Chapter 4

Thorn trembled at the sight before her; she became short of breath and her heart raced. This can't be happening. Not again she thought as her mind brought forth images of Ben Ravencroft summoning Sarah. She could almost see the witch's face in the clouds and hear her cackling in the wind.

The wind grew stronger, causing the girls to raise their arms to block the dust the gusts picked up. Over the mausoleum, the vortex morphed into a miniature tornado-like structure, though Thorn could've swore that the tornado was taking on a human shape. A blue bolt of lightning shot from the clouds and struck the "tornado", creating a sonic boom and a flash of light that momentarily blinded the group.

After a few moments, Thorn regained her sight. The wind and clouds had dispersed, but atop the mausoleum was a glowing man in his fifties or sixties. His skin was unnaturally white and his hair, which consisted solely of a sharp goatee, was the same color as his skin while his eyes were black with pink sclerae. His clothes were all dark gray and consisted of a jacket, shirt, pants and shoes. The man slowly rose into the air and he looked down at the crowd before him.

Thorn gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, as she saw the man in the air; his ghastly appearance triggering more flashbacks to Sarah.

"Ahh Alexander, what an unexpected surprise," Matella said. "I see death hasn't been too kind to you."

"So this day has finally arrived," Levre said, his voice somber.

"It has indeed," Matella calmly replied. "Despite your efforts, this was inevitable."

"Wait! Is that Alexander Levre?" Luna gasped.

Thorn instantly regretted wanting to find a ghost. Please be a fake. But the Wiccan knew this was too similar to Sarah to be a hoax.

The ghost turned toward the Hex Girls and sighed before returning his attention back to the masked people.

"Contracting out work I see, didn't think the Order would stoop so low," Alexander sighed.

"We're not actually with them and we have no idea who they are," Thorn tried to explain as she and her friends started to slowly back away from the phantom.

The ghost glanced at Thorn. "I'm sorry, but I can't take the risk that you're lying."

Before she could respond, Cyrus stepped forward and pointed the prod at the ghost. Unexpectedly, the ghost shouted and recoiled in pain.

"I've had enough of you traitor," Cyrus shouted. "Annihilating you will be justice for the damage you caused us!"

Alexander Levre floated out of range of the device and sighed. "Very well. I will do what I must to stop you."

Fire erupted from the ghost's hand and with a wave of an arm, he hurled a stream of flames at the people below him. Too terrified and shocked to run, Thorn closed her eyes and braced herself, fully expecting death or serious injury. But after a few seconds, she opened her eyes, still very much alive.

"How are we not dead?" Thorn asked in surprise while Dusk and Luna had similarly confused expressions on their faces.

"Oh Sally, you should always be prepared for combat," Matella replied with slight chuckle. "I have several tricks to beat this dead warlock."

Thorn saw that Matella had her hand raised and her palm facing Alexander. To Thorn's surprise, Matella's hand glowed light green and the entire group was surrounded by a wall of light green energy, blocking the ghost's attack. Matella thrusted her hand forward and the green wall flew toward the ghost. The ghost raised his arms to hold back the energy wall, but with great force, the ghost was pushed into an invisible barrier where the circle of powder was laid.

"That's sick," Dusk exclaimed.

"Oh, it's about to get even better," Matella replied.

Alexander Levre regained his composure and moved away from the barrier. Grunting, his hands became engulfed in dark red lights. Thorn's eyes widened as he fired a red beam of energy. Thorn only briefly saw the beams go right through the front of the mausoleum, shattering it, before impacting the ground at the center of the ground in a blinding light.

Thorn could not hear or see anything; all she felt was an intense heat hotter than anything she felt before sweep across her for a fraction of a second and a massive blunt force smack against her body that stopped as quickly as it began. Her vision became blurry and she could only hear ringing for several seconds.

"What the hell…" Thorn groaned as she realized that she was lying face-first on the ground, dazed and dizzy from whatever just happened. She pushed herself up from the ground and, after a few moments her vision began to clear and her hearing slowly returned to normal. She noticed that she was easily fifteen from the mausoleum remains.

"First explosion huh?" Matella said as she dissipated a green energy shield in front of her. She was standing a few feet from Thorn.

There was an explosion!? Thorn panicked as she glanced down at herself; she was covered in soot and dirt and her clothes were pretty much ruined. She checked herself over, and aside from being dirtied, seemed fine.

"Ohhh," Thorn groaned as she stood up; evidently she wasn't as fine as she thought as her entire body ached.

Matella smirked. "Try casting a barrier next time."

"Note taken," Thorn replied rubbing her head. She noticed several of the masked people scattered around, seemingly knocked out, or at least she hoped they were knocked out. "Why didn't you protect all of us?"

"A barrier large enough to cover eight people wouldn't last against that kind of spell without me using too much magic," Matella explained in disappointment. "But the mausoleum took the brunt of the force, so we got lucky there."

Thorn shuddered. She was only alive because the ghost had bad aim and hit the mausoleum. She looked at the ghost's former resting place; there were only a few smoldering stacks of marble left. She shuddered again. Dusk! Luna!

In a panic, Thorn looked around for her friends. She spotted them near the edge of the circle about thirty feet from her. Her heart was racing when she didn't see them move. But after a moment, she sighed with relief as she watched them scramble to their feet, run out of the circle and hide behind some tombstones.

"Sally move!"

Thorn was barely able to turn toward Matella when she felt a slight tug and was pulled backwards. Immediately, the spot where she previously stood was struck by a bolt of green energy that left the ground scorched.

"What the hell," Thorn gasped. She turned and panicked as she saw the ghost flying toward her, his hands engulfed in green energy. She was frozen in fear, memories of Sarah Ravencroft charging her to get the book. But this time, she had no book to stop the ghost.

But as the ghost neared, he slowed and narrowly avoided a blue fireball-like projectile that whizzed past him. Like the ghost, Thorn turned to the source of the projectile. She saw Matella and noticed that her hands were engulfed in a dark blue light. The witch proceeded to hurl another fireball at the ghost. But the ghost was quick and was able to dodge Matella's attacks. In retaliation, he fired a bolt of green energy at the witch.

Thorn gasped as Matella effortlessly leapt through the air and landed gracefully on a tombstone easily twenty feet away. The ghost got angrier and fired another bolt of green energy at Matella, but the witch simply jumped to another tombstone as the one she was standing on exploded; she threw a couple blue fireballs at Alexander and he dodged them.

Thorn shook her head in bewilderment and terror. "This is insane." She turned around and ran away. Away from the ghost. Away from the witch. Away from the madness. But before she could cross the powdered line, a set of rust-colored spikes, about as tall as her, shot up from the ground and blocked her path.

"What!?" Thorn shrieked as she tried going around the spikes but more rose from the earth, preventing her from leaving.

"Don't think I forgot about you," the phantom warlock snarled from the distance.

Thorn watched in fear as the spikes curved toward her. Thorn shrieked as she barely sidestepped one of the spikes trying to stab her. But as the first spike withdrew, Thorn gasped as she felt a sharp, piercing pain on her side. She stumbled backwards and fell down as she watched a second spike withdraw back into the ground.

Shuddering and gasping for breath, Thorn sat up and checked her side. There was cut, not as deep as she thought it was, but it was still slightly bleeding. Before she could treat the minor wound, Thorn felt the ground beneath trembled.

"Shit!" Thorn shouted as the scurried out of the way of another spike. She scrambled to her feet and ran but more spike tore through the earth in her wake. No matter how fast she ran, the spikes were always a footstep behind her.

"Someone help! Agh!" Thorn tripped over a piece of debris from the mausoleum and fell. On queue, the spikes emerged from the ground, curved and went to strike the terrified Wiccan.

Ka-Boom!

There was a large explosion and as the spike came down upon her, a green barrier formed between her and spike, preventing the spike from impaling her.

"How?" Thorn asked herself. There was a loud whoosh followed by Matella landing next to her. "Oh thanks."

Matella nodded, she looked exhausted. "I've incapacitated Alexander, but only momentarily." She glanced at the spikes and with a wave of her hand, they disintegrated into nothing. "Where'd it hit you?"

"My side," Thorn answered. "It's not that bad." She showed Matella the wound.

"Damn it," the witch said. "Hold still, this will hurt."

Matella raised her hand over the wound and Thorn screamed as something moved in the wound. After a moment, a small shard of blood-covered metal pulled from Thorn's cut; the shard floated above the palm of Matella's hand.

"What is that!?" Thorn exclaimed, horrified that that thing was in her. "Do I need a tetanus shot or something!?"

"No," Matella calmly replied. "It's a type of tracking spell, as long as that metal was in you, those spikes would've followed you until they killed you." The shard cracked and disintegrated. "With that, I'm gonna need some help with defeating Alexander."

"I already told you I'm not a witch!" Thorn shouted as she got back up. "I can't jump through the air or shoot lasers; I can't help you!"

"You were able to open the seal, so you're damned witch whether you like it or not," Matella said, her tone was harsh, almost condescending.

Thorn shook her head. She wanted to find Dusk and Luna and then get hell out of there. But that wouldn't happen. Thorn heard clapping and turned to see the ghost floating toward her and Matella.

"I didn't see that one coming," the ghost said in reference to some spell that Thorn missed. "But that got me curious, why are you protecting this witch. She's clearly incompetent and a burden."

Thorn sighed and hung her head low when she realized that the ghost was talking about her. He's not wrong.

"That's none of your concern," Matella replied.

"You can't possibly care about her." The deceased warlock paused and smirked. "Ah, I see. You're u-". A green barrier formed around the phantom as Matella fired another blue fireball at him.

"No matter," the ghost said as the shield dissipated and he descended closer to the ground. He raised his hands and a dozen tombstones began to violently shake. To Thorn's shock, the shaking tombstones were ripped from the ground and circled Alexander. He pointed at Matella and Thorn and several of them were hurled at the two woman.

Matella was able to destroy a few of the incoming projectiles with the blue energy blasts.

"Thorn move!" Matella shouted as she dove out of the way from a tombstone.

"Oh shit!" Thorn yelled as she jumped out the way of a tombstone that smashed into the ground right where she had just been standing.

The young Wiccan frantically jumped out of the way of two more tombstones before tripping over herself. She fell to the ground but rolled sideways and avoided a third tombstone that had impaled itself into the ground just inches from her. But as she faced the sky, her eyes widened in fear as she saw another incoming tombstone as she had rolled right into the projectile's trajectory. I'm dead, she thought as she closed her eyes and covered her face with her arms.

Boom!

Thorn opened her eyes to see that the tombstone had been pulverized in the air. A blue energy blast destroyed a second tombstone coming at Thorn.

"Thank you," the Wiccan gasped; Matella just nodded in response.

"You know," the warlock's ghost said. "I was expecting much more from the Order; only two witches, and one completely useless."

The phantom's insult hit Thorn's psyche deep; He's right, I can't do shit against him. She glanced toward the tombstone Dusk and Luna were hiding behind. She saw some movement behind the stone. She teared up as she realized that she had put her best friends in mortal danger and there wasn't anything she could do to protect them.

"Sally, don't listen to him," Matella said. "I need you to focus here. Your friends need you to focus."

Thorn wiped her eyes. Matella was right, she needed to put aside her fear and anxiety. Though how she could help was still in question.

Alexander descended closer to the ground and the floating tombstones followed him, ready to strike at the two women. But looking past him, Thorn noticed movement behind the specter. For the first time, she felt relief.

"Hey you undead freak, we're not the ones you should be worried about," Thorn remarked to the ghost.

The phantom paused, stunned by the black-haired girl's sudden confidence, though not as surprised as Thorn was.

"What do…ahhhh," the ghost shrieked in pain as Cyrus charged at the ghost, nearly hitting him with the prod.

Alexander winced in agony and tried to flee, but two other masked men blocked the ghost from getting away with their prods. The ghost screamed and shook while the remaining tombstones flew off in random directions and into ground in a vain attempt to kill his attackers.

"Matella strike him down," Cyrus barked.

Matella raised her hand and it was engulfed in a dark red light.

It's going to be over soon, Thorn thought as she realized what Matella was about to do.

But Alexander also realized what was about to happen. Glaring at his attackers, he made an "X" with arms and he began to glow dark yellow.

"No!" the warlock shouted as he swiped his arms and released a burst of energy that pushed away the masked men and knocked out the two nameless ones.

The blastwave was strong enough to make Thorn and Matella to lose their balance and Matella's attack missed Alexander; the beam destroyed much of the cemetery behind the ghost. The warlock raised both his hands. They were engulfed in red light and fired two beams at Matella and Thorn.

"Behind me, now!" Matella shouted at Thorn.

The Wiccan did as told and Matella generated a shield around them. The beams collided with the shield, causing bright flashes of light and the barrier shook.

"I can't hold this alone forever," Matella stated through gritted teeth. "I need you to help me support this shield or we're both dead."

Thorn shuddered.

"But I don't know how," she weakly replied.

Matella grunted and fell to her knees, the strain of Alexander's attack becoming too much to bear.

"Clear your thoughts and picture the barrier in your mind," Matella began between short gasps of breath. "Raise your hand to help you focus and will it into existence."

"But how d…" Thorn stuttered.

"Just do it!" Matella yelled in pain, cutting Thorn off.

That doesn't make sense Thorn thought as she noticed cracks appearing in the shield. In desperation, Thorn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could picture a second shield forming under the cracked one. Thorn raised her hand just as Matella was doing.

"Work. I need this to work," Thorn muttered, not knowing what would happen.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes and gasped with excitement and surprise as she saw her hand glowing green. A second green shield formed underneath the nearly destroyed first one.

"I did it," Thorn said, half-smiling in newfound confidence.

"Good, brace yourself" Matella mumbled before collapsing from exhaustion, her heavy breathing indicating that she was still alive.

"Matella," Thorn gasped.

Matella's shield immediately shattered and the beams hit Thorn's. Despite not physically hitting her, Thorn felt a powerful force overcome her; it was as if she took a strong punch to the stomach and the blow winded her. Thorn fell to her knees just as Matella had and saw cracks form in the shield. No. Please no. Her heart was racing and she was having problems catching her breath. She trembled on the ground and a few tears trickled down her cheek.

"Not like this," Thorn cried.

Dusk could only watch her friend hold out against the ghost. We're abandoning her again. She hated herself for it. It was just like in Oakhaven with the Ravencrofts. When she got the chance, she and Luna fled, leaving Thorn behind with the Scooby gang to deal with the ghost. Now history was repeating but this time, they left Thorn behind with a deadly phantom and people who tried to kill her.

"Luna, she can't take anymore," Dusk voiced her concern over her friends' situation. "We need to do something. We can't leave her like last time."

"What can we possibly do?" Luna shouted, her usual collected demeanor replaced by sheer terror. "We have no magic, no weapons. Nothing. And even if we did, we have no idea how to defeat a ghost."

As much as Dusk didn't want to admit it, Luna was right, they had no idea what to do. But that wasn't going to stop her from the trying.

The blonde looked around the area. There's got to be something we could do. She then caught sight of a few objects a short distance away.

"Aha," Dusk exclaimed as she rushed over to a nearby grave.

She picked up a two baseball-sized chunks of marble from the destroyed mausoleum.

"What do you expect to do with those?" Luna asked.

"Help Thorn or die trying," Dusk said sprinting toward the ghost.

"You're insane!" Luna shouted.

"Yep," Dusk replied unaware that Luna was following her.

Dusk ran to the ghost, crossing the powdered line that encircled the fight. I'm coming Thorn.

"Hey asshole, get away from her!" Dusk shouted as she chucked one of the marble pieces at the phantom.

The marble hit Alexander's back with a thud. He stopped firing the energy beams and turned to Dusk. Dusk threw the second chunk but Alexander's appearance changed; he became hazy and transparent like a fine mist and the marble went through him, causing no harm. He then returned to his original state.

"What did you expect to accomplish with that," Alexander said more annoyed than anything else.

Dusk shrugged.

"You're not attacking my friend," Dusk said crossing her arms. She wanted to look tough in front of the phantom, so she blurted out the first 'tough' sounding phrase that came to mind. "Now go screw yourself!"

Alexander clenched his fists and his face contorted in anger.

"You're pissing me off," the ghost growled.

"Good," she responded with a smirk, not caring if that was a stupid thing to do. It sounded cool.

At this point Luna caught up with her.

"Time to go," Luna snapped.

The redhead grabbed Dusk's arm and started pulling her back to their hiding spot. Dusk stuck up her middle finger to the warlock as she was dragged away from him.

"Don't you think about leaving," the phantom said, his hand engulfed in flames.

He shot a blast of fire and created a wall of flames that blocked their escape. He then raised his hand and acted like he was grabbing them.

Dusk suddenly couldn't move and felt like something had gabbed ahold of her entire body. Okay, this isn't good. Her eyes widened in panic as she felt the ground disappear beneath her feet and she realized she was floating. She glanced at Luna and saw that she was also in the air, screaming and struggling to free herself. Alexander then floated toward the hapless girls.

"You've got quite the attitude young lady," Alexander said. "I think you need to learn some manners."

He clenched his fists tighter and Dusk felt a constricting force all over her body. She grunted and gritted her teeth as she tried not to scream, lest she show a sign of weakness to the phantom. You've endured worse Dusk reassured herself, yet her face reddened and her breaths became short and quick.

"Not so tough now are you?" the ghost mocked.

Dusk's fear began to overcome her as the force constricting her grew tighter and tighter.

As soon as the ghost's attack stopped, Thorn's shield dissipated. Thorn, still on her knees, panted and she heard her racing heartbeat. She stared at ground, too tired to even raise her head. I shouldn't have brought us here Thorn regretted. She struggled to her feet and assessed her situation. Matella was still out cold but the ghost had moved farther to her left, past the mausoleum. Something had caught his attention and Thorn looked at where he facing.

"No," she grunted when saw Luna and Dusk in the air, their legs kicking at nothing and Luna's screams becoming muffled.

Adrenaline rushing through her, Thorn ran toward her friends and, unbeknownst to the Wiccan, her hand was engulfed in a dark blue light.

"No!" she shouted louder and angrier than before.

Not thinking, or even being aware of what she was doing, Thorn hurled a dark blue orb of energy from her glowing hand. The orb whizzed through the air before colliding with Alexander in a thunderous explosion.

"Agh!" the warlock shouted while crashing to ground; Luna and Dusk, freed from the ghost's grasp, landed on the ground, gasping for air but otherwise unharmed.

Thorn recoiled a bit at the sight of the ghost falling to the earth. Did I just do that? She looked down at her still shaking hand and the blue glow slowly faded away. She looked at the grounded spirit. She didn't feel afraid anymore; ghosts could be hurt.

"Good shot," groaned a voice from behind her.

Thorn turned around to see Matella pick herself up.

"I…I saved them," Thorn replied both surprised at herself and relieved for her friends, as they had distanced themselves from the downed phantom.

"Ugh, that one hurt," the ghost growled as he got up from the ground. "I'll admit, I guess you're not entirely useless."

He rose back into the air and he pointed at Thorn.

"What!?" Thorn muttered as she felt an unseen force lift her into the air, holding her in place.

"But you're nothing I can't deal with," Alexander stated while flicking his wrist.

Thorn felt a forceful tug and was hurled through the air.

"Aah" Thorn shrieked as she collided with a tombstone.

Thorn tried to get up but she winced as she felt a sharp pain on her thigh.

"Crap, that's going leave a nasty bruise," she said rubbing the sore spot, yet thankful that she had no other injuries.

She powered through the pain and managed to get up, though she was weakened by her injury.

"Sally, I think it's about time we ended this fight," Matella said as her hand glowed blue.

The older witch began hurling orbs of magic at the ghost, who generated a barrier around him to protect himself from the blasts. The ghost suddenly cried in pain as Cyrus and the third masked man came at the phantom with the prods. However, the two masked men each removed a small container and began encircling Alexander with the crystalline powder.

"I don't think so," the ghost grunted waving his hand.

The two men were sent flying and dropped the canisters, leaving the circle incomplete in two spots; the circle itself seemed unaffected by Alexander's actions. Matella continued to blast him magic, preventing him from leaving.

They're trying to trap him Luna realized.

This was the first moment where Luna actually thought they could survive this ordeal.

"Dusk, we need to close that circle," the redhead stated.

"How?" Dusk asked.

"Alexander never left the giant circle those guys made," Luna explained. "I don't think he can leave as he hit a barrier when he was blasted into the circle."

"So then we have to run back to the ghost," Dusk said rubbing her hands together and grinning deviously.

"I…I guess so," Luna sighed.

"Then it's payback time for almost killing us," Dusk responded.

Luna gulped. It was a risky move but it had to be done.

The two girls sprinted toward the phantom and went straight to the dropped canisters all while avoiding the constant stream of small explosions. Luna dove beneath the magical projectiles and grabbed the canister. Unfortunately, she had landed in Alexander's line of sight; the ghost glared down at her with eyes filled with anger and— surprisingly— desperation.

"Shit," Luna muttered as she swung the canister in the air with haste, releasing a cloud of glowing powder and closing the front of the circle.

There was a sudden blast of energy that knocked the canister out of her hands and pushed her away from the circle.

"No," the ghost stammered with a hint of fear in his voice.

He attempted to back away but collided with an unseen barrier; Dusk had managed to close her part of the circle.

"Pheww," Luna sighed with relief.

"No!" the ghost shouted throwing himself against the circle in a vain attempt to escape.

He became panicked, desperate and afraid as his barrier dissipated. He was like a trapped animal lashing out against his captors yet unable to harm them. Matella stopped firing at him but he didn't stop thrashing about. Thorn, Dusk, Luna, Cyrus, Matella and the other masked men approached the doomed ghost.

"No! No! You cannot take that parchment," the warlock screamed almost begging them not to.

"It's over Levre. We've got what we came here for and now we can finally end your pitiful existence once and for all," Cyrus said.

The masked man nodded to Matella.

"About time I got to do some serious magic," Matella said emphasizing the 'serious'.

"Wait, that fight wasn't serious enough for you?" Thorn asked.

Matella chuckled and raised her hand over the defeated ghost.

"Restless spirit who haunts the night, no more shall you cause strife. It's time for you to face the light, for I rid you from the world of life!" Matella shouted.

Thorn gasped in shock as Alexander screamed in fear and agony. His feet erupted into a bright, white fire. The blaze consumed his legs and spread up his body. In one final action, he made eye contact with Thorn.

"You cannot trust them," Alexander cried. "They must never be allowed to raise the Fa…AGHHHHHH!"

The fire consumed the entirety of the ghost. He screamed one last ghastly cry before snuffing out into nothing.

"Is… is that it?" Thorn nervously asked.

"Yes," Matella replied with an exhausted sigh. "He is gone forever."

Thorn stared at the empty circle. Despite the ghost's destruction, Thorn didn't feel relief. Questions lingered in her mind about herself and, worryingly, about the ghost's final plea.