Page 108 of Raijin

Raijin looked in confusion as he took it from her, “What is it?”

“It’s how you’ll find Sabina,” Lanias explained, turning from the orb that had retracted the black string. “It’s a piece of her magic, so if you use it like a compass you should be able to find her.”

“You still haven’t answered me,” Tiller insisted, looking at her with stark emotion. “Those children died.”

She didn’t look at him, her lips curved into a smile. “And if that lie helps you sleep at night, then yes, all of them died. Buried alive under rain and dirt.” Finally, she turned to him her eyes twinkling with hate. “It’s better for you to live your entire life blind and dumb, rather than believe that the council assisted in the death of little girls.”

Turning away from him she met Raijin’s stare head on, “Now, go do what you’re good at and bring me my sister.”

Raijin nodded making his way to the exit, not bothering to say anything to Tiller. The man was obviously dealing with his own demons. The other three followed him out.

“Ah, and one more thing,” Lanias called.

He paused on the bottom step and looked back at Lanias. Whose shadow stretched toward them like a phantom. “Yes?”

“If you meet a man named Clinger,” she smiled brightly. “Kill him.”

Dr. Clinger

“She’s completely different from last time.”

Doctor Clinger crowed as he watched the numbers on the screen, before looking at the subject that was hanging against the wall. Her arms and legs strapped into place by leather bonds. Her head hung, as the thorny patch now covered not only her entire right arm, but also part her face from jaw to temple.

He pushed his glasses higher up his noise as he squinted. “I haven’t seen these numbers, since my first foray into this field.” His lips tightened at the corners, “Those fools were so eager to annihilate something so useful.”

“Yes, yes, and the secret?” Lyon demanded from where he leaned against the wall. His eyes on the woman hanging, “When can we get it?”

Irritated by the interruption, the Doctor moved back and explained. “The secret isn’t that far from opening. Are you sure it was four weeks till it opened? Your information must’ve been inaccurate. The spreading of the marking signifies the growing strength of the curse. With the addition of the magic, we’re pumping in he. It should be a matter of hours before she’s giving you what you want.”

“Good,” Lyon said, pushing off the wall. Shooting the still woman another look, before her faced the Doctor, “and after wards we can make her go boom.”

The Doctors nose wrinkled, his blues eyes narrowing. “Sir Lyon, please do not joke about my failures like that. It’s mortifying to lose good product when testing.”

Humming, Lyon left the laboratory.

Sabina

They were burning her alive. She could feel the magic filling her, the dirty black energy of it filthy with hate and regrets of the witches that it had tainted before it had come to her. She could block it, and stop it’s altering of her, but she didn’t want to.

Sabina was beyond angry or sad, she was enraged and broken within. Her mind replaying the sight of Raijins dead body, her soul felt like it had been ripped to shreds. Even the thoughts of her daughter were blacked out as the filthy magic and her own insecurities began to meld. The magic altering her very mind and emotions.

“You—, worthless bitch.”

The angry words caused her ears to perk.

“I never loved you.”

Her chest tightened as old emotional wounds opened. She remembered the feeling of being powerless. How much had she given up and sacrificed when she’d turned her back on all she knew to marry her husband. She’d torn down everything she loved with her own hands to have something worthless. All her life she’d been chasing the phantom of someone and something that had never been real.

“Mommy’s going on a trip.”

Five years old Sabina watched as her mother packed her bag. She held tightly to the single plushy she treasured, because it had been the one and only gift her mother had ever given her. She watched as her beautiful mother, brushed perfume along her swan like neck. Her skin a deep cocoa color that shined, a smoothness that was maintained by her mother rubbing it down in butters and oil. She smelled and looked great. Her mother closed her bag with a click, and walked over to Sabina, she brushed a light hand alone her cheek.

“I can’t wait to go, and come back.”

“Liar.”

Sabina eyes moved from her mother’s face to the figure covered in smoke behind her.

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