Chapter Twenty-Nine: Stefanie Salvatore

Present day

The Hanging Fields, NC

With the Coven gone, Stef wanted to run towards Flick, to pick her up from the ground that Ava had thrown her upon while rushing to get her out of the car. Instead, taking just one step left her head spinning. All she could do was stand, her fingers pressed against her eyes, leaving Zara to help Flick instead. She suddenly felt too warm, the pressure in the air had become uncomfortably thick and heavy, her clothes too restricting. She heard the voices of her friends as they came towards her, and she removed her hands, her eyes going in and out of focus. She was so dizzy, all she wanted to do was sleep.

Raid was the first to approach her and she pasted on an exhausted smile, still committed to basking in her friends' celebratory cheers – specifically, Phoenix's celebratory cheers, who was loud enough for the rest of them.

Her smile then turned into confusion. Raid had stopped less than three feet away, stumbling backwards, as though he had hit something on his way to her. He held his hands in front of him while he made his way forwards again. Eventually, he paused, his palms turning white as he pushed against the air in front of him, unable to get closer to her.

"Stef, what's happening?" he fretted.

Stef mirrored his efforts, finding that she also couldn't reach him. Her hands pushing outwards, pressure turned into pain the harder she pressed. There was an invisible barrier in front of her, solid but entirely clear. What was this? Why was this happening? She had to force herself to focus, her heartrate skyrocketing, instinct battling against exhaustion as she pressed her hands against every direction around her, finding no escape.

She was trapped.

Suddenly they were all there. Gabe and Phoenix attempting to use their vampire strength against the barrier, which wouldn't shift, and Raid using magic to try to burst and burn his way through. Nothing was working.

Stef's panic gave way to a feeling of nausea. The howling of wind whisked and whistled through the oak tree, the branches drawing in the air around it. It was too harsh, too near, and getting louder and louder.

Gabe interrupted the sound that only Stef could hear. "Zara, where's the Coven?!" he shouted as Zara returned with Flick.

"They've gone," she replied, her arms wrapped around the pale, trembling teenager.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm sure," she confirmed.

"Fuck!" he shouted, slamming his fists into the barrier in frustration. Seeing Stef holding herself upright, one hand pressed against the barrier, her body leaning heavily into it, her head lowering, Gabe quickly ran to face her. "This is the magic from the channelled witches."

"I know," she mumbled softly, her head still lowered, still spinning.

Raid brought his face down, trying to meet the direction of her gaze, his voice desperate and concerned. "Stef, what do you mean?"

The hushed whistling had become lower, the rhythm and pitch changing, the noise becoming more recognizable as she separated each one from the dozens of others joining it. Some of the sounds emerged clearer from the others, spitting out heated and fierce. Some were distant. Some were close. Some were mumbles. Some were words.

"I can hear them," she breathed, her voice constricted by dread and debilitating fatigue. "They're angry."

Raid shot a look at Gabe. He knew who she was talking about. How could they be trapping her after helping her? This made no sense.

Gabe still needed the confirmation. "Who?"

Stef raised her head, but she wasn't looking at Gabe. Her eyes went past him, looking towards the grassy knoll where they previously stood. "The witches who died here," she replied, her heavy eyelids opening wide at the dozens of hazy figures stood there, translucent white mists with human shapes and no features, some moving, some still, but all of them restless. "They're suffering. They made a mistake. They want to atone."

"We can help them." Raid patted his hands against the barrier, trying to keep Stef with him, trying to prevent the faraway, glazed look from taking over her. "You and me, together, we can help them, but they need to let you out."

Suddenly the voices changed, becoming higher, becoming longer. All voices merging into the same sound. It was a scream. A desperate, terrified, high-pitched scream.

Stef felt the pressure of the barrier closing in on her, dragging her down.

Her eyes fixed coherently and despairingly on Raid. They were taking her. Her final words shot out of her, a final demand for them to save themselves. For Raid to save the others. "Get them out of here!"

She was gone in a fraction of a second. The pressure pulling her swiftly downwards, the earth turning fleetingly into liquid, sucking her under, joining the witches in their resting place.

"Stef!" Raid screamed.

The barrier dissolved and Raid fell to the earth, now solid beneath his touch, digging at the ground. He was soon joined by Phoenix and Adam, on their knees, searching for the opening that she was dragged through; pressing, thumping, scratching and pulling at the dirt below them.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Phoenix shouted.

"She can't be gone, we have to get her back!" Raid screamed.

Gabe quickly grabbed hold of one of Raid's thrashing arms. "Raid!" he yelled, pulling him to his feet. He didn't have his attention yet, Raid was struggling against him, ready to claw his way to the center of the earth if necessary. He shook his arm. "Raid! Look!"

Raid turned in the direction where Gabe was pointing. The mist of figures now appearing to the others, growing thicker, denser, taller, until they formed a fog separating them from everything beyond. They were a cloud of bodies now merged together, only a row of smoky heads facing them, distinguishing them as the ghosts of the witches.

Raid faced the ghosts. "Give her back!" he screamed in demand.

They responded, offering him the same noise Stef had heard: an ear-splitting scream, slowly increasing in volume, emanating from the fog.

As Flick started crying, pushing her face into Zara's shoulder in fear, Gabe put a hand on Raid's shoulder. "We need to get out of here."

Raid shot him a look of disdain. "The hell we do!" he snapped at him, and immediately marched towards the fog. Raid heard others following him. Phoenix and Adam reached him. He heard Zara agreeing with Gabe to take Flick to the safe house, and then Gabe also caught up.

Just as they all hit the fog.

There was no end to the whiteness in front of them, even as they continued walking. They felt the texture of the ground change to the dirt road beneath them, but they couldn't see anything in front of them. They shouted Stef's name as they continued walking, the ground then softening to grass after they crossed the road. The screaming continued in the background, more distant now, but coming from all around them. Moments later, they felt and heard the familiar crunch of being back on the dirt road again.

"Something's wrong, there's not supposed to be two roads here," Gabe commented.

"I don't care, we're not stopping," Raid told him, continuing to shout for Stef.

Then the toes of their shoes hit a mound, which they began to ascend.

"We're circling back on ourselves," Adam pointed out, continuing to follow Raid.

Raid spun around to face him. "Didn't you just hear me say I don't care?!"

"Bullshit! You care too much," he snapped. "You're making rash, impulsive decisions. You don't even know where you're going."

Raid circled his finger at the fog surrounding them. "Whatever this is, it took her. Wherever it is, she is. Wherever she is, I am. Got that?"

It was with those words that the fog then began to slowly clear, and Raid turned back around as the scene unfolded in front of them. They had returned to the field they had come from, but this time there were others there. It was a crowd of over a hundred other people. The clothing they wore was unusual, peasant-like and not of this era. The mist began to thin further, uncovering the oak tree. Below it was a platform, and upon it was the source of the screaming. It was a young woman, her hands pulling at the roots of her long brown hair, soft features constricted into a desperate wail, wearing a loose brown kirtle tied either side with laces and a long white smock underneath. Underneath the platform was the hanging body of another young woman, her dark auburn hair covering her face, her head angled limply in front of her. A noose was being placed around the neck of the crying woman, seemingly soon to meet the same fate.

"...was witnessed as having drunk the blood..." a voice was announcing from the platform near her.

Raid studied the young woman closely. For a moment he almost mistook her for Stef and he paced quickly forward, towards the gathering, making sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. She was so incredibly similar, but it was not her. He was unsure what this all meant. He couldn't understand why they were here. With the others following behind him, equally as confused, he made his way through the crowd hoping to find Stef amongst them.

A voice suddenly became distinguishable from the horde of shouting around him. It was a man begging others to help him. From the way he repeated his request over and over, it seemed he was being ignored. Raid couldn't help but be curious and started walking in his direction.

"...she survived the trial by water after being held under for..."

The man stood out clearly from the rest, even though Raid had still not reached him. He caught glimpses of him as he continued forward. He saw the man's hands cupped and raised in front of him, holding something delicate within them. He had the same black hair and tanned skin as Raid, again looking so similar to each other. Next to him, another man followed him; most definitely a brother or a cousin with identical skin colour, thick eyebrows, and cupid bow lips. He was carrying a small child and trying to convince the man to leave.

His eyes on the man, Raid shoved himself between the tight crowd, when suddenly a hand pushed back at his chest, stopping him.

The owner of the hand stepped into view.

"Stef!" he shouted, rushing in to hug her.

She pushed him back again, strong and emotionless. Her eyes were glazed, a cloudy patch of white filling her large pupils. It was definitely her, but it also definitely wasn't. She had no reaction to seeing Raid, other than to lift one hand up to her mouth, a finger vertical against her lips, as though she was urging him to keep a secret.

Raid realized that the ghosts of the witches had control of her, and they wouldn't let her go until she had fulfilled a purpose. They want to atone, he remembered her saying. So when Gabe, Adam and Phoenix noticed her after following Raid from behind, he held up both arms, stopping them from approaching her.

"Stef, what's –" Phoenix started.

She turned her head towards Phoenix, her finger still in the same position, silencing him.

"I won't let you out of my sight," Raid whispered reassuringly to Stef.

Staring through him, she smiled in response, lowering both her hands. She made her way towards the man she knew as Zaif.

"...she will now hang by the neck..."

At those words, he knew he was running out of time. Zaif screamed into the crowd until his lungs hurt, "Someone help me!"

Omar released Cecily onto the floor, taking his cousin by the arm to pull him away from witnessing Sorcha's death.

"...and her body to be burned..."

Then Stef placed her hand flat over the talisman cupped within Zaif's hands, releasing all her powers into it.

The now glowing silver and amethyst colours from the talisman swirled and circled through and around Zaif's arm, travelling upwards towards his chest. Terrified at what was happening, Omar took hold of Stef's arm trying to pull her off of him, but then he realized she wasn't even holding him. Her fingers were now curled around the talisman, the power locking them both into place, ready to take it the moment the powers released her. The colours now entered Zaif, burrowing under his skin, into his chest, forcing him to draw a deep breath, the oxygen penetrating the magic within him.

"...now complete the execution. May God have mercy..."

As the executioner's hands went to Sorcha's back, ready to push her body over the edge of the platform, Zaif screamed.

The scream was inhuman.

The scream was deafening.

The scream sent an explosion of power, a tidal wave of magic, into the crowd and beyond, just as the talisman loosened in Zaif's hands. The possession releasing her, Stef instantly took it, slumping into a sitting position on the ground, squeezing her eyes closed and pressing her wrists into her ears, sheltering from the scream and the thunder of magic it was producing.

The resulting silence the moment the scream was over was more terrifying than the scream itself. Stef felt Zaif run past her, towards the platform, towards Sorcha, and she opened her eyes, uncovered her ears, and immediately saw the fallen, lifeless body of Cecily lying on the ground in front of her, Omar crouching above her, shaking her, trying to find signs of life.

Stef looked around, pushing herself to her feet. Zaif was wrapping his arms around Sorcha. Sorcha was wrapping her arms around Zaif. Then Raid was wrapping his arms around Stef before she could process anything else in front of her, trying to shield her from the devastating outcome of her powers.

But she saw it.

Every witch in the crowd was dead on the ground.

The men. The women. The children.

All dead.

And she had done this.

Then suddenly there was a new scream.

Her own.