*This story is under my folder titled “Witch’s Wonder, Hell’s Hate”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]. Enjoy!*

I keep on running, following the sound of Michelle’s screams. Michelle should not be here, this is Hell! She’s supposed to be at the orphanage with the other kids, with my Dad, safe and secure, no worries and-

But she is here. I’ve run close enough to see that Michelle is here, tied down by roots, her two yellow bows tangled in her hair, a woman with auburn hair and brown eyes wearing a dark purple dress and cloak standing in front of Michelle as though she wants to keep Michelle away from me.

“I am called Foxglove, the witch of blood and gore. Who are you?” The woman-Foxglove-seethes.

The witch of blood and gore? Why is there a witch of blood and gore? That can’t be good! I don’t know why there’s a witch of blood and gore, but I’m not going to let her keep Michelle trapped. I just need to focus, reach deep inside myself and-

“I asked you a question, answer me!” Foxglove yells out, her words so loud it feels like everything is shaking and like my skin is going to peel off.

I’m not in the mood to talk to Foxglove right now, but I can’t focus on channeling my powers if it feels like my whole skin is going to rip away, so I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell her my name.

“I’m Anastasia and you can’t have her!”

Now that I’ve introduced myself, will Foxglove take the hint? I can see that there is blood spilling from Michelle’s body and onto the root things, which look to have grown two times their size. Honestly, who does Foxglove think that she is to be hurting Michelle like this?

“Why not? Hell is my home, along with many other creatures that live here and like you, she is an intruder. Only, she’s a young child, so I can still teach her a lesson. You wouldn’t understand because you are much older and so much more full of yourself than any young child would be. You don’t even know what you’re a witch for.” Foxglove sneers as though that’s going to make me afraid.

I can feel a bit of a spike inside of me, a sign that my powers are starting to come closer to me. I want to do the same thing that I did when I was practicing with Prince Joseph earlier, but I want to do it in a way that was more powerful than before, that will show this “gore witch” not to cross me or at least, not to harm Michelle.

Me and Prince Joseph have dealt with a clown monster-snake-spider-marionette creature that is still crawling around, possibly lurking in the darkness and watching us, our mothers delving into evil witchcraft, and the whole reason we’re even in Hell is to save my friend, Leslie, from a cursed locket that caused her to scratch herself and run away as though some beast were calling to her. Oh and Prince Joseph is a vampire, so really…

Foxglove isn’t the scariest creature I’ve come across.

“I may not know what kind of witch I am yet, but I do know that no one needs a blood and gore witch. All you do is torture people, I assume. Nobody needs-“

“But sometimes violence is the only way to get something through to someone’s thick skull, which is exactly what you need to learn.”

Foxglove’s hair starts to flow in spiky directions, as though charged by something electrically. Her fingers have contorted into claws and her eyes have gone pure white. I think that there are wrinkles around her eyes now and she’s grinding her teeth.

The knife-tipped feelings of my powers begins to grow stronger, but so does Foxglove’s, for some of my skin is actually starting to peel off, so I need to be stronger, I need to be better, I-

I’m in a parlor room where all the chairs and the couch are made out of purple velvet and black wood. The carpet is made up of elaborate flower designs and the dark purple curtains are drawn over the windows, completely blocking out the light.

On the couch, I see a dark-skinned woman with her black hair curling around her face in elegant ringlets. Her dress is midnight blue with white sparkles sewn into it, as though the whole sky had been made into a dress.

It’s Queen Lanria, Joseph’s Mom. She’s sitting next to a pale woman with long, stringy brown hair and dark brown eyes. She’s wearing a powder green colored dress made of cotton. It’s nice, but not as nice as Queen Lanria’s. I can see right before me that this is none other than my Mom.

But why are they sitting next to each other? They’re not in my house, that much is obvious. It doesn’t look royal enough to be in Queen Lanria’s palace, though, so…where are they? What’s going on?

“You know, we’d get stronger if we sacrificed someone to Foxglove. We could be capable of great, terrible things just from the perfect shed of blood.” Queen Lanria says calmly and softly. It’s like a lullaby, the way that she speaks. Hushed and sweet, but still full of secrets.

“Yes, I’m aware of that, but who would we give her? This person needs to be worthy of Foxglove.” Mom says, her eyebrows pinched in concentration, like she’s trying to figure something out.

She doesn’t look scared, though. It’s such a contrast to the other memories I saw her in, where she was warning me of the “evils of Hell” and how I “couldn’t have any friends because they’d turn bad”.

What’s this, then? Why isn’t she scared of the notion of sacrificing someone? She’s not turning down Queen Lanria’s idea, either. It’s like she doesn’t even care.

“Sylvie would be a good choice. She’s sickly and dragging us down. She’d be better off dead, not causing us any trouble.” Queen Lanria says, again, in a calm voice.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe they’re in Sylvie’s house and Sylvie is some kind of friend of theirs. If that’s the case, then why? Why would they be talking about killing a friend?

“But won’t Foxglove want someone who is healthy? What would she do with Sylvie? I like the idea, it’s just-“

“It’s alright, Carrieta. After we sacrifice her, we can turn her spirit into a monster and send her to Foxglove then. She’ll be happy to have a monster working for her.” Queen Lanria beams, her eyes twinkling as she does.

Mom’s face lights up in a way that I haven’t seen it before, not even when I was little and then, she hugs Queen Lanria, calling her brilliant and thanking her for the idea. She’s so happy it looks like she’s going to float up to the sky, as though she’s made of sunshine beams.

It’s a little jarring to see my Mom nearly weep overjoyed tears with the idea of sacrificing her friend to a demon, like the sight of Leslie losing her mind over the locket’s control. I can hear a woman’s voice call out that “Cookies are done!” and my heart feels like it’s going to tear apart, because she opened up her house to them, let them in with open arms, and they’re talking about killing her, sacrificing her, turning her-

I’m back in Hell, the memory having let me go. Magenta light has spilled from my hands and surrounds me in a jagged barrier, the points of the barrier greatly tearing through Foxglove’s skin.

But my whole body hurts like I have been slashed multiple times and I see that Foxglove has managed to deal great blows to me as well.

She must have given up for the moment, though, because she hisses at me and says:

“You can have her if you want, but you’ll learn to respect me.”

Foxglove slinks into the shadows before I can deal any more blows to her and I let the barrier fade away. I’m glad that I’m alive, but why couldn’t I kill her? It’s just like with that monster earlier, except I had better control of my powers. I don’t even remember the entire fight with Foxglove, just the memory. Was I fighting Foxglove while in the memory? That must have been the case. I think that my powers must have been used to its full potential while I was in a thought. Well, not full potential, but close enough.

I can’t keep thinking about my powers, though. I go over to Michelle, who looks up at me with fright in her eyes, but at least the roots aren’t holding her down anymore, so now…

“Why did you follow me?! Don’t you understand that you can’t follow me to Hell?” I yell out, because I told her to stay inside, yet she still followed me and-

“I didn’t want to leave you behind, that’s all! But why can’t you fix your skin? It’s peeling off! Do you know that? Do you know that it’s peeling off, because-“

“What’s going on? Anastasia, are…Anastasia?”

Prince Joseph must have heard us talking, because now he’s here, his eyes holding a bit of panicked confusion. He doesn’t know why Michelle is here or why a bit of my skin is peeling off, but that’s not important.

If he was able to lead me into Hell, then he can lead Michelle out of it. Right?

“Prince Joseph, this is my friend, Michelle. Michelle, this is my…my friend, Prince Joseph. Now, is there any way you can get her out of Hell?”

Prince Joseph blinks at me, Michelle is adjusting the bows in her hair. What’s the problem? I’m just trying to do what’s most important and needed at the moment. I wasn’t quite sure if I could call Prince Joseph my friend, but I guess that after everything has happened, he’s my friend. So wouldn’t he know what to do? I’m sure that he’ll know. I hope that he knows, because I don’t want Michelle to join us in our Hell journey together.

“What? I…no, it doesn’t work like that. She’ll have to find a portal to find a way out and since she’s a little kid, she’s not going to do that by herself. She’ll have to join us in finding Leslie and then, we can all go home. It’s too dangerous to leave her behind, anyhow. But come here, you’re all wrecked and you need to be healed!” Prince Joseph says, extending his arms out towards me.

I walk towards him, because I would like to be healed, but Michelle has to come with us? What if she gets hurt? What if we lose sight of her? What-

As long as she stays with us, everything will be okay. We’ll keep a close eye on her.