Witch Trials

Quite a lot of you voted on which ending you would like, read on and find out, as you may have noticed, I got rid of a half a chapter, hope you're not too confused.

Chapter Thirteen – The truth in the end

Clouds were gathering and rain fell freely to mourn upon the depressing scene. "Kori!" cried Raven running towards the figure by Richard's feet, she knelt down on the wet grass and bent over the girl with her hands poised. She paused, she didn't know what to do. It was all too sudden. Richard took action and pushed her hard. She skidded on the earth and bashed her shoulder against the stake. She groaned and sat up again with Kori by her side.

"What did you do?" demanded Garfield. He stepped in between the two girls and Richard and protectively held his arms out at full length. Victor soon joined him.

"She deserved it! And if you were to resurrect her, I'd be happy to kill her off again!" shouted Richard.

"What the heck did you do that for?" screamed Raven as she checked Kori's pulse. There was a slight beat but it was fading fast.

"I did what I had to do! I did what any good man would have done! I did exactly what she did to my parents! And her own," he screamed into the night.

"She killed no man!" argued Raven, by now, Victor and Garfield stepped aside a bit to let Raven and Richard see each other. In Richard they saw pure hatred within his cloudy eyes and anguish and revenge scrawled into his features. In Raven- Garfield and Victor saw sorrow, regret and distress along with abhorrence and revulsion. While Richard saw nothing but a gullible fool. Coincidently, that was all Raven saw in Richard.

"She killed two. As well as two women, and who knows how many more! If she had the time and opportunity, she'd have killed me too!" yelled Richard, his voice was getting hard to control and was cracking up, but was not weak or tiring. He did not notice but his heart ached and wept. It was heavy and raw.

"Who told you that?" asked Victor.

"It does not need to be told to be true."

Raven held Kori on her lap and looked at her deep wound implanted directly to the chest. She should have been dead within five minutes. Reaching out to her wound, Raven summoned up all of her powers to tend to the broken heart. Slowly and steadily, the stab mark was healing and the tissue renewing itself. Richard noticed what she was doing and ran towards her, Victor and Garfield made to stop him but he forward jumped over the two of them and made a perfect landing in front of Raven. Raven did not look up but she knew he was there. "Stand back!" she yelled.

"Don't you dare heal her, she deserves death and you resurrecting her will only bring about a second experience of death. Do you want her to suffer more than she had under guilt of murder?" asked Richard.

"What did she do to deserve death? What could she have possibly done to lead her to such agony?" asked Raven tears streaming down her cheeks as she finally looked up to look Richard in the face. His face remained spiteful and hard.

"She killed both my parents and her own, who wouldn't deserve death for such vile actions?"

"Dude, you are really messed up!" shouted Garfield regaining balance and turning towards Richard.

"She caused suffering to the point at which she begged to end her life. Me, being the merciful person I am, granted it. Hardly a messed up person to my opinion," spoke Richard.

Raven tended to healing the rest of the wound while Richard shouted more at the two men. Richard saw what she was doing but did not stop her. "It won't work you know," he spoke calmly and breathed deeply to regain his temper. There was silence. The wound was nearly healed to the point where only a scar remained but despite Raven pouring all of her effort and power into healing, Kori did not wake.

"Why won't she heal?" demanded Raven.

"Because her injuries are more than physical."

Raven understood. "What do you mean?" she asked acting confused, "and why did you do this to her?" she snapped staring out at him.

"Her injuries lie in her heart, she died of heartbreak not of the pain."

Raven stared at Kori and whispered just loud enough to hear, "She loved you."

"I loved her. She did not return the favour," Richard commented.

"She told me. When she thought the vicar would kill her. She told me everything," lied Raven. Richard just stared point blank at her, "Word for word, she said, 'I hope I live through this trial so I can talk to Richard again. I know that he has not been acting at all tactful lately but I trust him to do the right thing in the end,' she loved you. You broke her trust. You broke her heart."

Richard stared at her, he couldn't believe what she just said, tears were edging towards the rim of his eyes. He tried to hold them back, "What can I do?"

"The typical fairy tale ending. That always finishes of the story nicely."

---WT---

Little did the group know, someone had been watching them, from the moment the dagger entered Kori's heart. That very moment, that someone got the outcome they had hoped for. That someone was the vicar. Not only would a meddling nuisance of a girl be put out of the picture, but all of her powers would go to him.

But the other girl, Raven, was getting in the way. She was turning Richard to her side, to resurrect Kori. That would ruin months of planning, the vicar wouldn't have that. Using his newly found power of flight, he hovered over towards the hill and looked down at the scene. Richard was bent over Kori about to finish the story with a happy ending. "STOP! Boy, step back. The girl is mine!" he shouted, he startled everyone as they looked up at the cloudy night sky at the figure obscuring it. "Hand her over to me and you all shall be spared."

"You, you shouldn't be here. We're not going to give her up to you!" shouted Richard, he was shocked but he could see this coming before. Anyone could tell that the vicar wasn't a nice guy.

"I beg to differ. If I have to pull her from your cold dead grasp, I will! Or will you simply hand her over to me and live?" offered the vicar. He didn't wait for an answer. He swooped down on them and poised his hands for attack. Out of his fingers danced balls of shining green light, only one hit it's target, Victor. He was sent flying backwards down hill and was knocked out on impact. Garfield shouted his name and made to run to him when a starbolt just barely shot past him.

"You're a wizard?" Raven gasped loudly, "You malevolent hypocrite!"

"Why, not at all, my fair Raven. You see, I killed witches before I had the power I now possess. Nothing hypocritical about it," stated the vicar before he swooped upon Raven and aimed several starbolts.

Just as they were about to make impact, Raven flew off the ground and into the air, "But you see, you're not the only one who can fly." From behind the vicar, Garfield transformed into a hawk, "You had the wrong witch."

"Oh, I don't think so," the vicar spoke trying not to act surprised.

Richard was staring at the sight from below, if he had any common sense, he'd have done what he had to do while everyone was in the air but typically, he just watched from below.

Raven acted fast and enclosed the vicar in a bubble of ebony magic. "Richard, do it, NOW!" she shouted down. Richard hesitated, he wanted to see what they would do to the vicar.

The vicar threw a starbolt but it bounced off the side and into his side. He groaned and then stretched out his arms and legs and using his super strength, he broke the enclosure. Raven wanted answers, "How did you get the powers if you never had them before?"

"You will die before I tell you anything."

"That can be arranged," stated Garfield darkly, "Hang on, back track, can you repeat what you just said while I think up a come back?" squawked a Garfield in a parrot's body.

The vicar lunged towards the parrot and threw him down towards the hill.

Raven threw the vicar aside with a swipe of her powers but he got control back and flew higher up. She looked up at him as he loaded a starbolt to the size of a basketball. With a strong, sudden movement, the bolt came hurtling towards Raven. She was unconscious before she hit the ground.

The vicar landed a few feet away from Richard, "Had enough of the show?"

"I can't believe I trusted you," Richard coldly spat at the vicar. He unexpectedly jumped to the ground and delivered a swinging kick and got back in one smooth, fluid motion. He looked down as the vicar slowly regained awareness and chose that time to make his move.

Richard romantically swooned down by Kori's now completely lifeless body and gave her a gentle but quick kiss on her soft lips. He broke the kiss and looked down at her eyes and was happy to see her looking back into his. They stayed there looking at each other and then hugged and unintentionally rolled over together down half the hill giggling and grinning as they went.

Raven, Garfield and Victor chose that time to regain consciousness and they surrounded the vicar who was frantically trying to fly away but failing and getting snickers and smirks from the two boys. Raven just stared. Richard and Kori came to them and everyone hugged Kori.

Without warning, a pillar of fire appeared behind the vicar. Everyone shielded their eyes except the vicar who wear a look of dread and tiredness. Black eyes materialised in the midst of the flame. A voice spoke in a deep, commanding, familiar voice, "You have failed me. Leave me forever, you are not to look for me again." And as quickly as it came, it was gone. The vicar hung his head in shame.

"Who was that?" demanded Raven.

"I will not tell."

Raven raised one hand and summoned a flicker of black, "need I ask again?"

"That… was Trigon," Raven gasped.

"My father?" she paused, "tell me everything."

The vicar sighed but looking back at her hand, it was best not to argue. "I was ordered to harvest the magic of a young witch. I searched for years but could not find one."

"And if you refused?"

"I would be immediately killed. I could not find one, that is until her," he pointed at Kori. Everyone was shocked.

"Friends, I have not been truly honest with you. He is right. I am a witch, well, rather an alien. From a distant world, everyone there has these powers," she raised one hand and it glowed fluorescent green, she shut her fist and it vanished. Everyone's expressions grew more understanding as they acknowledged the facts.

"Did you... kill your parents? And mine?" asked Richard unsurely.

"What? No! I would never," replied Kori.

Everyone looked over at the vicar, no words needed to be said. He wasa vicious evil man. That was enough.

"But, that night. We heard a scream, we thought it was you, if you were tied up way over here then who screamed?" asked Victor.

"That was me also, I have a power to communicate to people while I sleep. I sent you dreams to tell each other you have your own powers."

"But how did you know about our powers?" asked Garfield.

"A blind person could tell from afar that there was something suspicious going on and a only a person who can watch other people's dreams can put two and two together. Now Richard, I must ask you. When I died, I looked down at you from above and saw you. Did you really love me?"

"I still do," Richard and Kori kissed passionately in each other's arms. Meanwhile, Raven levitated the vicar off the ground as he squirmed into an uncomfortable position.

Raven interrupted the mellow silence, "They need to forget," she said looking down at the village.

"Forget what?" asked Victor.

"I they think Kori's dead, it might seem a little strange to see her strutting around in her body. This should make them forget everything about witches. It would do them good to see some common sense."

She waved he arms around and chanted, she did it over and over and her expression grew more and more blank. As she muttered the last word, a blast of black echoed through the village and she blanked out and fell over. Into Garfield's arms. He started walking home bridal style and Richard looked over at Kori who giggled, Richard grabbed Kori and held her in a similar fashion. Victor walked at the back with the vicar in his grasp. They would deal with him later. For now, they would just enjoy their lives exactly how they are, in secrecy and suspicion from the rest of the village. Perfect.

The End