DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Chapter Chapter Twelve: The Void Above
By the time Peter and the ghost returned to the clearing, it had become a war zone in Peter’s time away; there was no more snow on the ground in the clearing. The early morning light revealed that it had been replaced with scorch marks left presumably by fiery spell-work. Many trees had been knocked down and the bodies of the Parliament witches and wizards were slumped across the area. Whether they were dead or alive, Peter couldn’t have known. Peter had the unnerving feeling that he was being watched as he bent down to check and see if one of the wizards he had walked up to would respond to him if he tried to wake them. There was no response.
And up in the sky, swirled the massive, park-encompassing vortex that they saw spawn overhead suddenly at the haunted house down the mountain. Just starting up at the ocean of darkness in the void made him feel smaller than he ever felt before in his life.
A flash of green light to Peter’s left dragged Peter’s attention away, and he watched as out of the woods came the Witch of the Park. The light of her hair ablaze in green flames illuminated a man that she was dragging behind her by his ankle.
“Wait,” coughed the wizard. It was the deputy warden. “Please. Let me go…”
“Alright then.” The Witch laughed. “If you insist.” And with that, she let go of his ankle at the center of the clearing, and then something curious happened: rather than his leg dropping to the ground, the deputy warden’s whole body began floating up into the air. And as the man screamed helplessly as he ascended higher and higher, the Witch sat cross-legged in the center of the clearing and closed her eyes.
Peter took a chance and began making his way toward her. The ground started breaking apart as giant chunks of the earth began breaking apart as the void above them began ripping the earth up in the air. He wasn’t sure why he wasn’t being pulled up into the air, but he—”
“In case you were wondering, the reason you aren’t being pulled up child,” said the Witch as he arrived where she was sitting. “Is because I am protecting you with my magic.” And as Peter moved to stand in front of where she was sitting on the ground, the Witch of the Park looked up at him and smiled weakly. Her hair was no longer lit with green flames, and her face was still streaked with tears. “You shouldn’t be here, young man.”
“I came to find you.” Said Peter, kneeling on the ground. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m ending this. All of it. I’m tired…I’m so tired. I don’t want to fight anymore. I can’t run anymore…”
“But what about my friends at the campground? You’re going to hurt them too?”
“No. I am protecting them from my cat just like I’m protecting you. That will be my final act in life as I finally break free of this accursed park. They’ll have just enough time to leave this blasted place. Only MAG-PAR needs to die with me this morning.”
“But you can’t just die! Look, just listen to me first. I…I brought someone to talk to you.”
“I’m not talking to anyone, Peter. I’m…I’m…no…it can’t be…”
Out of thin air, the ghost of the Witch’s daughter appeared sitting on the ground beside them as the sound of trees being ripped out of the ground rung through the air. “Hi, Mummy.”
The Witch just stared at her, her mouth hanging open. “Angie? Angie? My Angelina?” She reached over to hold the ghost’s face, but her hand phased through it. “I knew it.” She sobbed. “I’m going to make them pay for this, Angie, I promise.”
“Mum, please.” Said Angelina. “Don’t do this for me. If you let that monster of yours kill those people and destroy this park, there will be no coming back from that.”
“But they took you from me.” The Witch seethed. “They took you from me! Even if I spare them, there’s already no going back to how things were.”
“And if you go through with this, you’ll be taking those parliament witches and wizards from their families. Then where will this end?” The ghost of Angelina placed her hand on top of her mother’s, ignoring the fact that they phased through each other. “I know your hurting, Mum. It killed me and Dad not knowing what had become of you too. But please, you need to let us go. We both lived good lives.”
“But you died here.” The Witch sobbed. “You died here, looking for me…”
“And now I’ve found you.” Tears were now running down Angeline’s face. “And I want you to know that Daddy and I loved you so much. But you have to let us go. You need to let us go.”
For several minutes, the Witch said and did nothing. Then slowly the cracks in her emotionless face started to show, and then she screamed. She screamed and her hair burned brighter than Peter had ever seen it burn. The heat of it started to burn Peter’s skin. And then the flames reached so high that they were the heights of the remaining trees still rooted to the ground. The Witch of the Park only stopped screaming when her voice finally sounded hoarse.
Then, still sobbing quietly, the Witch reluctantly raised her wand in the air. The tip of the wand started to glow, and the sky above thundered in response. Peter watched as the earth that was floating in the air came crashing down, the parliament witches and wizards came safely floating down to Earth, and the void disappeared, leaving the soul bourreau itself floating down with them.
Peter turned back to the Witch and the ghost just in time to see them give each other their final goodbyes before the ghost disappeared, and her unfinished business finally settled. Soon after the sky began to fill with broomstick-flying reinforcements from Magical Parliament and hover-cars filled with rangers and sleuths from nearby ranger stations. And in the middle of it all, the Witch of the Park lay on the ground in a fetal position, letting loose a final guttural wail over the loss of her family to MAG-PAR and time.