Chapter 45: The Agony of a Witch

Meanwhile, back at the DeDe, Wisteria and Vyperine all watched as a mushroom cloud arose from a distance away.

"Uhhh…should we be worried about that?" asked Wisteria.

"Of course not. If anything that takes care of Zaí once and for all and shows us where to find the others." DeDe informed her.

"Now for the finishing touch, I'll ready my broom, find them, take back my chimera blood and finish them off!"

"So, should we just wait here? or…"

DeDe let out a sigh "No, if I left you behind neither of you would be involved in the battle about to commence. This is an intervention, you're both coming as my back-up." She said sternly. "Unless of course you wanna take your chances here alone with the scimitar wielding banshee?"

"No ma'am!" Said Vyperine.

"Stay behind? And miss out on all the action? No way!" Added Wisteria.

"Then grab your staffs and saddle up. It's the bottom of the ninth and we've got one last inning!" She said gazing out at the horizon with her eyes narrowed.

"So we're gonna kill them if we beat them in a baseball game?" Asked Wisteria clearly misinterpreting the metaphor, met with both DeDe and Vyperine to facepalm.

—

The gang and I continued to flee across the barren landscape as the mushroom cloud slowly dissipated. To say I was heartbroken would be an understatement. My mother, the very woman who brought me into this world had just sacrificed her life to save me. Of course as her only living child I expected nothing less from her, but I wish I had been given the time I needed to say a proper final farewell to her.

But right now I couldn't dwell on the past because I needed to escape the battlefield so I could have a future. Eventually we were a safe enough distance away to have a breather despite the fact that I couldn't stop the tears from staining my cheeks.

As I panted, I heard a voice speak "Zaí…" and I perked my head up to look at Ruby, who was the one who had spoken and was trying to dry the tears from her own eyes.

"I'm so sorry." She said, her voice full of empathy.

"We all are." Added Skull Boy with the others all nodding in agreement and voicing their own thoughts.

"Thanks you guys. I know she sacrificed herself to save me."

"That was the bravest thing I've ever seen." Said Len.

"Your mom was a great woman, if it wasn't for her I never would've known the inner strength I had inside of me." Misery said with sadness in her voice. "And thanks to her I lived to fight another day."

"And we're all grateful for that." Added Frank. After saying that I noticed blushing on Misery's cheeks.

"She saved all of us, we owe it to her to get back home and make sure she didn't die in vain." Iris stated proudly.

"That's the spirit guys! Zerelda would've wanted us to keep going." Ruby added.

Upon her saying that I felt as though my mom would always be with me in spirit, like she would never truly leave me as long as I held her in my heart. Just as I would do for my dad and my siblings, they'd always be with me.

"Then lets not give those witches anymore satisfaction, if we hurry we can make it home safe and mostly unscathed."

I knew he was referring to my damaged hand but I had little time to think about that now.

"So are we going back the same way we came?" Asked Len.

"We can't go back the way we came, the log bridge over that chasm gave way remember?" Iris reminded him.

"Oh right."

"We'll have to take an alternative route, it won't be the fastest but it'll get us back to Gloomsville." Skull Boy suggested.

Upon hearing that statement I remembered another route that led out of the Lake of Zombies, and since travelling by train was out of the question, it was the most logical choice.

"Guys! I remember another way out of here. Me and my siblings used to explore it when we were little." I spoke out.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Said Ruby.

"Okay it's just over this way." I said as I began to run towards the hidden path with my friends following close behind as we ventured off into the forest.

As we made our way through the brambles a question arose.

"I just had a thought." said Frank. "What's the plan if DeDe finds us and tries to exterminate us again?"

Everyone pondered the question until Misery spoke up. "About that, I think I may have a bargaining chip that'll make her show restraint. She unzipped one of her pockets and pulled out a shimmering magenta brooch that looked to be containing some kind of liquid.

Until I realized that it was the same brooch that DeDe had shown me upon my first day in her clutches!

"I know what that is!" I blurted out "That's the vial of chimera blood DeDe showed me! How did you manage to get it?"

"I swiped it while her guard was down."

"Well now we have something they need."

"What's so special about it?" Asked Len.

"Chimera blood holds the gift of immortality if drunken. DeDe was planning on having all the witches drink it after they did away with us so they could be the eternal rulers of earth."

"Not without this they can't" Frank replied smugly.

"We can use it against them." Iris agreed.

"In that case we should keep it somewhere safe, where she won't suspect." Skull Boy added on.

"Come on guys who's the last of us DeDe would suspect."

We all thought, and almost immediately we shouted "POE!"

"Me?" Said Poe. "Well I suppose I could take care of it I do have pockets and not to mention the advantage of flight to allow for escape if under attack and…." He noticed us all staring at him listening to his explanation with smug grins. "Hehehe I'll take it." He said before putting the brooch inside his coat pocket.

Then I recalled something DeDe said earlier "Come to think of it I remember hearing DeDe say that the reliquary itself was the source of the witches powers. So if that's the case.."

"The blood would have nothing to do with it." Added Skull Boy.

"We could pour it into another bottle and keep the blood for ourselves!" Frank announced.

Afterwards we continued into the thicket.

—

Meanwhile, up in the air DeDe, Vyperine and Wisteria were flying through the skies to find their escaped fugitives, I.E., us.

"Any sign of them yet commander?" Vyperine asked DeDe.

DeDe scanned the woods but came up short. "Darn! Nothing. I don't suppose you could have spotted them Wisty?"

"Uhh no… but I think I saw a fox run through some trees." She replied.

DeDe sighed until her face perked up.

"Say, I just had a brainstorm. Why don't we split up? That way we'll cover more ground. Wisteria, why don't you go see if you can spot them from the east? While me and Vyperine go the other way?

"Yes ma'am!" She said saluting her before flying off to the east.

"What was that for?" Vyperine asked.

"To keep her distracted while we find them." DeDe answered.

"But ma'am…" she attempted to interject before being cut off.

"I shouldn't have to remind you how lacking in intellect Wisteria is. I'm afraid that because of her incompetence she no longer serves a purpose for us."

"You're going to kill her?!" Vyperine said shocked.

"Of course not, we've lost enough of our numbers already, I'm just going to tell her she's being downgraded and she'll be somebody else's problem. That'll leave me enough time to find a more suitable replacement. Now come along Vyperine, we have a vital mission. Search and destroy! That's an order! Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal, ma'am."

"Good, then follow me!" She said swooping downwards to the seemingly endless sea of pines.

As she followed her mastress, Vyperine began to have doubts about DeDe's methods, but knew that it was already too late to change her mind, she was dead set on killing the zombies.

Back in the forest, as we continued through the landscape I heard the wind whistling from above and as I gazed up I saw a truly dreadful sight.

DeDe and Vyperine were flying overhead on their broomsticks!

"Guys? Look!" I said to my friends hoping not to alert them to us. But it was too late. As we all gazed up in shock, I saw Vyperine pointing at us from above.

"There they are mastress!" Cried Vyperine.

"At last! Come on, time to finish this!" She said flying down towards us.

At that moment there was only one thing left to say….

RUN!

We all took off as fast as we could to escape our certain doom at the hands of DeDe.

Hey guys, suuuper sorry for the looong wait I got really preoccupied with completing my diploma the past year. I'm gonna be completely honest now, no more drawn out waiting the next chapter will be the dramatic climax, followed by the epilogue and probably a closing sketch like

what they did on the show. Keep checking back readers, the end is near…