For people who aren't aware, there are 20+ chapters ahead of these chapters which you will find in privileged chapters.
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Penelope heard the voice which appeared to be distant. She had to turn away from the bodies, walking towards the tree and placing her hand on the rough bark of the tree while she wheezed for some air.
It had been months since she found her mother's true nature and intentions, and she was still coping every time a memory hit as if she were reliving the moment all over again.
The little girl read what was there in there, her eyes turning wide when she turned to face her mother before the parchment of paper was snatched away from her hands.
'Sacrifice white, red, and the human under the clear at the month and date after the ritual with the animals. The white witch should be the daughter of a black witch, the vampire from the lowest status.'
Penny took in a sharp breath, her head felt light and dizzy and she clutched her hands onto the tree so that she wouldn't fall.
"What is today's date?" she asked them while trying to make her head stop spinning along with the headache that had formed near her temples and forehead.
"It is the seventeenth of the month," Jera answered her, coming to where Penelope was, she asked, "Are you alright?" the lady's face had turned pale as if she had seen a ghost.
Penny shook her head, "We need to get out of this forest right now!"
"Why?" the vampire furrowed his brows, wondering what was going on.
"Because this is a setup," Penny cursed her memory before saying, "Do you know your way out of the forest? We need to hurry before the moon turns to the color of gold," all the three looked up at the sky to see the moon was no longer just white but it was having a hue of yellow around the edges of itself.
Henry was still on clear and he wanted answers, "Could you explain what exactly is going on-"
Penny pulled out the gun to point it to him, "This is a revolver and has the bullets which can kill a vampire. Now you either show us the way out or you die with us here. As I said, we are running out of time."
Henry rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath and starting to walk and they followed. Passing by the dead bodies that were hung, Penny tried to recollect the memory trying to see if she read anything more than that. Only if her mother didn't know how to erase memories maybe she would have known the truth long ago, but at the same time, her mother had not done a good job when it came to erasing it either.
What she knew was a piece of confidential information which not many were aware of. Not even Sister Jera knew about it.
She could feel her heart beating like a clock that was ticking quickly with blood rushing through her veins.
No one would have ever thought about it that the black witches had fooled the council. The person performing this ritual was aware that Penelope would take part in it and it was necessary to have her here. Even the dates of the exam had fallen right under the ritual day to perform and funnily it happened every once in a year.
If the other witch knew about Penelope and her mother it meant there were some who knew about her. The child of a black witch who was supposed to be a white witch.
"Jera, the witches who work in the council. Did anyone have a parent who was a black witch and white witch?" she asked the girl.
"There were two of them," so that meant it wasn't directed towards her, "T-they died back there," they had killed the white witches who could be used for sacrifice while keeping her alive. Was there a change in the plan? Why though, asked Penny to herself.
On their way, they found another body that appeared to be a vampire's as they saw the man's fangs. They hurried quickly and Penny constantly kept looking at the ground to find the markings. It had been more than thirteen hours which meant it was enough to mark the ground to have a ritual be placed.
Henry finally stopped and he then looked to his left and right. He said, "There was supposed to be a path here. The same place the councilmen left us before the exam commenced."
"You're telling us it disappeared?" Sister Jera questioned him.
"Yes. I don't understand, it was right here," the man had made markings on trees on regular intervals of space and time which now led to nowhere. Turning around and walking towards the tree with the marking, he frowned, "Someone erased it. One of the black witches mislead us."
The black witches had been tailing them that made her question if they were tailing them even now.
Penny pulled out three capsules in the palm of her hand. She threw the first one as far as she could, the capsule dropping softly to only explode into a fire where one of the branches of the tree started to burn. She took the next capsule to throw it behind them and then the next to the side such that each side had a tree that had caught fire. Pulling out another one, she looked around before throwing above them which blasted with smoke and fire and a black witch fell on the ground who laughed.
"We didn't know weapons were allowed in the examination," said the black witch who fell to stand up right away. Her tongue slithered out of her mouth while her eyes were black. Human, "We thought we would play with you but you killed one of our companions."
Another three witches came outside from their hiding while holding a captive male who was undoubtedly a human. They needed a vampire, a human and white witch but Penny had thought it would have been Helen. Did she die?
And as if on thought, Helen stepped from behind the tree, her footsteps firm on the ground as she made her presence known with a smile on her face as she looked at Penelope.