On A Stormy Night

Ch.15 The Witch

-Marina-

I sat in my room staring sadly out the window, I still felt the pain caused by the loss of my daughter. It never went away. I know she's out there somewhere but my husband and son have given up finding her. I'll never give up on her.

A while back I secretly hired Protectors to go looking for her. But so far, that has only brought more pain and false hope. Every time they have a clue, it's false or just disappears. It was quite strange. I was beginning to lose patience with them. I was beginning to think she'd never be found.

There was a knock on the door, I turned away from the window and composed myself.

"Who is it?" I called out.

"It's me, Mom," my son responded.

He was still wearing his Navy uniform, he'd just come back from an assignment. I stood up and smiled at him. Before I could say a word, I was filled with extreme terror. I instantly knew it was coming from my daughter. I felt hands on my elbow but I pushed them away and sat back down in my chair. I closed my eyes trying to sense her again. I could instantly tell she was closer than she'd ever been.

I was so excited, without a word to my son I whispered a teleportation spell and vanished. I reappeared where I thought my child was. I looked around for her, but sadly I only saw my husband and son. Somehow they'd unexpectedly followed me. She wasn't there, I felt so hopeless.

Maybe I'd made it all up. I started to return to my room, but with shock I realized I could still feel her. For the first time in 25 years I was close to her, I couldn't just give up. I put down the walls encircling my mind and reached out to my surroundings. I could feel every living thing around me no matter how big or small. I could feel the trees, the plants, the animals, even the insects. I heard both my son and husband gasp in surprise as I touched their minds. I absorbed everything, but pushed it all aside, and looked only for things related to my daughter.

I specifically searched the minds where I thought she felt the strongest. I had to be very light with my touch. If I went too deep I could drive someone insane without them ever even knowing I was there. In this way I flitted from one mind to the next searching for bits of information about her.

I finally connected with her mind, the first thing I realized was that she had a different name. That saddened me for a moment but I pushed it aside and got right down to business. She was stumbling through the darkness with no idea where she was going or why.

I took a deep breath and reached out to her with my mind, "Elena."

Elena stopped dead in her tracks and listened, she stared off into the darkness but saw nothing. So she convinced herself it was just her imagination and continued to forward. I pushed my daughter's to keep moving.

"Elena, you must keep moving," I urged her, almost pleadingly.

I felt my daughter starting to get tired. She continued to walk until her legs felt too weak to go any further, she fell to her knees. I could feel how exhausted she was, but she was a fighter. I knew she could do this. I urge her to keep forward again.

"Get up Elena, you're not safe. Go!" I pleaded again, clinging to my necklace hoping she would make it.

Elena forced herself to her feet and continued on, but her whole body hurt. Her legs burned like fire, every step was agony. She started down a hill but in her worn out state she tripped over something and went tumbling down it. I winced as I felt each and every bump and bang that her body went through. I felt sorry for the ordeal she'd just gone through but now I knew she was safe. She'd made it to werewolf territory, they would keep her safe.

"Elena, it's okay. You're safe now, go to sleep now. We will come to you as soon as possible, I promise," I told her.

I could feel my own strength melting away, in my desperation I hadn't considered how much energy I was using. I felt her fall asleep, then I felt my body sway. My legs buckled underneath me, before I could hit the ground I felt strong arms wrap around me. I looked up and saw my husband Frederick's twinkling eyes. I smiled even though there were tears streaming down my face. I also noticed tears running down his face. We didn't need to speak to understand what we were feeling, we just clung to each other.

I felt my son's anger and sadness and looked over at him. "When were you going to tell me that my little sister is still alive?" Declan said, with pain in his voice.

Before I could answer we sensed someone approaching. We turned to face that person and realized it was one of the werewolves.

"Hello wolf, sorry for stepping into your territory. We will be leaving soon," Frederick said.

The werewolf shook his head. "I'm sorry but I can't allow that, my alpha will want to know why you were here," he said.

Before Frederick could respond I spoke up, "My name is Marina, yours?"

"My name is Luke ma'am," he said.

I nodded. "Ok, I'll happily go and explain everything to your alpha," I said.

I saw that my husband and son were going to say something but I glared at both of them. Luke nodded his understanding.

"Okay. I can take you there now, or do you want to meet with him tomorrow? As I can see that you're tired."

I smiled at him, "Tomorrow sounds great to me. We don't live too far from your territory's border."

"If you don't show we'll come looking for you," he said.

I nodded and he turned to leave. Frederick wasted no time teleporting us all home. I knew my son wanted to talk but I needed rest before I went to meet the alpha. I hugged him, kissed his forehead, and promised we'd talk soon.

I crawled into bed and felt Fredericks arms encircle me. I sighed with contentment. I was quickly falling asleep, my last thought was full of hope that soon we'd get our daughter back.