NIGHTS OF HALLOW

”Wha—t what do you mean?” Perdita skeptically questioned as her feet involuntarily moved away from the crazy witch in front of her. What the witch said still rang in her head and the truth of what they came for was confirming itself even without being spoken or asked.

She stared down at the witch kneeling in front of her. Though she was yet another witch she was meeting, she noticed this one did not possess the green eyes Serena and the men had. She had thought that all witches would have green eyes, but seeing a different grey eye color of this witch put out her former thoughts. Everything happening since the past few days was as if she was unwrapping a present, but the problem here was that this present wasn’t a pleasant one to witness or unwrap.

Without clearing Perdita’s question, the witch did a more confusing act by suddenly kneeling on the floor with her head pressed hard and firmly to the dusty floor as if beseeching Perdita.

Perdita exchanged a confused look with Sthena, her eyes filled with fear and consciousness of what was to come next.

Seeing Sthena keep silent, Perdita opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out of her mouth as she was still confused as to what to make of what was being displayed in front of them. She stared at the dirty blonde hair of the witch whose head was still pressed to the floor, and when she raised it, Perdita saw fear in the witch’s eyes; fear that surpassed the ones she had experienced or seen.

”P—please,” The witch stuttered to speak. ”Spare me, Your Ladyship!” Again, the witch pressed her head to the floor as she repeatedly said her pleas while knocking her head to the ground.

”Interesting,” Sthena commented with a half smile and half-narrowed expression in his eyes. He turned to the confused Perdita and said to her, ”Seems like she is waiting for your verdict now, Your Ladyship.” He repeated what the witch called Perdita.

”What verdict and what Ladyship?” Perdita uttered with a shake of her head. She spoke, ”We came here to find out if I’m a w—witch and not this? What do I make of this?”

”Mm,” Sthena nodded his head in acknowledgment and replied, ”We came and the truth has revealed itself even without us asking and now we have a new task to accomplish which is to find out the reason why this lovely lady of a witch is calling you ’Your Ladyship’ and is asking you to spare her.”

If it had been before, the witch would have tried to glare at Sthena for addressing her as a lovely Lady of a witch, but she knew not to do anything rash knowing that someone who could turn her into dust was standing in front of her. One of the great siblings of the green-eyed witch family of the first-generation witches.

Gathering her courage, Perdita bit out the question that was slowly building up the anger inside her. ”Why did you call me with that title?!”

The witch raised her head just a little so she could look at Perdita. There was question and confusion now in her eyes as she struggled to answer, ”Y—you are the Ladyship. One of the siblings of the green-eyed witches.”

”Quit saying that already!” Perdita suddenly burst out, already irritated about hearing the constant You are one of the green-eyed siblings. What if she and Marco weren’t them? Now her brother was in God knows where land because of this same ’you are one of the green-eyed siblings.’

”B—but...” The witch hesitated to finish what was on her mind seeing the angry look on Perdita’s face. She didn’t know if Perdita was ignorant or was acting ignorant of who she was. But either way, she dared not question her knowing fully well what she was capable of doing. She was after all the daughter of the great witches.

Perdita took a deep breath to calm her jittery nerves. She cast a glance at Sthena who continued to remain silent waiting for her to speak and also at the same time observing everything happening with a keen interest.

She took another deep breath before she began to speak, ”We came here because of two reasons. One, to find out if truly I am a witch. And secondly, we came here to find clues on the whereabouts of my brother, Marco. So I don’t understand why you suddenly knelt and started addressing me all that. If you could do us a favor and let us know what all these green-eyed siblings of the great witches mean.”

The witch slowly looked up from her kneeling position, the cautiousness, and fear from earlier now turning into doubts and questions when she stared at Perdita. She slowly asked, ”Do you mean y—you don’t know anything about your origin?”

”Ehm...” Sthena interrupted as he cleared his throat and stepped forward, ”I think we are drifting from the important thing we came for. Why don’t we go ahead with our first agenda before this? What we are doing is like leaping without balance.”

”Okay,” Perdita agreed with a sigh. So much had happened in such a short span of hours since dawn and she was already exhausted. ”Please stand up. It makes me uncomfortable.” She addressed the witch who slowly rose to her feet.

”What do you want to know, Your Ladyship?” The witch asked with a bowed head to which Perdita was quick to react.

She quickly spoke, ”Please stop with that title.”

The witch’s grey eyes met the tired and annoyed eyes of Perdita in apprehension before she nodded in approval. ”Please come with me,” The witch said as she directed them to a space where a table and chairs were.

”Have a seat and tell me what you want to know,” The witch continued after Perdita and Sthena sat down. Sthena’s calm and calculative gaze never left the witch’s direction because of the way she was behaving so calmly and gently after she identified who Perdita was. What made him curious and at the same suspicious was how the witch was quick to identify Perdita easily; something Serena was not able to do so quickly.

Perdita adjusted her sitting position to a more comfortable one before she began speaking. She said, ”We came here to find out if truly I am a witch, and this you have confirmed earlier. Another reason was also to find clues on how to find my brother who was abducted today.”

The witch’s eyes widened in shock which she concealed immediately as she stared from Perdita to Sthena and then back to Perdita again before asking, ”Do you know who might have abducted him?”

”Yes,” Perdita affirmed with a nod.

”Okay. Locating someone we don’t know where the person is, is a task that needs sacrifices.” The witch said, still watching Perdita with a curious and something sinister in her expression.

”What do you need?” Came the question from Sthena before Perdita could question why they needed to make a sacrifice.

The witch clasped her hand in front of her and began to list what she needed. ”I’ll need something belonging to her brother. It could be his hair, nails, or even his blood.”

”Do we need all these?” Perdita questioned with a frown. Bringing anything belonging to Marco to this witch did not sit well with her.

”We need any one of them if you want to locate your brother.” The witch explained. She stood up and suddenly peered into Perdita’s eyes and stated with a wicked grin, ”You have something bothering you but are embarrassed to ask?”

Perdita’s eyes widened in disbelief. She opened her mouth to ask how she found out but was interrupted by the witch who asked the question on her mind instead. ”Wondering how I got to know? I have my tricks.”

On hearing this, Sthena cast a glance at Perdita noticing her pupils dilate at having been found out. She noticed his gaze and quickly looked away to hide her face from him. This action of hers only fueled his curiosity to know what it was she was embarrassed to ask.

The witch smiled and returned to her seat with a knowing look. She quizzed, ”You want him to step outside before you can go ahead? It’s always best to get your questions answered than to have them bother and cause you a headache. Hmm?”

Without being asked, Sthena stood up to give Perdita the space she needed. When he left, Perdita’s posture became alert and this had the witch chuckle. She said, ”Do not worry about me harming you. I wouldn’t dare.”

How was she able to detect everything about how she felt? Perdita internally questioned herself with a curious gaze trained on the witch.

Wanting to get over the question and also get the answer to her question, she immediately started speaking, ”I had a dream or should I call it an illusion created by a witch, I don’t know. In the dream Sth...I mean the king ehm...”

Perdita paused as she nervously rubbed her neck, her face flushing at the same time. Remembering the dream where Sthena sucked on her neck and the way she had moaned was already embarrassing enough and speaking about was another type of shame she didn’t know how to face.

”What did the king do and who might this witch be?” The witch questioned to help her spill the dream out.

Perdita shook her head to think straight before quickly saying, ”The King, Sthena, he—he kissed my neck and...”

Wait! Perdita suddenly paused. Why was she telling this to someone she just met? And a witch at that?

”Continue,” The witch urged only to see Perdita abruptly stand up as if something snapped in her head.

”No! Nothing happened. We will bring what you need for the ritual. We are leaving!” She spoke and not waiting for the witch to respond, she hurriedly left the house in search of Sthena.

When she spotted him outside leaning on the bark of a tree, the first thing she heard was, ”You didn’t tell me this part of your dream.”

Hell no! How could she forget that Sthena could hear them even without being there?!