I ran.
I ran as fast as I could towards the witch. I don’t know what I expected to happen, but I knew I didn’t really have the best chance to win. She saw me running, let go of my mother, and charged straight back at me.
I didn’t expect that, I was wrong! I figured she would keep dragging my mother off towards the woods while I chased after, but no. And that moment of surprise put me instantly at a disadvantage. I had no weapon on me, and the witch had a knife. I swung my arms, desperately trying to land a hit somewhere on her. She nimbly dodged all of my swings though, and hit me hard square in the stomach. I doubled over onto the grass, trying my hardest not to throw up what I had eaten for lunch that day.
“Is that all you can do?” asked the witch. “I figured you would at least have a little more fight in ya, boy!”
“Leave… us… alone,” I groaned. “Why.. are you even… here?”
“I told you once, child, and I’ll tell you again. I have no choice.”
At this point, I was beginning to grow angry. Angry of how everything had been taken from me so quickly, and without a shred of repentance. Angry that this witch who trespassed upon my home would not tell me her reasoning for doing so. I slowly stood back up, and prepared to jump at the witch once more.
Then, she smiled at me, the same malicious smile that she had while roughly handling my mother, and kicked at me… hard.
I was sent reeling, and rolled across the grass all the way to the shelter. The wind knocked out of me, and I was seeing stars everywhere. I glanced back towards the witch, who had now started walking back to my mother. She had no scars, marks, or tears on her clothes at all.
“How am I supposed to be a traveller?” I thought as I lay on the grass. If I can’t even put a scratch on this witch, how am I going to handle fighting other witches who are stronger and more powerful?
I was growing increasingly desperate, but before I completely lost myself to despair, I saw a wooden practice sword my dad used to practice with when he was still alive. I knew I had no choice, I had but one option and had to act quickly.
I unsteadily stood back up, and stumbled over to the sword, knocking down a whole bunch of other tools in the process. The witch turned to look at all the noise I made, and her eyes widened slightly in surprise.
“One thing you do have,” she started, “is a good fighting spirit.” Oddly enough, she seemed satisfied by this.
“Maybe witches just enjoy the thrill of the fight,” I thought, “or maybe she just likes toying with her prey.”
The witch turned back towards me, and began walking slowly once more. Now, I wasn’t angry, I was scared. Being beaten to a pulp had diminished my fighting spirit, and I no longer believed I had any chance at winning. But I couldn’t give up.
I stumbled clumsily towards the witch, and tried to hold the sword in a somewhat cautious position, but I was still dizzy and dangerously close to collapsing on the ground.
Then, with all the strength I could muster, I swung the sword down at the witch… and missed. She had jumped back right as my sword was arching the path of where she had been standing.
Now, at least, the witch was distracted with me.
“Run, mother!” I yelled as I twisted myself between her and the witch. The witch and I were not close to my mother at this point, and I needed her to run into the village as fast as she could to get help. “Go find someone to come help!” I screamed.
Then, almost as clumsily as me, my mother, looking terrified and disheveled, started running back up through the backyard and towards the dirt road. The witch didn’t even glance in her direction, she simply continued staring at me with that horrid grin plastered onto her face.
“What will you do now?” she asked me.
“What?” I answered, shocked at the queer timing of her question.
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“You’re all alone,” she responded, “You’ve no chance of besting me, and your ‘help’ won’t arrive in time to save you.”
“I still have myself,” I replied. “As long as I’m here, my mother will be safe from you and any other witch that’s near here.”
“I’ve taken a liking to you, boy. Maybe I’ll just drag you off instead of your mother.”
“Oh no,” I thought. This isn’t what I had intended! All I wanted was for my mother to get away, but I hadn’t even thought the witch would take me instead!
“What’s your name, boy?” the witch asked me. “I’d like to know.” she said with that malicious grin.
“Jack,” I wearily replied. If I kept her talking, the chances that help would arrive would increase. If I hesitated in appeasing her for even a second though, there was always the chance she would attack.
“It’s rude to ask for a name without giving yours first,” I dangerously added.
She grinned even harder at this. “What courage!” she exclaimed, “No one dares to talk to a witch that way except the travellers, especially someone on the verge of death! But I will grant you the pleasure of knowing my name before you die, since it may well be the last thing you ever learn.” Then she paused, and seemed in thought as if she didn’t remember it. “Ohna,” she said. “My name is Ohna. Remember it well, on the off chance you survive this fight.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” I thought. Such a shame that it be wasted on a murderous witch such as herself.
I couldn’t let myself get caught up in her name just like I did with her eyes though. I had to find a way to survive, and fast. She was beginning to crouch into an attack position, and my mind was racing. I didn’t know what to do, only that I had to defend myself as best as I possibly could for as long as I could. My wooden sword against her metal, sharp knife. Then, we both jumped at each other at the exact same moment.
She swung her knife straight up towards my chin, but I jumped back at the last second and countered by swinging the sword in a horizontal strike as hard as I could. I thought I had landed my swing, but she bent backwards at a superhuman angle to dodge. She was leaning so far back that she was horizontal with the ground! I had swung so hard that I was carried with my momentum, which left my right side completely open. Ohna stabbed her knife towards my opening, aiming in the area of my ribcage. I twisted and turned as awkwardly as I could to avoid her sharp knife, but I couldn’t get completely out of the way. The end of her knife nicked my side, and a small trickle of blood immediately started soaking through my shirt.
I grimaced with pain. I could feel the heat of the sting, and knew I would endure worse if I didn’t think of some way to handle her. “How can I beat her,” I thought to myself. “She is way stronger than me and I haven’t been trained at all to handle witches like Ohna.” Then an idea occurred to me.
I could run.
I know it’s cowardly, and I know I was supposed to be stalling, but this counts as stalling right? It gave me a higher chance to survive, and would make it harder for Ohna to reach me if I was constantly on the move away from her rather than five feet in front of her. On top of that, I was basically just desperately swinging a sword I had little experience with.
So, I turned and ran. I ran as hard as I could towards the house, I just needed to reach the back door.
“Oh?” Ohna said with a surprised look.
Her surprise didn’t last long though, because she started sprinting after me right after. “You can run, boy, but you won’t get far!”
Come on, Jack! Push, Go, Run, you’re almost there! “You can make it,” I screamed to myself internally. I scrambled up the back steps and burst into the door, slamming it shut and locking it with no more than half a second to spare. Right after I turned the lock, Ohna made it up the stairs herself. She pounded, kicked, and slammed on the door, and I could feel it giving, but I dare not let up holding it shut.
“You can’t stay in there forever, Jack!” Ohna yelled at me through the door. “You’ll have to come out here to face me sooner or later!”
Neither option sounded appealing to me, but I was in an ever-worsening situation and had to think of something to help. I still had the wooden sword with me, so I wasn’t completely unarmed. I had no idea how to truly use it though, so it wasn’t really helping my situation.
Then, out of nowhere, Ohna stopped hitting and banging the back door. I couldn’t even hear her outside at all anymore. Where did she go?
Some part of my mind told me this was worse than before, and I soon realized why. I knew nothing about witches, besides the fact they have dark hair which wasn’t nearly enough information to get me out of this situation. I didn’t know what types of magic they used, I didn’t know when their power was most effective, I didn’t know how strong they were, I didn’t know anything! I’d never seen a male witch, but that didn’t help me now either. Not knowing anything meant that I also had no clue what Ohna was up to, I couldn’t prepare myself and couldn’t try to read her actions!
On top of that, my mother wasn’t back yet, and I didn’t think she would be anytime soon.
Then, the front door opened.
Crap, I had forgotten to lock it! I was so caught up with holding the back door shut that the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind to close the front door. I slowly crept towards the kitchen, my breathing ragged and my heart pounding. I passed over Peter, holding my mouth so I wouldn’t make a sound from looking at his frail dead body once more.
However, when I reached the kitchen, I saw something unexpected.
Ohna was standing there with a knife in her hand. It wasn’t the same knife as earlier though, but it was soaked with blood. There was a hole in her shoulder where blood was oozing out of, and her face was lined with pain and frustration. I soon found out why.
Ohna had been stabbed.
The blood on the knife in her hand was her own.
Did you enjoy this chapter, and should I keep releasing new ones?
