Page 14 of Hellish Witch

Vanita yanked my collarbones, and my vision whited out. Bile gushed up my throat. I swallowed the bitter acid, trying not to choke on it with my head cruelly tipped back.

Reality blinked back into view with a worrying redness edging my vision like blood. It haloed the three pale faces leering down at me. Burning whips of power lashed my insides, like my broken magic tried to carve its way to freedom.

I groaned, clenching my jaw to stop it becoming a scream. My claws pierced my palms, but the roaring pain through my upper chest drowned the sensation.

“Should have stayed gone.” Jessa punched her spiked knuckles into my ribs. Her tail at my neck and Vanita’s cruel grip braced me to the point I barely moved, even though I felt like I’d been stomped by a unicorn.

Vanita grinned, a sinister slash of fangs as white as her bloodless lips. “We’ll just have to correct your mistake.”

Now! Tear them apart. Bathe in their blood. Feast on their liver while they watch.

The visceral image churned my stomach.

“H-Hate liver,” I chuckled, the sound gurgling and wet.

Too late, I realised I’d spoken aloud.

They shared a look, and Vanita’s smirk grew cruel. “So you’ve finally given in to madness?” She tapped her bloodied claw against her chin, dotting my bright blood on her chalky skin. “I can’t tell if it’s going to bemorefun now or less.”

The darkness writhed harder. It felt like my veins were trying to force their way out from beneath my skin. The sensation was nauseating, but what it meant was worse.

“S-Scurry back to your gra-aves…,” I rasped. “Before you r-regret it.”

Pain leached more than just my thoughts, the drain on my energy like someone piling weights on my limbs. I willed my eyes to flutter back open, to keep tugging on the tails binding me on my knees.

“Hold the filthy human’s mouth open. I’m going to defang her for real.”

I couldn’t tell who’d said it. More blood spilled across my vision, but it was the agony radiating through my torso that stole my attention.

And in my distraction, hungry and dark, the monster slipped from its leash.

Chapter 5

Magic slunk from my chest. Growing and expanding, it took a deep breath.

And struck.

Whips of power hooked into the three pain demons crowding me against the floor. Their screams were beautiful, harmonious cries. Murag’s tails dropped my wrists, and I yanked Jessa’s from my neck, crushing the pale length of bone and muscle in my grip.

Vanita staggered back against the tiled bathroom wall.

Red smeared her ghostly skin, darkened by the bloody hue edging my vision. Slashes opened up, blooming cuts and bruises on every visible inch of her.

“Stop!” Jessa hissed. “You f-fucking freak!” She tried to swing her spiked fist at me, but the damage to her was almost as much as to Vanita. She tumbled to the floor, twitching as more and more wounds split and bruised her flesh.

I rose, feeling oddly light. High on the magic pulsing out from me.

“Killing us,” Murag snarled, already prone on the tiles. “Help!”

Horror turned my stomach as I watched the three hybrids writhe in pools of their own blood. Dying on the bathroom floor, exactly how I’d found my mother.

I was ahealer, dammit. Not this monster.

A whimper escaped me as I fought to keep myself in check. Darkness scrambled my thoughts, writhing outwards as I struggled to reel it back.

But it was no use.

If I didn’t get away, they’d die. Right here on the floor.

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