A/N: I'm so sorry it's been so long since last I updated! It'll be at least another week before I post again. My subscription to Microsoft Office ends today and I can't renew it until Tuesday. I also apologize for the shortness of this chapter. It was written after twenty hours sans sleep with the help of a pot of coffee. It's about six-hundred words less than my usual. Hopefully, the intensity of it will make up for its briefness. I'll be back. I haven't abandoned this story, I promise.

XX

Nona's already furiously pounding heart sped up as a poorly constructed noose was placed around her neck. A proper hanging, with an accurately built noose, would break the victim's neck instantly, painlessly. Nona knew that the piss poor job they'd done coiling the rope would result in her slowly choking to death. With a renewed vigor, her tongue poked at the duct tape and her jaw attempted to stretch. If she could just free her lips she could send them all flying into the nearby lake and make her escape. Jeff moved her hair out of the way. His touch was sickeningly gentle and there was a shadow of guilt darkening his moss-green eyes. "I'm sorry." He whispered so that his prospective brothers wouldn't hear him. They wouldn't have even if he'd spoken at full volume. They were laughing obnoxiously at a crude, racist joke and tying the other end of the noose to the bumper of the car. The rope was laced over a thick tree branch. As the car would roll forward, she'd be strung up. It was a good old fashioned lynching. Nona suspected, judging by the burning looks the other two boys occasionally sent her way, that Jeff's presence was the only thing keeping her safe from sexual assault.

His hushed words caused her blood to boil, and when he came back around to face her, she headbutted his face as hard as she possibly could. His nose cracked against her forehead and he tumbled backward, holding his shirt up to his nose to stop the flow of blood. "Fucking bitch!" Nona ducked down, removing the noose from her neck, and hopped away as best she could. Her ankles were still bound with duct tape, so she didn't make it far before the one who'd spit on her earlier noticed the commotion and tackled her to the ground.

"Seriously, Jeff? How'd you let- AH FUCK!" Before the boy had been able to tug her back up from the ground, Nona had used one of the hands tied behind her back to grab hold of his crotch firmly. Her long, red-painted nails were now painfully digging into his ball sack. "LET GO!" One of his hands tangled in her hair to pull viciously. Nona just grit her teeth through the pain and dug her nails in deeper. She was forced to let go, however, when her head was slammed into the ground.

The environment blurred around her as she was once more dragged by her hair the noose was again looped over her head. "Let's just get this over with," Jeff muttered bitterly. His voice was nasally and he avoided meeting Nona's currently disoriented gaze.

Everything came back into focus for her when the car started rolling slowly forward, dragging her. The rope tightened around her neck as she was forced onto her backside. She could feel the tape beginning to loosen around her mouth. Panic began to seep into every fiber of her being as her feet lifted off the ground and her airway was constricted further. There was a horrible fear that even if she did manage to get the tape off, she wouldn't have the oxygen required to spellcast. Still, she poked her tongue and stretched her jaw until finally, victoriously, the binding gave out and she could move her lips.

The car eventually stopped. The three boys watched in the rearview mirror as the caramel-skinned girl hung, motionless, from the tree. "She's… She's dead, right? She's not moving. Oh God." The sick feeling in Jeff's stomach grew, overpowering the ache of his shattered nose.

Brad Vickers stepped out of the car and lit a cigarette. "Dead or unconscious. Help me tie this around the base of the tree. Go on, grab right there."

Jeff and Peter Clark stepped out of the car to obey Brad's order. Peter took hold of the rope so that Nona would remain hanging while Brad untied it from the bumper. Meanwhile, Jeff hesitantly approached the hung girl.

"…?"

Was he seeing things? It almost looked like her dead eyes were staring right into his soul. And then he noticed that the rope wasn't digging into her neck. And then she blinked. "Oh fuck… OH FUCK!"

His outburst made Peter and Brad stop what they were doing, dropping the rope in surprise. Brad's cigarette fell from his mouth as his jaw slackened. The surprise evolved into sheer terror when the girl they believed dead didn't immediately drop to the ground. Instead, she continued to float in the air without any help, defying the laws of gravity. With a guttural cry, her arms and legs wrenched out to her sides and the duct tape that had kept her constrained fell to the ground in scraps. Jeff stumbled backward toward his frozen comrades. The scorned witch pointed a finger forward, toward the abandoned cigarette on the ground, and spoke.

"In the mortal plain,

Cause me no pain,

Save your face,

Meet the flame,"

Before the three could begin to know what was happening, the insignificant glowing ember at their feet roared to life. It burned a perfect circle in the tall grass, trapping them.

"So mote it be."

With ethereal grace, Nona floated to the ground, removing her noose as she went. This is how Lydia, Betelgeuse, and Luna found her.

"NONA!" Lydia broke into a desperate run as soon as she spotted the flames through the thicket. She practically tackled her friend, wrapping her arms tight around the girl. "I didn't think we'd find you in time!" The goth pulled away and Nona saw that there were fat tears rolling down her face. Lydia stroked her curly hair, looking her up and down for any signs of injury. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you? Did-Did they...?" She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

Nona laughed out loud and then did something that she would never have done, not without the help of a little liquid courage, anyway. She pressed her lips firmly against Lydia's. The dark-haired girl's eyes widened, but she didn't pull away. When Nona broke the kiss, with a resounding smack, she broke into hysterical giggles and fell backward against the tree that was almost her final resting place. "I'm ALIVE!"

Lydia rose a trembling hand to her lips, which still hummed from Nona's warmth. It was then that she noticed the noose on the ground. Her horrified honey eyes followed the rope up and over the branch all the way to the circle of fire that still trapped the panicking frat boys. "They were going to hang you?" Disgust furled in her gut. Nona just nodded her head, incapable of speech, her mad laughter doubling in volume.

Betelgeuse was approaching at a more leisurely pace, Luna a few feet in front of him. He ignored the women in favor of investigating the culprits. They screamed in fear as the flames licked at their skin, making them sweat bullets. It didn't take him more than a few moments to piece together the scene. Nona was clearly in shock after her narrow escape. "Hey! Beyoncé!"

She turned her head toward him and gasped for breath before replying. "Carcass!"

"Wanna, y'know, have a lil' fun with em' before I get em' out o' here?"

"You know what?" She ran a hand down her grinning face and sucked in a glorious breath of air. "I'm good. You can have them."

"If you say so." With that, the boys and the flame withered out of existence. Whistling, Betelgeuse began searching the car and was pleased to discover all of the stolen items. They, too, were banished from sight along with the vehicle and the noose. Any stranger walking by- though who would be traipsing this deep in the woods this late at night other than them is an utter mystery- would only see a goth, a Brit, and their kitten taking an innocent stroll through the forest.