Page 12 of Witch Unbound
“Cora!”
She’s gone.
No. I have to find her. I have to get back to her.
This place isn’t right. This isn’t where I belong. The memories of my life are a dream.
I have work to do elsewhere.
I take a step forward and two shadowy beasts block my path.
A growl vibrates in my chest. “Get out of my way.”
For a moment I think they’ll close in further to try and stop me, but then they step back and make a path for me. The air between them shimmers and ripples.
A portal.
I know instinctively that this is the way home.
I rush into it, and it spits me out in a plain white corridor. Shit, which way now? I jog down the long passage only to find an intersection that leads to two more plain white passages. I take a left, then a right, then another left, panic blooming in my chest because I’m lost, and my primal instinct tells me I’m heading away from where I need to go.
I turn back and retrace my path, but the feeling of distance simply grows.
Cora… I have to get back to Cora.
There’s a figure up ahead, and as I get closer, I see right through the gray apparition. It moves at a shuffling pace.
“Hello?” My steps slow and I come to a standstill.
“Find it. Find the door. Home. Can go home but can’t find it. Can’t find the door.”
“Hello, can you hear me?”
“Oh, he can’t,” a female voice says.
I turn to find a woman behind me with a sleek bob haircut and pouty red lips.
She looks familiar. “Do I know you?”
“If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that line.” She grins, showcasing neat, even white teeth each studded with a diamond. “Name’s Simone.”
“Simone, what’s wrong with him.”
“He’s lost. And so are you, it seems.”
“I’m trying to get back home.”
“Oh, I know that, but you’re lost, aren’t you?”
“Kinda difficult not to be without directions.”
“Unfortunately, this place doesn’t come with directions, simply risk.” She points at the apparition. “That’s what happens when you try to go back. But there is a way forward.” She flicks her wrist at the wall and a door appears. “Go back to Tarrifel, to a new life. Move forward.”
She has it twisted. “Tarrifel is the way back. For me, home is forward.”
She sighs. “You’re making a mistake.”
The door calls to a visceral part of me, but I step away from it, because I know intuitively that if I pass through it there will be no going home, and any memory I have of Cora and the guys will be gone.
