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Stumbling backward, he falls from his perch on the fallen tree. He lands on his back and the women stare down at him. Seeing his look of terror on Willow’s face is jarring for them, but they know he will take advantage of that weakness if they let it show. Instead, they double down and chant louder in his direction as they help one another down from the fallen tree and surround him. He scrambles to his feet and takes step after step away from them, seemingly speechless watching their stalking of him for once. He is finally the prey and he is completely unprepared for that.
With each step, they come closer to their goal. His eternal resting place is just feet away now. The women stop their pursuit and stare him straight in the eye.
Callie carefully removes the ring from her pocket and his eyes land on it. A sneer crosses his face and he reaches toward it, but the women are in control now. As if there is an invisible wall between them, his hand is unable to penetrate their bubble of connection. Callie smiles as she holds open Sam’s hand and places the ring in her palm. Sam and Callie lock eyes and Sam’s face melts into pure joy. Sam needs this moment to be hers.
He snarls as Sam smiles broadly at him. She leaves the group and the other three circle around him, still fervently chanting their magic words. They block him entirely from Sam and there is nothing he can do about it.
He begins to come unglued entirely as Sam walks toward the hole, flailing and waving Willow’s arms toward the women. Shouting, screaming, clawing at the three now physically holding him back with ease. It’s as if he is a child throwing a tantrum in his ever patient mother’s arms.
Sam never breaks eye contact as she casually tosses the gold and citrine into the hole. Simple as throwing away a piece of garbage. The shrill scream that escapes him in that moment is primal. Pure hate and anguish.
As the haunted trinket falls into the hole, a tremendous whoosh of air blasts from the opening and rushes through the trees. Silence falls on them as the rustling leaves usher out his cries. Willow’s body collapses to the ground before them, limp and lifeless.
For Willow, coming back to life after all the time spent cohabitating with that monster in her own mind was like drifting up out of a dense fog. She had seen every vile thing he did, heard every disgusting word he said, but it was all a little fuzzy and distorted. She wanted to block it all out, pretend it away.
When she finally opened her eyes on that cold forest floor, though, she smiled.
All around her were all the faces she loves most in this world. The faces she would do quite literally anything for.
They had cried out with joy when Raven proclaimed, “It’s her. It’s really her.” Laughter and hugs had then swamped her right there on the ground. They were a wild pile of love. All the serious questions got asked. Was she okay? Did he hurt her? Were they really safe? But then there were celebrations.
They laughed and danced and sang their way back through the woods, just like they had when they were teens. They filled the home with giggles and old stories retold for the hundredth time. They made a feast of all their favorite comfort foods and drank copious amounts of wine and whiskey. Love filled tears spilled from them and laughter was in no scarcity. It was one of those nights that would live on in memory for the rest of their lives, one of the most joyous nights of their lives. They stayed up well into the night until, one by one, they fell asleep in various places on the living room floor. Again, just like they had when they were teens.
Everyone except Willow.
Willow laid awake surrounded by the loves of her life snoozing away and soaked it all in. She lay silent and reverent in their presence, knowing they were four of the greatest humans to ever walk the earth. She lay until all was quiet except for their heavy, sleep-weighted breathing and a few light snores. When she was certain they were all sound asleep, she gently kissed each one on the cheeks and tiptoed to her bedroom.
Now, she peers into her closet, taking stock of her very favorite pieces. She settles on a soft, worn in sweater that had belonged to her mother and a quilted patchwork skirt that always made her feel a little like Stevie Nicks. Slipping them onto her body, she hugs the warm fabrics against her skin, relishing in the comfort they give.
Willow sits down at her desk and admires all the little trinkets she’s acquired over the years. She runs her hands over them and thanks them for being what she needed at different moments of her life. She pulls her favorite pen from the spiral of her newest notebook and composes the most heartfelt letter she will ever write in her entire existence. Smiling down at the words she needs to say, Willow folds the pages and hugs them to her chest for a moment, infusing them with her love. Ever so quietly, she carries the letter to the living room and places it where she knows they will see it right away.
She walks to the kitchen and pours one more glass of wine before walking out into the last remaining hours of moonlight before the sun crests the treetops for another day. She walks to her greenhouse and surveys the damage he left behind with a frown. It makes her sad to see her favorite place in such disarray, but she has more pressing matters to deal with. She walks over to a few carefully selected plants and takes a snippet from each of them. She places the cuttings in her mortar and grinds them to a fine, sticky powder with her pestle. She pours the powder into her wine and walks toward the woods.
She takes an occasional sip of wine as she glides through the trees, her long flowing skirt snagging on branches and weeds along the oh-so-familiar path. Her wine is now half gone and her eyelids are beginning to feel heavy, but she has made it to the cavern. She stares down into the opening and wonders just how many feet deep it must be to hide away all the things they’ve hidden in it over the years.
She laughs quietly to herself as she realizes she has spent her entire adult life trying to safeguard this place and has whittled away the entirety of her future by casting more curses here than she would ever be willing to admit. All that, just to find out the only way to truly keep them all safe was to simply let him in. She may have done this years ago if she had only known, but she knows the others wouldn’t have been ready then. They are ready now, even though they won’t realize it at first.
Sadness engulfs her as she thinks of what this will do to them, but she knows it is the only way. It must be done and she is okay with that. They will be too, eventually.
He’s alive and well in there, inside her head. She can feel him even now, with the wine clouding her thoughts, but she is never going to let him out again. Of that she is certain. He is a part of her now and she is ready to put him to rest.
She swallows the rest of her wine in one gulp and tosses the glass into the hole. She listens to the silent seconds tick by until the soft sound of shattering glass hits her ears from far below. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as the wind blows through her hair. She can feel the ground-up lavender now settling her nerves and the valerian root and chamomile are making her so very drowsy. She can barely keep her eyelids open anymore. She knows it is time and she isn’t worried. By the time the belladonna stops her heart, she won’t even be conscious anymore.
As her eyes close toward a blissful sleep, she is certain she sees her parents, hand in hand, waiting to welcome her. Without hesitation, Willow steps over the edge and lets the wind carry her beyond the veil and into the next realm.
Emily neatly folds her clothes and gently places them in her overnight bag. She smiles to herself as she runs through her list of things left to do before she can head out in the morning for the long weekend. Three full days of nothing but her soul sisters. The mere thought fills her with warmth. They have all made more time for each other since that weekend a year ago.
She feels that now familiar twinge in her heart when she thinks about last year. The grieving process is not linear and they have all had their ups and downs since losing Willow. This Halloween weekend get together is now mandatory for them. Every year, they will walk away from whatever their individual lives have going on to come together, soak in the love they have for one another, and celebrate their Willow.
Tears prickle in her eyes as she remembers that last night with Willow. It had been the best night of their lives, but then they woke to Raven’s screams of pain. She can still hear the sound of Raven’s heart breaking before they even realized theirs were going to shatter as well. It had all been chaos after that. Every one searching for Willow, begging for it to all be a mistake. Eventually they realized Raven had not joined the search. She was sitting in her sister’s bedroom, tears streaming down her face. She had known Willow was gone without any checking. She no longer felt her sister’s energy in the world around them. They all sat silent together in Willow’s empty room and wept.
The memory feels so fresh every time Emily lets herself feel it and brand new waves of sadness wash over her. Garrett, somehow sensing her need, comes behind her now and wraps his arms around her swelling middle. Emily leans back into him and places her hands on top of his, cradling their unborn child together. She takes a deep breath and grounds herself in this moment.
Turning to face him, Emily places a hand on his cheek and stands on her tiptoes to kiss him.
“Doing okay?” he asks.
Emily nods, “Just missing her.”
