2:03 PM
Thorn smiled. "Thanks, Luna, I knew you'd unders-" Thorn's smile vanished as she smelled the disgusting scent of rotten eggs. Her heart raced, and her body became tense. It's here. She looked around, hoping to catch the cloaked figure, but she couldn't find him. Maybe she imagined it. "Do you smell it?"
Luna sniffed the air, and her eyes grew wide. "Rotten eggs"
The two girls exchanged anxious glances as Thorn felt a chill run down her spine. There was something else in the room with them, and Thorn was certain that it was the killer. She slowly turned her head and faced the door.
Thorn gasped, and Luna shouted as a large centipede-like creature clung to the top of the doorframe, hissing and bearing a pair of spider-like fangs at them. The creature jumped off the doorframe and skidded across the floor toward them. Thorn felt the carpet leave her hands, and Luna raised it above them like a shield. Thorn gasped when she saw the fangs pierce the carpet mere inches from Luna's face. The fangs withdrew, and Thorn heard the creature drop to the floor.
Thorn raised her arm and took a step back, not sure what the creature would do next or where it was as Luna blocked her view of it with the carpet. She heard its legs clattering against the floor before spotting its gruesome head as it scurried around Luna, causing Thorn to gasp.
"Where'd it go? Ahh!"
Luna!" Thorn reached her hand out to grab her friend, but it was a futile effort. Her heart seemed to stop, and time itself appeared to come to a standstill. She could do nothing but watch Luna fall into the darkness screaming, dragging the carpet down with her. Thorn stared teary-eyed into the basement, trying to come to terms with what just happened. "Kim..." Thorn whimpered. "Kim…"
A loud hiss brought her attention back to the threat in the room. The creature pounced at her, hissing as it moved through the air. Thorn shouted and scrambled out of the way. While she avoided the attack, she ended up tripping over herself and fell to the ground. The creature landed by the hole and turned around, hissing before scurrying after her. Thorn tried to crawl away, but the creature was too quick. She screamed when the creature crawled onto her leg, and even with pants on, she felt the disgusting pin-like pricks of the creature's legs clamping onto her. She flailed her leg in an attempt to shake the creature off her, but the creature remained, raising its head and baring its fangs, ready to bite.
"GET OFF!" Thorn shouted, inadvertently thrusting her hand forward. She felt a sharp pain in her leg, followed by an immense force move above her. The creature shrieked as the force threw it off her, tossing the centipede monster into the air and sending it into the far wall.
Thorn gasped and scrambled to her feet, wincing in pain. She saw an expanding patch of red on her pant leg where it bit her. But the pain was fleeting, no more painful than a shot from the doctor. Why? She didn't know, perhaps it was something in the bite. Or maybe it was her magic that she sensed flowing through her, numbing the pain so she could keep fighting.
Whatever the case, her magic grew in power as she watched the centipede monster recover from its impact against the wall. The creature hissed and scurried toward her. She grunted, running to the back of the room where the desk and chair were. The creature quickly closed the distance between her and itself, and Thorn looked for something to attack it with. She glanced at the chair, and to her surprise, it hurled itself across the room. The creature quickly sidestepped the incoming chair, and the chair crashed into the far wall. It then jumped onto the wall, scurrying across the surface faster than before as it hissed in angry fury. It pounced at her.
"AHH!" Thorn screamed as she pointed at the creature, and a bolt of green energy fired from her hand. The centipede monster let out a blood-curdling shriek as the bolt split the creature in half before bursting it in a wet pop. The only thing left of the creature was a green and gray paste on the wall.
"Oh, shit!" Thorn gasped, desperate to catch her breath. She looked at her trembling her hand, then at the stained wall, and then back at her hand. She shook her head. Luna. She needed to check Luna. She tried walking over to the hole but grunted as a sharp pain shot up her leg. She let out a painful shout and leaned against one of the filing cabinets.
"Ugh," Thorn groaned as she steadied herself. Her vision blurred momentarily, but it returned to normal after shaking her head, though she felt a tad lightheaded. "Fuck, I hope that wasn't venomous," Thorn muttered. Of course, she had no way of knowing if it was, and all she could do was stop the bleeding and treat her injury. She pulled out some bandages and alcohol gauze from her purse and sat against the cabinet. She pulled her injured leg toward her and assessed her injury.
As expected, two discolored puncture wounds were just above her knee, though they were nowhere near as large as she expected them to be. She wiped the blood away and dabbed the wound with an alcohol gauze, causing her to grunt. The pain subsided a bit, and she took a clean bandage and wrapped it around her wound. She gritted her teeth and grunted as she tightened the bandage and finished treating her wound several minutes later. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do.
"Luna!" Thorn called out as she stood up. Her balance was still off, and her lightheadedness worsened, though the pain in her leg continued to recede. She paused for a few seconds to steady herself and then took a shaky step forward. Then another. Why is this taking so long? Ugh, that thing was venomous. It had to have been. She wiped her face and was taken back by how sweaty she was. Her breathing was rapid, and she stumbled toward the wall. She leaned against it, panting. Yup, there's venom. She grew tired and wanted nothing more than to sit down.
"Thorn."
"Luna?" Thorn replied with a smile. Despite the dizziness and exhaustion, she stumbled toward the hole. "Luna, is that you?"
Silence.
Thorn wasn't sure if she actually heard her name or if it was just her mind playing tricks on her. Regardless, she needed to find Luna, so she made her way to the hole in the floor. She peered into the basement. "Luna, are you oka-" Thorn raised her trembling hands to her face, muffling her terrified scream as everything came to a grinding halt, and reality itself seemed to shatter. She froze, stuttering incoherently between her rapid breaths, unable to take her teary eyes off the horrid sight below her. Nothing else mattered to her; not the ghost or the cloaked figure, and the treasure became meaningless. The Fallen and Broken didn't matter to her, and not even her own life mattered.
"K-Kim..."
Luna lay unmoving at the bottom as blood pooled around her head, her cold and empty gaze looking up at Thorn.
"Kim…I…" Thorn wrapped her arms around her trembling body as her unsteady whimpers grew into somber sobs. Tears ran down her face. "I-I'm…" She rocked back and forth, her head faint and mind lost. "I'm, I'm sorry. I-I should've protected you. That's all you wanted me to do." The words choked her as if they were stuck in the back of her throat. "Kim...I should've done more. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you." The words came out garbled from her sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Kim. It's my fault." She wanted to ask Luna to forgive her, but the guilt and heartache devoured her like a ravenous beast; she didn't deserve forgiveness. As a Wiccan, she didn't believe in hell, but at the moment, she felt she deserved a spot in the fire and brimstone. She failed the closest person to her because she was a scared and selfish fool who couldn't put aside her insecurities and do what she needed to do.
I could've stopped this from happening, but I didn't. It's my fault she's gone. Her sobs grew louder even as she buried her face in her arms. At any moment, Thorn felt like she would drift off into a cold and lonesome void without Luna as a tether; she not only was a voice of reason, but she understood Thorn's problems and knew how to fix them. Luna was the sister she never had, yet Thorn took her sister for granted, and now she was gone, just like so many others she cared about. It was another failure, and she lost a loved one for it.
"I'm sorry," Thorn repeated the phrase through muffled cries. It was all she could do, just sit there, rocking back and forth, and cry by the edge of the hole. A bit too close to the edge.
Despite her crying and the myriad of emotions she felt, Thorn was aware enough to hear a noise from the basement. People shouting or grunting. She raised her head, and the room seemed to spin. It was an involuntary reaction, a slight recoil from both her poor state of mind and her want to see what happened, but Thorn leaned forward. Too forward. She lost her balance and fell.
She didn't scream or shout. She saw no 'life flashing before one's eyes' or any other tricks of the mind. She simply closed her tear-filled eyes and sobbed. I'm sorry, Kim. I'm so sorry.
She hit the ground with a loud smack...and groaned. "Ow." She lay face-first on the cold concrete. She raised an arm and rubbed her head. "I'm... I'm not dead?" she gasped with a sniffle. She wasn't in any physical pain, and she couldn't exactly explain it, but her mind felt clearer. There was no dizziness or lightheadedness. Just clarity, like she woke up from a good nap.
Thorn grunted as she lifted her head off the ground and gasped. Luna's body was gone, and not even a trace of blood remained. Shaking her head, Thorn pushed herself up and got on her feet. She patted herself down, looking for injuries but there was nothing. At the very least, she should've broken her nose or had some bruising, yet she was fine.
"What the fuck?" Thorn groaned as she looked up. Without the table or the boxes, it must've been an easy ten, maybe fifteen-foot drop onto solid concrete. Sure, people can survive those kinds of falls, but she landed on her head when she hit the concrete; she should have some serious injuries at the very least. Yet here she was, brushing herself off, more confused than anything.
Without explanation, Thorn shrugged and turned her attention to the more important issue: finding Luna. She sighed as she wiped her eyes. She picked up her purse and looked around. The carpet Luna dragged down with her was crumpled next to her, and a quick examination of it revealed no blood. Thorn then noticed several crushed boxes, and many more looked like someone knocked them over or threw them. But just outside the light from the hole, Thorn saw a faint orange glow on the ground. She walked over to it and noticed the lingering scent of sage.
"They encountered the ghost," Thorn mumbled as she picked up the remains of the sage. Only Dusk and Brian had sage, so one of them came through here. They would've seen Luna, so perhaps one of them found her and given there was no blood, Luna must've survived the fall. Maybe she landed on something, or Dusk and Brian caught her as they were both nearby. But where were they? Did they have Luna? And where was the ghost? Did it get them? She had so many questions but no answers.
"Sally."
Thorn gasped and looked around. She saw nobody, but she knew what she heard. A voice said her name. Or rather, whispered it.
"Who's there?" Thorn asked. "Are you the ghost?"
She heard a whizzing sound and turned around. A blue-gray light hovered a few feet away from her.
"You're what led me to that room upstairs," Thorn said to the familiar light. "Why? What are you? What do you want from me?"
The light flickered and floated toward the far wall.
"Wait! Don't leave again!" Thorn yelled, and she followed the light through the narrow pathway in the boxes.
The light stopped over a large piece of furniture covered in a cloth. It spun around the object as Thorn caught up with the light.
"Stop playing games!" Thorn yelled at the light. "I know you can speak, so tell me what you want!"
The light flickered four times before darting into the covered object. Thorn grunted and pulled the cloth off the object. She took out her phone and used it to illuminate the object.
"What?" Thorn gasped. Instead of the light, an ornate, full-body mirror stood before her. A large, jagged crack went down the length of the mirror, while a thinner one went across it, separating the mirror into four parts.
Thorn shivered as she looked at her fractured reflection. She shook her head and grunted. "This is ridiculous." Thorn jumped back as the mirror suddenly flipped over, revealing its wooden back. Thorn shuddered when saw the single word scratched into the wood: FIX.
"Fix what? The mirror?" Thorn shouted.
The mirror shook, and it flipped to its front so quick that Thorn barely moved out of its way to avoid it hitting her. She gasped as cracks raced across the surface of the mirror, further breaking her fractured reflection. The mirror shattered, and Thorn raised her arms to block the incoming shower of glass fragments.
Thorn shuddered as she brushed the glass off her. "I need to get out of here," she said with a winded sigh, more confused than before. "I still have to find Luna."
THUD!
Thorn turned around and saw a figure standing behind a stack of boxes, looking down at the box that fell.
"Luna?" Thorn asked.
"Huh?" It was a male voice, clearly startled and too deep to be Brian. The man looked up, and while it was too dark to see his face, Thorn gasped when she saw the silhouette of a hood.
Cultist.
Thorn's hand clenched into a fist. She felt her magic coursing through her, a faint bluish glow enveloped her hand. She glared at the cultist, and several of the nearby boxes shook with violent fury.
"What the hell? Ah!" The man turned and ran as one box threw itself at him.
Thorn gritted her teeth and grunted as she ran after him. He had to know what happened to Luna. But questioning him on Luna's whereabouts fell to the back of her mind. This cultist was just as guilty of hurting them as the centipede creature was. He had to pay.
Thorn chased the man past the table and the hole in the ceiling. Another box threw itself at the hooded man, and Thorn heard the man trip. The magical energy enveloping her hand cast an eerie, bluish glow on her surroundings that made everything surreal. Thorn saw the man scramble to his feet. He darted to a small space between the wall and a large dresser.
"You're not getting away," Thorn muttered under her breath. The cabinet shook before slamming into the man, pinning him against the wall.
"Ahhh! Guys help me!" he shouted. He flailed his free arm and banged against the dresser. The man saw Thorn approach. "Lady! Help me! Please!
Thorn ignored his pleas as she raised her clenched fist. The dresser increased its pressure on him, and he shouted louder.
"Agh! What the hell are you?" The man's cries became garbled as the pressure increased on him.
Thorn didn't care about how much pain he was in. He was a cultist, and he played a role in hurting Luna. No. He and his ilk almost killed Luna. His cries grew louder as the dresser pressed harder against him. The man wheezed and his flailing weakened. A small smile spread across her lips as the man's flailing became weaker and weaker.
"Thorn, where are you?"
Thorn shook her head and gasped. "Luna."
"Hey, Thorn, where'd ya go?"
"Dusk." Thorn shivered as she looked at her hand. The energy and light faded while the dresser moved back to its original spot. What was I thinking? I...I tried to kill him. She felt nauseated. I smiled… I smiled when I crushed him with the dresser. She leaned over, expecting to vomit. This isn't what Luna meant when she told me to use my magic. She trembled. And just like every other mage, all you do is hurt, kill, and destroy. The Fallen's words echoed in her mind like a terrible song stuck on an unending loop. All you do is hurt, kill, and destroy.
"No, no, no, no," Thorn muttered, clutching her head. "I...I didn't mean to hurt him." A lie. "He's...alive."
She glanced at the man. Despite being so close, she didn't get a good look at his face. Panting, he slipped through the gap and disappeared. She shook her head. Let him get away. You already did enough damage. Besides, Luna and Dusk are upstairs, and they sound fine; that's all that matters.
"I'm down here!" Thorn called back to them. She ran back to where the hole was and looked up. She smiled upon seeing Luna, Dusk, and Brian. A single tear of joy rolled down her cheek. Thorn felt so much joy in seeing Luna and Dusk. They were safe and unharmed.
"How the hell did you end up down there?" Dusk asked with a somewhat playful smile.
"Um, I fell," Thorn stated.
"Shit, now we've all fallen through that hole," Dusk joked.
"Are you alright?" Luna asked, ignoring Dusk's attempt at humor.
"Yeah, I think so," Thorn replied. "I'm just glad you're okay."
"Let's get you back up here before the ghost comes back," Brian said.
Thorn nodded. She dragged the table over just enough so she could stand on top of it. She reached up, and Dusk and Brian grabbed her hands and pulled her up. When she was back in the storage room, she ran over to Luna and hugged her.
"I'm glad you're okay," Thorn murmured, her hug tightening. She didn't want to let go and lose her again. "I...I saw you on the basement floor, and you weren't moving and…"
"And whatever you saw wasn't real," Luna said, patting Thorn's back. Her words were soothing and correct. It was all a cruel trick and nothing more. Luna was here, and that's what mattered "I'm a bit winded from running, but I'm otherwise fine. Brian caught me."
Thorn glanced at Brian and smiled. He nodded and smiled back, his face becoming slightly flushed.
"Now, how about you? How are you doing?" Luna asked.
"I guess I'm okay, even though I fell," Thorn replied, turning her attention back to Luna.
"Yeah, uh, how'd you survive that fall?" Dusk asked as she looked down into the basement. "There was nothing but concrete before you moved the table."
"I don't know," Thorn said, finally letting go of Luna. "I just hit the ground and was fine."
"Really?" Dusk asked.
Thorn nodded. "Yeah, I hit my head too and still felt fine."
"That's insane," Luna said, shaking her head. "Hitting your head from a fall at this height should've injured you, if not worse."
Thorn shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Everything was so confusing after that creature bit me."
"Wait. You got bit?" Luna questioned with a concerned look on her face.
Thorn showed them the bite mark on her leg. "It doesn't hurt anymore, but after it bit me, I felt so dizzy and lightheaded that I could barely walk. And then I saw you in the basement, and I fell."
"That's bizarre," Dusk said, shaking her head.
"Sounds like it triggered a hallucination," Brian finally said.
Luna turned to him. "You sound pretty certain about that."
"It's just a guess, but centipedes are venomous, and if this thing looked like a centipede, I'd say it was venomous too," Brian explained. "Perhaps one effect of its venom was vivid hallucinations."
"I thought the same thing when it bit me," Thorn replied. She glanced down at her injury. The swelling was down, and there wasn't any pain. "If there is venom, it doesn't seem to be affecting me anymore."
"That's good," Luna said with a sigh of relief. "But where'd that thing go?"
Thorn hesitated for a moment before pointing at the green and gray stain on the wall. Dusk grinned as she ran over to the wall. "Hell yeah, Thorn! That's what I wanna see!" she cheered.
Thorn sighed and lowered her head a bit. With what she did to the cultist in the basement, she didn't share Dusk's excitement.
"You killed it?" Luna asked though it didn't sound like a question.
Thorn gave a reluctant nod.
"Impressive," Brian said. "How'd you manage to do that?"
Both Luna and Dusk glanced at Thorn. She knew they both knew how she did it. Magic. But was it a smart idea to tell Brian about it? He'd been more than helpful, going as far as to save Luna's life, but she had a lingering doubt about revealing herself as a witch. That was something better left between her and her sisters.
"Um, I'm not exactly sure, I pushed the chair into it, and it just...exploded," Thorn lied.
Brian frowned. "Really? That's odd." He walked over to the chair and examined it. "Where'd you hit it? It'd be useful to know in case there are more of them."
"I don't know," Thorn said, slightly raising her voice. "The chair hit it, and it blew up."
Brian rubbed his chin as he looked over the chair and wall. Thorn shot her friends an alarmed glance. Dusk shrugged her shoulders while Luna raised her hands and shook her head.
"There's gotta be more to it," Brian said, stepping away from the chair.
"There's nothing else to it," Thorn said, crossing her arms. "I pushed the chair into it, and the monster blew up."
Brian grunted. "Then how hard did you it, and why did it explode on the other side of the room away from the chair?"
"I don't know," Thorn said, trying to keep herself from shouting. "Why does that matter? It's dead."
"I want to know everything about the monsters so we can beat these guys," he replied. He glared at Thorn. "Did anything else happen when you were downstairs? Did you see anything?"
Thorn glared back at him. "No. Nothing happened downstairs," she said, crossing her arms. She thought about the blue light and the mirror and how they confused her. She shuddered at the thought of what she did to the hooded man. She shook her head. "I didn't see anything."
BZZZT! BZZZT! BZZZT!
Thorn couldn't be happier to hear her phone buzz and end this conversation before things got heated or Brian figured out she was magic. "It's probably Gus," she said as she took her phone out of her purse.
But Thorn raised an eyebrow when she saw the caller ID displaying an unknown number from Ohio.
"Um, do we know anyone from Ohio?" Thorn asked her friends.
"I don't think so," Luna said while Dusk shook her head.
Under normal circumstances, she'd just let it go to voicemail, figuring if the message was important the caller would leave a message. But this was different. She didn't want to discuss killing the centipede creature or what she did to the cultist in the basement. She answered the call.
"Hello?" Thorn asked.
"Hi, Thorn! I got your message about the ghost."
"Wait. Is this Fred?"
"Sure is. Now, is there a place to park? You can't believe how bad the parking situation is with the construction."
"Um, I think there's a spot at the back of the hotel."
"Great. I'll be there in five minutes."
The call ended. Thorn was flabbergasted, yet smiled as she put her phone away. After going through so much bullshit, so much failure and disaster, there was finally hope. The Scooby gang was on their way, and there was no mystery they couldn't solve. It was just a matter of meeting them at the back of the hotel, and then they'd solve this whole shitshow.
"Fred Jones just called," Thorn said, smiling as she looked at her friends. "Mystery Inc. is on their way!"
"Are you serious?" Luna asked with a hopeful grin.
"Yeah, they'll be here in five minutes," Thorn replied.
"Wicked!" Dusk cheered.
"That's good news," Brian said, "Hopefully, they'll catch these crooks."
Thorn nodded. For the first time today, things were looking good, and she felt hopeful. Maybe they would succeed. "Let's go meet them out back."
