The Three Worlds of the Witches

Fifth wasn’t aware she was drifting off to sleep but soon she was asleep and began to dream. She was a hawk, high in the air circling the village, lazy in its attempt to find prey. A rabbit ran across her path and she swooped down on it and just as she was about to grab it in her talons it turned to look up at her.
‘Oh Dee, Dee, I knew you’d come.’ And Fifth looked back in to the frightened face of her second youngest sister Madeline.
Her heart almost broke in her chest. ‘Oh Madee’ she cried at her little sister, ‘I almost mistook you for a rabbit. Are you all right Madee?’ Fifth was fighting back the tears.
‘Yes I am Dee, but mother is held back by her desire to see you one last time. I was looking for you, how did you know?’ Madeline turned back into herself now and Fifth was struck by the rope burns round her neck. Her thin little frame was pale and trembling.
‘Oh Madeline if only I could have saved you. I’m sorry Madee I am truly sorry....’
It’s all right Dee, it’s all right now.’
‘Where is Mother?’
‘She waits to see you , come. Come with me Dee’. Her little sister was beckoning to her now. ‘Oh please come.’
‘My name is Fifth now Madeline and I live in a great castle to the North of here. I am to become a witch, they accused me of being a witch when I was not and now they will pay for what they have done to you and my m...’
Fifth got no farther, the rabbit was back. It had long fangs, short stubby ears and red eyes with yellow lights that shone from their centre. The thing turned from grey to dark brown almost black. It’s nose turned black and shiny and became quite bulbous like, it had worts on it and blood oozed down from it.
Fifth stood rooted to the spot as it grew bigger and bigger and took on the appearance of an ugly beast. Steam blew out through its nose and long curvy horns sprang from its head Fifth had to tilt her head right back to watch its face. She could not look away.
Vaguely Fifth was aware that she was breathing in short shallow puffs and her heart was pounding in her chest. She was in a trance and she knew it.
Desperate to getaway Fifth turned to run from the huge ugly beast, her only desire to get as far away from it as she could. She ran and ran but she got nowhere. Something stopped her, held her back.
Something compelled her to stop trying to run as she turned slowly to face it. Her fear ebbed as she stood transfixed, meeting the monsters gaze. She seemed to have no will of her own and she sensed the mind of the monster entering her own mind like cold tendrils of evil. Stripping her of her ability to think she felt herself succumb to the will of the thing which held her fast.
Suddenly the beast bent its massive head and she could see the curls in the middle of its forehead and her own reflection in its eye.
The head swooped down and with a blood curdling roar came crashing into her chest and sent her reeling across the floor. The wind was knocked from her as she crashed into the wall.
Fifth was beginning to regain control of her mind as she scrambled to her feet. Her legs trembled crazily as she lurched towards the door in one last desperate bid for freedom. Suddenly she felt herself being caught and held fast by what seemed to be some sort of twine.
Fifth plucked wildly at them with her fingers but with no effect. ‘What do you want?’ she shouted, but it looked right through her. Suddenly it gave an almighty roar and plunged its head down towards her once more. Fifth knew she would be killed, she shut her eyes.
‘Come’. Fifth heard a voice say from somewhere inside her head.
‘But how, where?’ she answered.

Rose sat by her window with her head in her hands. Guards stood out in the corridor and down in the courtyard under her window. Tears streamed down her face, she had cried nonstop for hours, sometimes out of frustration and sometimes self-pity. Nobody came to see her. She would be lucky to miss out on a long prison stretch for what she had done, or maybe even she would be executed. Rose just wished they’d hurry up.
She looked to the sky and watched birds hover. Their wings spread to catch the wind. Oh she wished she could do that like her mother and the rest of them. Eloiciar had taken her flying often when she was small but had not done so for years. Oh she had to be honest; the baby had not taken him away from her. Sitting alone now with no one at all she wished he would come but she knew he would not.
One other thing had been revealed to her to that she had not realized until she saw him face down on the dirt. She hadn’t known whether he was dead or alive in that dirty cave and she knew she loved him. And he too was gone. Oh he would never forgive her for what she had done to her mother.
Rose looked down at the little courtyard some fifty meters below. Just about long enough she thought to herself as she lifted her feet over the windowsill. She looked one last time at her bedroom and after thinking for a minute she decided to leave a note. A bit dramatic she thought but she couldn’t leave without letting him know. She picked up a pen and started to write:
Dearest Tolmar,
I am sorry to leave you this way and I am sorry for all the things I have done. Please forgive me and know that I love you. I wished for so long that you would take me flying. Goodbye my love
Rose

Rose went swiftly to the windowsill and climbed through it and was half way to the ground before she was halted in mid-air. Who the hell was this? And she said it out loud now, ‘who the hell is this?
She got no answer but was thrown back roughly through the window, which was slammed, in her face.
She ran back to the window now and tried to open it. ‘Let me out’ she cried ‘oh please let me out. You can’t stop me. You can’t stop me.’
Suddenly the room was illuminated by the strangest light, Rose looked up. Eloiciar hovered just above her his eyes blazing his fury right at her. She felt herself lifted off the ground now and she was brought to face him. ‘You had a reason for throwing yourself out of the window?’