I am on a roll everyone! This is like..my fourth, fifth chapter. Wheee! Heh.

Disclaimer: Me no own anybody except Jaelyn...she is mine!


Chapter Fifteen

"Alright, what's the big emergency?" Botan flies up on her oar, looking worried.

"They've been kidnapped." Hiei says shortly, jumping further ahead.

"W-what?" Botan flies to catch up with Hiei. "When did this happen?"

"Don't talk to me, onna."

"But..."

Hiei ignores her, speeding up. Botan sighs, slipping back to fly next to Kurama. She gestures for him to get on and he oblidges, very thankful for the break. His sanguine locks fly behind him and his eyes are deadly serious. It's like a graveyard here...I just hope we can find them before anything too bad happens...

With the Destinies

"Rise and shine, my little ones!" Jaelyn calls, opening the dungeoun door. "Time to wake and eat!"

The Destinies glare as she descends the stairs, balancing four plates on her hands and arms. "We weren't sleeping."

"I just thought you would be hungry, so I brought you down some food."

The Destinies look warily at the plates she sets in front of them, but as the smell wafts up to their noses they realize that they are indeed very hungry and begin to eat. Jaelyn moves back up the stairs and out of the dungeoun. She leaves the door open, to the Destinies amazement. When she feels their eyes on her, Jaelyn turns.

"When you've finished, come and find me. I'll be in the tower."

She leaves. Olivia grabs her plate and hurries up the stairs, eating as she goes, "You guys coming?"

Vanessa laughs and grabs her plate, scrambling up the stairs as well. Meagan and Nissi soon follow suit. They eat fast, knowing that they could easily see something disgusting in a castle like this. But for a long time they don't see anything. The four walk down what seems to be a long, empty hallway. The beige paint is chipping off the walls, and dead bugs litter the floor. Vanessa recoils as she steps on a particularly large cockroach, which was not dead.

"That's just...wrong."

Soon they come to two different staircases, one with black stairs and one with white stairs. Meagan and Olivia walk through the first one, but as Nissi tries to go through, something pushes her back. A barrier. Nissi gives Vanessa a what-can-we-do? look, and begins walking up the staircase with white stairs. Before long the stairs begin to twist and turn, until they are in fact walking upside down.

"This would be so cool if we weren't in an evil witche's lair," Vanessa grins.

"True."

In their own staircase, Olivia and Meagan are faring the same fate. They are walking so close together that one could think they are conjoined at the hip. Their stairs keep moving, or suddenly a step will disappear, leaving them screaming as their feet fall through the air. But suddenly, they look back and notice that Nissi and Vanessa aren't with them. Probably took the other staircase...the two think, moving closer. A doorway comes into view, and Meagan and Olivia run to it happily. They wrench it open and run to the other side, looking into the happy faces of Vanessa and Nissi.

"There you are!" Olivia exclaims, looking relieved in such a way that words can't describe.

"So happy you could join me, ladies."

The Destinies spin, only to see Jaelyn floating in the air. From her hand swings a long leather whip. A smirk slides onto Jaelyn's face as she sees fear in her prisoner's eyes. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this."

"If you plan on killing us," Nissi speaks up, shaking, "then you should at least tell us why. Please remember that we are clueless."

A look of surprise crosses Jaelyn's face, "I suppose that would only be fair. Very well, here I go:

"I knew your mothers. The four of them took me into their group when no one else would. I was an outcast, you see, shunned by the other girls because of my family practices. We were practicers of herbal medicine, and the other girls resented me. I had no idea why they thought this way--perhaps it was just because I was prettier than them and they didn't want to admit it. So they blamed their hatred for me on my family traditions. Heh. I was very depressed at this time, always wanting to hurt myself. Your mothers put a stop to that. They took me in, became my friend, and showed me a better part of life--a part I had not known since I moved to that city.

"But when we turned fifteen, and your mothers revealed to me that they had special powers, I wanted some too. But this was one thing, it seemed, that I would have to be left out of. After school, they would always go off to some deserted place to train. I never knew where this area was, but I truly wanted to find out. So I followed them one day. They caught me, and were furious that I had betrayed their wishes. They disowned me, leaving me once again to fend for myself. I became the laughingstock of the school as they soon found I was alone and. But I found a way to get back at them, in a book of dark arts. I became the ice-witch I am now, and planned my revenge on each of them.

"Your mother," Jaelyn continues, pointing at Vanessa, "was first. It was easy. She had someone she loved very much, and I broke them up. Oh it was so easy to spread a rumor that she had been cheating on him, casting a few illusions showing her with several others. Heh. The fool fell for it, and left her. It took the rest of your mothers a long time to pull her out of that depression. She attempted suicide a few times, but sadly never came close enough to actually hurt herself.

"And your mother," she points at Nissi, "was next. She was always so concerned with her grades, so she was yet another easy one. All I had to do was destroy her grade point average. If not for me, your mother would have been valedictorian for her year. Gone to a high-class college, lived happily-ever-after, yada yada yada. But I had to meddle, ruining her dreams.

"Your mother," now indicating Olivia, "was much harder. She didn't have a boyfriend, she didn't care enough about her grades for me to ruin them, and her writing could always be rewritten. To hurt your mother, I had to hurt her friends. Oh, that worked wonderfully well. All I had to do was pull your mother (pointing to Nissi) into an alleyway and work my dark magic upon her. When she arrived at your mother's doorstep, the look on your mothers face was beautiful. A look of pure horror, that it was. She couldn't function right for the next two months.

"And your mother, lastly--Meagan, I think--was the hardest. I couldn't hurt her at all. Emotionally, physically, powerly. So I had to hurt you instead. I placed upon her a seal that she would pass down to you, sealing your powers inside you. Been wondering why you can't do anything useful? There's your answer. Oh, and get this. It can only be broken by loves first kiss. That's why I placed this particular curse on your mother--she never was one to date, and I figured you'd be the same. And I was right, wasn't I? I understand you dumped one guys shoe into a toilet?"

Jaelyn leaves the Destinies stunned and speechless. She takes a deep breath before continuing, "But it wasn't enough. Despite all that I did to them, they mantained their friendship and themselves, and each grew to have you four eventually. So I knew that I would have to break up your families. So I waited, here in my castle, for thirteen years. Until the one fateful day when you all had a field-trip for your school. That's when I came in and took them. I took your parents and brought them here, torturing them to death. I left your mother (indicating Olivia) last, as I knew it would hurt her most to see the others die before her. Then I slaughtered her with one blow. You can still see the blood stains. See? You're standing on them!"

Olivia recoils as she glances down and sees the deep red stains on the stone floor. She begins shaking, stepping back slowly. She continues stepping back until she hits something behind her.

"Hn. Stop shaking onna."

The Destinies turn, seeing Hiei and the others standing in the doorway. Olivia stops shaking and nods at him as she gestures for her friends to come closer. "Meagan you'd better kiss somebody quick because I don't think we'll be able to do this alone."

Meagan blushes, "I-I'm not kissing anybody."

"I agree with her," Jaelyn studies her fingernails. "You lot will be doing nothing but dying. So FAREWELL!"
Jaelyn shoots up into the air, coming down fast. The battle begins.


Cliffhanger! Hahaha. That part about Meagan kissing someone to undo the seal...that was an impromtu decision. Tomorrow starts the beginning of Spirit Week for our school. We're earning points for the end-of-school celebration: Dragon Day! Tomorrow is pajama day, and Friday will be twin day. I'm going to be a twin with Meagan, Nissi, and Vanessa and Meagan will be twined with me, Vanessa, and Nissi, and you know how it goes. Heh. Top it off, Friday is our anime night (we're watching Furuba) so we'll be walking around like quadruplets for the whole day. Heh. I hope to be finished with this story by the end of next week, at the very latest. I'm soo happy! I'm actually going to finish a story! YAY FOR ME! But I couldn't have done it without you guys! Maybe I'll reach 100 reviews...that's my dream at the moment. And looking back...the title has nothing to do with the chapter, but I like it anyways. Ja ne!