by Magnum Opus
A knock came at the door and Aradia jumped. Gathering her wits and composure she asked, "Who is it?" "It's Roy are you okay in there?" came the voice responsible for the knock. Aradia heaved a huge breath and said, "Yeah, I will be out in a minute." Aradia unlocked the door and said, "What’s up Roy?" "Rai-Rai are you okay?" Roy asked her, his face filled with concern. "Yeah, I am fine," she replied and pushed past him not wanting to look him in the eye. She went back to the living room where Beau and Dr. Dayton still were. Dr. Dayton opened his mouth to continue his explanation of what he thought she was when Aradia interrupted and said, "Look I am sorry but I have to go." "What?" asked Beau, "why?" "Look I just got to go okay!" Aradia moved towards the front door but Roy held up his hand to stop her. "Rai-Rai what's going on?" "Look I am sorry Roy but I can't explain I have to go now!" Roy stepped right in front of the door determined to stop her but Aradia looked him right in the eye and said, "Get out of my way Roy!" "No Aradia!" "Either you get out of my way willingly or I will make you wish you did!" Roy chuckled while Beau just hung his head with his head clasped to his forehead anticipating what was about to happen next. Aradia took a huge deep breath, grabbed Roy by both of his arms and heaved him right in the air. Stunned, Roy struggled to free himself from Aradia's grasp. She looked at him sadly and said, "You should have listened to me," and threw him down the hallway into the living room where he landed on the couch which such force it caused the sofa to flip onto its back with Roy on it! Beau and his father just stood there stunned. Aradia seized the opportunity and ran out of the house.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
As Aradia hurried out to the meeting place she concluded that out of all the stupid ideas she had to have had over the years going to meet a murderer in a abandoned manor completely isolated and miles away from town in the middle of the night had to be the biggest. But if what Derek had had said to her over the phone about willing to kill her parent instead of her...she decided that she didn't really have much of a choice. It didn’t take her long to find the manor but once she got there hesitation was only one of the emotions she felt as she stared up at the dark and crumbling manor house looming over her. Aradia sighed and thought to herself, can this situation get any more frightening? As if God or more likely the Devil had heard her rhetorical question cold rain drops started to drip out of the air. "Of course," Aradia said out loud with a shrug of her shoulders. She pushed the double doors open, braced herself for what was going to happen, and let herself into the house.
The house reeked of decay and little mice scampered around the floors like shoppers at a shopping mall. It was dark and chilly causing Aradia to get shivers up her spine but considering what she was about to face she thought maybe the cold really had nothing to do with it. "You alone?" a loud voice boomed from out of nowhere. Aradia whipped around to look at the entire room and saw Derek at the top of a long dark winding staircase. "What do you think?" asked Aradia. Derek merely shrugged as he descended the staircase while Aradia gathered her courage and asked, "so? I have kept my end of the bargain will you keep yours?" "No duh!" said Derek rolling his eyes. "Then my parents are safe!" said Aradia sounding thankful despite the severity of the situation. "Yeah they might be," said Derek shifting into his werewolf form again, "but you sure as hell are not!" Using speed as quick and as powerful as a tornado Derek jumped towards Aradia, and pinned her against the wall. He gripped his paw-like hands around her throat and started to squeeze. Aradia's feet dangled above the ground but still somehow she managed to say in gasping breaths, "Never occurred to you did it? How I was able to solve the case? "Huh? What the hell are you talking about?" Derek demanded. In spite of Derek crushing her windpipe so strongly that her face was beginning to turn blue, Aradia managed to smile and say, "You know the only bad thing about you not taking my parents hostage is without them around I don't have to hold back!" Derek's face became a mask of confusion only to change to pain when Aradia kneaded him in his gut and head-butted him. As he faltered, she used a round house kick and managed to throw him onto his back several feet away. Realizing the advantage to following through with her threat Aradia decided not to hold back and clasping her hands together in a praying like motion managed to make a huge whip of fire emerge from own two hands! At first, Derek was freaked but then he scoffed and said, "oh yeah like I am really going to fall a trick like that? Making a fake whip that seems like it's on fire." "Seems?" Aradia repeated cracking the fire whip which extended itself to Derek's shirt making him screech in pain and clutching the remains of his smoldering shirt. "Wow! So I guess it’s only partially true. Its fire not smoking that can kill you!" Aradia chuckled cracking the whip again but this time at his heels. Derek tried to run towards the exit. Aradia, however, had other ideas. "Oh no you don't!"she shouted stamping her foot on the floor, which made a huge wall of concrete appear in front of the door completely blocking Derek's escape. Derek looked back at Aradia as he ran, to make sure she would not follow. He was so hell bent on getting away he noticed nothing of what Aradia had done. But as he neared to what he thought was the door, he careened face first into the wall! Aradia smiled as she said to herself, "now this it when it gets good!"
It had been almost impossible for Beau and Roy to find out where Aradia was but once they saw jets of what appeared to be fire emerging from little clumps of forests, accompanied by loud booms it definitely narrowed the search. They raced into the forest and burst through the doors of the house to see Aradia and Derek battling on the second floor. Derek tried dodging the fireballs Aradia threw at him and in return she tried to dodge him whenever he lunged at her for an attack. "I am going to rip you to shreds and feed what is left of you to the pigeons!" he shrieked. Aradia sighed as she swung around a huge pillar and said, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but so far you have yet to hurt me! And between you and me I don't think you ever will!"
Derek roared as he slashed his claws at her while Aradia ducked every blow he tried to bestow upon her. "Hold still dammit!" He cried. "Now what fun would that be?" Aradia joked. He furiously slashed as quickly as he could while Aradia tried to dodge the blow again. Aradia didn't know whether it was her patronizing of him or her taunting that finally made him snap either way by the time Derek made that blow he was determined to draw blood. Therefore his hand managed to not only make contact with the side of Aradia's stomach but slash it so thickly and deeply with his claws that he had to literally yank them out of her! Aradia howled in pain as Derek yanked his hand back grinning wickedly, licking her blood from his hand as it dripped down his arm. Aradia faltered and dropped to her knees as the pain kicked in severely. Roy and Beau moved closer as if to jump onto the second floor in one fell swoop to tackle him but Derek was too fast. He opened his jaws as if to swallow Aradia's head whole. Aradia, however, caught his jaws with both her hands spun around on her knees and flipped him forward. He managed to pick himself up, turned to look at Aradia and spat out, "what the hell are you, you crazy bitch?" At this, Aradia smirked while creating a ball of fire in her hand. "I'll give you a hint," she said, "you're one letter off!" and with that she threw the fireball straight at him! It sent Derek flying backwards shrieking through the balcony window and out onto the ground! Aradia raced out to peer over the balcony and to stare down at Derek's now still human form. Saying it more to herself than his corpse Aradia shouted, "rule number one of battling a good guy (or to be more precise a good girl) never stand in front of a glass window!" Roy at this point was tired of waiting and leapt up to the balcony where she was. He peered over the balcony as well and asked, "Is he dead?" "Hang on," said Aradia, "I'll check." Roy reached out as if to stop her from doing such a thing but it was far from what Aradia was planning to do. Once again she created a ball of fire in her hand and threw it down onto Derek who soon became nothing but a pile of ash and bones. Aradia nodded and said, "Yeah he's dead!" Roy just stared at her in disbelief.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"Now then," Aradia said to Dr. Dayton as soon as all three of them, Beau,
Roy and Aradia, got to back to the Dayton manor. "Why is me being a witch such a big deal?" By now Aradia's parents had shown up at the manor and were sitting with Dr. Dayton and his wife. Dr. Dayton opened his mouth but Ross cut him off, "first things first where's Derek?" Beau tossed him a trash bag. Ross wrinkled his nose as he caught it, “what did you do to him?" Roy shrugged while Beau just chuckled and said, "We let Aradia show him what happens to people when they piss her off. Poor bloke never had a chance!" Aradia smiled at him causing Roy to growl softly. Ross interrupted again by saying, "but what on earth are we supposed to do with him?" "Isn’t it obvious?" Beau asked, "We bury him." "But Beau," Aradia argued, "what about his family they deserve to know that Tad's father's killer got justice!" Beau did not reply while Roy did by saying, "can't we just submit the bones to the morgue or something?" "You mean like donate it like used books at the library?" Beau asked sarcastically. Roy stepped towards Beau menacingly but Aradia stepped in between them and said to her father, "Dad here's what you are going to do: Roy you take back the bones and dump them some place, as soon as you do call my Dad to tell him where they are, Dad you take some officers and go look in the woods to find the bones, the coroner will identify it as Derek and...You will conclude that on the way to torch Tad's father's place he accidentally set himself on fire, and died!" They all looked at her speechless as she added, "hey if you got a better idea I am all ears." To this they all just shrugged and proceeded to follow the orders Aradia had given them.
It took Ross and Roy a couple of hours to do what Aradia had told them to do but finally when Ross arrived back at the manor they were ready to begin. "Well it's like I said to you before," said Dr. Dayton, “and have already explained to your parents. I think that your powers, abilities, and everything are sure-fire signs that you are a witch!" "Cool!" said Aradia. No one else seemed to think so because the room remained ghostly quiet. "Is being a witch of the hidden race a bad thing?" Aradia asked. "No," said Dr. Dayton, "quite the contrary it is an amazing thing really." "So what's the problem?" asked Aradia. Dr. Dayton heaved a deep mournful sigh. This is never a good sign, Aradia thought to herself. "The problem is Aradia," said Dr. Dayton, "no one has seen a hidden witch in over three hundred years! In fact, it is common knowledge that all the witches were killed off centuries ago!" "Killed off?" Aradia repeated, "What do you mean?" "Remember the Salem Witch trials? Well even though the humans were hanging innocent people the hidden race was going through some persecution of their own. For over centuries we the members of the hidden race have remained exactly that hidden but all of sudden people knew about us or more specifically one of our type of people namely the witches. The hidden races at the time believed the witches had betrayed them and so..."at this point Dr. Dayton paused and took a huge breath, "they hunted down and killed every single one of them!" "Every..."Aradia started in disbelief. She then shook her head and said, "No surely not everyone. After all the Nazis tried this in WWII and they failed." "Yes well," Dr. Dayton said clearing his throat, "I mean no disrespect to the human race," nodding in her parents direction, "but we of the hidden race well when we decide to do something like kill every single living being of a particular hidden people we do it very efficiently." He emphasized the word ‘very’ in a deep tone to indicate to Aradia how serious he was. Aradia on the other hand did not want to believe it. After all there had been genocides in the past before and they had all failed to exterminate a people but the way Dr. Dayton looked her straight in the eye and said this gave Aradia a horrible feeling that he was right."But if what you say is true," Aradia sputtered, "then wouldn't that make me..," Dr. Dayton sighed again, "Yes, Aradia it would mean that not only are you a witch but you are also the last of your kind. You, Aradia are the last witch."
Chapter Twenty-Nine
"Did you acquire it?" the master demanded. Keon and Saul were on their knees in his throne room, Aradia's torn jacket lying in front of them. "Yes master," said Keon, "we have acquired the item that Morgan needs to see if this girl is indeed the last witch." "How did you manage to obtain it?" the master asked sounding curious. Keon proceeded to describe how Aradia had managed to solve the murder that took place in Salem, how the murderer had confronted her, but most especially Keon went on to describe how Aradia had battled and defeated him. Afterwards, the master was silent until finally he muttered, "incredible." "You summoned me master?" Morgan asked as she suddenly appeared. The master shrugged and said, "Keon and Saul have brought back the sample of which you need but it is not necessary anymore." "Not necessary?" Morgan repeated. "Why master?" Saul asked. The master shrugged casually and said, "because after what you have just told me I now know that this 'Aradia' is indeed the last witch." "Well what will we do with her?" Saul asked and receiving a jab from Keon's elbow. The master walked the window and after exhaling a long deep breath he finally said, "spread some rumors around about her being the last witch and living in Salem." "Why?" Saul asked once more. "Because," the master explained, "why should I waste any of my precious time or soldiers trying to deal with her? If other hidden creatures hear about her then they are bound to go after her themselves." "But what if they acquire her?" Keon asked, "after all a witch's blood is the most potent and powerful substance in the world." "True," the master said shrugging, "but I doubt this girl will be an easy captive and if anything whomever she takes on will prove to us how strong she really is and what she is capable of." "But what if she cannot defeat them and whoever captures her drinks her blood and becomes powerful," Keon pressed. Amazingly, the master laughed and said, "as much of a possibility as it sounds I get the feeling that she will not be an easy opponent and if she is then it will mean she is weak and who needs a weak witch?" "And if anything," The master continued, "the more challenges she faces the stronger she gets and the stronger she gets the more potent her blood becomes and the more potent her blood..." the master slowly licked his fangs as he went on to say,"the more delicious she will be when I drain her dry!"
End of Book One
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
