The Collector ~ a winx club fanfic

Chapter 8

All she knew was that it was dark and she felt weightless. She heard nothing, she saw nothing, and she felt nothing. 'Is this what death feels like?' she thought to herself. Then, slowly, she began to feel again. The pain steadily grew and grew till she thought that it couldn't possibly get worse but it did. The pain brought all her other senses into focus.

Musa opened her eyes to a world full of pain, but a world also full of light. She was outside! she could see the sky! Oh the beautiful blue sky! She wanted to fly away, fly to freedom, but her body wouldn't listen to her. Looking down she saw why. The front of her middle had been slashed from her left shoulder to her right hip bone. It didn't look deep but it was bleeding profusely and hurt like nothing she had ever experienced. Hearing the sound of clanking metal she was startled and looked towards the sound.

King Mikahl stood at a claw footed workbench with piles of metal nails. They were as long as one of Musa's forearms and as thick as her index finger. Behind him was a wall covered with weird shapes that Musa's eyes couldn't focus on. The pain and fuzz in her head was making hard to focus on anything else. She did realize, by looking around, that she wasn't outside. She was still in the catacombs, in another circular cavern with multiple doors, this one only had 3 however, not including the giant opening in the cavern's ceiling.

As she looked around she saw Flora was on the ground next to her. She was unconscious but Musa could see the slight rise and fall of her chest. 'Shes alive!' Musa thought 'Shes alive!' she almost cried out with joy when she suddenly recalled where Flora had been wounded; in her stomach. Musa felt a tear roll down her check for Flora's lost baby, there was no way it was still alive. The damage was too great and Flora was so frail. More tears escaped her eyes as she whispered Flora's name and grabbed onto her hand.

"Oh! Little fairy! Your awake! What a wonderful surprise! I would have hated for you to miss all the spectacular fun we are going to have!" King Mikahl said with a grand wave of his hand and danced to where she laid and looked down on her. "Such a pretty fairy, even with all that blood. One might say it actually increases your beauty... hmmm... I say we leave your wounds, that specimen too! You both look radient in red!" Mikahl laughed and leaned over Flora and grabbed one of her arms and dragged her away. Musa gasped in surprise and tried to hold onto Flora's hand but she was too weak.

Setting her down, King Mikahl walked over to his workbench and started gathering 5 of the nails and a heavy looking mallet, talking to himself as he worked. "I hope my soldiers bring the other 3 soon! Such beauties! I can not wait to add them to my collection! Hmph! It would be 4 but alas it cannot be. I fear that annoying bitch is better off joining those ruffians in hell. Sigh! Such a waste! Oh well! Come my precious, lets get you settled in."

King Mikahl continued to drag Flora till he reached the far wall and stopped. Musa watched in horror as he picked Flora up and propped her against the wall. Her vision was blurred from tears and disorientation, but she forced her eyes to focus on Flora, find some way to save her. When her eyes did focus however she let out a startled scream. Lining almost the entire walls of the carven were bodies; bodies with wings, in various stages of decomposition. There were hundreds of fairy bodies that spanned the entire height of the cavern walls; almost 8 bodies high. The bodies were all around her and Musa continued to scream, trapped in this rotunda of death.

"My! My! Why the screaming my little butterfly! Don't you like my collection! Its so amazing! I spent my whole lifetime building my collection. I love beautiful things. I love my collection. Oh! Look! You were looking for your friend right? Look! Here she is! Isn't she lovely?" King Mikahl sang as he danced over to a gray body with red hair and he cradled the corpse face and kissed it's cheek.

Musa was sobbing uncontrollably now. It was Myrta! She was dead! They were all gonna die! This was it, Musa was going to die here. Musa was Panicking and hyperventilating and sobbing loudly. She wasn't ready to die she wasn't ready to leave everyone behind, not her friends, not Riven, not her dad. But what could she do? She couldn't fight, she could barely move.

King Mikal laughed and danced back over to Flora and hammered a nail into her left hand. Flora groaned and brought Musa back to the present. she couldn't give up, they were still alive. After everything they were still alive! They were winx girls and they would fight till they died. Screaming at the top of her lungs she cried out for Flora and aimed her hands at King Mikahl. The soldiers were resistant to magic, but King Mikahl was not. "VOICE OF SIRENIX!" she yelled and Musa was thrown back into the wall and stars danced in front of her vision. Wow! Her magic had never been that powerful.

Too bad for her though, King Mikahl had dogged the attack. All she had accomplished was to make the crazy king furious, and he stalked over to where she was. Musa screamed out in desperation and fear, Musa screamed as loud as she could, and screamed for as long as she could. Her screams were only silenced when King Mikahl raised the mallet over her head and brought it down to the side of her head.

"Riven! Helia! Go right! My handheld says her voice is coming from the right tunnel!" Tecna ordered.

The remaining Winx and specialists had been following the sound of Musa's screams. It was the best lead they could hope for. The longer she screamed though, the more agitated Riven became. He knew that though her screams might save her, something was happening to her, something bad. It was a bitter-sweet guide.

Suddenly Musa's screams were cut off, and they all stopped abruptly. Riven Turned and looked at them with a frenzy in his eyes and kept running.

"RIVEN! GET BACK HERE!" Sky yelled after him.

"Son of a bitch, follow him guys! We have to stop him before we get even more lost!" Brandon ordered and everyone chased after Riven.

They all stopped running when they ran into Riven bent at the waist and panting, standing at the intersection of two cavern doors.

"Riven?" Helia asked gently and went over to him. The tough specialist was starring glassy eyed at the two doors. "Which one?" Riven muttered "Which one Musa? Come on baby where are you? Don't give up" a tear rolled his cheek.

"Riven. Its okay. You were right. They are alive in here somewhere. We will find them." Helia soothed placing his hand on his back.

"I cant hear her anymore Helia" Riven said and looked at Helia with a stricken expression. "Why did she stop screaming. What happened to my Muse?"

Stella covered her mouth and leaned into Brandon. Everyone was shocked. They had never seen Riven break face. He always acted like nothing fazed him, but here now, there was a crack in his façade. He really did love Musa. Stella kind of felt bad for King Mikahl; When Riven found him he was in for the worst torture of his life.

Riven slumped to the ground in defeat. There was nothing he could do. "Lets rest" he said. "We need to rest until we hear her again."

The rest of the group sighed with relief and fell to the ground to get some much needed rest. It had been 3 days since they had any food or water and after all their running and that massive battle they had; there was no more energy left in them. "Tecna. don't forget to put up the barrier." Sky mumbled already half asleep.

"Already complete Sky." Tecna replied and pressed a few final keys on her handheld. "I also set up a program to alert us when Musa or Flora... umm.. make their presence know again."

"Awesome Tec! now come here and get some rest" Timmy said and held his hand out to her. Tecna smiled and crawled into his waiting arms and quickly fell asleep. Helia was the last to fall asleep, worrying about his flower till the last possible second.