The Witch

Lavia stared at a rotting corpse that stunk of old flesh and dark magic, her chest heaving in and out repeatedly as the reanimated body placed it's head back on its shoulders. The skin wasn't attached, there was a gap between the connecting pieces of its neck. It didn't heal, but the eerie violet glow of the magic keeping it standing seemed to fill in the spots. This thing was the only one left standing in her way, all the others had fallen the instant this one became faster and stronger. There had been at least ten that, but they were so slow and weak that Lavia had no trouble cutting them down. Even if they stood back up she figured she could find a way to get inside during that time, now it seemed a much harder task.

The corpse was the freshest, she could make its features still unlike the others which were mostly bones. This one had short brown hair, yellow eyes with a green iris and discolored and missing patches of skin. It carried a rusty sword, which made Lavia rather wary. A simple cut could lead to infection, her bloodline might protect her from poisons however unclean wounds something not even dravians were above.

It charged at her, swinging its sword swiftly at her side. Lavia caught it with the handle of her ax, the edge of the rusty weapon crumbled creating a jagged edge to the sword. She could feel the magic forcing its body beyond strength it had as the living.

"Why do all the undead have to be so strong" She growled.

The swung down the hammer at the caught blades flat side, snapping it in two. The corpse used the now lighter and shorter weapon to swing at her, no longer caught in a clash with her ax. It swung and spun at her, stepping towards her with every slash. Lavia hopped her lower body away to quickly dodge a slash to her stomach, before weaving her head away from a slash to the neck.

She lunged her tail's spikes at its leg, each stabbing into bone only to be covered by the same violet aura that kept its head from falling off. It was hardly slowed.

The fighting was wearing her down mentally, to have an enemy that did not react to your blows, that would shrug off things that would kill even a vampire. She countered each of its swings with a swift hit with the hammer. The side of its head was caved in, it's chest caved in, arm snapped in five places. Yet it did not slow.

"Dammit! Die already!" She yelled out in frustration.

She ducked under it's broken swords swing, her hands touching the grass beneath them. She turned to show her back slightly, only to have her tail lunge into the corpse's armed hand. Her spikes expanded and she ripped the hand from its elbow. When it tried to grab her with his other hand, she dug her ax between its fingers splinting its arm down the middle. Loose bones that she had broken before slid out its body; she quickly dug her shoulder into its chest. Launching towards the front door of the witch's home.

She dropped her ax and flung its hand off her white tail, holding her hammer with both hands. Lavia roared, and brought down her hammer repeatedly, rapidly, viciously against the corpse. The flesh was flinging, the sounds of bones giving way eventually seized only to be replaced by a consistent sound of mush. The glow of the body faded away and into the home, the mound of flesh laid there taking it's beating. Lavia tired shortly after, heaving and looking down at was once the body of a man.

"Fuck. Fuck." She said between breaths.

She looked at the door where the corpse was bashed against, it was a wreck. Cracks, fractures, missing pieces of wood and even the doorknob had been knocked down during her rage.

She stared at it for a moment before realizing that it wasn't the only corpse in the yard, she turned suddenly fearing it was too late. She looked at the rest of the bodies, no longer recognizable, they did not move. Motionless, good. The witch learned that she would not be defeated by these weak bodies.

She pushed on the door, it fell to the floor with a loud echo that filled the halls of the home.

Lavia stepped back looking up at the building, it didn't seem too different from the other homes. Greystone boarded windows and no light to illude of the life that lurked within its rather welcoming abode.

"You better not try anything, I'm already mad enough as it is." She said loudly, before taking a deep breath.

Lavia took a few steps into the home, the light of the moon illuminating little of the passageway in front of her. The house seemed longer than it should, much longer than the cannibal Gavin's home.

"Is it just another effect of her magic?" She took another step forward before the moonlight ceased to light the room. She looked back, where there was once a doorway was nothing but black.

Lavia cautiously walked towards where the door had been, letting her hand feel against what was stone. There was a wall now.

"Why have you come here dravian?" A voice echoed through the home. "You want to escape from the ratmen too?"

Lavia couldn't see, the voice came for everywhere at once and thus she had no guide. She simply holstered her weapons and placed her hands on the wall, walking along with it. "I didn't come running from your fantasies girl, I want to leave this wretched town."

"It's not safe out there, not for you or I" The female's voice seemed to tremble. "Those things lurk in the shadows, they hunt us slowly but surely."

"The only things lurking in the shadows are you and I." She growled back, bumping her hip against a table. "Dammit" Lavia winced in pain. "Do you see what you've caused in this town, people are feeding off each other!"

There was no response.

A while later the voice spoke again.

"I didn't mean to trap them here; just to keep those things out. It came out in reverse." She said in a sad voice.

"Why didn't you drop the spell?" Lavia said, turning a corner before bumping into a railing. A set of stairs, she began to climb them.

"I figured if even one got trapped and seen, everyone would believe me." The voice didn't get louder as she climbed, but she could feel her magic getting stronger. "It was only supposed to last a week or two…"

"But then that bastard Zelim!" There was a rage in the voice. "He convinced the town to turn me into the church of Belona. I was afraid…"

"So you didn't take down the spell?" Lavia growled, "Out of fear for your own life?"

"Yes. Then he began killing, raping, eating. He became a monster... I couldn't let him go, not after what he turned into, couldn't let any of them go." The voice cried out.

"You made them that way, it's your fault," Lavia said, finally reaching the second level after what felt like too long.

"I know."

Lavia began walking down the hall, feeling for doors.

'This girl had a bad plan set up for what, because the town didn't believe her stories? What a load of shit, now the town has become nothing short of evil." Lavia thought to herself.

"What will you do when you find me," The voice said in a soft tone.

"Get you to take down the spell, so that the leech and I can leave." She said with a sigh.

"The leech?" The voice sounded confused.

"My companion, he's nothing but a parasite that's handy with a blade," Lavia said spitefully

"Where is he?"

"He went to fight some ghoul," Lavia said finally feeling a door, she opened it suddenly only to find an empty room illuminated by the moonlight seeping through the boarded windows.

"A ghoul? Zelim?" The voice seemed concerned.

"Perhaps, the thing didn't give a name," Lavia said as she continued down the hall.

"Your parasite is in danger! Zelim will kill him!" The voice cried out, the echo softening.

"I wouldn't worry about him." She found another door. "I'd worry more about yourself!" Lavia swung it open, another empty room.

"Dravian, do you not care about your companion?"

Lavia didn't respond, she wouldn't admit that she was a tad fond of Gawain. Despite holding her captive, she knew she would have been dead or still trapped without him, he held and have her freedom. He hasn't lied, nor fed, nor harmed her despite her attempts on his life. There was some respect for him, none she would admit.

She wandered, opening doors that lead to nothing. There was no way this home had so many rooms, the witch must be using more of her magic. It was frustrating Lavia to no avail.

"Give it up witch. Stop hiding. You'll either get found by me or get found by the leech when he returns." She said opening another door, candlelit, unlike all the others.

Except at its center, sitting with legs hugged to her chest was a small girl no older than fourteen. Still a few years away from being a woman, looking up at Lavia. The girl seemed frail, hungry, weak with dried tears on her fair-skinned cheeks. She wore a brown dress that had the same awful stench as the rest of the town, the room smelled like piss. This was Olivia?

"So you trust in him." The girl said, softly with a weak smile. "Hopefully he lives then."

There was a thought in Lavia's mind now, the dead kid from the road. Fredrick. Despite being just another human child, it still rugged at Lavia's heart. The thought of personally killing Olivia disgusted her. Just a girl with idiotic ideas and the power to do them.