A Promised Prophecy

Chapter Nine

Digging its way out of the floor, a giant centipede slithered into the room, its exoskeleton glinting in the dim lighting. I almost thought I was seeing things, never having seen a giant centipede, let alone one that was as large as a bus, until it turned to me. Rows of razor-sharp mandibles dripped with venom as the grotesque creature shifted in a serpentine pattern around the room. It moved further away, giving space for the rest of its body to join the first half in the room before it started toward me.

In a moment of fight or flight I tried everything I could; teleportation, poison, water, wind, electricity, telekinesis again. It charged at full speed toward me, and I began using all the ab strength I had to lift myself up, wishing I'd spent more time at the gym with my failed date. While it didn't hit me head on, I failed to dodge the attack and got the wind knocked out of me. My body went limp, and I found myself hanging from the shackles, blood seeping out of my jumpsuit, just as I'd found the witch before me, the one whose prophecy I just fulfilled.

No. I can't give up.

I might not have magic, but I still had a travel stone. I just needed to get my hands free, and if it meant I needed to break more bones than the centipede just did, then so be it. I pulled on my wrists, feeling a burning sensation against the shackles. Whether it was the heat of pain or something more, my body responded to it, and I leaned into the heat, hoping it broke my bones enough to pull them through the shackles.

Except, what I felt wasn't the shattering of the bones around my wrist, but a spark. It felt like my hands were on fire. I looked above and I realized she didn't steal all of my powers, and this fight wasn't over. The shackles that once held me in place melted like smelting metals.

"Fucking prophecies," I yelled at the top of my lungs. The irony of believing that prophecies only told people what they wanted to hear and knowing that, whether or not this was my fate, I was going to fall into the same loop I judged others for. I was going to fulfill my destiny and become the most powerful witch in fire magic the world had ever seen.

As my hands were free, I reached for the travel stone in my pouch, not wasting any time waiting for another attack by the centipede. My fingers gripped tightly around the stone as I teleported home.