Chapter Thirty Two ~ Mourning After

There was a few short moment's silence before a crackling laughter broke it. I tore my eyes away from the spot Robin, along with Mr Gomez, had just fallen and up at the witch. Her eyes were set on me and she laughed uncontrollably.

I felt sick. Destroyed. Who knew that one person could affect me this much? I needed Robin and now he was gone.

Gone and it was all my fault.

"You witch." I said quietly. So quietly that no one heard me. "You witch!" I screamed louder. I launched forward, surprising 'Shaggy' so much that I was free from his grip easily. I ran at the witch and tried to force her over the edge, just as she had done with Robin. Though I was pulled away by her sons and they dragged me away from their mother.

"Get over yourself, Maria." Cassandra taunted. "He was nothing but a useless waste of space." She struck a nerve and I tried to lunge at her again. Though 'Shaggy' didn't fail to lose his grip on me this time and held me tight and away from his mother.

"How could you?" I cried. The tears began to pour and I collapsed onto my knees. 'Shaggy' let me but I saw him stand between his mother and myself, waiting to see if I would try and push her over again. I didn't care though. I began to shake uncontrollably with sobs.

Robin was gone and there was nothing I could do about it.

I could hear the sound of crying somewhere to my right and I guessed that it was probably Loveday. Crying for the loss of her brother. I could only imagine Mr De Noir's face. Was he angry or upset? Ready to kill or ready to cry? I couldn't look up to tell. I cried hard for the loss of Robin.

"He was merely a tool in my plan." Cassandra's voice said. So much hatred built up inside of me at the sound of her voice. I wanted to hurt her. Hurt her just like she had done to me. Though what could a measly 15 year old girl do? A girl too love-struck and heart broken she couldn't even look up and glare at the one responsible for her pain. "And Mr Gomez made it all the easier for my sons and I by throwing himself over. It saved me the bother of doing it myself."

Mr Gomez. I was too grief stricken to remember that Robin's tutor had thrown himself over after Robin. I had never felt so much warmth for someone. He had thrown himself after Robin, even though he probably knew it was a lost cause. He remained true to Robin even in the very end.

All bad thoughts and suspicions for Mr Gomez had gone completely. I could only grieve for him and think of how much of a great man he had been.

"What do you plan to do now?" A voice asked. It surprised me as it seemed to be George Cunningham's voice. The man who I had grown to dislike. I looked up finally and through tears I saw the destruction Robin's death had done.

Uncle held Loveday close to him as she wept into his shoulder. Robin's two friends, who's names I remembered to be Luke and Michael, were crying aswell, a sight I did not expect to see. Digweed held his wife, much like Uncle was with Loveday, and they both seemed to be crying, Mrs Heliotrope's coming out as squeaky sobs. Marmaduke stood, completely frozen with shock, his eyes on the place where Robin had fallen. Henry stood frozen aswell, though I had no sympathy for him. Mr Cunningham stood by his son, though his eyes staring at Cassandra, waiting for an answer. The one person's reaction that struck me the most though was Mr De Noir's.

He stood, much like Marmaduke and Henry, frozen with his eyes remained on the place where his son had fallen. Single tear trails ran down his cheeks and his eyes glistened with more awaiting unshed ones. Behind the tears though I could see that Mr De Noir felt lost. He had just had to witness his son plunging to his death. His lip began to quiver as the sobs threatened to come. Completely demolished could be the words I would use to describe how Mr De Noir looked.

"We will continue what we set out to do." Cassandra's voice broke my thoughts and I stared up at her, my blood boiling within me. I swallowed down a sob, though the tears continued to run down my cheeks.

"Weren't you listening to what Mr Gomez had to say?" Mr Cunningham asked. I had to respect him for his new found confidence. Though I wanted nothing less for it to have been his son that had fallen, not Robin. "You can't have the pearls because they're gone. Lost." Just like Robin.

"Then we'll have to do without them." Cassandra hissed. I saw her son, Melvin, turn to her and stare with shock. I guessed her answer had surprised him.

"We can't do the ritual without them." He said in a deep voice. Ritual?

"We have to try." She snarled, turning to him. They both regarded each other in silence before Melvin nodded slowly and looked away from his mother's penetrating gaze.

"What ritual?" I asked once I had found my voice. Cassandra turned back to me and gave me a thin, sleazy smile that made my insides turn.

"The ritual that will take your Moon Princess powers from you and give them to us." It all sounded easy when she said it like that. Of course there had to be something else to it. "Let's get going." She said, to her sons. I was then pulled to my feet and we were all ushered out of the cliff's stone theatre.

I glanced back at the place Robin had fallen, hoping that he would be stood there smiling at me.

He wasn't.

We were made to walk back through the forest again. I was unsure where we were heading, but I didn't care too much. I remained in silence the entire journey, my mind too filled with sadness to even react to 'Shaggy's' threats this time. The sobs behind me continued. In hearing the sounds, just made it worse. I wanted to curl up in a ball on the ground and just cry, but given the current situation, I couldn't.

The main thought that dominated my head was that I hoped that whatever the ritual was, that it required myself to die or for something to go wrong so I endured pain and then death. I wanted to follow after Robin.

My suicidal bid just made me sadder and worse about myself. Even if I didn't know how Robin felt for me, I knew he wouldn't want me to just give up because of him. He would tell me I was just being ridiculous and to 'stop being a baby'. I almost laughed at the thought of Robin telling me that. The thought of his face scrunching up with confusion then arrogance, much like it usually did.

At least I still had the memories of Robin to keep me sane and alive.

But how long were they going to last?

We came into a place which I knew all too well. The sight of it sent my heart into spasm and not the was it would do whenever Robin used to pay me a compliment or tease me. It went into spasm in the wrong kind of way. The feeling of sickness came over me again.

We were at the waterfall. The place Robin had shown me all too long ago. It looked the same. What did I expect? The water gushed loudly, I was surprised I didn't hear it as we were walking. The pool below glistened in the light and glowed with a crystal blue colour. I remember spending the day here with Robin and Wrolfe.

Wrolfe. Where was the black lion? What had they done to him? Or had he escaped from their clutches and would bound in to save the day any second? I hadn't seen any lion-like shape between the trees as we walked. Maybe Cassandra and her sons had killed him already. My heart pained at this thought.

I wasn't ready to grieve over anyone else at the moment.

Cassandra interrupted my thoughts for Wrolfe as she clapped her hands with glee and turned to face us all.

"Put the others over there and make sure they do not escape." She told the tranced guards, nodding to the place she wanted them to usher the rest of them to be. The guards obeyed and the others were moved away. She then moved her eyes to me and smiled. There was a few short moments of silence before she looked up at her sons. "Prepare the ritual."

(A/N) This is a VERY short chapter, I know. But I promise you that I will make up for it in the next update. It's already been written, so I can definitely promise you it's longer. And much better than this one and the one previous :D

Nothing much to say really, so I guess I will see you next time.

-jemlou-