by Logan Jacobs
“It’s the only way to keep yourself protected from their venom and their appetite!” Morgana shouted over the shrill screams that filled the air. “They could take one bite out of you and die from the plant in your bloodstream, not a second later.”
“What if you’ve got the wrong plant in mind?” Akira cried out over the screams.
“It’s Morgana,” Faye yelled, “she knows the right plant!”
We sped through the thicket and frantically pushed thorny vines and broken branches out of our way. As we ran for our lives, we could hear screaming in the distance, and some witches even called out the safeword. We finally came to a patch of bushes that were emerald in color, and even in the darkness, they glowed a vibrant green. It was the liveliest thing I’d ever seen in the black forest, and I knew this had to be the pennyroyal.
“Vanessa must have purposely lured us near a patch of pennyroyal,” Morgana said as she quickly scanned the plants. “I guess she’s not as heartless as we assumed… the only problem is we have no time to brew this properly, so you’re just going to have to eat it. I think it will have the same effect.”
“Eat it?” Akira shrieked. “What if it’s poison, and this is just one of Vanessa’s tricks?”
In the next moment, a young witch with dark purple hair and pale green skin fell from a tree in front of us. She landed in the bushes, and right as she looked at us, bats came swarming down on her and began to tear her into bits. She tried to yell out the safeword, but it was too late. They covered her entire body, and she screeched as they dug into her flesh, little by little. She was screaming frantically until she finally collapsed to the ground, and the bats continued to devour her. They ripped off her skin and picked out her eyeballs, and we could hear her bones crunching and her organs tearing as they munched away. Once the bats were too focused on finishing their meal, Akira turned to Morgana, and the black-eyed witch was white as snow.
“Give me the fucking plant,” she demanded in a whisper.
Morgana handed us each a pinch of pennyroyal, and we quickly stuffed the bitter green leaves into our mouths and chewed. It was difficult to swallow the thick, waxy plant, but as soon as they made their way down my throat, I was ready to haul ass again.
“We’d better get the fuck out of here,” I suggested.
“Agreed.” Faye nodded.
We bolted through the trees and ran hard and fast, past the dead witch and her attackers. We had no idea where we were going or what we were looking for, but all I knew was I wanted to get as far away from those things as possible, even if we just ate the antidote.
There was no room for taking chances.
“Where are we even going?” Akira panted behind me.
“I don’t know, but we just have to keep moving,” I shouted back. “Look what happened to that girl who hid in the tree? It didn’t work out too well for her.”
“Point taken,” the short-haired witch grumbled.
We were running when suddenly, one of my witches screamed bloody murder. I stopped, whipped around, and saw Akira had four or five bats swarming all over her. They were nipping at her skin, and some were taking rather large chunks out of her. Bright red blood arched into the air, and the bats descended into a frenzy.
“Akira!” I pushed past the others who were utterly petrified and yanked the witch away as hard as I could. As I did so, some of the bats started to attack me instead. I swatted at them and managed to hit one hard enough that it went flying into a tree and broke its wing.
Finally, something happened. The bats stopped biting us, and, one by one, they began to drop dead to the ground.
“It… it worked,” Akira gasped with cuts all over her.
“You’re a fucking genius, Morgana!” I said.
“Yeah,” Akira panted with her hand over her chest. “That was not fucking fun.”
“Are you doing okay over there, Akira?” Morgana asked.
“Yeah… I thought those fuckers were going to eat us alive,” she replied with wide, black eyes. “Satan, that felt like a close one.”
She stepped forward and flinched. Then she looked down at her body, and when I followed her gaze, I noticed several chunks of her thigh and calf had been bitten off, and blood was pouring out onto the ground.
Without our bond, she would have probably bled to death in a few minutes.
“Your wounds should heal up soon,” I said, and when I touched my own cheek, I flinched from intense, sharp pain. “Mine, too, hopefully.”
Before any one of us could say another word, the black sky began to morph back into daylight, and all the screams died down at once. We slowly straightened up and looked around, and when I stared up into the sky, I noticed there was red smoke forming above us, like crimson clouds. It was creating a sentence, and I knew it had to be Vanessa directing us to the next challenge.
“Look!” I said as I pointed up to the sky.
If you survived, make your way north until you find me once again.
“That bitch is totally enjoying this,” Akira growled.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, “we need to keep going. Akira, can you walk?”
“Yeah.” She nodded to her closing wounds. “I’m already starting to heal. Don’t worry about me.”
“Awesome,” I replied, “let’s go.”
We headed through the forest and followed the direction of the smoke. The letters had now dissolved and became a smoky line that was guiding us true north. We followed the red trail in the sky and finally came to another round patch of dirt where Vanessa was standing. She was settled right in the middle of it, and there were strange, intricate carvings beneath her feet.
“I see you all made it without a scratch,” she said as she cocked an eyebrow in our direction. Then her blue eyes focused intently on my face. “Well… maybe that was a poor choice of words.”
I worked my jaw in frustration. Akira almost had a point. Vanessa was pushing us to the very edge. She wanted to see us fight as hard as we could, even if it killed us. I knew she wanted us to become stronger, but her tactics were too cutthroat at times.
Other witches slowly started to appear from the forest, and some of them were bitten to shreds.
“Well, is this all?” Vanessa asked in a faux-innocent voice after about half the number of witches had made it to the field. “What a shame… so little of you returned.”
I could sense everyone’s pain, fear, and regret from here. Some were more resilient than others, but for the most part, I could sense many of the witches regretted entering the tryouts. I could feel it, but it was too late to turn back now.
“Now that everyone is here,” Vanessa said, “we shall move on to phase two.”
She twirled around and looped her wand about three times in a circular motion. The air started to grow incredibly chilly, and I was beginning to breathe puffs of mist. Then snow started to fall, and it quickly coated our lashes and hair. The snow was starting to build upon the ground, and it rose like a tub being filled with water. By how quickly it was rising, I thought we were going to drown in snow, but then it suddenly stopped, just below my knees.
Every single witch had their feet buried in the snow, except for Vanessa, who remained untouched by it, as if some invisible umbrella had protected her from it.
“Weather can be highly unpredictable in different realms.” She grinned. “Knowing how to escape or manipulate the weather can be quite tricky if you don’t possess the right skills.”
What the hell was going on? Was she going to try and kill us with snowballs next?
“In fact, most of you are buried in this snow,” she laughed. “Could you imagine how impossible it would be for you to escape in this condition? How the hell would you run?”
She snapped her fingers, and this time, the snow turned into sand. Red, hot sand that seeped into my boots and stung like thorns. The air had also turned hot, sticky, and sweltering. Sweat dripped down my forehead, and I was finding it difficult to even breathe. The sky was now a blood
red, and the sun was beating down on us.
Witches groaned in protest, and a few of them recluntactly said the safe word and instantly disappeared, while several others fainted before they could even utter the word.
“Well, I guess that means they’re disqualified.” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Tough luck… but let’s not dwell on that, shall we?”
No one could even reply because of the intense, barbaric heat.
Vanessa snapped her fingers again, and this time, the trees began to wilt, and the soil cracked beneath her. Everything was dying until she raised her wand and twirled it above her head. Suddenly, the weather returned to normal, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh, I wouldn’t get too comfortable,” she laughed, “we haven’t even begun the second test.”
Witches swallowed hard, and beads of sweat collected under my arms and on my forehead and upper lip.
“I think a lovely storm will do for this one,” Vanessa muttered as she looked at us all with bloodlust in her eyes.
She murmured an incantation under her breath, and suddenly, the sky turned an even deeper shade of red, and the air grew painfully cold once more. Instead of white snow, a red slush began to fall from the sky, and it started to rise up to our ankles. Teeth chattered, and people huddled closer together until there was a loud, low pitched scream that almost sounded like the wind, but I knew it was something else. Something darker and deadlier.
“Manes,” Morgana hissed.
“Are you sure?” Akira asked in a faint voice.
“What are manes?” I asked.
“Phantoms of winter,” Morgana responded in a trembling voice. “They turn you inside out if they get a hold of you, and your blood becomes soaked into the snow.”
The screaming grew louder, and some witches began to run back into the woods. Vanessa just stood there calmly, though, with the hem of her red gown soaked in the bloody snow.
“We have to find a safe spot to conduct a sapiens spell!” Morgana cried out. “Magic from our wands isn’t going to save us from the phantoms.”
Suddenly, a shadow descended downward and screamed before it flew inside a nearby witch with long dark hair and a small round freckled face. We watched in horror as she violently convulsed, and the top of her head began to flip inside out, and her scalp slowly peeled back to expose her brains and facial muscles.
“I can’t watch this,” I hissed as my stomach rolled. “Let’s find somewhere to hide, and then we can do the sapia spell.”
“Sapiens,” Morgana corrected before we made a run into the dark forest.
“Now’s not the time for corrections, Morgana,” Akira panted as we struggled to run through the thick, bloody snow.
Vanessa had been right, running through the snow was nearly impossible. The smell was also unbearable, and the air reeked of metallic metal and rotting flesh. We pushed onward, though, and I did my best to ignore the howls of the phantoms mixed with the screams of the students who couldn’t get away fast enough.
We finally came to the mouth of a small cave, and we sprinted inside. As soon as we were in the dark shelter, Morgana pulled out her wand and chewed on her rosy lip.
“What’s wrong?” Akira groaned.
“I’m trying to remember how it goes,” Morgana whispered without making eye contact with anyone.
“You mean you don’t remember?” Akira sneered.
“It was out of a book that was two levels above us!” the beautiful bookworm retorted in defense.
“What are we going to do if you can’t remember it?” Faye wailed. “I’m not turning inside out for a stupid fucking game.”
“What if we do a simple memory enchantment?” I suggested. “I read about it last semester one night in a hex book. It should work.”
“Do you remember the entire spell?” Vesta asked with a raised green eyebrow.
“I do,” I nodded.
At least I thought I did, but I knew it would be better to keep that part to myself. So, I pulled out my wand and aimed it at Morgana.
“Hold still,” I ordered. “Memento Sapiens.”
A light pink stream of light left the tip of my wand and seeped through Morgana’s pale blue eyes. She inhaled sharply, and her eyes began to glow rosy pink as she was illuminated for a moment, and then it all faded away in the blink of an eye.
“I remember it now!” she cried out.
“Great,” Akira growled. “Could you remember it a little more quietly?”
“Oh.” Morgana blushed. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, “just do the spell.”
Morgana closed her eyes and began to recite the incantation. Then she brought her hand up to her lips and bit into it. She let the blood drip onto the wand, and she continued with the rest of the spell. Soon, a light, airy blue light began to seep out from her wand and divided into five bolts of light that hit all of us in the chest. It felt like invisible fingers were wrapped around my heart, and for a brief moment, I was concerned she had enacted the wrong spell. I could barely breathe, and it was like ice was collecting into my lungs.
“What… what’s happening?” I struggled to ask.
“You’re becoming visibly dead,” Morgana panted as the light hit her, too.
“What?” Akira demanded through her teeth.
“Don’t worry,” Morgana said. “It’s supposed to happen… our bodies will be invisible to the phantoms, and they won’t be interested in us.”
When the painful feeling finally faded, I breathed in a long, steady breath. We had all collapsed down to the ground in pain, and the air was deadly quiet.
“Are you sure we’re safe?” I finally asked.
“Positive,” the brunette responded.
We slowly stood up, and my legs nearly buckled underneath me as I struggled to stand upright.
“It won’t last forever,” Morgana said while we all groaned in protest.
“I feel like I’m made out of tin, and my joints are all rusted,” Vesta moaned.
“Like I said,” Morgana sighed, “it will pass.”
We headed out of the cave, and as soon as we stepped past the mouth, a transparent ghost swarmed down and stared right at us. She had a withered face and a missing eye, and she regarded us as if we were a strange-looking painting.
“She won’t do anything,” Morgana said under her breath.
The phantom continued to look at us, and when she decided she couldn't turn any of us inside out, she screamed and dissolved into nothingness.
“Satan,” Faye sighed. “It worked.”
“Thanks, Cole,” Morgana said as she turned to me. “If it hadn’t been for you, then I would never have remembered the spell.”
“Well, you were the one who did it,” I smiled.
“Guys, look,” Akira said, “the snow is melting.”
She was right. When I looked down, the red snow was beginning to melt into the soil, and the crimson clouds were returning to a deep gray. The sound of violent wind died down, and the air settled into normality.
“Now what?” Vesta said after a moment. “Did we win?”
“Not yet,” Morgana answered. “At least, I don’t think so.”
As soon as her words left her lips, a deep black smoke appeared in the sky, and once again, it was guiding us north.
“Let’s go,” I muttered. “I have a feeling this will be the last one.”
My coven followed behind me closely, and we did our best not to pay attention to the dead bodies that littered the forest floor.
“Unholy fuck,” Akira muttered. “I wonder how many people already died.”
“Too many,” I sighed. “Come on, just try and ignore it.”
We marched through the dark woods and followed the inky black smoke until we saw Vanessa standing on another patch of soil with a serene smile on her hauntingly beautiful face.
“And I see you’re all still together and in one piece… it’s almost impressive,” she said.
“Almost
.” I smirked.
The sharp featured brunette ignored me, and we all waited for whoever was left to make their way to the professor. Every witch who came crawling or walking through the woods looked absolutely exhausted and to be in severe pain, except for a few exceptions. There was this one group of four witches who seemed to be enjoying this. One had bright orange hair and pale skin with thick dark eyebrows, and a sarcastic grin stretched across her pretty face. By her side were a set of twins with black pixie cuts and pointed ears that were slightly larger than Vesta’s. One had a streak of blue in her hair, while the other had a pink one, but they were both heavily pierced, made up, and tattooed. The fourth witch was a short, slim witch with light brown, long, sleek hair and a set of heavy bangs that hung just over her large, dark-brown eyes.
“Now that we have our remaining groups here,” Vanessa said, “this final round will determine the two groups who will compete in the tournament.”
The other group flashed us a smirk, and I could feel myself growing more competitive. I followed my coven’s eyes, and I noticed they were also staring hard at this other group.
“We’ve got this,” I said under my breath.
“No doubt,” Akira agreed.
“Let’s get this over with,” Vanessa said before she raised her wand up into the air.
Suddenly, the ground shook, we all started to sink into the soil, and I watched as every single witch stared down in horror as they tried to wriggle against it.
“Don’t fight it,” Morgana told us.
“I’m not even going to ask how you know that,” Akira said through her teeth.
I relaxed my body and let myself sink into the soil. For a moment, I couldn't breathe, and all I could taste was dirt as it seeped into my mouth and nostrils. I thought I was going to suffocate until my body started to fall downward.
I landed hard on something that felt like metal. My face hit the surface first, and I was sure I almost broke my nose from the impact. Then I gently pulled myself up and looked at my coven. The girls groaned and rubbed their heads and looked around in confusion. We were in some underground dungeon with a metal floor and matching metal walls. There were carvings all around the walls, and there was only one light, and it shone down on three black doors that stood in front of us.
