Alejo

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I wanted to kill him. I wanted to hunt him down and cruse him into oblivion. Or no. I wanted to get to crush him with my own two hands. No magic. I wanted the satisfaction of physically beating him up.

It was easy enough to understand what had happened by looking at Morana. Her top was torn, she held it in place with her arm, and her hair was disheveled. I just prayed to the Goddess that he hadn't gotten too far in hurting her.

But looking at her also made me swallow my anger. She shook with tears and hyperventilated through them. She looked completely shattered, hugging herself, seemed to try to disappear into the couch, and she was the priority. I could always beat him up later, but Morana needed me then and there.

I slowly walked over to her and sat down next to her. But I felt uncertain about what to do next. What I wanted to do was hug her and let her calm down in my arms, but considering what she had just been through, I wasn't sure if physical contact was the way to go.

Deciding to try, I reached out to her and gently placed a hand on her cheek. When the touch didn't make her recoil, I moved closer so I could put my arms around her.

"I'm here now," I whispered to her. "I won't let anyone hurt you."

She moved closer, and I held her steady, help her get up on my lap. There she curled up. Hugged herself, pulled her legs close to her chest, as if she tried to make herself as small as possible. As if she tried to hide in my embrace. My arms went around her to help her in that endeavor and to shield her from any more danger.

"I'm going to teleport us home. Alright?" I whispered to her next, and she nodded against my chest.

The next moment, we sat on her bed instead. I didn't know what more to say or do. I wanted to find the right words or action which would make the pain that poured out with her tears completely go away. But I knew there were no such words, no action that could make it undone. All I could do was to make sure she knew I was there, and that she was safe.

Unfortunately, I couldn't even do that.

An alarm on my phone went off. It made Morana jump and straighten herself, while I swore as I turned it off. I put it on to make sure I wouldn't end up forgetting about the coven, no matter what happened. I hadn't thought I would actually need it, but I did and I loathed it.

When I put my phone down, she wiped with her hand under her eyes. Wiped away the tears. It made me hate the alarm even more.

Wordlessly, I took her hand, kissed her palm, before hugging her so her head rested on my shoulder. I considered ignore it all. To not go to the coven, but to stay there with Morana, where I was needed. But if I did that, more shit would only follow. They would send a message like last time and if I decided to ignore that too, they would come. Maybe Morana had to meet the coven one day, but that night was certainly not the time.

But I kept her in my embrace just a little longer, just a minute more. Her tears had subsided and her breathing evened out. I hated it. It meant she was likely pushing her emotions away, tried to hide the true extent of the pain she felt.

But I couldn't stop her from doing that, not at that moment. I didn't have time, and I hated myself for it.

"Morana," I whispered. "I have to leave. I don't want to, but I have to go to the coven."

She pulled away a little so she could look at me.

"Okay," she nodded and brought up a hand to dry away some stray tears. "Tha-thank you for coming to get me."

"Don't thank me for that," I said and leaned my forehead against hers, closing my eyes. "Never thank me for that. And fuck, I don't want to leave you. I'd much rather stay here with you, but... I have to go. I promise I'll be back as quick as I can, alright?"

"Alright," she answered in a shaky voice.

"And try to sleep while I'm gone. And if you can't sleep, then... then put on a Disney movie or something. Keep your mind occupied."

I felt her nodded her head. "Okay."

I sighed. It felt completely shit. Absolutely horrible. But I had to leave.

I kissed her forehead before she got off my lap. I stood up and looked back at her. She got under the blanket, seemed to take my words to heart. I hoped she would manage to fall asleep. The absolute worst thing that could happen was her getting stuck in thinking about it and spiraling.

"Remember, if you can't sleep then watch a movie," I reminded her and watched her nod before I did the hardest thing I had ever done in my life and teleported away. The action felt as if it broke me, made me become a thousand pieces. Or maybe even worse. As if my bones burned and turned me into ashes.

As I stepped into the house, I could hear the chatter from the kitchen. All the other places seemed quiet and dead. I quickly changed into the robes and then made my way to the kitchen, to the basement. No one looked at me as I walked into the kitchen, but I was too used to care and my mind too occupied with Morana.

As I settled on my chair in the basement, I immediately closed my eyes. Since all my focus before had been on comforting Morana, I used the time as an opportunity to consider how I would deal with Dereck. Did I want to just beat him up? Or maybe I would put some sort of spell on him too. Something that last for a long time. Something that would cause him to at least feel a slight amount of the pain he had caused Morana.

I felt a sharp pain as my wrists were cut open and I could even feel how the blood came out of me faster than it had during Mabon.

I couldn't come up with any good spell I knew to use on Dereck though. I would have to do some research for it. But one which would continuously cause him pain seemed like a good option. Anything which would be over fast or which would fade away with time felt like too light a punishment.

I thought through different books I had, which could help me find an appropriate spell, when I heard the scrapping of chairs and chatter begin.

The ceremony was over. Now I only needed to clean some things up and then I could go back to Morana.

I opened my eyes before they had time to leave, but stayed seated until the door closed and I was alone. I stood up, but straight away sat back down. All had gone black the moment I stood and even as I sat down again, I felt dizzy and slightly nauseas.

But I couldn't waste time. I often had to sit still for a long time after the Samhain ceremony before I had stabilized enough to move. That wasn't an option, not this time.

I closed my eyes again and mumbled the words to a spell I knew was stupid to use, but the only option I saw. It was a spell which replenished my own energy. It could sound like a useful spell, but in reality, it was quite pointless, almost rather damaging. Doing the spell took energy, so basically I simply took my own energy and used it to give myself energy. From experience, I knew it would boost me for maybe thirty minutes, but after that, I would crash. It was similar to when you ate a lot of sugar. First came the sugar rush, but then you would feel worse than you did before.

I got up from the chair and hurried with cleaning as much as I could. As I carried the stuff from the basement, I spilled some of my own blood on me, but I didn't care. Quick washing, then I took away the other ceremonial things from the basement and put them in their respective storage places. Since it was in the middle of the night, they didn't make food but just had some different types of snacks, so the number of dirty dishes to clean was minimal.

At one, I was done, and I was done just in time. I could feel the crash coming. Hurriedly, I changed clothes and then used the last bit of my remaining energy to teleport myself back home.