Page 26 of Witch Please
“We made it.’ I agreed, checking quickly that River was still breathing. His intense gaze sent a jolt through me when our eyes met. Unaware of what I was doing, I started crawling toward him, and too late I noticed my pinky brushing against wood. River’s eyes widened, but there was no point of a warning.
“Ah, fuck.” Was all I had time to say before we were sucked into another door.
Fuck my life, indeed, as Sissily would say.
CHAPTER15
The good news is I was not dumped into the water again. That fact almost made me weep with joy. Great thing since I was sure that I would’ve drowned. My limbs felt heavy, and I was dead tired from everything that happened.
The bad news was, was that I was free falling. Yup, the cursed door dumped my ass in the sky.
I was not a goddess. Damn pigeon!
Clouds were zooming by me, and my still wet hair was slapping me punishingly on my face, maybe even breaking skin. I had never seen anything so white in my whole life. The clouds were so bright, that they hurt my eyes. It was like being caught in the middle of a snow storm without sunglasses. My hair wrapped around my face like a blindfold as well, the slipping strands going in and out of my mouth, clogging my nostrils and making it hard to breathe through them. It was like something was whipping me across my nose and cheeks, and tears started streaming from the corners of my eyes. One thought I clung to however was that at least River was awake when I touched the door, and he had wings.
Surely, he would save Sissily and I.
The thick scent of sulfur and rust was overwhelming my senses. The smell was so potent that I gagged on it. Fear did its own thing to my brain, and in that fright, I believe that I’m plummeting to my death, so I kept flailing. That only made things worse because my body was flipping ass over head, and the speed with which I was going down kept increasing. For the longest time, I thought that I could hear Sissily screaming until I realized it was me that was shrieking loud enough to give the Mazzikin a run for their money.
I clamped my mouth shut.
The sky continued to spin around me, and my stomach was filling my mouth with acid from the rising nausea as I was getting dizzy. To prevent vomit from spilling all over myself, I closed my eyes and breathed through my nose. This reminded me of the one-year Sissily was obsessed with roller coasters, and I spent a whole summer in Cider Point lining up for every ride until it closed every day. They called it the Roller Coaster Capital of the World. I called it a metal death trap waiting to happen.
This reminded me of that summer.
I hated it then, and I only did it to make my best friend happy.
I also hate it now.
My ass was still flipping over my head, and I had to focus on my breath so I could think clearly. Caught up in my air acrobatics, I also managed to notice some brown and green patches down below, before I reached the ground. That told me those were the spots where my skull would burst like a melon.
I wanted to prevent that from happening.
The cry of a large bird came just as I managed to take control of my panic. It messed up my equilibrium immediately and I cursed under my breath, my eyes flying open. It sent my heart into overdrive, jackhammering my ribs with a vengeance which made me want to puke more.
A shadow fell over me, saving my poor sight from the blinding brightness, but when I saw what was circling above me, I would’ve been happy to go blind any day. Who needed to see? Not this girl, to be sure. Especially when there was a harpy retracting and contracting her talons within reach of my head. Wings the color of steel spread behind her bare torso as she twisted and turned eyeing me curiously. Her three breasts swayed with the movement bringing my attention to them and I gagged when I saw the hairs covering the nipples. I had no idea what any of my ancestors had done but this was some karmic shit right there. No one has that much bad luck, I would’ve bet my life on it.
She lifted her head and screamed at the skies when she heard the noise of disgust I made. When her red eyes locked on mine the intensity of her rage froze the blood in my veins. It made me wonder why I thought the octo-squid was scary. Compared to the harpy it was all but cuddly as far as I was concerned.
I shrieked so loud I think I ripped my voice cords.
The harpy was taken by surprise, and so was I to be honest, and she jerked back from me spreading her wings wide to stop her movement. I saw it as the blessing that was presented to me, and as fast as I could, slapped my arms parallel with my body. Clutching my pants, I flipped around and pointed my head downward like I’ve seen skydivers do on some of the videos I watched on TikTok.
And they say social media can’t save your life.
I’d beg to differ.
My body shot like an arrow toward the ever-widening ground. I could make out the tips of trees and the sharp points of rocks on top of the mountains already. It sent a new wave of dread through me, but better I burst like a ripe grape than be eaten alive by a harpy. I bet that bitch was going to peck my eyes out first. I could tell by the way she glared at me when I screamed.
A shout of panic was ripped from my mouth that hurt my throat when talons wrapped around my hips, and I was plucked from the air like a fly. With nothing else to do but refusing to go down without a fight, I started wiggling, kicking, and scratching at any part of the harpy I could reach. She was taken by surprise at my pathetic attempt at freedom, so she opened her claws and dropped me.
Head over ass I tumbled through the air, gratitude filling me with warmth until I remembered that I was going to die anyway when I splattered on the ground. The lesser of two evils, but still. On the bright side, if the harpy was busy with me, Sissily and River would either live or splatter like grapes in peace. No one will be stringing their intestines along and eating them like licorice. Unfortunately, I must’ve surprised the creature enough to send it packing because the brightness returned to sear my retinas and I continued to tumble through the sky with the wind whistling in my ears.
In the distance something broke the monotony of the clouds, like a dark stain on the white background. Squinting at it with my heart in my throat, I prayed it wasn’t the harpy deciding to return and munch on me like I was an overcooked pretzel. No one likes those, but who knows if a demon has a taste. Not long ago, one tried to eat my Prada shirt. You can never be sure with Hell spawn. Vampires were a safer option for survival, I would bet my life on it.
The stain kept increasing even when I glued my arms to my sides and tried to speed up my meeting with death. In the meantime, I decided that if the harpy reached me, I’d just zap her with magic. See how she likes being fried. That would teach her a lesson I thought to myself deliriously, to avoid hyperventilating in fear.
“Hazel.” It took me a second to realize it was Sissily’s voice again.
