt down beside the Witch, one hand on her knee and the other on her head, holding her in place.
"... What're ya gonna do?" The adolescent asked, glancing over the Islander's back, only for Cape Breton to shush him.
'I wish I knew...' The Witch thought. Despite her haughty statement before, she was now terrified: Here she was, somewhere in the middle of a swamp, miles away from any neighbourhood, exhausted and injured, alone with three mysterious men, tied up and stark naked! What was worse, the same guy who she had threatened earlier was leaning over her, staring at her intensely, and she was completely helpless! 'What happened before... Oh god, is he gunna take his revenge for that!? What do I do? WHAT DO I DO!? Please, NO!' Her jaw tightened, eyes fighting back tears, and fingernails digging into her palms. She could still feel the pain from when he punched her, he had more than enough strength to do whatever he wanted to her. The Witch tried to glare back at the young redhead, as well as hold in the tears and lump currently forming in her throat. It was too bad in a sense, despite looking more then a decade younger than herself, he was quite handsome... bright red hair with a bit of curl, healthy, flawless skin, and beautiful, bright green eyes, like looking at a sunny meadow... She didn't look away...
... Or better say, she couldn't...
... Couldn't feel anything...
... Couldn't hear anything... Smell anything...
... Couldn't see anything... Except for those big, glowing, hypnotic, green eyes...
~ Meanwhile ~
PEI was apathetically watching a screen that showed his own glowing green eyes staring back at him. Turning to the camera beside him - an old thing from the 1940s that he still remembered how to work - the Islander stopped the machine, which paused the film. He then tinkered with it, and soon made it to start playing backwards. When it seemed to be rewinding too slow for his liking, he rested a glowing green hand on the old camera, which made the film - the woman's memories - backtrack faster.
The moment he saw Louisiana's face, he paused the screen and let it play for a few seconds. Through the woman's monochromatic vision, he saw Louisiana, as well as himself, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton.
'So this 'Brunswick' guy is somewhere in the swamp...' The Witch's voice - her thoughts at that time - growled out in the void, causing PEI to glance around the darkness with mild interest. The sound of Louisiana's voice and gunshots brought his attention back to the screen. Louisiana just tried to shoot the Witch, but missed, and now PEI watched as the screen turned into a blur of flora.
"Still too far..." The Islander mumbled to himself, pausing the memory-film and rewinding the footage. He stopped it a few more times whenever he caught a glimpse of Louisiana's face, only to rewind it more when it didn't seem like the memory he wanted.
Eventually, he found it: The first time Louisiana and the Witch, who's name appeared to be Simone, met. The screen was in colour, meaning Simone was in human form, and she looked to be at a fancy restaurant. PEI watched as the drama unfolded: Apparently some guy invited her on a date. However, it turned out that he was cheating on her with Louisiana, and that the man mixed up the dates between the two ('Idiot' PEI thought). At first Simone and the man started arguing, and it looked like Louisiana was going to stand up for her... Until Simone began insulting Louisiana. What happened after was a whirlwind of a cat-fight and rather colourful language, until it appeared the three got kicked out of the restaurant. The void echoed with her cussing swearing vengeance on the both Louisiana and the man.
"Oi swear, there're no fockin' sane people in this world no more." He stated, shaking his head as he stopped the memory-film, feeling a mixture of disgust for the man, loathing for the horribly clichéd, sitcom-like but violent memory, and some sympathy for Simone. Of course, the memory still didn't fully justify stalking someone as a werewolf, let alone with the intention of turning them into one.
PEI started rewinding it again, slower this time. Pausing the memory-film seconds before entering the restaurant, PEI then took out the memory-footage. Finding the part of the film he last saw, he made his hand glow a bright green... And ran it across the footage, from that point until he saw his green eyes staring back at him. Every part that his hand touched, the footage turned completely black. The Islander looked over his work before rolling up the memory-footage and setting it back into the camera, then pressed play. PEI watched as the Simone's vision went from seeing the restaurant in the sunset to black. Sighing approvingly at his work, he watched the screen and camera fade, momentarily leaving him alone in the dark void.
~ Back in the Real world ~
"... So, he's basically messin' around wit her memory..." The teenager thought out loud, standing beside Cape Breton.
"Dat's aboat it." The Caper replied. While PEI was wandering in the woman's memories, Cape Breton was able to convince the teen to put down his gun and explain what the younger Maritimer was doing. To the uninformed, it appeared as though the Islander and the woman were having a staring contest, both looking into each other's eyes without blinking. A second later however, both parties blinked. PEI let go of Simone's head and stood up, stretching his legs. Simone on the other hand slumped down, figure still.
"Awroite." He breathed. "Oi blocked tha mem'ry, tha one where she an' Louisiana fought." He looked down at Simone with a rare, unreadable expression. "...She's jus' knocked out fer now..." Unpinning a broach of a purple crown from his shirt and taking off the dirty bandanna from around his neck, PEI lifted his white T-shirt off his back.
"Waddaya doin, Bute?" One of Cape Breton's think eyebrows arched up in puzzlement.
"We can't jus' leave 'er out here." The younger Island stated matter-of-factly, untying her and putting the shirt on her, paying mind to her bandaged arm. He then squatted down, picking her up. "Oi mean, who knows what's out here." Carrying Simone bridal-style, PEI steadied himself before taking a few steps.
"So, where to?" His eyes laid on the teenager expectantly, who looked at him for a moment before pointing behind him.
"... Dat way, 'Beaut'." The Teen answered, giving him a lopsided smile at the use of the strange nickname.
"Thanks... An' don't call me that." PEI's eyes narrowed for a second before walking past the adolescent, who looked behind him, slightly confused - and a little anxious - from the stare.
"Den... Is PEI okay? Or d'you prefer 'Eddy'?" The Islander neck snapped back at him in shock. Cape Breton gave a chuckle as he walked up to them.
"S'awrite, da by'es ona us." PEI blinked in surprise at the explanation, looking the teen over. It didn't seem common to find one of their kind as younger than him, even on this side of the planet.
"Call me Cajun." The teen, or Cajun, nodded to the Islander before leading them through the swampy forest, which seemed less threatening thanks to the thinning fog.
Now they just had to worry about the mosquitoes.
~ In another part of the forest ~
Nova Scotia cautiously walked around the swamp, keeping to the route she, New Brunswick, and Louisiana had traveled through not long ago as closely as possible. She listened around for anything and kept her eyes opened, expecting anything to jump out at her...
... Anything but Ontario and Quebec...
"What are you doing here!?" Both women asked each other in surprise. Quebec eyed the two with mild boredom, although now relieved that he had someone else than Ontario to be stuck with, even if Nova Scotia would deliberately annoy him. Still, he hoped Cajun was having better luck than himself since they got separated earlier on.
"I'm lookin' fer my bros!" Nova Scotia answered. "They're still lost in this here swamp."
"Does that mean New Brunswick is still out here?" Ontario questioned, waving away the mosquitoes buzzing around her.
"No. WE found him, an' he's back with Louisiana, safe and sound." Nova Scotia replied smugly, before remembering that she would have to call New Brunswick to hear if the Witch was being taken care of. Then again, why didn't she just call Cape Breton? Right: Because he was still in danger, he got bitten... The Bluenoser glared at a random tree behind Ontario. If she was with them, that might not have happened!
"... Oh..." Ontario said after a moment's pause, but quickly regained composure. "... Well then, it's good that he is safe, but that means that Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, Mr. America and Canada are still lost in this forest, and I won't stop until I know everyone of them is fine." She crossed her arms, giving Nova Scotia a level stare. "So... Will you help me find them?"
"I'll letju help ME find'em." Nova Scotia said, defiantly matching her stare. "Afta a quick phone call." Ontario's eye twitched in irritation as the Bluenoser punched a number in her phone.
"Salut, Scotia..." New Brunswick answered from the other line in his usual quiet tone.
"Hey Brunswick. What's goin on so far?"
"... Breton got bit... But it seems they captured th'Witch an' made a deal with her. I also jus' got a call from Breton: He said he got cured, Eddy wiped her mem'ry, an' now Cajuns leadin'em back here."
"... Who's Cajun?" Nova Scotia asked, not noticing Quebec perked up upon hearing his friend's name.
"A friend. He represents th'French folks down 'ere... What's goin' on wiju?"
"... I'm with Ontario an' Quebec... No, I dunno how 'r why he's down here eitha. Anyway, Canada and America are somewhares in tha swamp, too, so I'll be out here fer a little while. Okay?" She waited fer New Brunswick's answer.
"... I was thinkin'... I wonder if I could jus' use the flare gun Louisiana gave t'me. It still looks foggy out there... She said I could..."
"Yeah, you do tha'." Nova Scotia said. "It would make everythin' easia." Her group would have a better time finding Louisiana's house, as well.
"D'accord. Adieu."
"Adieu." Nova Scotia smiled, closing the phone. "So!" The two western Provinces looked at her expectantly. "I jus' spoke with Brunswick. He's gunna light a flare, so hopefully everyone'll come back ta Louisiana's house." She was still curious as to why he came all the way down here, but figured that could wait until everyone was together. Unknown to her, he was wondering the same thing.
~ Thus another part of the forest ~
"Still can't see anything!" America called down to Canada from the tree. The Canadian nodded, rather crestfallen at the situation. They still hadn't found any sign of Louisiana nor his Provinces, and were still lost in the foggy swamp grounds. America climbed down from the tree while Canada shoved his hands in his pockets and waited for him. His fingers curled around his cell phone and slowly took it out, staring down at it. He tried using it earlier, but for some reason the signal was disrupted.
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try again..." He sighed, opening the phone and turning it on. To his surprise, he saw that there were several bars on the clear screen! His pone was working again! "America! My phone is working! I'm gonna call Ontario!"
[A/N- Back again. I hope everyone had a good March Break. Thanks to a strike earlier in January, mine was sort of... Cut short. But that's not important.
After talking with The Dangerous One, we agreed that she had become too busy to Beta MariMay anymore. It was nice while it lasted, I'd like to think my writing had improved thanks to her. I think I'm just gonna go without one for a little while, see what happens...
And finally, we can hopefully get back to the main plot of this story. My only regret for this chapter was not giving Nova Scotia much action... I wonder if I could do something about that for my next chapter...
Anyway, thanks again everyone for still being interested in MariMay, and don't forget to leave a review or critique.]