Master Maker

Chapter 20 - Hag Of The Night

Amanda

It was the weirdest thing, Lilith disappeared behind a thick wall of fog. And when it cleared, she was gone.

“Lilith?” Lucis said softly as he walked closer to where she was standing. “Lilith!” he shouted as he turned in a half-circle shouting her name again.

“you” he shouted at Amanda, she jumped at his outburst “walk”

“What!” it wasn’t Amanda that answered it was Justin,

“she is the only f*****g person now that can feel the way”

“she’s not going on her own!” Justin shouted as the rest of the group watched the two of them

“stop!” Amanda’s voice echoed “I’ll go” she whispered

“no, not by yourself,” Justin said making a move towards her, but she backed away

“I’ll go with her,” the dwarf said in his low rough voice “less likely to be seen and all” Amanda looked at Justin with her brow raised, and without warning, she walked forward, the dwarf hot on her heels. The rest of the group waited a minute before they started following the two.

“Amanda was it?” the dwarf said, he was walking with a slight limp as he went, he seemed to be struggling to keep up with her.

“yeah,” she looked around nervously then looked down at him, “sorry I didn’t catch your name earlier?”

“Stephan,” he said looking towards the sky, “you notice that crow before we started on this?” Amanda, looked up to see a crow flying overhead, she looked closely at it and shook her head. The feeling of uneasiness was overwhelming already and it was freaking her out more than she wanted

“you okay there love?”

“huh?” she looked down at Stephan, “oh, no,” she said abruptly, looking up and seeing a small run-down house. Amanda stopped a feeling of dread washed over her and she swallowed hard. Staring at the house, not taking another step.

“I’m guessing this is the place,” Lucis said as the group caught up to them. Lucis made his way towards the house, with the other men, leaving Amanda and Justin standing on the sideline.

“you should go help,” Amanda said,

“no I think I will-“ a scream cut through the air making the group f men run towards the house, Amanda without thinking started running towards the house.

“Lilith!” Amanda shouted as she rushed the door

I heard what I thought was the front door open and close again. The smell of death filled the house faster than naturally possible, the smell was actually familiar. I heard shuffling as someone walked around the house, the door opened and an old lady walked in, one brown eye and one clouded eye

“you” I shouted, all she did was laugh, well it was actually more of a cackle.

“you fell for it, my dear”

“so nothing happened to that man”

“oh no, he is at home safe and sound, his poor little wife, not so much”  she looked up at the roof before touching her mouth and kissing her hand

“I never liked men, it always gave me pleasure to see how they wallow in self-pity” she came closer to me and touched my face, “such a pretty face, it will make such a change to this old haggard body, you see my dear,” she said turning around and digging in a white bag “I found that woman are the best, the prettier the better” she turned with a knife in her hand “and from what I have noticed, you have a fire in your belly that even your friend finds, well scary” the old woman's voice broke slightly and she smiled before slashing the knifes blade down my arm, I looked to the side suppressing the scream that threatened to escape my mouth. I looked back at her as her tongue licked the blood-stained blade.

“hmmm, I was right” she gushed, her appearance changing somewhat. I tried moving again making the chains that were wrapped around my legs and torso rattle.

“ah, ah, ah,” the old woman said bending down slightly “you will cause the bleeding to run more, let's not do anything to waste any of that blood now” she pushed her hand against my forehead before she placed the blade against my cheek, applying pressure as she ran it down slowly. I took a deep breath, trying to block out the pain.

“come now, deary, let out a nice scream for me,” she said licking the blade again “you can't always be brave,” she said licking the blood from my cheek, this time I was sure of it, her face changed, she looked younger most of her face changed, except for the clouded eye.

“hmm” she moaned as she licked her lips, her face was still close to mine, I slowly moved my head back and swung forward, headbutting her in the mouth. She fell back holding her hand to her mouth. She looked up at the roof again and got up onto her knees spitting blood onto the floor before looking up at me again, blood dripping from her mouth

“my, my: she said standing up and smiling, some of her teeth had been knocked out and blood-tinged her remaining teeth red. The old woman held the knife firmly in her hand bringing it down into my thigh and left it there.  A scream ripped from my throat as the blade dug through tissue and muscle.  I looked up at her as breathing hard as tried to ignore the pain.

“you elves are all the same the old woman said,  bending down and licking the blood from the leg. She stood up, her face completely devoid of the wrinkles she one had.

Bang

Bang!

BANG!

The front door sounded like it exploded and shattered, I heard footsteps filling the room just outside the door, several voices calling out my name. the old woman slapped her hand over my mouth as I made a move to call out

“shut up she hissed’  threatening to pull the blade from my leg, she took her hand from my mouth slightly, as she turned to watch the door. I moved a bit clamping my teeth down on her hand.

Lucis

Everyone was calling out for Lilith, going through the open room looking for as we went, I had started to think that we were in the wrong place when a muffled scream come from what seemed to be a wall. Lucis put his hand on the wall pushing. It moved back slightly. He moved back looking up and then kicking at it.

“Stephan” Lucis shouted as he gave another kick. The dwarf ran over swinging a large ax and hounding down on the wall, over and over again, everyone joined in hammering against the wall, it was when Amanda reared up and smashed up against it. it fell through. Amanda almost falling on her face as the wall gave way Lucis caught her around her arm pulling her up and pushing her back behind him as he saw the woman standing over Lillith a knife was deep in the thigh, the other woman's hand was on the handle

“don’t,” she said softly, or shell bleed out in a matter of seconds”

“wait,” Lucis said his eyes on the knife that was handle deep in my thigh.

“Lucis,” I said breathlessly “listen to me”

“shut up” the old woman hissed, I pulled a face and rolled my eyes at her

“Get Draco” the old woman looked at me with a weird frown on her face

“Justin, call for Draco” Lucis shouted, keeping his eyes on me

“good” I smiled at him and looked at the old woman who looked back at me confused “oh and Lucis” I looked at him again

“ I love you” as soon as the words left my mouth I grasped the hand that was on the handle of the blade and I wrenched it out of my own leg,

“NO!” I heard two voices shout the word, the old woman immediately clapped her hands down on my leg, the knife clattering to the ground, and started mumbling something as Lucis was suddenly thrown back.

As I expected the old woman had made quick work of healing the wound, to save the blood that she found so precious

“you stupid child” she shrieked looking at me, her face haggard again. She started to lick the blood from her hands getting up and grabbing the knife again.

“get out” Justin shouted as Lucis got up again, Justin grabbed him and pulled him out of the house. a roar sounded.  And the old woman looked back at me with a wild expression on her face.

“you will die too” she hissed

“then so be it” I whispered

“FIRE” I shouted the house went up in flames, the old woman looked up for a second and looked back at me again. Holding the knife up as pieces of the roof started to drop. A huge piece fall landing on top of her pinning her to the ground, she started screaming and thrashing. Green flames licking from her flesh.

Lucis

“FIRE” he heard Lilith’s voice yell and flames engulfed the house in a second. The old shabby house went up light a dry straw

“NO!!!” he shouted as Justin held him back “let me go” he tried to free himself only he held back by the rest of the group. He hung his head in defeat. He could feel his eyes starting to sting, the heat from the fire licked at his skin. There were several gasps. He looked up and there she stood. Lilith stood in the doorway of the burning house, her leg drenched in blood, her face had a deep cut in her cheek but the fire hadn’t touched her. Her perfect skin was still in tacked her long blue hair whipped around her face the heat from the fire. She limped forward and smiled at him

Lucis broke free from the people that were holding him back, he wrapped his arms around me pulling me from the burning house and spun me around kissed me hard.

“don’t you ever f*****g do that again,” he said his lips still against mine, he kissed me again

“I love you too”  he whispered while holding my face in his hands.