"See what you did?" Nessa said reprovingly. "This is all the power sorcery has. if it's not a trick, then it's a dangerous weapons of the corrupted."
Glinda sighed, contemplating with frustration the headless body of Doctor Dillamond. The Goat was sitting at the table with them, holding on his paws a small plate and a cup. He didn't seem to mind that Glinda had made his head explode just a few seconds ago.
"But you see you can't turn a Goat into a goat?" Elphaba said, covered in pieces of flesh and skin from the doctor's detonated head. "It's still a Goat even if he has no tongue to speak." She removed a yellowish eye off the sleeve of her dress and she offered it to Glinda on a fingertip. "See?"
Glinda gagged and turned her head away. Nessarose was glaring at her sister. Then she opened her mouth and…shrieked.
"Geez, stop it!" Glinda protested, the un-melodic noise hurting her ears. "Nessa!"
But Nessa kept shrieking, an inhuman sound. Then Glinda remembered…wasn't Nessa dead? Haven't they graduated Shiz decades ago? Nessa, the decapitated Goat, Elphaba, everything faded to black. But the shrieking continued.
Suddenly realizing where she was and what she was doing, Glinda straightened on the chair, snapping her eyes open. For a moment, the only thing she could do was breathing. And then she registered the empty bed, the winged monkeys were screeching and chirping and chattering around a silent figure.
There were three black birds, perched on the window. Elphaba stood next to them with her head slumped forward, her arms doubled at the elbows, her hands on the window like the slim legs of some overgrown bird. A huge, overgrown crow.
"Elphi?" She finally said, feeling a bit guilty for making such an unfortunate comparison. "You shouldn't be up…your legs."
She couldn't see how she was standing. The moon was not giving enough light but she remembered the hideous wounds and all the blood. She gagged at the memory.
Elphaba however, was standing ten feet away from her bed.
"What is it?"
Elphaba ignored her. Chistery was next to her, chattering and chirping, trying to take a hold of her hand. Glinda fought a moment with the oil lamp resting on the night table and finally managed to lighten it. The monkeys were all around their mistress, like a flock of children around their mother. Even the crows seemed expectant and nervous.
The sorceress finally stood and rounded the bed, walking carefully among the winged beasts to reach her friend. She noted that her right leg was buckled and hanging languidly on one side, lifeless and useless. That one had taken the most damaged, attacked by both fire and water at the same time.
Elphaba's face was hidden in between long curtains of dark silky hair. Glinda placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. Elphaba didn't move. There was a piece of parchment on her hand. Glinda managed to remove it from her green crisp fingers. The handwriting was crude as if a Pig or a Goat would have tried to write with their hooves.
Princess Nastosha with spirits now We help in time
Glinda didn't know who this Princess Nastosha was, but evidently she was someone very important for the Witch. Elphaba seemed to be struggling to keep the tears inside. She sighed. When was this nightmare going to end?
"Elphie…"
"You should have let me die…"