Lucas raised his lips to make sure that no one would talk. Treading carefully towards the house, they tried to look at the window to see the back of the woman who was doing something at the slab. Belle saw how the fire was lit in the fireplace, burning brighter than the ones in her very own home. When Belle was young, she remembered the time when she had been lost in the forest and during that time, Belle had encountered a witch there. Looking at the fire in the fireplace of the witch"s house, Belle was taken back in the time of the summer days where the families had gathered in her aunt Irene"s house. The children had gone to play hide and seek, scattering far away in the woods even though they were told not to wander far away from the house.
She was seven years old back then. In the company of her cousin sisters and cousin brothers who were more familiar with each other than her, they had left her on her own to hide while the others hid together in a pair of two. In an effort to not be caught by the seeker, little Belle had walked deeper into the woods without realizing what was in there.
When the little girl had lost her way, Belle had not realized it, as she had continued to walk to stumble upon a house that was made of rocks and mud. The door was open and her innocence of curiosity, making her step inside the house.
She had seen animals- goats, sheep, hens and others that were caged. And before she could step any closer, the witch had appeared in front of her making her shriek as she was terrified with the way the women looked. Scales of cracked skin, teeth that were jagged and eyes that were like snakes.
Before the witch could catch her, she had run away from there. Stopping only to see that the person hadn"t followed her. It was Barron"s movements that brought Belle back to the present. She wondered how these memories had been buried away, which she didn"t remember until now.
When the witch turned around now inside the house, Belle saw the witch who had a long, crooked nose, her face thin and hollow with spots on her face.
She felt a tug on her hand, which was Lucas pulling her to follow him. Belle followed him so that they could look at the other side of the window. She peeped through the window to see a young girl of her very own age who was locked in the cage-like she was an animal.
"Is she going to die?" Belle asked him with a whisper. The girl appeared sad and tired, as if she had lost the purpose of her life.
Lucas gave her a nod, "She is. Don"t try to save her, Belle," he warned her, but Belle wasn"t someone who stood by things. If she was given the ability to use death, she believed she could use rightly to fix the world.
Barron was jumping from where he stood so that he could take a look at what Lucas and Belle were looking at, but his short stature as a rabbit was not helping him. He kept jumping up and down. Too tired to jump, he decided to go around the house to take a look if there was an opening.
Lucas knew the fate of the person who was caged, but that didn"t mean he didn"t know what was going on in the mind of the girl who stood next to him.
"You need to see if she has the smoke of death around her."
"I am a mortal person of the living, it shouldn"t make a difference if I save this person," Belle knew this was no place to reason, especially not when they were standing right outside the house of a witch, "There is no one who lives here."
"We are here only to sharpen your skills, not to play save people who you feel needs help," Lucas gave her the last warning and Belle pursed her lips, unhappy with the way Lucas sounded detached when it came to a person"s life.
"What if one day my time comes? Will you let me die?" she looked him in the eye as she asked the question to him. Lucas looked at her red eyes that appeared to be dark because of the lack of light that was around them.
"You will be dying," said Lucas because Edith had already predicted her death, but he then added, "I will bring you back again."
Hearing a crash come from inside, Belle and Lucas both looked at what happened inside to notice that the witch had opened the cage and was now trying to drag the girl out of it by her hair.
"Come on!" said the older woman and the young girl cried out in pain.
"Please, no! I want to go back to my family. Please! I am the only girl to take care of my father!" the girl cried out in pain, and Belle"s hand clutched on her dress. She took a deep breath and looked at the girl. Noticing the black smoke that started to form around her.
"Shut up!" the witch shouted back at the girl.
The girl was going to die, thought Belle to herself, and she couldn"t resist not helping.
Barron who was searching for a way to look inside the house and ended up cras.h.i.+ng right into the weak door. Belle"s eyes widened at the other crash to notice Barron who now stood in front of the door.
"Oops," said the rabbit.
Lucas" eyes narrowed at this, and he said, "Let"s go back home."
"What about Barron?"
"He isn"t a child. He will come back home," but the witch finally caught the sounds of whispering that came from outside. Hearing the noise outside, the older woman turned her head.
Lucas pushed Belle away from where they were standing and at the same time, rocks flew out from the wall of the house because of the witch who had raised her hand.