Edge Becomes a Witch | [Half Bad Fanfiction]

The Ritual

Mom is holding my hand as tight as she can, just like I held Arran's a week ago. It smells as good as I remember it, and it looks just as amazing, too. Waterfalls, enormous lush mountains, and a lake with me, mom and Gabriel on a raft in the middle of it.

It doesn't take more than a minute before everything blurs and dims out to a single white room, with a single dark figure that turns into Nathan.

'Nathan...'

It's been ten years since they saw each other last.

Nathan doesn't move, nor does mom.

'Annalise.'

They stare at each other for a moment, frozen, before Nathan breaks it and turns to Gabriel, silently asking him what's going on.

'She wants to be there for Edge. Cora and Summer wanted a holiday.'

Nathan does a quick nod, then looks at me for the first time. I feel my face getting hotter when he smiles at me and says hi. I say hi back, and then realize he doesn't know that I know about the memory potion, so I tell him.

'It's good that you know the truth,' he says, and I feel stupid after nodding in agreement as if I couldn't do it enough. He makes me so nervous, and I know everyone can see it.

'Are you ready for the ritual?'

Wait, does he mean right now?

Nathan sees my confusion and says;

'Everything's ready. We shouldn't risk waiting any longer. If we do, I'm afraid the black whet death will start messing with your mind. We don't want that to happen.'

***

We're in a cave-like room, underground, inside the mountain. It smells earthy, and I'm laying on a blanket on a large uneven stone table in the center. All I can see is Nathan and Jimpikit standing over me, and I can barely see their faces because of the hoods they're wearing.

There are eleven witches here, and except for Jimpikit, Chen, Ledger, and Nathan, there are only dark-skinned elder women. Mom was here for a minute, and we hugged, kissed cheeks, and said we loved each other forever for the second time today before she had to leave the cave with Gabriel. Apparently, it's important that only the witches who are going to perform the ritual are present.

All the witches have long, black cloaks on. They're enchanted specifically for the ritual. Without the cloaks, without the hoods, the spell they're doing won't work. I interrupt Nathan while he explains all of this to me, and ask him if it's going to hurt. He says no one's really sure about that.

'Jimpikit will give you a potion, and you'll fall into a different milieu-'

'Milieu?'

'Yes, or different universe -No, stay down, Edge. Don't worry. Your body will still be here, but your mind won't. The scrolls we've read says something about a "trip", but we're not sure what it's like or how you'll experience it.'

'The reason we're underground is that the scrolls mention something of a milder trip if the case takes place as so,' Jimpikit says. 'We don't know how it works, but we know how to get it done.'

'And when is it done?' I ask.

'It can take everything from eight to twenty hours,' Nathan says. 'We don't know what it depends on, but some of us speculate it has to do with the number of family members we use the blood of.'

'The blood. What are you going to do with it?'

'Have you drink every tube, one by one with interludes, but you won't taste or feel it, you won't experience anything we do, because, again, you'll be in a different milieu, maybe even milieux; many different universes. We don't know if the blood affects the trip, nor if the trip affects you in repercussion. Whatever risks we take, it's worth it because if we don't take it, you will die without question. However, that is solely what we think. Are you willing to take on any potential risks of effects, Edge?'

'I guess I have to, now!'

Nathan tells me to try and take deep breaths, and that everything will be ok, and that when it's over, I'll be a witch.

'If I die-'

'You won't die, Edge,' Nathan reassures me, but of course, he would say that, and I want to say it anyway, just in case.

'If I die, I want you to tell Mike and, mom, and dad, and Arran, and Gabriel, and you, and everyone I've forgotten to mention, that I love them more than words can say. And...'

And now I'm starting to cry again, and I'm crying loud, but I just let it happen.

'I want you to tell Isabella that I love her like I love God. Tell her everything when you see her, and then tell her I will tell her everything when I see her again in heaven. And say she doesn't have to cry, that I'm ok, and that I'm just up there waiting for her.'

I know I sound pathetic to him, but I don't care now, and I just cry and cry and cry.

'Tell Isabella I love her like I love God.'

It's too dark to see his expression, but the silence says everything. Next, I feel his hand finding mine.

'Ok.'

'Are you ready?' Jimpikit asks I nod, and in the next moment, I feel a warm liquid pouring down my throat, tasting like someone else...