Lock & Key

As the witches neared me I pushed myself further back against a cold brick wall. The chilling wind ran through my hair and sent a strange bitterness through me.

“You can’t escape now...,” one witch said, in a raspy voice. They circled around me. Please take me away from Lock street, I thought. I closed my eyes and focused my concentration on my sweet bed at home and my wonderful Aunt and my adorable cousin who I’d call a sister. I hoped and prayed this would work, but as I had learned by now, nothing ever went my way. I opened my eyes to still see the witches gathering around to kill me perhaps, but that was one mystery I did not want to solve. “We have your friend,” one witch said in a singsong way. That grabbed my attention.

“Who?” I snapped at them. The witches smiled in pleasure at my annoyance. If they hurt any of my friends, I could hardly forgive myself. Let alone my family. Distress ran through my veins as I felt the agony of the witches tormenting me. “Charlotte?” I snapped again at them. If they hurt my only best friend, I would go as far as terminating each and everyone of the witches, myself. The dimly lit room had one area where anyone of my friends could be. One cage with a black cloth wrapped over it, hardly showing the marks of the metal bars.

“Him,” the head witch said. She snapped her prickly fingers while not lifting her gaze even slightly off me. Two of the others steadily went over to the cage and opened the door. I could hear it creak ever so softly, but my mind amplified it a hundred times more. The agony of the angst inside me blurred my vision and I couldn’t see their prisoner until they threw him at my feet. Hard bound anklets at his hands, I slowly saw who they meant. Gavin. I leaned down and tried to wake my unconscious friend up. He looked bruised with blood smeared around the edges of his mouth. The tips of his fingers looked marked with a dark, crusty red. “Gavin... please wake up,” I pleaded, fearfully. Searing pain gnawed inside me.

“He won’t wake up...,” the head witch said. The breezy wind ran through her knee-length dress, making it wave. I held Gavin’s hand and closed my eyes again. But this time I thought about how much I needed Gavin to be okay. It didn’t work. I cursed under my breath and looked up at the satisfied witches. They looked like they were ready to kill me.