The True Story Of The Original Witch

Chapter 15: The Darkness Within

The room went silent as we all stared at the two halves of the wand in my hands. Suddenly, it started to glow. Really glow. It was turning white, glowing in the darkness of the tower. The light separated itself from the wand, shocking me into dropping the now useless stick. The light thinned out into a sort of rope-like form before my eyes.

Before I could stop it, the strand of light, that shard of heaven that Clara had absorbed when she got the powers, had swung around me, curled around and up my neck, and found its way into my ear. In only a few seconds, the whole thing had gone into my ear. I could feel it inside my head, the light breaking through the darkness.

I screamed. I fell to the knees, grasping my head in pain. My fingers tangled up in my hair. The light was puncturing the darkness that had seeped into my mind. My scream was loud enough to force everyone in the room to cover their ears in pain.

This light, the pure light that Clara had kept from me this whole time, It did rival my darkness, but it wouldn't break me. I was stronger than it. Stronger than light, than love, than anything. I would win. It was mine.

Three guards had finally come into the room, swords drawn, but they quickly relaxed once they saw the threat on the ground, screaming. The swords went up just as quickly when they saw the state of my eyes.

I didn't have to look this time. The white in my eyes was gone. Despite the light messing around in my head, I had no light of my own. All I had was pure, concentrated darkness.

Joseph had stood up and was now looking away, when I screamed again. "Look at me, Joseph!" He granted me that request, and I was surprised to find a stoic, cold look on his face. I laughed at that, even through the pain. "I want you all to see me this way! I want you all to see what your prince did to an innocent girl! Took my love and twisted it into... this! You have your monster now, but you don't realize that prince charming is the one who created it!"

The guards took a glance at Joseph, but their attention then turned to the blind man holding the princess protectively. I staggered to my feet and faced them both, trying to hide the blistering pain going through my head. My hands had turned to flames again. The guards gasped and shouted orders at each other, but a single blast of my magic, that pure red mist, shot out of my hand, blowing them all back into the hallway. They could still see from the hallway, though. Everyone could see, as, even to my own surprise, I slowly lifted off the ground.

The heat spread through my body, as the flames not only formed outside of my body, but around my legs, as well. Up my legs, my stomach, my torso, all the way up to my neck where it set the ends of my hair on fire, every single cell was being set aflame with that original fire inside me, the one from that night where I dipped my hands into the fires of hell itself. And it gave me this power.

The fire inside me that had once been dormant, trapped inside me, was now on the outside, for everyone to see. My entire body was covered in flames, but I knew how to make the pain stop. Even that pain in my head, where that tiny little light tried to break through my glorious darkness. The numbing sensation of darkness... I allowed it to take over me, letting the darkness, the fire, take hold of my body, and nothing, not the flames, not even the light, hurt anymore.

I laughed softly, a dark chuckle that I knew terrified everyone within earshot. A few maids had gathered in the hallway, and I couldn't be happier. More people to see me like this, to tremble before my power.

I didn't need light, I didn't need love; this darkness was all I needed. It was almost peaceful.

But something strange started to come over me, a heavy sensation. I came back towards the ground, only to find, when I looked down, my feet were stone. That's what the light was doing. It wasn't trying to destroy the darkness, it was trapping it. I could feel the light escaping me, it's work done.

I was still quite literally on fire, but the stone, gradually creeping up my body, was extinguishing it. "No!" I screamed. "I'm not done yet!" I pointed to Briar Rose and Connor. "Mark my words, princess; someday this story will begin again. Except this time, it'll end my way. With the princess asleep for eternity, and prince charming dead at my feet!"

The stone had creeped up my pointed arm, keeping it frozen in place. It was at my chest now. Joseph finally got in front of me, staring me in the eye again. Oh, so now that I'm helpless you FINALLY face me? He was cold, stony; he didn't care about me anymore. I would see him dead one day. Prince charming would die at my hands someday.

"Once the witch turns to stone entirely, have her locked in the royal vault. Keep her under lock and key," he said to the guards, still in the hallway. He raised a hand to my face, hovering above my cheek.

"I'm sorry, Elise," he said.

I laughed at that. "Elise?! So you do still remember me! Well, let me tell you this, my prince; do not call me by that name! Burn it, tear it, because I abandon that name. I have no name. I don't want the future to see me as a person. I want them to see me as a symbol - a god, one to be feared. Elise is a stranger to me, just another person I have killed. I am the Original Witch; you will not destroy my legacy!"

Joseph backed away from me. "The stone is at her throat. She'll be consumed by it soon. I trust that you will get her out of the room once that happens."

Joseph turned away from me and faced Briar Rose, getting down on one knee. "Princess, I deeply apologize for my actions. I was not myself. I can only guess that I was under a curse of some sort," he dropped the regal facade and stood back up to look her in the eye. "I would never dream of hurting you. You know who I really am, Rosie."

She fell for it hook, line, and sinker. She finally let go of Connor, wrapping her arms around Joseph in a tight hug. "I knew you weren't gone, Joseph." She was smiling, little tears of joy falling from her eyes.

Joseph nodded and separated from her, looking back at Connor. "Thank you... for protecting my fiance."

That shocked all of us. Especially Briar Rose. Connor nodded solemnly and fell into a small bow. "No, don't bow. You saved my soon-to-be wife. I'm reminded of a certain man who saved me, a long time ago." Joseph looked back at me, seeing that the stone had reached my chin. But the very mention of Beau made me want to kill him. That statement just added insult to injury.

The real insult wasn't Beau though, it was Briar Rose. She was the ultimate insult. For the one thing that bound us together to be his wife. We both wanted to see her in pain, and now here she was, his fiance. It hurt. It hurt in a way that the darkness couldn't numb. But I cast aside Joseph. I even cast aside Elise. Beau, Julia, Clara, all of them were gone. All I was, all I wanted to be was the embodiment of darkness. Of evil.

I allowed the last remaining shard of myself, the last bit of light I had naturally, fall out. A teardrop that left my eye just before the stone covered it. With that tear gone, so was Elise. A long-forgotten memory that had been shed when I allowed that tear to fall.

And as the stone gathered together on top of my head, I myself, finally fell asleep.