By Abigail Lai
Zelda Ebony the witch walked on the streets, disguised as a normal woman. She had her long white hair flowing behind her and was in no hurry to cover it. There are so many hairstylist shops in modern times that when you see a 21-year-old woman having white hair is more normal than ever.
The stars shone brightly that night and the winter wind was extremely cold. Darren Albert Johnson walked past Zelda with his hands in his pocket. Once their shoulders slightly touched each other, Darren felt a strange feeling. He had a feeling that this woman was a witch. Darren, as a member of the Preventing Witch Organization had a series of tense training before he could sense witches in disguise easily like this. He quickly turned his head back and started to follow Zelda in the most silent manner he could try.
Zelda did not stop to talk or shop. She went straight out of the city, past a dark forest before arriving at a village. But she went through the empty village and came to a cliff by the sea. She stepped at the end of the cliff and suddenly turned her head to Darren who was hiding behind a tree.
"I found you!" she said loudly, her sea blue eyes looking towards Darren. "Why are you following me? What do you want?"
Darren slowly came out of his hiding place and took out a special gun that would only do harm to witches. He slowly walked closer and closer to Zelda. "Your name, Miss," he said carefully. "Or, I’ll fire!"
"Zelda," replied Zelda. "Zelda Ebony."
"Zelda Ebony, huh?" smirked Darren. "I’ve never heard of the last name Ebony."
Zelda simply sat down by the cliff. "Yes," she said after a moment. "Why don’t we sit and have a chat?" she turned her head to look at Darren.
Darren hesitated for a moment, then shoved his gun back into his pocket and sat down beside Zelda, without fear that he would slip and fall into the deep sea below.
"So, what about you?" asked Zelda. "You have a gun, who are you?"
Darren looked at her and sighed. "Nobody, I suppose," he answered. "But you can call me Darren."
Zelda smiled a little and looked towards the night sky. "You have a family?"
Darren lowered his head. "No," he sighed. "I can’t… I can’t afford one."
"I see," Zelda nodded her head.
I can’t afford to have a family, thought Darren to himself. Should I quit this job? Then he looked up at the sky, and sighed again. Every member of the Preventing Witch Organization had his identity cleared and had no family so no witches could find the headquarters of the organization easily.
"Sometimes you have a hard choice," said Zelda suddenly. "You are standing in the middle of a crossroad and you have to choose only one way to go when you can’t see the future. That’s life. Sometimes you don’t even get to choose."
Darren suddenly looked thoughtful in his serious face. "Or say, sometimes you choose a pathway to protect someone, but sacrifice something." he said.
Zelda nodded. "I know we all get lonely. We’re all stuck in thorn bushes. If we don’t move we won’t get hurt. But we all feel very lonely and depressed with ourselves, so we will often move to find a partner. But when we move we get hurt."
Darren looked into Zelda’s beautiful blue eyes, as if there was a piece of beautiful but lonely night sky in her lens.
Unsolved Mystery
The next day, Darren woke up suddenly. He looked around him. He was back in his room. But, he remembered he had fallen asleep by the cliff with the woman named Zelda. But now he was back in his room. Could it all be just a dream, or might it be real? If it was real, why was he in his bed? Where had Zelda gone to? A thousand questions ran through her head. But he did not have much time to think. He looked at his clock. "Oh no, I’m late!" he cried before rushing to prepare.
Darren rushed to the headquarters of the Preventing Witch Organization, feeling very anxious. Their head of the Organization had just called for an emergency meeting. What could it be about? It could only mean that they found a strong witch group, thought Darren. Darren was right.
"We have recently found a group of witches lounging nearby the city. They will give a terrible threat since we have realized they were about to launch an attack on the city. We must stop them, fast! We will attack tonight after the preparations.’ announced the head, Robert.
"Yes, sir!" The crowd cried, and each member went on to his own task. Darren was in the task of being the frontliner, and he held his gun tight as he walked with the others towards the location of where the witches lived slowly but in near order. He gulped as he walked through the dark forest. He was very sure that this was the forest where Zelda had led him past the night before. He started to recall about Zelda and more proof that she might be a witch, too - and he was such a fool in letting her go!
Soon they arrived at the village. Darren widened his eyes. This is exactly the village Zelda walked past! But he remembered that the village was very silent and there wasn’t anyone around. How could there be a group of witches living in an abandoned village?
While he was still wondering, Robert raised a special machine that sent out a bright light towards the village - then suddenly the image of the village shattered, showing another cleaner village with weapons and people dressed in weird clothing walking around.
"Attack!" shouted Robert at the top of his lungs. Everyone rushed forward, but not Darren. He is clearly confused. If Zelda is a witch, then will she harm him? That sincerity he saw in her eyes, could it be all fake? Or is she a normal human being, and thought this was an empty village?
The witches were smart enough to illusionize their village even to lie to a member with special training. Still confused, Darren decided to fight first and try finding Zelda, if she was a witch in this village. There is no doubt that he had some feelings for the young woman. How he hoped that Zelda wasn’t in there, and that he would meet her at the cliff at night again!
Darren slowly opened the cottage's door and prepared his gun. Once it opened, a young witch with long white hair was holding a silver bow and arrow pointing at his forehead. Darren looked into her sea blue eyes.
"Zelda?" asked Darren.
Zelda’s serious face slowly smoothened down. After a deep breath, she said, "Come in. I have something to tell you."
Darren walked in, but he did not put down his gun. "You’re a part of the witches, aren’t you?" he asked, trying not to let his voice sound like trembling. "Why did you let me sit beside you by the cliff, and send me back to my home? What are you trying to do?"
Zelda smirked. "Humans have been killing witches since the beginning of time," she said. "It is very reasonable that witches wanted revenge for our ancestors, our friends and families," then she paused for a while. "But not me."
Darren slowly lowered his gun. "Not you?" he asked.
Zelda shook her head. "I don’t agree to their wicked plan at all. I thought we might talk out of this, but our chief didn’t bother to listen to me. Once I saw you, I knew you were a member of the Preventing Witch Organization. You followed me, and I tried to lead you here and let you realize the ‘empty village’.’
"I didn’t notice," stammered Darren, scratching his head. "Can there be a way to talk out of this too?" Darren never cared much about massacring witches. But after he met Zelda, he realized that witches didn’t live to kill humans. They are just like humans, they have a heart, soul, mind and feelings. They just have unique powers.
Zelda stared at Darren. "You can try one way. The amount and the power of the witches are far too much for your machines and weapons. You have to try killing the chief. Her name is Renee Orlenda, and she must be outside in the fight already."
"But by killing the leader might not let the other witches stop," disagreed Darren.
"No," explained Zelda. "By killing her, all who pledged the oath to her will disappear into ashes. Those who had done so had this mark," she said, as she rolled up her sleeve, revealing a snake tattoo on her wrist.
Darren nodded his head thoughtfully. When he was about to announce this huge discovery to the other teammates by his earphone, he paused.
"Does that mean…" he looked at Zelda. "You will fly into ashes as well."
Zelda nodded. "Of course," she said in a plain way. "Isn’t that your organization’s dream to massacre my tribe. I am one of them."
Darren rushed forward to Zelda and held her two shoulders tight. "I can’t do it! That’s - that’s not what I wanted! I -" he paused, and looked at Zelda’s eyes with deep emotion. "I want to bring you home,’’ he finally said in a soft tone.
Zelda’s cheek turned a bit redder, and then she sighed. "That’s the only way," she said. "Do it."
Darren shook his head in pain. But Zelda gave him no choice. Remember I said about the crossroad, and you agreed with me," Zelda tried looking at Darren’s eyes, who was looking at the floor.
"You said there is always some scarification on each pathway. Now choose for the greater good," her voice getting softer and softer.
Darren looked at Zelda desperately, but he knew he had no choice. Zelda was right. He ran out of the cottage, and when he was about to step out of the cottage he turned his head to look at Zelda with affection.
"I’ll help you," Darren added. "I’ll save you. I won’t let you disappear into ashes." Then he ran out of Zelda’s sight. Zelda smiled slightly, trying to control the tears in her eyes not to let them roll down her cheek.
Meanwhile, Darren reported this discovery to Robert, who was in the middle of the battle. After receiving the news, Robert agreed to what Zelda had planned - kill the leader, now known to them as Renee Orlenda.
Robert scanned around in the fastest manner - then he spotted a red haired witch, more distinguished than the others, probably because of her burning eyes and the way the dark magic surrounded her. Robert quickly sent a signal to all the others on the battlefield to focus their attention on Renee.
Everyone tried to fire at Renee, but if it didn’t miss, it’ll be blocked by her magic or the other witches’ protection.
"We can’t," reported a member of the organization. "Everyone is trying to protect her, the bullets keep missing her."
Robert sighed a deep sigh. "We must!" he said in determination.
Darren suddenly spotted something. When Renee focused her powers or defense on something, her attention will shift and in that one second will be the best time to attack her. Darren quickly explained his theory to Robert, who agreed very much but is in the middle of fighting another witch.
"There are too many of them," said Robert. "The condition is out of our hands, we need to fight first!"
After receiving Robert’s point of view, Darren shook his head very angrily. He is very sure that they need a strategy to defeat Renee. But he isn’t sure where Renee's weak part is. He had read in an article that witches’ eyesight and view is very big and sharp, like an eagle’s. He decided to give it a shot. He aimed his gun, opened the fire to the highest fire and aimed closely at Renee’s chest. "One, two," he muttered. "Three and - fire!"
The fire almost hit the vile witch’s chest, but then a dark red protection flat shield came out of nowhere. "You little brat," she said in almost a whisper, but Darren could get her message from lip reading.
"Let me show you how it’s -" she roared, raising her hand, forming a great red ball, ready to attack!
Darren quickly ran as fast as his feet could bring him, but he knew he would be dead - unless there was a miracle. He closed his eyes - but he didn't need to. Because in the next scene, blood poured out from Renee’s left chest. She vomited blood out in a painful way then turned her head to see who had harmed her.
It was Zelda! She held her bow firmly, and her gesture is obviously showing she had just shot an arrow. Renee painfully touched her back, and felt an arrow thrust deep. Zelda stared firmly at Renee while she gave Zelda a furious glance,
"I’ll haunt you," she hissed, before collapsing to the ground and lay still, with her red eyes still open wide. Suddenly, every witch felt a spark of dizziness, and all of them started to dissolve into ashes. Some screamed, some fell to the ground and some tried to remain themselves.
But this is already none of Darren’s concern. He quickly ran towards Zelda and held her in his hands before Zelda fell to the ground. All the colour from her face had faded away, and never had Darren seen such a pale and ghostly face.
"Don’t," he said softly, while touching her face gently.
Zelda’s sea blue eyes stared deep into Darren’s, and she slowly shifted her attention to her fingers. Her fingers had already started to dissolve into ashes. Darren followed her eyeline to her fingers and shook his head painfully.
"Please, please," Darren began, and tears started to fall from his eyes. "I promised I would save you - just, just try to hold on there - just a moment… can you?"
Zelda tried to smile and painfully looked into Darren’s worried face. "Remember I told you," she said in almost a whisper. "We're all stuck in thorn bushes. The world is like thorn bushes. If you don’t move, you don’t love, you won’t get pricked, and won’t get hurt, won’t you?"
Darren clutched Zelda even tighter. "Yet we both did," he murmured.
Zelda smiled. "We did," she replied. "It was short, but I can promise you," she said in great agony. "I’ll never forget you."
Darren’s face was wet with tears, and he could feel as if his heart was stabbed by a dagger. Neither will I," he said gently while touching Zelda’s face for one last time.
Then Zelda closed her eyes in peace and slowly disappeared into ashes. At last, Darren was left only hugging the air. He could feel his heart in grief - a kind of feeling that he never felt before. The feeling of love, but his love went away before he could even grasp it. He won the battle, but he wasn’t in a state of victory and proud - instead heartbroken.
He looked up to the night sky and saw the stars twinkling in the sky. He stretched his hands slowly, reaching the sky, and he uttered,
"I will never forget you, and your beautiful night sky."
(Abigail Lai will turn 14 on August 23, 2021. Happy Birthday! She attended the CreatifWrite Workshop in July, 2021)