Bane of His Existence

Chapter Seven

Nine o'clock the next morning came and after Gothel met up with her sister witch down the street from the station, the leader of their coven spent nearly an hour with Minerva at a quiet diner a few more blocks further down as they ate breakfast while she caught her up on all that's been happening in Hyperion Heights since the dark curse had swept over them, then finally arrived a few minutes early at the precinct again like Detective Rogers asked her to do so they could head down to the hospital to try to talk with another of Eloise's friends, Diana Levinson.

As she walked inside, the detective was once again at his desk reading through what she could vaguely make out was a book of law. However, as she walked in to stand before him like she had done a few days before and set down a cup of coffee in front of him, Rogers immediately jumped up upon being startled by her sudden appearance. Somehow she always seemed to surprise him, even when he expected her and her presence was becoming more and more uncomfortable for him than he could understand despite the relief he's felt since saving her from Victoria Belfrey.

This time, she spoke up first saying, "Good morning, Detective Rogers. I'm sorry for scaring you. It's uh… it's none o'clock, the time you asked me to meet you here. I brought you some coffee."

He smiled nervously as he glanced between her and the coffee she set before him and then answered, "Thanks. Good morning, Eloise. Forgive me for seeming nervous. I had yet another sleepless night and I appear to have been too engrossed in this book… Sort of. It doesn't matter. I'm sorry."

"You have no need to apologize," the rescued woman responded gently. "This hasn't been easy on either one of us it seems. Since you found me, I haven't been able to get you out of my mind and I know you think it's because you saved me and that I'm just feeling grateful, but I can't help feeling like…"

"Please, let's just go and find your friend at the hospital," Rogers interrupted her before she could continue on, then started to walk away from his desk without taking the coffee with him until Eloise followed after him after picking it up herself, then handed over to him.

She quickly stated, "I remember my father once telling my mother that if you have a sleepless night, coffee is the best solution for a day of wakefulness. Please, it's my treat."

He reluctantly took it from her as he replied, "Thank you. It was very thoughtful. I want you to know I've released Maggie this morning when I first came in. We talked after you left yesterday. I may wind up getting chewed out for releasing a woman like Maggie, with a record like she has, but I after all she's been through… I can't but feel like she's not so happy with the life she's wound up in as she pretends to be. She deserves a second chance and I'm hoping she'll be willing to meet with you again in time. I'll be keeping contact with her. I wish to help her."

"Like you've helped me," Gothel said while she let a smug smile come across her lips when the man of her own obsession took a sip of the coffee, then began to feel faint as he collapsed weakly against the wall beside him and held himself against it until the dizziness passed. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm… not so… I think it's just a sign that I've gone too long without sleep," Rogers answered after a few moments when he straightened himself and pulled away again from the wall. "I apologize. I'm not sure what happened. But yes, I'm alright now."

Eloise reached out and put her arm through his, then took his hand as they continued to walk out of the station, while she responded, "Leaving this daunting workplace for awhile ought to do you some good. Especially since we'll be helping someone I care about a great deal."

A short time later, Rogers and Eloise arrived at the hospital and the detective spoke with the doctor in charge of the psychiatric ward, after which a few minutes later they were led through the corridors until they came the room where Miss. Levinson was being held and treated for what the doctors believed was schizophrenia.

The doctor unlocked the door to let them inside the room, then when they found her sitting on her bed with her back to them while she stared out the window, he spoke up to the woman inside saying, "Diana… there's a couple of people here to see you. Some friends. And I think they can help you. Would you like to meet them?"

"Diana, it's me… Eloise," the witch stated quietly when the ill woman didn't speak or even turn around to face them, then gave her another minute to process before continuing. "It's been a long time, but you and I were once very close."

"I'm not close to anyone, so whoever you are… just go away," Diana retorted curtly, still without facing anyone.

Gothel looked worryingly at Rogers, who simply nodded his encouragement for her to move in closer to continue to try to help her, then she turned back to the woman before them and carefully sat down on the bed beside her as she replied, "I don't care what you've done to land you in this miserable place, but I know you well enough to know that you're not crazy like others may believe you to be."

Diana finally turned her head to look at the woman beside her as Eloise reached out and gently took her hand in her own, then her true self suddenly became awakened as Minerva had been when the same spark between the women was emitted from within them. It was then that Diana once again became Draya, Gothel's most trusted sister within their coven.

"Eloise?" she at last whispered with a surprise that was now nothing more than an act meant to continue to deceive the detective still standing within the doorway beside the hospital's doctor. "You're here. How did you find me?"

"I had some help from the very man who saved my life as well," Gothel answered and glanced over at Rogers again and smiled, as he did. "Detective Rogers found me after I was taken and then he used his pull from being a detective with the police department to find you for me."

The leader of the witch coven then rose from the bed and beguilingly walked towards Rogers again until she stood with her face an inch apart from his while she said darkly, "And now he's going to help me break you out of here."

Before either Rogers or the doctor could process what was happening and object to her sudden advance towards him, Gothel forced her lips over his once more. Only unlike the first time she had tried kissing him, this time she at last pulled back after several seconds and found Rogers to be under a trance of her own design.

"Detective… are you alright?" the doctor asked strangely upon seeing his motionless state, then looked between the two women when they too slowly began to advance on him until they stopped a few feet away. "What's… what's going on?"

"Detective Rogers, I need you to take care of the man standing between us and the door for me," Eloise commanded, then smiled cruelly when Rogers unholstered his service weapon from his right hip and suddenly used it to strike the man beside him hard across his face to knock him to ground while he fell unconscious, having no control over his own actions as his mind was no longer his own in that moment. "I need you to kill him. Then we'll need to get out of here before the rest of these doctors here become aware of what you're about to do."

When Draya quickly grabbed the pillow from off her bed and tossed it to him, Rogers caught it and without hesitation, laid it roughly over the doctor's face, then pushed the gun over him in order to muffle the sound of the gunshot as he pulled the trigger to follow the orders given to him.

Once he finished, the witch her leader had come to the hospital to free spoke again saying haughtily, "I've got to hand it to you, Gothel. Despite this curse weakening our magic, you certainly haven't lost your gift. I can't wait to hear everything."

Gothel smiled at her and then responded, "First things first. We'll have plenty of time now that we're together again."

"Have any of the rest of our sisters awakened yet?" Diana then asked as Rogers unwittingly led them through the hospital towards the exit so they could make their escape as quickly as possible.

"Minerva is waiting for us," Eloise replied once they made their way back to Rogers' car he had driven her there in, only she got behind the wheel instead after she gently laid Rogers down on the backseat after he lost conscious himself like Gothel expected from her potion she had slipped in his coffee. "I'm sorry to say the detective's skills will no longer be of any use to us. We can't depend on him to find the others because he's going to be too busy trying to save himself. It'll be up to us. But we will find them, when the time is right. My magic grows stronger every day."