Disclaimer: I don't own W.I.T.C.H.
A load crash followed by some nasty swearing close by caught her attention and her mom directed the light towards the noise, allowing Will to see a swift movement behind a pile of junk. Without hesitation, she flung a beam of white and pinkish light towards it that upon impact made everything fly in all directions. And behind it, she could see the creature and Dean. The first one had lost its iron grip when something from the pile struck and knocked it down to the ground. Dean was also on the floor, covering his head, but when the light from his wife found him, he immediately started to push himself up.
Dean however, didn't get far before he suddenly felt a grip around his neck and the point of a gun pressing into the side of his skull.
"Not so fast my friend," a hoarse voice said behind him and the light from the flashlight revealed the haunting face of Dr. Henderson, "You know what I want. No more tricks from you my fairy, or this man get a bullet through his brain."
Dean moaned in pain and closed his eyes but didn't try to move. "Go on. Take it. It is inside my pocket," he gritted through his teeth.
The whitehaired man let go of his grip, but still keeping the gun close to Deans' head while he let his free hand slide down the teachers' jacked and into one of his pockets. Henderson's' face broke into a grin as he took hold on his prize and pulled it out to look at it. "At last, I have the final thing I need to fulfill my part of the deal," Henderson proclaimed satisfied to himself as he stared at the arrowhead, "Now I will finally see and learn about other worlds that I have desired for so long." Then he put it in his own pocked and spoke to Will and Susan, "I want you two to stand back and no more hocus pocus from you. I will keep your father here close to me and if you do anything again…, I guess you know the rest… Now move backwards!"
Will and Susan walked back a few steps until Henderson thought it was far enough. Still, the only light that made any of them able to see came from the flashlight Susan was holding and the doctor clearly wanted to have some light so he could see. When they stopped the basement fell silent, only the nervous breathing from Dean could be heard. Then the doctor decided to speak;
"Hey creature," he spoke into the dark, "Come forth and do as I say."
It was still for a moment when nothing happened, then Will saw a fog-like shadow, soundless approaching the outskirts of the light rim. The grim figure did not want to step fully into the light.
"If I have understood you correctly," he began, "You need half of the sealing objects to be broken in order to create a portal back to your own world, but all of them must be broken to make you whole and thereby able to go through it yourself."
At the border between the dim light and the overwhelming darkness of the basement the creature slowly came forth, while its eternal and hideous grin stretched even wider.
"I have brought with me five of the objects tonight, the others I have hidden on a secret place that I will not reveal for you yet. I will break them if you open a portal and let me pass through it and see what's on the other side. If I get what I want, I will release more of you in the future. Do we have our deal?"
The creature nodded again and black fog followed the heads' movement.
"However," he said and stared down at Dean, ", I cannot destroy the objects as I am currently busy keeping this guy in close company. Therefore I want you to break them," and looked directly at Will.
"I would never," Will began.
"Oh, for your fathers' sake, I bet you would," Henderson said, and to demonstrate he pressed the gun muzzle at Deans' head.
Before Will could respond, Henderson stuck his free hand in a pocket on his jacket, took up a small bag, and threw it over to Will together with the arrowhead he had in his hand.
"Now, open it," he said.
Will caught them and opened the little leather bag and took a look at the content. There was a handful of tiny objects; two other arrowheads of iron, a piece of ceramic formed like a bear and two small animal bones. Together with the third arrowhead, this made up half of the original twelve artifacts. She examined each of them closely, then she looked up and took a glance at Dean. His clothes were torn in many places and his wounds were still bleeding and would need to be treated as soon as possible. From his head came a red strip of fresh blood and she hoped it wasn't from anything serious. The rest of his body probably also hurt after being dragged through half of the basement. To make thing worse, Henderson seemed not to be one of those who only came up with empty threats. He had already sacrificed several people to the gruesome creature so he would likely not go easy on Dean if she refused to do as he said. Will closed her eyes and clutched her hand around the objects letting her instinct take over as she guided a stream of magic from her hand into the artifacts. A bright light appeared, quickly followed by a sharp crack and Will opened her eyes again. She reached out her hand and opened it to reveal its broken content.
"Yes finally" Henderson cried and stared eagerly at the creature, "Now it is your turn."
But the creature didn't respond, it stood frozen and unmovable like a gothic statue from a long abounded graveyard. The doctor seemed to be taken back when he didn't get the anticipated reaction from it. Will on the other side, being sensible to magic, felt something sinister start to happening. The feeling however, was not the familiar she got when somebody opened a portal or made something out of ordinary magic, but rather something of dark power.
Then to her horror, the flashlight started to flicker. On and off….
"What's going on," Will thought and looked from the creature to the old man and then around herself before her eyes fell back at the creature. Something was wrong, the feeling of terror she had suppressed earlier came back with full force when her mind started giving her images of what would come lurking in the dark when the last light was gone. As if somebody suddenly had turned on a horror movie, she started to imagine of how the creature would silently sneak up at them in the dark, one at a time. Letting its cold claws close around their neck and slice it open, or maybe it would mutilate but not entirely kill them, leaving them broken and helpless without hope here inside the desolated asylum where no one would ever find them.
"The darkness feels so suffocating, I can hardly breathe. What shall I do?"
She watched the creature come closer and closer to Henderson and his hostage each time the light flickered. "No stop! Must focus." Will thought sternly to herself, "think!"
Around her, the people reacted their own way to the unexpected turn of events. Susan who was standing beside her had frozen in fear and her breathing became irregular when each breath sounded like choking. Her little brother had hidden behind Susan and was equally afraid and got tears in his eyes but dared not to make the slightest noise. Henderson, who also understood that something was wrong shouted in vain at the creature, demanding to get an answer from the mute being for why it didn't do as he said. Dean who had the gun pointed at him made tiny but still noticeable movements with his body each time the light went out, trying to get in a flight position.
"What should I do, the creature comes closer every time the light go off." Will thought as she watched the events unfold in front of her. "Every time the light goes off, wait a minute, maybe if I could…"
"Woman," Henderson suddenly turned his attention to Susan, "Get your light working, and you," he addressed the grinning monster that came ever closer, "Stop doing whatever you plan and do as I say or else you will be trapped here for all eternity."
The grinning creature just looked back at the old man as if it was mocking him. Then completely unexpected, the creature let a hand slip into a rift on the ragged clothing on its body and pulled out a rotten bag that was made of the same kind of material as its clothes. And with great flexibility the claw-like fingers peeled off the string that kept it closed, revealing its hidden treasure.
Henderson's eyes bulged at what he saw, "Impossible" he said hoarsely, this time with fear creeping into his voice.
In a bag of dark grey, resting on the creatures hand was the six remaining artifacts.
Broken.
The eerie sound of clicking teeth sounded like thunder in their ears, then the light flickered a final time and everything went black…
"Nononono not again," Will thought and tried desperately to summon light from her hands again. But to no avail, only a few sparks appeared but died almost as quickly as she made them.
"Will," she heard her mother whisper with a voice so scared that Will though she had begun to cry, and Will knew she probably wasn't faring much better herself.
"Light, I need light, any sort of light. But how can I protect mom and Dean, when can't I summon anything."
Will was becoming desperate. Every second felt like an eternity when she didn't know what was happening around her or what to do to save her loved ones when her powers finally, like an answer from above the solution came to her, "Of course," she thought."I have one light that will always shine, no matter how dark it is." The teenage girl stretched out her hand to the darkness and spoke out loud, "Heart of Kandrakar, please give us your light."
The Heart materialized in her hand and its heavenly bright and multicolored light filled the basement and Will felt a wave of a familiar and lovingly power rush through her, washing away every doubt and fear she ever had. She could see again and every object around became visible, books, chairs, bags and who knew what. Light made by pure and ancient magic made sure no room was dark. The shadows that naturally would have formed elsewhere disappeared when light filled every locked chest, every box and smallest inch in the old basement. Susan, Dean and Henderson stared at the Heart with its unparalleled beauty that none of them had seen before and Will felt truly strong. However, the creature who in the dark had gotten dangerously close to the two men, shrank in stature and turned around to hide its face from the illustrious light.
In just a moment, less than a second, everything had turned around. Will with her wings now unfold to their greatest extent, spoke in all her ethereal glory to the people in the fullest authority she held as a guardian of all universes.
"Now it is time to put an end to all this horror. This creature do not belong to this world, it was summoned long ago by people with ill wills, and its staying here has caused nothing but pain, misery and death to those who have been unfortunately enough to meet it. And you!" She turned sternly to the doctor. "By collecting the artifacts that holds the creature in order to use its power for your own, and discarding every human life in the process, are also guilty. Both of you will come with me to Kandrakar where you must answer for your actions."
The old man was speechless as he saw the fairy woman floating weightless half a meter over the floor without beating her wings, and in her outstretched hand holding the illustrious Heart that radiated enormous power. Not only had he miscalculated the creature's actions but he had also gravely underestimated Will's might. This was going to cost him dearly.
The vile creature however, had other plans. It opened its mouth and let out an ear-deafening scream that struck deep into the bones of those who heard it. But it wasn't an attack. Not far away from the creature, Will sensed the air started to shift and shadows of magic began making a hole in the air that took shape of a portal. The purpose of it was immediate clear for Will, and it was not to give Henderson a guided tour in the creatures' home world.
Will acted quickly and before it could escape, she let the Heart levitate in the air, flew over and attacked the corpse looking creature, throwing it so hard against the wall that any lesser being would have broken to pieces against it. But knowing it could take vastly more than the fragile body should indicate, she also sent a bolt of lightning and magic to strike it, and this time with far more power than she had used until now. The sheer light of her blast illuminated the entire basement and blinded everyone except herself.
As the light slowly dimmed, she saw the creature lying completely still against the wall with several of its limbs pointing in unnatural directions and the portal it made began to shrink.
"NO!" Screamed Henderson as he watched it fade, "I refuse to let it slip away from me now after all these years. Not so close!" He forgot all about Dean and the others and ran towards it.
"Stop," Will shouted, but the old man ignored her command and before she could do anything to stop him, he made a jump that was quite impressive for someone at his age and dived into the shrinking portal.
"You don't know what lies on the other side," Will continued, but it was too late. The portal closed behind him in the next moment, leaving Will and her parents alone with the creature.