Chapter 28 #3
My thoughts disperse, as if a soft mist is trying to drag me to a distant place, where everything seems calm and peaceful, but I know it is an illusion.
The feeling of discomfort still lingers, latent, warning me of imminent danger.
I shake my head, clearing the mist from my mind.
Ted, beside me, also shifts uneasily, trying to shake off the same strange feeling that hangs in the air.
When we finally reach the door, a young, soft voice, but laden with palpable malice, reaches us from inside the cabin.
"Come in, my dears..."
The door opens by itself, and before us appears a woman sitting in a rocking chair. She continues to rock gently in front of the fireplace, her profile turned away from us, but even so, I can see how stunning she is. Her appearance is ethereal, as if the years have not touched her.
She looks anything but an old woman.
Suddenly, she turns her face towards us.
When her dark eyes meet mine, my body freezes, my breath catches in my throat.
I don't dare take another step. Ted also stands still, an inexplicable feeling of immobility in both of us.
There is a wickedness in her beauty, an intensity in her gaze that makes me shudder all over.
"But know this, if you are not willing to lose, you will gain nothing in return. Everything has its price, and balance is only maintained when you are able to offer what is required."
I swallow hard and walk through the door.
"I'm willing."
"Well, well, what do we have here?" She rises with supernatural grace and, in the blink of an eye, is standing before me.
Her smile, with red lips, stretches in a way that is as seductive as it is threatening.
"Have you come to break the curse that afflicts you?" She makes a move to touch my face with her finger, but I instinctively recoil.
Her eyes sparkle with silent malice. I start to shake my head, but she speaks again.
"I cannot break it, but I can... transfer it. To someone connected to you, a sister... or perhaps a close friend..." Her voice is low and inviting, as if she were baiting me, waiting for me to take the bait.
How does she know about Lucy?
I take a deep breath, about to refuse, but as soon as the air fills my lungs, I hesitate.
For a moment, I completely forget what I came here to do, I even forget that I should resist her proposal.
Suddenly, everything seems tempting, a false sense of tranquillity and a certainty that the witch is right, something that incites my acceptance.
Until a growl behind me cuts through the fog in my mind.
I take a stumbling step backwards, my heart racing, terrified of what the witch almost forced me to do. I hold my breath, trying my best to avoid inhaling the burnt herbs that still linger in the air.
"We've come to save our friend," Ted says through clenched teeth, carrying the unconscious Mark in his arms. "He's been poisoned with cold iron."
"Well..." She glances at Mark's inert form and raises her eyebrows. "You came at the right time, he's almost dead."
I gasp loudly, my hands shaking so much that I clench them into fists, my claws cutting into my palms.
"You can put him up there." The witch points to the wooden table near the fireplace.
She watches us, her posture relaxed, while Ted and I carefully place Mark on the table.
"What are you willing to pay in exchange for his life?" The question comes in a soft tone, but with immense weight.
My heart races. I look at Ted and see that he is also apprehensive.
The pain in my body is already unbearable, I can't stand being in this form any longer. I need to close the deal before I transform.
"I..." My voice comes out hoarse, but there is no more time to hesitate. "I offer one of my extra cat lives."
The witch, upon hearing my offer, pouts, as if she is unimpressed. She approaches slowly, her feet barely touching the ground, as if she were floating. Her contemptuous gaze is like a cold blade.
"Only one?" she asks, a scornful smile on her lips. "When you have so many, isn't that right?"
Irritation grows inside me. How dare she?
"One life for another, wasn't that the deal? Offer what is required?"
"You forgot about balance, it's not just one life, is it? There's the cost of my work..." She says, tilting her head to the side as she faces me. " I do it for three extra lives. This extraction ritual requires a lot of energy. And it's extremely difficult to heal a person completely.
Three?
Each of those extra lives means a part of me. A part that will never come back. A part that I may need, but that I am willing to give up.
For Mark.
After all, if it weren't for him, I would have died in that forest, lost and dying, alone in the darkness.
He saved me, now it's my turn to save him.
But I can't sacrifice all my extra lives and be left with only one...
Of the seven I had, I used one when I was still a child, after my parents abandoned me outside our house when I first transformed, during a snowstorm...
And I spent two lives to survive the Wendigo.
I open my mouth, but before my words come out, Ted tries to intervene, his voice trembling with concern.
"Sandra, no... We can work something out, I can offer my bear essence..." He begins, but I interrupt him, the pain growing in me once again, my body burning, forcing the transformation.
"No!" My voice comes out like a scream. If he does that, he'll cease to be a shapeshifter, it's like amputating his soul. "I'll do it for two extra lives in exchange for Mark's life. One for him and one for you, it's only fair," I say through gritted teeth.
"You bargain, but everything is balance, one life to extract the cold iron, one for my work... Do you accept?"
"Yes! Just save him!"
The witch seems satisfied, her eyes shining with something dark. She smiles and extends her hand, and I accept it to seal the deal.
"Deal."
And before I can fully understand what is happening, everything spins.
I feel a cold current forming in the air around us, the witch's nails dig into my wrist and I feel her entering me, feel her energy running through my veins.
She raises her other hand, whispering ancient, dark words.
Suddenly, the air is filled with an electric tension, and a sharp pain runs through my chest, as if something were tearing me apart inside.
I feel the claws of her magic digging into me, forcing my essence to spill out, to break the barriers that keep it imprisoned.
The pain is unbearable, a torment that tears every fibre of my being.
My body contorts, and I find myself taking my feline form again, but not entirely.
My canines grow, my fur appears, followed by my tail, but I still remain standing.
I try to scream, I open my mouth, but the sound is muffled, lost in the sharp silence of the pain that consumes me.
The essence that remains in me begins to be sucked into her, each of my extra lives being torn away, as if they were threads from a fabric that is unravelling.
The witch laughs, her sound echoing through the hut, a cruel laugh. Meanwhile, my body bends, I shrink, completing the transformation, but she does not let me go, the witch's claws tear me inside and out, dug into my front legs, holding my animal form in the air.
The old woman feeds on my essence, her blonde hair fluttering, waving as if propelled by an invisible wind, but I know it is the power flowing from me towards her.
And then, when it's all over, I fall to the ground, weak, unable to move a muscle.
I am close to being an ordinary, vulnerable human. My healing power has never been as strong as that of other supernatural beings, so I have always relied on my extra lives to keep me safe.
Now, I have to be careful. If anything happens to me, I will only have one chance to survive, after which I will live as a mere mortal.
Without the energy to get up, I lie there, like an empty cocoon, meowing softly. I force my head up and see Ted next to Mark, his posture tense and urgent.
He orders the old woman to begin the healing ritual. The witch, calm and unperturbed, begins her work. Her hands float over Mark's body, murmuring words I don't understand. The air around them stirs as an aura of light begins to emanate from Mark.
The candles flicker, and the fire in the hearth intensifies, casting dancing shadows across the cabin.
I watch as Mark begins to glow. His skin glows, his veins become visible and pulsating, and his body contorts in pain.
He screams, even though he is unconscious.
The witch, unperturbed, begins to extract the iron that is still inside him, her hands moving with precision, pulling the dark particles from his veins as if her hands were magnets.
They come out through his pores and open wounds, forming a ball of iron that floats in the air, growing with every passing second.
The process takes an hour, maybe more, and I struggle to keep my eyes open, to stay awake, watching.
When it's all over, Mark lies motionless, his contortions ceasing.
The iron, the size of a marble, floats to one of the old woman's hands, then silence fills the room.
"Did it work?" Ted approaches Mark, checking his pulse.
"Of course it did." The witch's voice is laden with impatience.
"Then why isn't he waking up?" Ted growls. "Why haven't the wounds closed?"
"That was the price of the bargain. For three lives, I would heal him in the end, but with only two..." She chuckles softly. "The agreement was that I would only remove the iron from his system.
What a disgusting witch!
Ted seems to struggle against his transformation. His body grows in size, brown fur begins to appear and his claws emerge, but he squeezes his eyes shut, takes a deep breath and, with visible effort, returns to his normal state before asking:
"What happens now?"
"It will take time, but his magic and essence will flow again. He will heal himself, he is just weak and will remain unconscious until he recovers enough.
Still lying on the floor, I feel such a deep emptiness that it seems I will never be able to recover.
But then, Mark takes a deep breath, as if he is finally freeing himself from an internal struggle. His body, which previously seemed trapped between forms, completely restores itself to human form. His chest rises and falls at a slow and steady pace. And in that moment, I know it was worth it.
Seeing Mark well, I somehow feel well too.