Feelings - A Hosie Story

Chapter 37 - "You have lost this fight"

Josie runs through the corridors, throwing spells back at the witch who is following her. She has to find the others. She has to get back to Hope. It had taken a small amount of magic from her daily supply to remove the cloaking spell that had been put on her, but now she is sprinting through the corridors, a witch and vampire following closely behind her, and she is terrified.

There are a few cuts on her face, droplets of blood trickling down her cheeks. Her shirt is torn across her stomach.

The vampire lunges at her, fangs on display. A lift of her arm allows her to desiccate the vampire instantly, spelling a stake to charge through his chest for good measure. As she's about to use a spell to make her wounds more bearable, she is thrown into a wall. A sharp pain shoots up her spine, leaving her in agony. Thankfully, she can still stand, though not without great difficulty. It's a witch, holding her with a spell that she's able to slip loose from. She throws two punches at him when he least expects it, the second one accompanied by a spell that kills him.

When she looks up, she sees exactly who had thrown her against the wall. It wasn't the vampire or the witch that she'd just killed. It was him. Her whole body freezes as her mind flashes back to the past.

"Y'know you're actually quite strong. I can see why the tribrid likes you so much." He walks up to her, striking her face with force. Blood oozes from her nose. He grabs her by the shirt and picks her up. "Such a shame we are on opposing sides. I feel we could've worked quite well together." Josie sees his knife coming towards her and uses some of the magic she had siphoned earlier to send the knife flying before it can harm her.

"I would never work with you. Ever." She emphasizes. The man had tortured her, killed Hope, and now he's back. And for what? Some revenge over something Hope's father did decades ago? Seems a little dramatic. Then again, the guy has clearly turned off his humanity, so he obviously wasn't thinking right. But that doesn't excuse his behavior in any way. What he has done is still wrong, and Josie is not going to let him get away with it.

The magic supply that currently flows through her is getting low. Josie needs someone to find her fast, or she may not survive the battle. He runs at her, but she easily uses a spell to send him crashing into hard ground.

He gets up from the floor, clicking his jaw back into place. The veins under his eyes pulse which would be enough to instill fear in anyone. It certainly does put fear in Josie. The kind of fear you do your best to hide, but in reality has your heart pounding loudly, trying to force its way out of the cage it's contained in. The kind that has beads of sweat dripping from your forehead.

Blood still pours quickly from her wounds, and she can feel herself getting weaker with each passing second. She tries to use another spell on him, only this time it doesn't work. Josie's out of magic. And he can see that. He sees the way her face drops when her hands don't glow, and he takes advantage of her vulnerable situation.

"That's the problem with you siphoners." He walks closer to her and grabs her firmly by the neck. "Always gotta get your magic from somewhere else." He pushes her against the wall. Josie kicks his ankles, causing him to wobble, but not enough to get him off of her. He grabs his knife and drives it straight into her chest, missing her heart although she fears that may be deliberate. His intentions have always been to inflict as much pain as possible, so a slow and agonizing death would fit that perfectly.

A gasp escapes her lips as the blade digs further into her chest, twisting it every few seconds.

And his mistake is getting too close, is being so caught up with his own power, with the advantage he holds over her, that he's actually giving Josie a chance to fight back. He doesn't notice it at first, as she steals small amounts of his magic. He's busy talking, saying some nonsense about how he's going to enjoy killing Hope next. Only she won't give him the chance.

Josie takes more from him, with him now starting to sense something is off. With the little magic she's already taken, she spells him to stay in place, taking a small victory at seeing the panic on his face. She continues pulling the magic, thankful for how it seems to be relieving her pain.

"Y-You might have gotten me, but you have lost this fight." She coughs, specks of blood falling from her mouth as she talks. In his weakened state, words die before they can reach his lips. Then, when he's on the brink of collapsing when Josie's taken enough of his magic, she uses a spell to craft a stake from a nearby branch and sends it flying straight into his heart. She knows he's dead the moment her spell loses effect and his body drops to the ground, cold, lifeless. Dead. When his skin fades to grey.

Josie coughs, the true extent of her injuries catching up to her now that she's not pumped with adrenaline. She looks down at the knife, still deep in her skin. She lifts her shirt, reddened by her blood. The wound is beyond healing and in that very second, she knows she is going to die. It had only been a possibility before, one of the million potential outcomes. And now that it's happening, she feels so many things. So many thoughts. The first is that she's glad she has Hope's blood in her system, but then she wonders what will happen. She asks herself if it will change her, or if she'll simply become stronger. And then, she wonders the question of death. She'll come back, but for some time she will be dead. Josie wonders what happens to souls between the two stages, and where they go.

Josie pulls the knife out and throws it to the ground, the damage already done. Her breathing is still unsettled from the fighting, though she doesn't think she'll be able to catch it again. Her head feels fuzzy, clouded by so much, and yet nothing at all.

"Josie!"