*This story is underneath my folder titled “Witch’s Wonder, Hell’s Hate”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum titled: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=116005&start=1230. Enjoy!*

There’s no ground for me to land on, no walls for me to hold onto, until-

Everything is so white. There is this white light all around me, a white light that’s so bright I can’t see anything at all. I blink to see if it’ll go away, but it doesn’t. It stays.

I’m surprised that there is light here. I’ve been walking in darkness for so long that I thought all of Hell was dark, but I guess not.

“Joseph? Isaiah? Michelle? Are you here? Did you find Les-“

A scream tears out of my throat as something grabs onto my leg, trying to pull me down. It’s gripping onto me so tightly that I feel its claw-like nails digging into my flesh-wait-

I look down. I don’t know what I expected to see in this blinding white light, but it certainly wasn’t this. Not this muddy green claw. It looks like it used to be a hand, with peach skin sticking out of it, but it’s mostly a claw.

I can feel its claw wrap around the bone of my leg, pulling me down further and further. I try to channel the magic within me to float away from the claw, but there’s something invisible pushing me down. I can feel it on my chest. The white light is starting to get brighter and the screams of Hell sound more like shrills.

Was this the “hand” Michelle found?

………………………………………………………………….

“Anastasia, it’s so nice to see you! Foxglove has told me so much about you, but now, I finally get to meet you in person!”

It feels like I’m lying down on something, like my eyes are on top of my hands. I sit up to face the owner of the cheerful and slightly raspy voice.

There’s a man standing in front of me. He only has one eye and the other one looks like it’s been stitched shut in the shape of an X. His brown hair is all mangled and his skin has been faded to look green. He smells like spoiled food.

Behind him, I see a woman with deep red hair and dark brown eyes. She’s wearing a velvety purple dress and cloak and she seems to be watching me intensely…it’s Foxglove, the witch of blood and gore.

It doesn’t look like I’m in a nameless void anymore. It looks like the parlor room Queen Lanria and my Mom were in, except everything is gray and covered in cobwebs. There are no windows here, either.

But Foxglove has a faint white light shining from the back of her.

“You must be very confused. That’s alright. I’m here to help.” Foxglove beams, stepping up with a smile. Her teeth are covered in blood.

Help? Her, help?

I sit fully up from the ground, anger swirling in me. I still don’t see Joseph and the others and I don’t see Leslie either. I’m not wasting my time here anymore than I have to.

“What did you do to the others? Where is Leslie? What-what do you want with me?!” I yell as I stand up.

Foxglove laughs lightly, but the man glares at me with his one eye. I don’t know if it’s a glare because it’s only one eye, but it looks like it from the fury in there.

“Don’t you ever talk to my wife like that, you-“

“Who are you, again?”

He bristles a little from my words, but I’m past the point of caring. I wonder if I can find a door so that I can get out of here. It would be nice, although I don’t think there would be anything that convenient around here.

“This is my husband, Jack. He used to be a human until he gave himself to me. Now he has a bit of my magic. So does Queen Lanria and your Mom. You could have that too.” Foxglove says with a bloody grin.

What does she mean, my Mom? Does she know my Mom? But she…no…no…

“What are you talking about?”

I hate how shaky my voice sounds. I thought that I’d have more control after all of this, but it seems like there’s a new kind of horror thrown at me the further down Hell I go.

“I’m talking about the sacrifice your Mom and Queen Lanria did many years ago. You remember Sylvie, don’t you?” Foxglove asks, a glint in my eyes.

I take a step back. The sick woman? The one Queen Lanria and my Mom promised to help in that memory? I didn’t think that Foxglove would say that. Why is she saying that?

“Yes, but I only saw her in a memory that wasn’t even mine. How do you-“

“Because I’m a witch of Hell, Anastasia! I can link with any witch who has made a deal with me, including their descendants. What do you think Queen Lanria and your Mom did to Sylvie? Did you-“

“I-I know that they sacrificed her, but I just-it’s just-“

“It’s difficult to hear, isn’t it? But just because they sacrificed Sylvie doesn’t mean that she’s dead. At least, not in the way you humans like to imagine it.”

Not only is Foxglove beaming, but so is Jack. I think he is. His mangled-up form of a mouth seems to move in the form of a grin. I can feel my heart racing fast in my chest, just like it has done so many times before. Only Joseph isn’t around to help ground me. Where is he?

“Do you remember that clown monster you and Prince Joseph fought earlier? Did you ever stop to think that maybe, that clown monster was a human?”

A human? But then…does she mean to say…

“I didn’t want to completely let go of Sylvie, so I twisted her mind until she couldn’t remember her own name and formed her body to be something that could destroy, something that was stronger than what she was in life. It’s like the knowledge I gave to Queen Lanria so that she could make Prince Joseph a vampire. So that she could make that locket.”

“You made the locket?”

“Yes, I did! I helped Queen Lanria make the locket and I made it just for Leslie! As soon as she put it on, her mind broke. Faster than her mother’s, to my surprise.” Foxglove says with a shake of her head.

Faster than her mother’s…then does that mean that…Sylvie is her Mom? And Foxglove targeted her? Oh…oh…

“And that’s not all! Your Mom was a bit of a coward at first. She was afraid of using the evil within her, so she tried to change Queen Lanria and ignored me…but she came around. She ran back to me. She’s here, right now. Everyone is. Jack pulled all of you down here to me and now, you need only to put whatever silly notions you have going on in your head to rest and join me. I mean, look at how dirty you are! Don’t you want to be clean, like me? Don’t you want to be in control, like me? Don’t be a coward like your mother.”

The white light behind Foxglove glows brighter, so bright that I can see what’s behind her. It’s the clown-Sylvie-and Leslie, holding onto one of her legs, her eyes wild and wide, still wearing the silver locket, still panting frantically. Her legs are shaking like she wants to run and there’s sweat all over her orange nightgown. I hate to see her like this, but I don’t think she looks as bad as me. I can see the dirt on my socks and nightgown from Foxglove’s light.

On the wall behind Sylvie, I see Michelle and Isaiah wrapped up in cobwebs, their mouths covered in the white, spindly stuff, their eyes filled with terror.

Foxglove’s light is glowing on Jack and a woman with brown eyes that seem to droop with sadness. Her pink dress is covered in blood, as is the rest of her body, but she seems to look at me longingly, pleadingly…

“Mom?”

The woman nods.

“I know it looks bad, but death isn’t so terrible when you have-“

“When you have what? Foxglove’s powers? I spent so long thinking that there was a good reason you left, that maybe my Dad was too harsh with judging you…but you really just…you really just left for this! I can’t-“

“I know, I just-“

“I don’t want to hear it. Where’s Joseph?”

“Look up.”

I flinch, startled that I heard Queen Lanria speaking, but I see her now, standing next to a couch that looks just like the couch from her real parlor room, the couch covered in webs, holding her scepter and standing with the unwavering composure I’m used to seeing her in. Her scepter points up, so I look up and…and…

There he is. Joseph, his limbs entangled in what looks like pure, white light, red blood running down his brown skin, his mouth open in a scream, but no sound comes out. Only blood drips down his lips, his fangs, like he just ate, but I know better.

My heart is racing so wildly that I feel like I’m going to fall. I can’t. Not now. I have to stand strong, be strong, I can’t just…I can’t…

“I won’t hurt you. Just stop helping the wrong people.” Foxglove grins.

The blood on her teeth looks clunky and slaps on the ground. It looks like it’s alive, but I know it’s not. It’s just what she took from her victims, what she took from Joseph, without a second thought.

And she wants me to join her.