Come Back Witch

Amilie was staring at the old man's body, her hope slowly evaporating.

"Come on, old man, we need you now; do it for your daughter!" She wanted to hit David awake but knew it wouldn't change anything.

"Should we attack now?" Finley asked, his voice filled with worry. Amilie wanted to shake her head, she wanted to run somewhere, but the only way out was through that thing.

She stood there frozen, not able to make a simple decision; Finley, meanwhile, seemed to wait for her answer. But noticing her inability to answer, he slowly walked over, picked up a water bottle from their backpack and splashed some of it on her.

"Wake up! We don't have time for this." As the cold water hit her face, she seemed to be finally able to free herself from fear. Looking down at her stained clothes, she realized how easily she risked their lives just from being too weak.

But then she realized something even worse: it's quiet, way too quiet. The monster has stopped clawing its way inside and this could only mean one thing. It had entered the cave.

Spinning around at the entrance, she could barely see the light outside. Amilie grabbed the danger fiercely. Giving Finley a small punch to gain his attention towards their only exit.

There it stood, too big to fully stand and by that, leant over. Its left, nearly severed eye hangs down, staring at them directly. As if it were staring at their soul.

The only sound hearable was the dripping of blood from the creature. A slow and menacing laugh echoed through the cave. It was almost humanlike, but its beastly voice was still easily recognizable.

"Get ready!" Ami didn't even glance at Finley, lowering herself slightly and getting into a fighting stance, she knew any hit from this beast could very well be lethal. Not wanting to give the monster the initiative, Finley stormed at it. Barely sliding below its only working arm, which grazes his head, ripping some hair off his head.

Ami, in the meantime, followed just behind him, stabbing in the now extended arm. The monster screamed in pain. Barely able to keep track of two targets with only one eye. Their superhuman strength was slowly eating away at the monster's vitality.

But they couldn't play perfectly forever; barely a minute into the fight, Ami mistimed her dodge, forcing her to block, but with only a small dagger, she had no chance of avoiding damage; instead, she was easily sent flying, barely missing a dripstone pillar and landing only on the floor.

Now lying several meters away, she could barely focus, her world was spinning. But in the corner of her eyes, she could see Finley stabbing the monster's other leg.

Which was a grave mistake, now being alone in the focus of the beast, it simply took a step back, swiping at Finley with its arm, who couldn't evade the attack. And was sent flying barely a meter against one of the walls. His pained scream filled the cave.

Only now snapping back to reality, Ami wanted to stand up, but her left leg instantly gave up supporting her. Falling back down, she could only watch as the monster slowly grabbed Finley. But something else also caught her eyes. The old man lying now in front of her slowly changed.

His wounds were closing one after another, and his pale body was slowly regaining color.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"It was about damn time," Amilie hissed, her voice weak.

David was holding his daughter's hand, slowly walking towards the warmth of the light. He was finally free and his family was safe. Everything was perfect, his daughter was happy, and there was no reason to hurry.

Each step he took felt like the right choice with every fiber of his body. But he still stopped in his tracks, staring at his feet, which seemed to resist their owner and then slowly at his daughter.

"You've always hated walking with me since I left." He wasn't talking to his daughter, but rather to the world itself.

"What are you talking about? We are happy now, happy here." She answered innocently, not a hint of hostility in it. David knew everything here was fake, but he hoped he could just forget about it.

Taking a single step back, the white world seemed to freeze even his daughter stared at him in disbelief. "Where are you going, Father? Just a bit more and everything will be perfect."

David instead stared right into the white light as if trying to find anything wrong with it. It seemed once again perfect, but as David has learned once in life, nothing is perfect. Taking another step back, his daughter began to call out to him.

"Dad, come with us; we need you." Its voice getting more and more impatient and seeing David not following her, it finally seemed to snap. "Just die already, old man, you left us all behind. You couldn't protect us, never.''

David heard the voice of his daughter the harsh insults were breaking him, but the worst thing was it was realistic. He abandoned his family. The truth was much harsher than any lie it could've ever said.

"We both know you won't kill your daughter, you're just too weak, so finally surrender!" Her voice was spitting with hate. David knew it was right, no matter how bad of a dad he was, he could never hurt her.

Instead he chose something he should've done long ago; instead of sinking in depression this time, he decided to be the better man, the best he could have ever been. He was going to save them even if they didn't want him anymore.

He knew her smile here was eternal and so was the happiness. But it wasn't meant for him and if there was ever the chance of seeing the real one smile just once more, he would drag himself through this hell a million times.

The first time of his life he didn't choose to run away to avoid the problem; no, he did it to be able to save them in the future. Walking towards the white void, the voice of his daughter slowly became more silent.

Finally reaching the end of this place, a great white wall stood in front of him.

"THERE IS NO EXIT FROM HERE." His daughter's screaming voice was barely hearable, but David paid it no attention instead he was going to make himself a way out.

Hitting the wall once, his fingers felt like they were about to snap and blood slowly ran down his fingertips, but he didn't stop, no each punch was fiercer than the one before. Slowly the wall started showing cracks, his hand was destroyed beyond recognition, but he still continued.

Until suddenly the whole space seemed to crack. "Dad, don't leave us here, please!"

But David had already chosen, with one final blow, everything went black. As a memory of the picture with his family manifested.

Opening his eyes, David felt weird, like he had become 10 years younger; he was staring at a dark sky, no, it seemed more like a cave. As a scream caught his attention. The familiar voice from the beginning of the weird dream echoed through the air.

"Catch!" As just a small dagger flew right next to his head, with inhuman reflexes, he caught it.

"No time to explain, please just help us." The voice of the young woman was filled with sadness and hopelessness as if she were about to cry.

David slowly started to understand what was going on as he stared at the giant monkey-like beast just a few dozen meters ahead of him. It seemed to hold a human-like figure in its hand, slowly moving it to it's teeth-filled mouth.

David decided to trust the woman and as if on instinct, threw the dagger right towards the monster's face, barely missing its remaining eye.

His head was hurting. Finley tried to see, but his vision seemed to be filled with blood. Right, he was hit by one of the monster's claws. He wanted to move but only now noticed something was gripped around him.

Staring at the source of his struggle, he saw it, the creature caught him, slowly moving him towards its blood-filled mouth, ready to bite him in half.

Finley couldn't move, it seemed like every bone in his body was snapped in half. Only his weak left arm could struggle against the creature's stronger and abnormally giant hand. He could hear the voice of Ami but couldn't understand what she was trying to say.

Until suddenly the creature's face was hit by one of their daggers, remaining stuck in its flesh as it weakly shook back, lessening its grip on Finley. With lighting fast reflexes, Finley moved his working arm towards the blade, pulling it out with all his power.

While holding the weapon, the monster seemed to try to crush him before he could act, pressing its hand as tight as possible. But Finley didn't give it any chance and rammed the dagger into the monster's remaining eye.

A powerful scream hailed through the cave as the monster let go of Finley, letting him fall to the ground. The beast slowly seemed to fall down but grabbed one of the dripstone pillars, holding itself standing. It still wasn't finished.

Now without any weapon remaining, Finley slowly began to crawl away. He could see Ami lying just on the other side of the cave and the now-awakened old man sprinting towards his direction. But they could never arrive in time as the monster lifted his foot, ready to crush him into dusk.

His time had run out.

There were still many things he wanted to achieve.

But this didn't matter anymore.

Finley readied himself to die.

But the final blow never came, as the sound of arrows flying through the air could be heard.