The darkness inside Maria caught up with Jamie on the street, "Where do we look?" She inquired scanning the streets. Jamie gazed up at the sky to see the clouds had grown in mass and were gathering overhead, "The Town Square Park!" She exclaimed and her body ran off in the direction of the swirling clouds. "Jamie wait!!" Maria cried out as she hurried after her lover. "Is this such a good idea?" Amanda remarked glancing up at the clouds, "We still do not know what to do when we get the book." "Maybe Lady Jamie has a plan?" Anita added hopefully. "Guess we will just have to trust Jamie." Maria stated apprehensively, "That werewolf did say that she was the key to this mess after all." "I hope you are right." Amanda expressed, "Because if you are not then we are in for a lot of trouble." She nodded across the park at a large swirling mass of light off in the distance. Massive tentacles of darkness seeped out of the pool of light and stretched out across the park. Ahead of them they could see Jamie blindly charging at the light. "What does she think she is doing?" Maria exclaimed uneasily. Jamie clung tightly around the neck of her body as she charged across the park, "Slow down!!" She cried out, glancing behind her she could see the others shrinking in the distance, "You are going too fast." She exclaimed, pulling on the neck in an attempt to slow her body down only to knock off the mask and nearly fell off only to grab hold onto the hood of the cloak at the last moment, "Will you stop for once!!!" She commanded, this time her body responded and came to a halt. Jamie wiped her brow with a free hand then let go of the hood and dropped to the ground. She found herself standing before the central gazebo with Elizabeth standing in the middle, transfixed by the swirling lights before her. Tendrils of darkness snaked out of the portal of light and coiled around Elizabeth, caressing her body. "BETH!!!" Jamie cried out over howling winds, "Beth, It is Jamie!" Elizabeth slowly turned around to face Jamie, "Jamie? Is that really you?" She inquired listlessly, her eyes held a dead stare to them as they drifted across the park in search of her friend, "I can not see you." Jamie climbed up the stairs of the gazebo, "Beth!! I am right here!!!" She called out to the woman in frustration over her small height; if she was only in her original body then... just as Jamie made the thought her body walked up the stairs and approached Elizabeth. "Jamie? Is that really you?" Elizabeth smiled as the headless corpse moved closer. Suddenly pitch-black tendrils swirled above Jamie's stump of a neck to form a shadow of Jamie's head, red eyes started out of the ghostly head at Elizabeth, "It really is you." Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Jamie's body and hugged her close, "I had a horrible nightmare." She explained dismally, "You were killed and your body walked off on its own." "That is not me!" Jamie called out in frustration, but it would seem that Elizabeth was in her own world, as if she was being beguiled by the shadows that encircled her. "Jamie!!!" Maria hollered as she reached the gazebo, "Jamie come back!" She cried out to the corpse. The sight of Jamie with her arms around Elizabeth squeezed her heart in the most dreadful way. The shadowy head turned and grinned down at the girl, "Why Maria. How nice to see you again." The ghost head said in a voice that sounded to Jamie like a snake drowning in a bog. "Jamie, What are you doing with that women?" Maria demanded clenching at her chest. "I do not love you any longer." The shadow Jamie said in a low hiss, "Leave me." It took Elizabeth by the hand and started to pull her towards the portal, "Shall we return to The Raven's Keep, Beth?" The shadow inquired with a sly grin. "Do not listen to it!" Jamie screamed. She could not believe anyone would believe that shadow was really her. Why could no one hear her? She turned to see Amanda and Anita staring at Maria in confusion. "Maria?" Amanda inquired perplexedly, "What are you talking about? That is not Jamie." She stated glancing at the way that Jamie's body embraced Elizabeth. "And what are you doing with that woman?" Anita demanded coldly, "I will not allow anyone harm Lady Maria. That includes you!" She snarled. Teddy bear Jamie rushed to the side of the gazebo, "Amanda!!" She cried out desperate for the girl to hear her, "Amanda I am over here!" Amanda searched the gazebo for who could be calling for her, then spotted Jamie sticking her head through the railing bars, "Jamie!!!" She rushed over to the bear, "Maria seems to be transfixed by something." "It is the portal." Jamie explained, "It has taken hold of Beth and Maria." "Please do not leave me!!" Maria rushed towards the gazebo. "Lady Maria wait!!" Anita grabbed Maria by the hand and pulled her back. "Let me go Anita!" Maria growled, "Let me be with my Jamie. I need her!!" She cried out frantically. Anita forced the girl to look at her, "And I need you." She stated boldly, "I do not want to lose you." "I do not care." Maria spat, "I only used you to please myself or have you not noticed. I do not need you." Anita was startled by her mistress's word, "You told me we would always be together?" Maria laughed, "That is because you belong to me. You are mine to do as I please and I am finished with you." She wrenched her arms free of the stunned maid's grip and rushed up the stairs of the gazebo. Anita crumbled to the ground, her arms hugging tightly around her body, "Why...? You promised...?" She let out a woeful sob. "Anita!!" Amanda started towards the girl when Jamie called out to her. "We need to stop this if we are to save them." She explained quickly, "You have t-" "Jamie, I love you!!!" Maria's sorrow filled voice tugged at Jamie's heart and she turned to see her love staggering across the gazebo in a veil of tears. The corpse Jamie grabbed Maria by the neck and lifted her off the ground, "Do you not understand?" The shadow head inquired coldly, "I do not need you anymore." Jamie's body wrapped an arm around Elizabeth's waist and pulled her in close. "N...no!!!" Maria wept as she watched Jamie's body pull Elizabeth in closer and the shadow head lean in close to kiss the girl. "Let her go!!!!" Jamie trust herself at her body and bit down hard on the leg, her canine teeth sunk deep into her body's leg and it let go of Maria, causing the girl to toppling to the ground. "NOOO!!!!" The shadow head vanished into vapours. "Maria!" Jamie let go of the leg and rushed over to her lover, "Maria, talk to me!" She patted the girl on the cheek but Maria did not seem to awaken. "Jamie look out!!!" Amanda cried out. Jamie look up just as a shadowy claw hit her and tossed her through the air to come landing on the grass, "Wh..." She coughed, her ribs hurt and she could taste blood in her mouth. Clara really did make her new body as real as she could and right now Jamie was not too glad to find this out. "Above you!!!" Amanda warned again. This time Jamie managed to roll out of the way before a large shadowy fist pounded the earth where she once lay, "Who?" She glanced up to see a large dark form backlit by the moon above. It has massive long arms that ended in large sharp claws. Its head was that of a wolf crossed with a goat and there were four massive horns atop of its head. Gleaming red eyes that were staring at Jamie from the centre if its head as she struggled to crawl out from beneath the beast only to have it bat her across the grass like a cat playing with a mouse. Amanda searched for a way to stop the creature when her eyes fell on the book. She had to toss the book into the portal even if it meant that they would all be destroyed in the process. She ran around Maria and was about to touch the book when Elizabeth grabbed the girl by the hair and pulled her away from it. "You do not belong here!!!" Elizabeth snarled at the girl, "Your love is weak and uncertain. You do not even understand what it is to love. " "Owww!!" Amanda screamed, "Let go of me!!" She pleaded, struggling against the woman's grasp. "Why are you here?" Elizabeth hissed into the girl's ear, "What purpose brought you here?" Amanda glanced down at Maria, "I..." She knew she did not belong there. Jamie's and Maria's love of each other brought them together so where did that leave her. She would just be a burden to them and in the way. "She does belong here." Anita stated as she got to her feet and approached the gazebo, "She belongs to me." Anita declared hold a hand out to Amanda, "As I belong to her." She smiled at the girl. Then her eyes fell on Anita, that smile filled Amanda's heart with a joy she had never felt before. The memory of their first kiss entered her mind and a tear fell from her eye, "That... is... right..." She felt a small amount of strength fill her heart and overflow her soul. With a swiftly swing of her head she head butted Elizabeth, the back of her head to colliding with Elizabeth's forehead, knocking the woman over the gazebo railing and to the grassy earth. Then she ran into Anita's awaiting arms, escaping the grasp of the gazebo. "He..lp.." Jamie cried out as the creature picked her up. She glanced down to see her love laying unconscious on the gazebo floor and Elizabeth lying still on the ground below her. "You think you can stop me?" The creature cackled, "You are the one who created me." Jamie stared at the creature dumbfounded, "What are you talking about? I would never do such a thing." Its long muzzle parted in a sinister grin, "That is what you think. Do you recall your wish of the book? My book?" "I wished for it to bring Maria back to me!" Jamie exclaimed confidently. The creature laughed, "That is what you would like to believe." It beamed down at the teddy, "The truth is you were so miserable you wished that everyone would be miserable along with you. You summoned me to kill everyone's love in this town and beyond." Its laughter filled the air in hideous waves. Jamie became paralysed with fear. Could the creature be telling the truth? She recalled the way everyone treated her when they discovered her relationship with Maria. How she lay in bed that night realizing that they were right and she would never be able to stay with Maria, and then how police had tormented her after Maria's death and embarrassed her for loving a noble. They all teased and made fun of her. She wished she could teach them all a lesson. She wished that everyone could feel her pain, to experience the agony of losing the one person they loved. She was going to kill them all. "NOOOOO!!!!" Jamie cried out. It was true, it was all her fault, and she committed them all to this insanity. The creature grinned down at the teddy, "I knew that you would free me but I never thought such a young child could wish such devastation upon the world. I thank you for releasing me from my prison and I promise to do as you wished. Starting off by killing all those you hold dear to you." It turned its attention to Elizabeth's motionless form, "I have no need for this one anymore. Shall we begin with her? Her head would make a nice decoration for a necklace. What do you think?" Jamie glared at the creature in hatred, "If you hurt her I will not stop until I find a way to kill you." She snarled. The creature laughed again, "You know that the only way to stop me would chance destroying yourself and the one you love. You could never do that. You are too weak to try. You could not even face that girl's mother and stand up for your feelings for her." Jamie frowned. She knew the creature was right but there must be a way to stop this from happening. She glanced down at her body as it swayed where it stood and a smile crossed her face, "I might not be able to but then again maybe I can." As if her body understood hearing her silent prayers the corpse came to life and rushed at the book. The creature followed Jamie's gaze just in time to see Jamie's body take hold of the book, "No! Stop!!!" The creature dropped the teddy bear to the ground and tackled Jamie's body. Both demonic monster and Jamie's headless body went tumbling into the portal. Instantly the portal exploded with a flash of light that spread across town then instantly vanished. The cloud faded to reveal a clear night sky of a million twinkling stars. All over Holland-Greystoke township people fell silent. It was over and the darkness dispelled. **** To be continued...
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