Crack
The loud sound caused her to straighten herself. She stared at her surroundings. The sky was black, with thunder cracking violently outside the cabin as the lights went out. The book closed next to her.
"Someone help, please," a voice cried desperately outside.
Springing up from the chair, Raven grabbed the flashlight, gripping it tightly in her hand.
Standing frozen, she heard the screams coming from the darkness. She had been reading her mother's journals for any indication of where the book could have been; everybody had been asking her if she had enough on her plate to worry about, and now she had another thing to worry about: the screams coming from outside the cabin.
She hesitated for a second. Darkness took over her eyes as she entered the dark.
The rain has subsided, and nothing else can be heard.
"Someone, please!" the voice cried again. Moving deeper into the woods, she came to a stop, not seeing anyone there.
"Someone help," the voice called from behind her. Spinning around, she held the flashlight up to see nobody except for a raven staring down at her.
"Aaah!" she screamed, stumbling backward.
The wind brushed up on her from behind as she spun around.
"Little Raven," the voice called.
Her aunt's voice.
"Aunt Mel?" she whispered. The darkness seemed to be disappearing as the full moon hung above them.
Raven stared at her aunt, who was a few feet away from her.
GROWL
A dark mass moved between the trees close to Aunt Mel.
"Aunt Mel!" Raven called out, her eyes moving along the trees.
She was getting closer to her aunt.
"Aunt Mel!" she tried calling for her aunt, trying to warn her. Raven ran towards her aunt, only to watch as the massive, dark-haired wolf leaped through the air, its jaws closing in on her aunt.
"AAAAHHHHH," her aunt's screams filled the air. Raven stood frozen, all the air out of her lungs, as the wolf tore through her aunt.
"AUNT MEL!" she screamed. The wolf's head looked up at her.
"She is the first," it said through the link. "But she won't be the last," it growled out. Dorian turned around, disappearing among the trees. Raven quickly ran to her aunt, falling to her knees next to her. Large bite marks crossed her aunt's body. Her eyes closed, and with shaky hands, Raven carefully lifted her aunt's upper body, careful not to feed the pain.
"You are going to be all right, Aunt Mel." She sobbed, placing her hand over the bite mark, which was too large. She focused all her magic on healing the wound.
Raven stared down at the wound, blinking and waiting to see the healing process work.
"Come on, Aunt Mel, you need to heal," she cried out, shaking her aunt's body.
"Come on, you have to wake up. Please!" she cried out.
"AUNT MEL!"
Raven burst through the diner doors, the bell echoing through the air and slightly disrupting the customers. Heads turned in her direction as she hurried past the tables to the counter to the woman who was busy smiling at the old man with his newspaper. They stared at her.
"Hey," she started.
Tears welled in her eyes. Raven walked behind the counter, throwing her arms around her aunt and hugging her tightly.
"You are okay," she whispered, choking.
Her aunt held her tightly. "I am. Are you okay? Was it another nightmare?" her aunt questioned her softly.
Raven nodded her head as she took a step away from her aunt. Letting out a loud breath. "Yeah, it was only a nightmare." She whispered.
"Come sit down; I will get you something, okay?" Her aunt motioned to the open chair next to the man who stared at her. Raven sat down in the open chair. Bobby's eyes were piercing through her. Turning her head to face him, the two of them stared at each other.
"You are having nightmares?" he asked her.
"Uh yes, I have been having them for a long time, so it is not something new," she explained, placing a cup in front of her.
Slamming the car door shut, Raven locked the doors, feeling a presence behind her. The sun had gone down, and the sky was filled with stars.
Dorian.
"You are scared. Your heart is beating erratically," he told her. "Are you going to run again?" Raven turned around to face him.
"I am not scared of you."
"You are not?" he asked her, taking a step closer to her. "I can tell you the opposite; you are scared that I will kill you." A smile stretched across his face.
"While you have been doing everything you can to make me fear you, I have done some research on the curse." Turning away from him, her eyes landed on the flowers that seemed to be wilting. "There are a few things that you need to do to break the curse," she said, gripping her keys in her hand.
"You need the spell book where the spell is, and secondly, you need a Graverose witch to break the curse because only a Graverose witch can break it and can do the magic," she told him as she stopped right in front of him. The smile that was on his face earlier was no longer on his face. "And if I remember correctly, all you have been doing since you met me has been trying to torture me and find the book, which means you do not have the book nor the spell; the only thing you have is me, and by the rate you are going soon, you won't have me either. So if you want to hurt me, hurt me, and if you want to kill me, kill me, get it done, and walk the rest of eternity cursed. You are using my aunt to get me scared that you will kill her. She has nothing to do with this."
"I don't care about you or your loved ones." Stepping closer to her, he leaned down. "I will do anything to make your life hell, and if it means hurting your loved ones, then so be it. It is nothing that you haven't done before."
"And who are those I love that you can hurt?" Her sharp eyes snapped to his as she asked. Dorian stared at her, trying to recall those she loved.
"You don't remember, do you? You have forgotten that I am still a witch. I had to make sure that no matter what and no matter how everything ends, she would be safe."
CROAK
CROAK
Dorian's gaze drifted to the ravens on the tree branch, staring at them.
"Now, if you will excuse me, I have things to do," she told him, stepping around him as he entered the shop, not sparing him an extra glance.
"You trust those witches so blindly; why is that?" he questioned her. How did he know about the witches? She had not seen Maura since Joel had died and yet she had kept her distance. Something about the witches was off and she knew she could not trust them.
"I don't trust them, but I don't know what else to do or who to trust."
"You will learn, witch, that they don't care about you. They only care about what you can do," he told her, walking off.
"Dorian!" she called out stopping him in his tracks. He turned around facing her. "I will find you the book," she told him. He spared her one look before he continued on.
Raven watched as his silhouette left. She was not going to let him confuse her. But she will help him.