The forest was black as a sunless cave. Air didn't move there, nor did water flow. It had more in common with the stones buried deep below than with the green beyond the thicket. That place might have stayed that way for a thousand years to come, had those girls not ventured there that late summer night.
The first sign of their intrusion came with a glow. It was an orange light that didn't belong. With it, two young girls came tumbling out; one eleven, and the other ten. It took them a few steps before their feet would stop, as if they'd been shoved.
The older girl was a gorgeous golden blonde with naturally wavy hair. She wore a long black robe with the hood drawn over her head, still creased from the store. Beneath it peeked her turquoise blouse and sandy brown skirt. The girl stood tall, elegant, and kept her chin high.
The younger girl beside her was clutching herself with a shiver. She was a piggish looking girl. Not chubby, but round-faced and red nosed. Surrounding that face was unkempt brunette hair and brutish bushy brows. Unlike the other, she was dressed far more plainly, suspenders with dirty cuffs that draped over an off-white sweater. A line of mucus ran down her nostril and into her lip.
Their light was from a lantern, held by the piggish looking girl. She lifted it, searching. Her top lip fell within her bottom and sucked her runny nose down. There was a gloom about her, a worried concern that the other girl didn't share.
"Are you done pouting?" the brunette mumbled. "I wanna go home. We'll get kidnapped out here, or eaten by wolves."
"Pouting?" the elegant one said. Her narrowing eyes looked the other down displeased. "I never asked you to follow me, Luanne. If a bit of dark wood frightens you, then please, by all means cower beneath your covers."
Luanne grumbled. She was all too familiar with those kinds of nights. That pretty golden sister of hers would often wander somewhere dangerous after a fight with their mother. Luanne always felt compelled to keep an eye on her, and so there she was. However, on this particular night Luanne's tolerance for the girl was thin at best.
"Fine… Won't get far without a light, and I'm not leaving it for you," Luanne said with a sigh. She figured the stubborn girl would have no choice but to follow her back.
She couldn't help her jaw falling limp when it failed. The wavy haired blonde had already moved on from Luanne. In her hand was a finely carved stick with an embossed handle.
"Light-bulb," she said calmly.
There was nothing for a moment, and Luanne shook her head. Then, a flicker, and a glow that stayed. A grin emerged across the blonde's face, star struck by her own feat. Luanne couldn't hide her amusement either, much as she wished she could. A tiny luminescent shape grew from the wand's tip that looked like an onion.
"Didn't think I depended on your muggle fire, did you? Silly little girl. You've forgotten your sister is none other than Pendula Ruth Lockhart, the magnificent and beautiful witch."
"Haven't forgotten," Luanne mumbled. "How could I, when you announce it seven times a day?"
Pendula had already gone deeper. Luanne pouted her lip and sunk into a feeble ball on the ground. The lantern sat beside her, creating a small sphere of safety. A part of her wanted Pendula to run into trouble, something horrible that would give the blonde a rude awakening.
But that thought grew weaker as Pendula's light grew fainter, farther. The girl left by lantern light clutched an emerging bruise on her cheek, a reminder of how she really felt. Somehow Pendula was worth the welt, even if Luanne didn't understand why anymore.
The distance between Pendula and the thicket grew. A creeping feeling came over Luanne that brought her a shiver. Pendula really could vanish. That soundless void of a forest could swallow anything up, a lone little girl had no chance.
It was a familiar fear. One that gripped Luanne when she learned her sister would be going far away to a mysterious school.
The lantern's light moved and swayed in her hand. The piggish girl sprung to her feet too quickly and nearly fell forward. Her light was twice as bright as Pendula's wand, and exposed the forest twice as well.
That dark place didn't like such a bright thing. It feared to be revealed. As if in response, an icy wind came over Luanne that snuffed out her light. Total darkness prevailed over the little girl, and with it the terror of night. Whatever dangers awaited Pendula, they now included Luanne.
Pat, pat, pat. Thud. Pendula made a gasp that would have turned into a shriek, if not for what her eyes found. Her slightly smaller sister clung to her sleeve like a girl half her age. Luanne looked so tiny beneath her sister's arm.
Step by step, the two ventured further into night. Pendula's mood had turned around, and she was now enjoying the midnight hike. Each step was a step further from home, after all.
"Well, alright. I suppose you can tag along," Pendula said, but truthfully she wouldn't have had the nerves to go much further alone.
"Can't you make it brighter? That bulb's so dim, we'll walk into a bear and not know it," Luanne mumbled.
Pendula clenched her wand and strained her body with all her will. The light dimmed and glowed, but settled as faintly as before.
Luanne mumbled again, "Some magic that is. You'll rule the world at this-"
"-You know, Luanne," Pendula interrupted in a frantic pitch. "Grandmother told me we have an uncle who's already at Hogwarts. Gregory... or Gideon? She said everyone stops to stare when he walks into a room, muttering to one another in awe. Think they'll do the same for me?"
"Mother says our uncle's a liar," Luanne said softly.
The mention of that woman had really upset Pendula. She shook her sister's hand away and marched a few paces ahead.
Then came Pendula's words on the matter, "I really don't care what mother thinks. She's a jealous nasty squib, and you know what? The world will remember my name. She could die and nobody would notice she'd lived."
"What about me? Would you notice if I'd died?"
"Dear, I hope not. Lu, the happiest part about getting that letter was knowing I'd never have to suffer you again."
They both stopped their feet. An awkward pause stayed, made worse by the lack of any noise around them. The same piercing feeling stabbed at each of their hearts. Pendula bit her lip and quietly groaned.
"I didn't-"
"-yes you did…" Luanne curtailed. "You didn't need a wand to start thinking you were better than everyone. I've suffered you too, Pen. It's been a burden, standing up when you keep shoving me down."
Pendula's throat trembled, she was teary and choking on her words. "You sound just like her, you know? Never letting me feel proud about anything, always finding flaws to prod at... never letting me dream. Well, guess what? I kept dreaming, and which of us got a letter? I'm going somewhere none of you can follow, and I'll never look back."
A light overhead emerged. It was a full moon that had come out from behind a cloud. While the trees behind them remained dark as night, the clearing they stood in was revealed. It was lifelessly gray, a world without color.
The space between those girls remained. Pendula stared at Luanne awaiting a snide reply, but Luanne stayed silent and looked at her feet. The brunette fumbled with her clothes timidly and sucked up some mucus.
"I know why you do it, why you're like mother. You're ugly, untalented, unremarkable, just like her. You're jealous, Lu, wishing people like uncle and I fail at every step. Well, we won't."
Luanne dropped into a ball. Her arms squeezed her thighs tight so that her face was buried beneath.
The fury that had overtaken Pendula subsided and she became calm. She straightened her robe and turned her back to Luanne. Facing her now was an unexpected bridge.
It was stone, but shaped like a hollowed trunk of a tree. Twisted branches raised like a dangerous guard rail on either side. It covered a massive chasm that fell deeper than the moonlight could penetrate, and led to a grand pillar of rock that stood in the middle.
That stone. It was weathered by more than the elements. Dozens of outcroppings littered its surface, little figures with snuffed candles in their clutches. Ropes limply wrapped around like a ribbon on a festive tree. There were even ornaments of long paper draped windless from dark holes in the surface.
It was a place that tried to look pretty, but didn't quite succeed.
Pendula stepped forward. She waited at the head of the bridge with a nervous tremble, then took a deep breath.
"Lu..." she whispered.
She stared down at the bulb on the end of her wand. Its shell of leaves had withered down to an unbloomed bud, and then it fell without glow.
Luanne remained still, though her ears were perked. Nothing more came from Pendula. The blonde bolted down the gnarled and knotted bridge of rock. Her feet carried her with ease, as if some force aided her approach.
Luanne didn't even peek from her knees. A piggish snort escaped her nose and she pressed her thighs into her ribs.
Each step Pendula took came back to Luanne's ears. It echoed off the chasm walls, the only sound in that silent forest. She begged the noise to stop, but it wouldn't. It penetrated the shell she made with her body like nothing else could.
Clack, clack, clack.
"Just disappear already…" Luanne muttered.
Clack, clack, clack.
She held her eyes shut. "Go away. I don't ever want to see you again."
Clack, clack…
"Haa..." came a voice.
Luanne sprain from her ball, forward onto her knees and wrists. The air began to chill, like when the lantern had gone out.
"Can't be helped, haa…" it came again. "Mother always gets what she wants, right Lu?"
Luanne's head jolted back. There was someone there, resting on their knees beneath a black cloak that light couldn't illuminate. A girl a few years older than Luanne, or at least something that resembled one. Her face peeked between thick bundles of hair as dark as the cloak. It was uncannily white and without a hint of detail. Between the whites of her eyes were two voids of darkness that mimicked the depths below the bridge.
She stretched forward over Luanne. The petrified girl went pale beneath her.
"Has she seen Lu? Hmm…." the older girl said. There was hardly a hint of an interior behind her colorless lips. "Mother won't notice, no... Not if this one keeps it quiet. Haaa…"
A grin covered the freakish girl's face, but it didn't remind Luanne of a smile. Rather, it held the same intention as a serpent approaching prey.
Clack, clack, clack.
They weren't Pendula's steps, she'd stopped at the end of the bridge. They came at twice the frequency that Pendula's had. The blonde girl had been trapped in her thoughts and hadn't noticed. She wondered if she'd been too harsh, and considered turning back.
"Oh Lu…" she whispered to herself. Then she shook her head. "No, I'm finished with their lot."
"P-Pendula!" Luanne shouted, a terrible tremble in her voice.
"Luanne?" Pendula said, and she turned right around.
Her vision was engulfed by that piggish girl. Snot dangled over her nose, and tears streamed down her cheeks. Pendula had barely a moment to take it in before their noses collided. They met with a thunderous thud, and together they collapsed.
Their bodies traveled through a curtain and down a stairway on the other side. Their bodies separated, tumbling independently, but rolling all the same. Thud after painful thud, they fell down those steps.
The blonde rolled to a stop on flat ground, the brunette didn't.
Splat.
It was horrible, wet, with a crunch.
Pendula jolted from the floor. Pain tore through her arms as they held her, but her mind was too busy to process it. Her messy head twisted back and forth with wide scanning eyes. There she was. Luanne's face was pressed against a stone and her arms dangled lifelessly down with palms facing up. Her back was poised up, bent in the way it shouldn't, and her legs were sprawled.
"Lu?" Pendula called out.
The empty air felt heavier with each breath Pendula took, each moment that Luanne remained still. Darkness filled Luanne's face. Blood, black under that colorless moonlight. It pooled beneath her, then made its way down the remaining steps.
"No…" Pendula whispered.
The young witch crawled. Her palms became stained with her sister's life as she approached the motionless girl. When she got close enough, she turned her upright and cradled Luanne.
"Please, Lu… I didn't mean it. I take it back," she said.
Then she pressed her cheek against the other girl's. It was warm, and a faint heartbeat still pulsed. Alive, unlike anything that resembled that place.
"Luanne? Wake up, it's me!" There was panic in Pendula's voice.
The girl's lips twitched, and then she swallowed. "Pendula. You're a jerk."
Pendula kissed her sister's lips before she could say more. When their heads separated, Luanne's eyes opened. It took her a few blinks before her vision cleared. When it had, her face filled with fright. It was standing there, right behind Pendula.
It wasn't the same girl as before, but a tall woman about six feet in height. Besides that, she was nearly identical to the girl who'd given Luanne a fright, right down to the colorless lips, though she differed just enough to be distinguishable. Details like the horribly long hair on her head that draped evenly on either side like frayed curtains.
"Ahh…." said the woman. "Still alive, is she? Pen-du-la?"
She startled Pendula. The blonde's gaze met the woman's voids in an instant.
"Good, haa…." the woman added. "Unspoiled. Mother won't mind, then. Won't be unpleasant. Right, Pen-du-laaa?"
The woman's face contorted into a wide grin that didn't hold much emotion. Pendula pulled Luanne close and shuffled away.
"Hmmmm…." the woman purred with amusement.
"Stay back!" Pendula shouted, and she drew her wand.
It wasn't a weapon she knew how to handle, but it was the only one she had. To her relief, just brandishing it had an effect. The woman's smile disappeared at the sight of it and she shuddered slightly.
"Ooohhh, scary," she said. It sounded sarcastic, but it was difficult to tell with such a strange person.
The smile she'd worn had eased its return.
"Witch…" the woman said.
"That's right!" Pendula said with enthusiasm. "And, if you lay a finger on my sister, I'll… I'll…"
She didn't know what. The young witch had spent many nights engrossed in her school books. It was a whole world opened up to her. Every fact interested her, and every spell fascinated her. However, under that colorless moonlight before that uncanny pale woman, all of that seemed to mean nothing.
It could have been fiction, an elaborate charade. Pendula hadn't stepped foot in Hogwarts, for all she knew her mother might have been right. That condescending voice, the denial that Pendula was anything at all, it could simply have been the truth.
Her wand lowered, as did her chin.
She was Pendula Ruth Lockhart. A pretentious little girl who had to lie and boast to make friends. A girl who's charming confidence and talent was a fantasy, a fabrication she'd conjured up in her dreams, just to imagine a world where she wasn't living under a mother who hated her.
Nothing, and nobody.
"Pen-du-la?" the woman said. There was worry in her tone.
The woman's long black cloak wrapped around the two girls as she knelt. Overly long sleeves poked out from the cloak's front and fell between her thighs. Her eyes had narrowed, and she had a sorry look.
"Haa…." the woman sighed. "Pen-du-la, very special witch. Know that?"
"Yeah?" Pendula mumbled.
"Yesssssss…" she hissed. "And, came to offer the little piggy. Good girl. Worthy girl."
"Offer? You mean Luanne? To whom? Or to what?"
The tall woman crept away so that Pendula could see behind her. Luanne's blood had flowed down the remaining steps, and down to a large circular hole. It was where Pendula had rolled. She had been only inches from tumbling in. Inside was darkness, the same from the voids of the tall woman's eyes, impenetrable by the moonlight above.
Pendula looked all around her. That place they were in was like a stepped bowl. Lining the top was a ring of stones that were reminiscent of the famous stonehenge. Directly above was that circular moon in a starless black sky, the inversion of where they sat.
The girl's eyes fell back down to that dark pit. It felt as if it were a massive eye that stared back, longing for her to enter.
"Offer to mother, haaa….." the woman sighed again.
An icy shiver came over Pendula and goosebumps grew on her skin. "No…" she said.
The woman's worry vanished, replaced by a disappointed glare. "No? Mother will be unpleasant, Pen-du-la. Don't say no."
"No…" Pendula repeated. Her eyes stared into Luanne's. The bloody girl in her lap had a pleading look that she couldn't deny. "I won't give her away. She's my sister."
"Ha," the woman laughed without a grin. "Jealous, muggle, could die and never know she lived. Unpleasant, like mother. Right, Pen-du-laaa?"
Pendula clutched Luanne tighter. She'd wished she'd never said those things.
"But, I…" Pendula started.
The woman crept closer, still on her knees.
There was an urge in the back of Pendula's mind that grew stronger. It was a terrifying urge, born from the part of her that said those horrible things. Every thought of Pendula's focused on squashing it down before it could rise. It was the urge to throw that pain-of-a-sister down that hole where light couldn't go.
"...I still love her," she finished.
The woman stopped. Another mood surfaced, sorrow.
"You understand, don't you? To lose my sister, that's awful. I wouldn't want that." Pendula's words were for herself as much as for the woman.
"hmmm…" the woman hummed, and then she flinched. "But… Pen-du-la, you did. Said so yourself."
"P-please, Pen," Luanne muttered half consciously. "Help me, please. It hurts."
A plea from Luanne.
It broke Pendula's mind. Coldness swept through her body. The girl in Pendula's arms looked to her like a baby begging for its mother. A swell of panic rose in the young witch's throat, and she swallowed it down.
Clack, clack, clack.
Escape. That's the path she chose. Pendula couldn't have run faster, even if she'd let go of Luanne's hand. Luanne bounced and bobbed, nearly tumbling with each step, but she was kept balanced by Pendula's momentum.
Up those steps they went. Then to the edge of the stone ring. There was only the bridge between them and the forest, but it was a formidable obstacle. That sea of bottomless darkness below seemed to taunt the girl, just as the ominous hole had. To fall from the bridge would certainly yield the same result.
"Go, Pen," said Luanne.
It gave the young witch enough courage to brave the crossing. Her feet started forward, clacking on the hard stone. She focused solely on the other end, imagining herself back in bed with Luanne by her side.
That vision vanished. A person had stepped into view. It was a figure. A girl, as pale as the tall woman. She was blocking the opposite end of the bridge and grinning. Luanne's feet planted and her arm tugged Pendula back. The sudden stop nearly took them over the edge.
Pendula glanced at her sister, and the horror stretched across Luanne's face told her enough. That girl was dangerous. Pendula's eyes drifted up, finding the tall woman standing at the opposite entrance. They were boxed in.
"Going somewhere, Lu?" said the girl.
Hearing her voice confirmed what Luanne had feared. She was the ghoulish girl who'd spooked her.
"We can't, Pendula. She'll eat us!" Luanne warned.
There wasn't much of a choice. It was either face the girl, or go back to something far worse. Pendula drew her wand. The ghoulish girl's shoulders quivered at the sight despite her unbroken grin. Pendula released Luanne's hand and marched forward with conviction in her stride.
"Wait here, Lu. I'll deal with this," Pendula said.
Dozens more heads began poking out of the forest. They all looked so similar, pale with pitch-black hair and eyes. Most were children younger than even Luanne. Others were older. All had their eyes glued to Pendula.
The blonde witch came to a stop with a stomp and her wand arm pointed their way. It panicked them into hiding once more, all but the one who blocked the bridge. She kept on grinning.
The ghoulish girl looked past Pendula and Luanne, out towards the tower of stone they'd come from. She took one step onto the foot of the bridge and a restless murmur ran out from the forest. The hiding girls muttered warnings at the braver one, but her confidence didn't wane.
The girl moved further onto the bridge. Rather than clacking, her bare feet made no noise. The voids of her eyes maintained contact with Pendula, taunting her to fall into them. When she came close, she leaned to one side to peer at Luanne.
"Lu's quite a burden. Isn't she, Pen? Haa…." she sighed.
Goosebumps surfaced on Pendula's skin, but she kept herself together.
The ghoul continued on. "Could take her off your shoulders. What a deal. I'm hungry too, you know? Such an unpleasant girl, just like mother."
The chorus of concern reverberated from the forest. "Greedy," they all repeated out of sync. They seemed more worried about stirring up something worse than Pendula.
The pale girl on the bridge paid them no mind. She reached a hand out towards Luanne, but Pendula pressed her wand against the girl's chest.
"Don't even think about laying a hand on her, filth," said Pendula sternly.
"Ha. Ha ha." It was a terrible laugh. The girl was amused rather than intimidated. "Ahhh…. Because, you'll make me suffer if I do? Haaa…."
The ghoulish girl pulled one of her arms out from beneath her cloak. In her hand was a common twig. She thrust it forward, pressing it into Pendula so that she'd back away. The end of it began to glow. It grew in size, developing a luminescent flower.
"Of course, Pen. We're witches too. Did you know that? Haa…"
It was a worst case scenario for Pendula. She'd counted on the threat of what she might be capable of far more than what she actually could do. This ghoul wouldn't be intimidated by such things, a girl unafraid of danger. There was nothing Pendula could do to protect Luanne.
She giggled at Pendula and gave her the twig. Guessing that Pendula no longer had the spine to intervene, she brushed herself past and towards Luanne. Luanne backed away nervously, but the girl closed in faster. Her icy hands clamped down on Luanne's shoulders and pulled her close.
"Greedy!" the chorus from the forest repeated. Their concern had turned to jealousy.
Pendula couldn't watch. She shook with self loathing, nearly crying. Just as the ghoul was about to bite down on Luanne, a hurricane of wind came upon them. The stone bridge swayed as if it were wooden, and the three girls scrambled for something to grip.
When the wind subsided, a horrible voice echoed from the tower of rock.
"Haaaaaaugh…" it cried.
As soon as it came, the pale girl grabbed Luanne.
"Pen!" Luanne cried, but Pendula's mind was moving far too slow.
The ghoul sprinted off with the pig-faced girl over her shoulder, out into the darkness of the forest.
"Lu…" Pendula moaned, and she started after the girl.
When she reached the edge of the forest a loud boom bellowed from deep beneath them. From the bottomless pit another hurricane thrust upwards. It tore away the thousands of papers that adorned the pillar, revealing a horrible sight.
Hanging bodies, strung up by their necks. There were thousands of them, all as pale as the girl they'd met. Oddly, none showed even a hint of decomposition. They were preserved as if they'd only just died. The morbid decor swayed, and that long horrible noise came again.
"Haaaaaaaaaaaugh…"
The tall woman emerged from the top of the pillar. She was backing away from something, and by her posture she must have been afraid of it. Pendula certainly didn't want to meet whatever it was. It gave her the same dread the deep dark hole gave her.
"Run, Pen," came a voice.
"Mother won't be pleasant," came another.
Pendula realized those many pale girls were above her, clinging to branches in the trees. A jolt of shock ran through her, remembering that Luanne had been stolen away by that dangerous girl. She lifted her robe and hurried deeper into the forest.
The twigs of bushes bit at her skin like the thicket had. Retreating from the forest was like resisting rows of serrated teeth. She was swallowed up by total darkness until a light emerged in the distance. She rushed to it, having a strong feeling that it was meant for her.
Sure enough, that pale girl was waiting for her, another glowing flower sitting in her hand. Luanne was held tight in her other arm.
"Sorry, couldn't stay there. Mother was getting jealous. Haaa…"
She tossed the flower up and it stayed in the air. A hundred more glowing petals joined it, like the stars that should have been there. Pendula's heartbeat was irregular as she approached. The girl stretched a toad-like-grin across her face and raised a palm in Pendula's direction.
"Afraid of me, Pen? I'll let you go, you know? Just gotta leave nasty ol' Lu behind. Haa…"
Pendula met Luanne's begging eyes. She couldn't cower, not like on the bridge. She was Pendula Ruth Lockhart, and she was going to save her sister.
"No, I don't-"
Whack.
Pendula slid on her back across the ground. The girl had done some magic with the wave of her hand. A glowing blue symbol faded, a trace of where her finger had moved.
The blonde tried to get up, but a weight on her chest prevented her from moving. When she focused, the faint image of something's jaws could be seen. They held her down, but didn't bite.
The pale girl moved over Pendula. She clasped Luanne's bloody face and forced the girl to stare into the voids of her eyes.
"Not a good sister, is she Lu? Can't protect you. Can't save you from a thing like me."
"Pendula, please! I don't wanna die!" Luanne cried out.
The young witch was reduced to tears beneath those magical teeth. She was helpless, useless, worthless, everything her mother told her she was. An unremarkable girl from an unremarkable family.
"Ahh!" Luanne screamed.
Pendula widened her eyes. The pale girl had bitten into the base of Luanne's neck. Fresh blood mixed with darker dried blood. The moment lasted an eternity for Pendula. Her face drained until it was as pale as the ghoul's. Her jaw hung low as if gasping for air. Luanne's agony swept across from one shoulder to the other.
That unimportant muggle girl that Pendula so wished to leave behind was about to be left.
Luanne was dying before her eyes.
She couldn't leave her.
Boom.
The pale girl and Luanne separated with a burst, the former sent flying a dozen paces away. Pendula had risen, her shackles destroyed, and her wand pointed fiercely in the ghoul's direction. She uttered no spell, she didn't know many to begin with. The girl's mind had reached its shatterpoint. Nothing needed to be said, for the girl's intent was clear as water to the wand in her hand.
Luanne fell to her knees, and the pale girl staggered back in surprise. The ghoul stared down Pendula's wand as a glowing bud grew on its end. It swelled in size until it was larger than the girl who cast it, and then it burst open to reveal a flower as bright as the sun.
Everything was revealed. The hundred girls hiding in the trees around them shrieked and covered their eyes. The braver one who'd kidnapped Luanne was brave no more, recoiling with the same horror as the others.
The light focused on the pale girl and the world went white around her. In the first second a thousand sparks ignited the forest in a funnel, petals from the wand shooting like scalding cuts from razors. In the next, the unfortunate ghoul was washed away in waves of white. The little lights she'd placed above them were replaced by petals from Pendula.
The young witch stepped back and dropped to the ground, she had lost her breath and struggled to reclaim it. Her wand had gone back to normal, and the thousands of flower petals slowly drifted down like falling snow. She blinked, and noticed Luanne's shallow breaths. The girl was sitting nearby and clutching the wound on her neck.
"I'm… not gonna make it, Pen," she said.
Pendula crawled over and pointed her wand at Luanne's neck. She tried to think of a spell that might heal the wound, but she could tell it was far too serious for her to handle. Any attempt would more likely result in further harm. Slowly, she lowered her wand, as well as her face.
"It's okay," said Luanne. "You were never any good at saving me anyway."
The words stung Pendula. She always hated Luanne's honesty. The witch was once again reminded of how much Luanne resembled their mother, a joyless woman.
"Suppose you got your wish. You don't gotta suffer me." Her voice had lowered bitterly.
"Well fine, good riddance," Pendula moaned with tears.
There was no reply. The two girls stared at each other with a mixture of confused emotions. It wasn't at all how they wanted things to end, but they struggled to find the words to mend it. Luanne broke down first, then Pendula followed. They wept like lost toddlers and fumbled over each other in an awkward embrace.
"...don't want you to leave, Pen…" Luanne muttered weakly.
"What? What do you mean?"
"...Stay home."
Then Luanne didn't speak again. Her hand fell from her neck limply and her last breath eased its way out. Pendula wept over her. The young witch clutched her sister's body as if it were a pillow to bury her pain into.
"Haa…" came a shaking sigh.
Pendula shot her head up. She had to wipe the tears from her face to see clearly. When she had, she saw the pale girl standing before her. Her white limbs were now blistered black and red, and blood had stained her tattered clothes. The grin on her face looked as if it were barely held on, straining to hide the agony behind it.
Pendula was too exhausted from casting her spell to fight the pale girl. She tried to tug Luanne, but with her arms aching, the girl was far too heavy to move.
"Go away!" Pendula shouted with sobs.
"Ahhh… Pen, it's no good. Lu's spoiled. Poor Lu."
"No!"
The pale girl cackled painfully. "That's alright. Don't mind them spoiled, not like mother. Haa… Unpleasant. Mother will be unpleasant. Better run, Pen."
"Haaaaaaaaugh…" rang from some far off place.
Pendula shivered. The image of that stone pillar reemerged; the dozens of hanged bodies that adorned it, the dark hole at its center that reminded her of their eyes, and the haunting cry that even the ghoulish girls feared to hear. Mother.
The young blonde witch hadn't noticed when she'd begun to run. Her legs seemed to move on their own, bounding with clumsy steps in what she could only guess was the way out. She wailed as she fled. Cowardice, weakness. Pendula's mind called her these things, hating her for abandoning Luanne's body to that creature, abandoning her because she was a scared child too afraid to face whatever monster they called mother.
The girl's mind continued to berate her. It was filled with the voice of her own mother and her vicious words. Eventually the toll was too great to bear, and Pendula fell to her knees in hysterics. She cradled into a ball on the ground and stayed there.
Pendula had gone far out of sight of the pale girl, who now hungrily examined Luanne. She sniffed the dead girl and played with her face like a toy.
"Haa…" she sighed, then prepared to take a bite with saliva leaking from her lips.
Though, that bite would never come. Just as her jaws came over the girl's shoulders, a hand clasped her ankle. It hoisted her upside down and she scrambled in the air like a cat. She gave up struggling after a few seconds and stared at her captor. It was the tall woman, and she wore a face of disgust. The pale girl was tossed like a common pest and she scurried away.
The tall woman knelt down and placed Luanne in her lap. She embraced the body from behind and stared down with her hair curtaining the girl.
"Wake up, Lu," she said.
Slowly, but surely, Luanne's eyelids moved. They blinked moisture over her dry eyeballs so that they could move again. The tall woman's upside down face made up most of what she could see. For some reason it didn't invoke fear. Rather, Luanne felt comfortable in the woman's lap.
"Am I… alive?" she asked.
The tall woman shook her head with a gloomy look.
"Then how…"
"Caught. Stuck in mother's web. Haa…"
Luanne sunk between her shoulders. She didn't understand it all, but she gathered enough. That lifeless forest was more than just trees. It was a trap, a spiderweb for souls. Now the spider was ready to collect her.
"That mother of yours, are you going to feed me to her now?"
The tall woman stroked her head sympathetically.
"Sorry, Lu… Mother is unpleasant. Won't like it spoiled, but might not be cruel if we hurry."
Luanne noticed something new on the woman's face, a red blister on her cheek.
"Did she hit you?" Luanne asked.
The tall woman gave Luanne a curious look. She brushed the bruise with her hand and nodded.
"Mine too," Luanne said, then brushed her own bruise beneath the blood. "She's pretty unpleasant as well. You know what the last thing she said was?"
The woman waited eagerly to hear.
"She'd told Pendula that once she left for Hogwarts, not to come back. That she only had one daughter now, and couldn't wait to never see Pendula again."
Luanne winced remembering it all.
"Pendula stormed out. I went to go after her, and mother said not to bother. She wanted me to leave her things outside the door and forget she ever existed."
"Haaugh…" a soft mournful sigh.
"That's when I got this bruise. I told her I'd rather disappear too, and she didn't like that. Sometimes you gotta stand up to mothers… to protect your family."
The woman curled over Luanne so that her breath touched the girl's head. She wrapped her arms around and cuddled her tightly.
"Lu… Good girl. Haa…"
The tall woman pulled out Luanne's lantern from under her cloak. She'd been holding onto it since she scared Luanne away from it. She held her hand out to catch the last glowing petal from Pendula's wand as it fell, then placed it into the lantern's basin. It ignited brilliantly.
A ways away, the pale girl searched around. After snatching Luanne and spoiling her, she knew she would be lucky to survive mother's wrath. She needed something to offer in apology. Eventually she found Pendula curled pathetically on the ground and prodded her with her foot.
"Come on, Pen. Mother's waiting."
Pendula allowed herself to rise to her knees. She kept her eyes low, not needing to see her to know it was the pale girl. She hadn't the will to make her own choices, so when her blistered white hand held out to her, she took it.
The two walked hand in hand, one behind the other. The trees and earth silently moved apart, creating a clearer path to the pillar of stone. Luanne's death had left Pendula without a will. Whatever fate awaited her, she accepted without resistance.
"Got greedy, Haa… hope Pen's enough to make mother forget. Might not be too cruel. Right, Pen?"
The girl shot a cheerful smile Pendula's way, but Pendula stayed quiet and dead-eyed. Her mind filled with memories of Luanne. All the times they fought. All the times they giggled together. She wanted to live in those times forever, cuddling that brutish brunette, listening to her snores and all. Hogwarts didn't matter in the slightest. Not even the greatest magic could be worth what she'd lost.
The pale girl stopped. They had entered the clearing before the bridge. She clutched Pendula's hand tight, and Pendula could feel her anxious heartbeat through it. She whispered something in an indiscernible language into her raised index finger.
A spell, or a prayer.
The ground boomed. A hurricane once again pelted them, and with it that horrible groan.
"Haaaaaaaaugh…"
The pillar of stone lowered, its bridge bending elasticly. The hanged girls swayed as it came down, not stopping until the ring of steps and dark hole were visible. It looked like a horrible wide eye that stared into your soul. The pale girl shook and her breathing became hard and quick. Pendula could tell that it took a lot of will for the pale girl not to flee out of instinct.
Pendula soon understood why. From the lightless hole, something had begun to rise. It appeared as if the darkness was stretching upward like a sheet of fabric, climbing higher and higher in a solid black mass. It didn't stop until it nearly touched the moon. A pillar within the pillar of rock.
Then it came down. It fell like a tree, but slowly, as light as if it were filled with air. It touched down on Pendula's side of the chasm without making a noise, just past the gate of the bridge. The head of the mass remained solid, but its long snaking trail deflated flat, still connected to the hole it had come from.
The pale girl clenched her toes into the grass. Dozens of smaller black trails slowly splayed out in a fan around the creature's tip.
"Ha-Haa…" the girl stuttered her sigh.
The head of the mass rose up. Pendula realized that the smaller trails were clumps of extremely long hair, as a pale woman's face emerged from beneath it. The long path of darkness between the woman and the hole seemed to be a cloak, but much longer than would make sense. Her height was below average, quite shorter than the tall woman, but her impossibly long hair made for a more intimidating display.
The young pale girl got on her hands and knees.
"Haa… Hallownore. Mother. Did you think I was greedy? No, this one's a good-" her words were cut short.
A white cord shot out from the woman's cloak and encircled her throat. The pale girl only struggled briefly before she was dragged away by her neck. Her pleading eyes met Pendula as if thinking she had any power to rescue her.
She disappeared beneath the shadow of the woman. A second later her mass appeared under the long trailing cloak. It expanded like a snake eating something larger than it, and it sucked her along until she disappeared into the dark hole far away. The girl didn't appear again until she shot out of the pillar's side to join her dangling sisters. The girl twitched a few times, then succumbed to the noose.
The woman then acknowledged Pendula, her piercing gaze petrifying the young blonde girl.
"Haaaauugh," she sighed with a grin. "Witch. Unspoiled. Been too long."
Pendula fell to her knees. She continued to sniffle and shake, it was clear that her life was over. She stared into the woman's eyes as her bare pale legs stepped towards Pendula.
The woman's hand came out of the cloak and played with the girl's face in the way the pale girl had Luanne's. She sniffed Pendula with a savoring breath. There was a sick playfulness about her. A malevolent joy in her actions.
The woman stepped back and Pendula could tell she was about to eat. Pendula offered no resistance, just wanting it to end. She kept her nearly lifeless gaze on the woman, watching as her face began to glow.
Though, it wasn't the woman's face that was glowing, it was something else illuminating her. It broke the woman's concentration, drawing her attention toward it. She gasped, too late to dodge.
Bam!
The metal lantern collided with her jaw. The brilliant white flame within it caught her cloak as it dropped and ignited it as easily as petrol.
"Ah! Ahhh!" the woman shrieked.
The fire flashed over her in an instant and she backed away with flailing arms. Pendula had to blink twice to make sure she wasn't dreaming. A small girl had come between them. She picked up the lantern and waved it in the woman's direction, warding her off.
"Don't you dare!" the girl shouted.
Pendula couldn't believe her ears. It was Luanne's voice. The girl certainly looked like Luanne too, messy brunette hair and suspenders.
"Lu?"
The girl turned around. It was definitely her.
"Luanne!"
The brunette girl grinned gloomily.
"Nasty! Spoiled! Don't want it! Don't want it!" the woman behind them cried out.
The flames had spread to the grass and bushes around them. It formed a barrier between the woman and the girls. She flung high above, suspended by her snake-like cloak, and shot towards Luanne with fury.
Each time she lunged, Luanne batted her away with the lantern and its enchanted fire. Pendula was more than amazed. She was humbled by her muggle sister's bravery, fighting a devil from the darkest night. She didn't need to be special to be a hero. She didn't need magic to stand her ground. She didn't need to be pretty to be beautiful in Pendula's eyes.
The woman had grown horribly angry. Her eyes bulged without lids and she scowled so hard that her face compressed. Her hand blurred, moving faster than either girl could see. It left a very complex symbol in the air, and with an unfamiliar word it activated.
A hurricane of wind blasted Luanne several feet into the air, separating her from the lantern. Most of the fire turned to smoldering kindling as well. Pendula was quick to cover Luanne. The woman grinned a toad-like grin from ear to ear, then dived to destroy the meddling corpse of Luanne and the sister she fought to protect.
Pendula had never held Luanne so tight. Both girls shut their eyes in anticipation. Then, a thundering boom. There wasn't any pain. Nor did Pendula feel particularly dead. Only the cold rush of wind across her face. She opened her eyes.
They were gliding through the forest at a tremendous speed. Pendula nudged Luanne to urge her to open her eyes too. They looked around, noticing that they were wrapped in someone's arms.
It was the pale woman. She looked resolute as she carried them. Her feet darted across branches and thorns that moved to try and stop her. She was too swift and agile to be slowed by any of the forest's attempts.
"Haaaaaaauuugh!" Hallownore's voice cried out behind them. "Maudie! Stole it from me! Greedy!"
The girls peered back to find a frightening sight. The forest receded as the horrible woman approached. Her body slithered by the snaking cloak. Everything in that place appeared to bend to her will, everything except the tall woman it called Maudie.
The tall woman's defiance made her giddy. She chuckled with excited joy that she'd never felt before.
"Mother is greedy!" she shouted so that her mother could hear.
The tall woman nuzzled Pendula and Luanne with delight. Even as the wicked creature sent her rope for Maudie's neck, she dodged it with glee. Hallownore seethed through her teeth and continued to shout that she would hang the tall woman, but she was unable to carry out her threat.
Eventually the distance between them had grown substantial. The tall woman was able to find a hiding place well enough that her mother slid by unaware. She caught her breath and let Luanne and Pendula down.
It only took them a moment to realize that they were by the thicket. They looked at the tall woman with a questioning look. The tall woman smiled, but she looked sad.
"Good girls. Like girls. I… want girls…" her eyes narrowed. "But, Pen-du-la… can still go…"
Pendula flashed Luanne a worried look. The girl didn't return it, instead she kept her head low with gloomy eyes.
"What about Luanne?"
The tall woman shook her head. It made Pendula mad. She grabbed Luanne, but the girl forced her off.
"What's wrong? There's no way I'm leaving without you."
Neither of them spoke, and it made Pendula anxious.
"Come now, you're not still mad about what I said, are you? You can pout later."
Trembling with nerves, Pendula clasped Luanne's wrist and pulled her along anyway. Her back brushed the thicket. It pricked her, cut her, but she forced herself in. The arms that bound the girls pulled tight in a tug of war, their wrists edging closer and closer to the thicket wall.
"Ha! no!" the tall woman shouted, and her long arms wrapped around Luanne.
"Let go, Pendula! If you take me, you'll only be taking a corpse!"
Pendula froze.
The tall woman bent her weary head over Luanne, curtaining her with her hair. She looked like a coffin around the girl. Pendula's mind brought back the horrible memory that she pretended to have forgotten. She had been there when Luanne died. She felt her last breath, saw the lights leave her eyes.
"I won't leave, not without you," Pendula said with a tremor in her voice. "I can't lose you ever again!"
Luanne shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I'm already just a memory. Just go, be special. Go to that school and be the greatest, but if you die now, you'll die as ordinary as me!"
Pendula's grip became light and her arm sagged, though Luanne didn't shake her away this time. Instead, she moved Pendula's hand from her wrist to her palm.
With a dim light in her eyes, Pendula spoke. "Luanne, I'm sorry about everything I said. I didn't mean any of it."
The girl's fingers caressed each other's hand gently. Their watery eyes lingered on the ground.
Pendula continued on. "I know you don't believe me, but leaving you has been harder than I could ever imagine. Ever since I got that letter, I've watched you snore as if it were the last time I'd ever know the comfort of it."
Luanne let out a small squeal of surprise. Their eyes rose together and met.
"You're the only thing in this world that I can't bear to lose," Pendula finished.
The dead girl swallowed a lump in her throat, then smiled with sorrow. "Love you, Pen. Your light was really beautiful. My lantern had never shined so bright before. Tell me all your stories when you find me again," she said.
The tall woman lowered her head and pressed her lips against Luanne's head, kissing her once, and very slowly. Her head lifted, then ghostly jaws like the ones the pale girl restrained Pendula with appeared. They became solid, forming an oversized oval shaped mask with dots for eyes.
The woman's head shot down and crunched upon Luanne. The girl went limp within a second and Pendula's mouth gaped in horror.
Bite by bite, the woman continued eating. She didn't stop until all that was left was part of the arm Pendula held. She pulled the mask up onto her forehead, revealing her blood stained cheeks and streams of tears. She looked as agonized and grief stricken as Pendula.
"I… want girls… I'll be good to them, good girls," she said.
The tall woman put a hand on Pendula, half ready to push her out and half ready to eat her too. She took too long to consider. The white glow of something caught her eye. Embers, and a growing thunder of flame sounded behind her.
The fire had not died off, it had grown tremendously, threatening to take the whole forest. Like Luanne, the trees were already dead. They were merely preserved in that lifeless state. The flames marched upon them as if they were paper. A few dark shapes darted out of the forest escaping through the thicket. Pale girls, fleeing the white flames that were now only a hundred meters away.
Then came that dreaded cry.
"Haaaaaaaaaugh…"
The tall woman vanished through the thicket the moment it met her ears. The great mother of those ghoulish girls appeared, their oppressor and master, Hallownore. Her cloak was tatted and scorched. It left her legs naked, which now clumsily marched towards Pendula. The power she had over those woods had abandoned her to the fire.
Though, she wasn't defeated. She was hungry, and she still wanted her prey. She came upon Pendula, who was trapped half in the thicket with Luanne's arm still clasped by her hand. Heavy breaths came out of the woman and she braced on the thicket for rest.
"Witch… Lovely witch… You'll be my greatest meal."
A familiar set of jaws manifested, forming a far more ghoulish looking mask when it solidified. It was wrinkled and mean. Pendula's eyes and mind didn't acknowledge the woman's existence, even as the jaws came down upon her.
"Love you too, Lu…" she said.
There was one last fantasy gracing her eyes. She saw Luanne, still attached to that arm. They were in their bed and she was snoring loudly. It was a bittersweet memory from the previous night. The weight of leaving for Hogwarts had really come down upon her. She had no idea how she was going to survive without that bushy-browed brunette. She'd known all along that Luanne was the only person who really loved a boastful brat like her.
Needless to say, nobody by the name of Pendula Ruth Lockhart came to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. A ministry investigation looked into the disappearance, but all they found was Luanne's charred lantern. It was alone in an otherwise empty field surrounded by trees. A small flower grew within it.
The school's headmaster Albus Dumbledore gave his condolences to the girl's squib mother, but there was no life in her eyes. She just stayed silent and stared into nothing. The woman had gone through a change of heart after Luanne's heated words with her. She'd even brought Pendula's things back to her room.
She had noticed a green dress was laid out on Luanne's bed. It belonged to Pendula, but both of them knew Luanne really loved it. It was accompanied by a letter from Pendula stating that it was Luanne's now, and that she thought it would look very pretty on her.
The woman never spoke much ever again, only giving simple answers when necessary, and their home would become a quiet place that always held a dark shadow over it.
The girl's uncle Gilderoy Lockhart, who had been anticipating Pendula's arrival, broke out into dramatic cries of sorrow upon hearing the news. His weeping did seem to be at least somewhat exaggerated. He would spend the next month of that year filling the school's newsletter with his grief, though he seemed to think his niece was named Florence, and that he had lost only one.
Many years would pass and the name Pendula Lockhart would fade from memory as an unremarkable unresolved disappearance. Albus Dumbldore had mostly forgotten it himself, though one day he would be forced to recall that night. A letter had arrived in his office strapped to the leg of a chicken.
"Hello," it read. "Want a girl? Good girl? Train her, please. She'll be good, or she'll be hanged. -Maudie D. Hallownore."
Hallownore. Dumbledore had seen that name before. It occasionally popped up every now and then in the Book of Admittance, though having no knowledge of where to find them it never amounted to anything. The last time the quill had written that name had been eleven years before then, about nine months after those girls went missing.
Gwendolyn Hallownore, it wrote.
Bundled with that letter was a cherry wand with a dragon heartstring core. It was a wand that hadn't been seen since that fateful night, Pendula Ruth Lockhart's wand.
A drop of nervous sweat fell from Dumbledore's chin and onto the parchment.