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There was no real way for her to explain it besides calling it an instinct of some sort, but when Belladonna lay down for bed that night, she felt as though something were off. Not off in a manner that demanded any sort of necessary or immediate attention, but just enough off that she whispered a spell of protection before she drifted off to sleep.
The spell must have worked because the witch experienced no unsettling dreams or even a lack of sleep. She woke up on her back, her first sight being the grey ceiling above her. After the past few days, what she had sorely needed was a good night’s sleep and she felt immensely grateful that she had been lucky enough to have had one. That feeling of wrong had flew away in the night, so when Belladonna rolled over to climb from her bed, she was not at all prepared to deal with the figure hunched on her desk.

A scream ripped from her throat as she threw herself backwards, but the figure did not move. It only continued to stare at her, unmoving and quiet. Frozen in fear, the witch had a moment to gather necessary visual information about the creature. It wasn’t very tall, but it was also crouched on the desk, and it looked… familiar. An involuntary noise of fear went unstifled by the witch and the creature rose its head.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, with a sick feeling Belladonna realized it was Daisuke. But that was impossible for two very distinct reasons. He had disappeared around the same time she had, never to be heard of again and this creature had wings. Large, feathery almost black wings. And his hair was too long in the back, pulled into a ponytail that cascaded over his shoulder and—
It was speaking with two voices.

“Little witchling, little witchling, you’ve done such wrong.” It said as it rose to its full height on her desk as its clawed feet punctured the wood for purchase. “You abandoned us, how could you? We who have loved you fully and strong, you let us go, you let us be hurt. Why, little witchling?”
With its words still rattling around, Belladonna pounced on the floor and darted from the room. She slammed the door shut behind her and threw her full force into keeping it closed lest the creature decide to chase her. When she only heard silence, she turned and looked down the hallway. The creature had so surprised her that she had neither an opportunity to change into actual clothing, or even find out what time it was. Her eyephone was also still in her room.
Well, these things were just going to have to do because there was no way in the Nine Circles of Hell she was going back in there. (And the Nine Circles was a really nice place too!)

So with a huff and still shaking hands, Belladonna turned and wandered down the stairs. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, as it was incredibly silly for her to wander around campus with only an oversized band t-shirt and striped bloomers on, but what other choice did she have? As she wandered into the lobby, a strange and wonderful thing happened.
There by the lobby’s wall for noteworthy news, having just pinned a piece of paper to the bulletin board was Chuppi!
“Oh my Hecate!” The witch said in a rush as she darted forward toward the young monster.
Chuppi let out a string of phrases the witch didn’t understand, but opened her arms to her nonetheless. They hugged tightly and the creature that had previously been in Belladonna’s room seemed vacant from her mind.
“Oh goodness, I’ve missed you!” Belladonna cooed as she touched the braid that sat on the girl’s shoulder and exclaimed compliments about her new style of dress.
The chupacabra took all these in stride and even seemed excited to have found the witch again.
“But why are you in your night-clothes?” The smaller girl asked with a tug on Belladonna’s bloomers.
“Oh, that… Um.” Did she lie or tell her of the creature? “I locked myself out. And Binx isn’t here to climb through the window and let me in.”
“Well, come with me. I can at least give you something to wear.” Chuppi told her with a shy smile as she took the witch’s hand. “It will not be as pretty as what you wear, but will do until you can get back to your room.”

“Oh Chuppi, you always wear such lovely— NO!!!” Her sentence was punctuated by her loud scream as she shoved Chuppi to the floor to block her from the creature that had suddenly materialized before them, blocking their way out of the dorms. A sound of confusion came from the fallen chupacabra as Belladonna stepped forward and brought her balled fists up. “Leave Chuppi alone!” She shouted to the thing that took a step closer, but what broke the witch’s focus on the advancing creature was the sob from behind her. When she whirled around she found that Chuppi had begun to cry, curled up on herself. “No, it’s alright Chuppi. I don’t know what this thing is, but it must want me—“ Before she could finish, Belladonna returned her gaze to the creature only to discover it was gone. She snapped back to Chuppi and staggered away with a scream.

The small girl lay bleeding and still on the floor, the creature hunched over her form, as it’s too long claws dripped scarlet red. Her throat had been ripped open and a piece of striped fabric was clutched in her little green claws. With horror Belladonna realized that Chuppi had reached for her as the creature had pulled out her throat. A sob choked the witch, but she only turned and fled the scene, the creature’s voice echoing as she bolted. Outside the dorms, the sky above was a deep grey, almost black, with clouds that threatened to open on Belladonna as she ran.
She only made it past the Reaper’s dorm yard before she tripped and fell, her hands and knees skinned with the impact. For a long time she lay there, chest heaving as she sobbed, not sure what else to do. Surely the creature would come for her too.

“Belladonna?” The voice startled the witch, but it was too kind and only one voice so she sat up with a start.
“Oh Hecate, Jackb!” She cried as she scrambled to her feet and closed the distance between them.
“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” He asked while his arms folded her into his chest.
“This thing! There’s this thing and its following me!” Her words were hurried and thick, “It looks just like Daisuke but like—“
“Daisuke?”
“—too! It looks like both of them, oh Hecate, and it— Oh jackdamn, it killed Chuppi!” Now the witch really sobbed, her hands wrenched against the taller boy as full realization set in.
“What?!” Jackb sounded horrified, but only held the witch tighter. “We have to tell someone, we have to get help, we—“
“NO.” Belladonna shook her head violently against his chest. “No, we have to go. It’ll come for you too!”
And just as she was about to drag him away, the whispers started.

“Little witchling, you cannot love us, you cannot love at all.” It was still far away, but Belladonna could see it as it floated toward them from the Reaper dorms.
“Jackb, we have to run now.” Belladonna said in a voice that sounded nothing like herself. “Its leaving the Reaper dorms and we have to go.”
Foolishly he turned and looked toward the creature.
“I don’t see anything.” He mused quietly, his grip on Belladonna unchanged no matter how she struggled to be free of him. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a small voice chimed something, but its voice was so tiny and the danger so near.
“What?! Its right there!” One hand managed to free itself and point, but the witch only saw the black of its eyes before it swooped forward and delivered a blow that cracked Jackb’s spine. The impact immediately freed the witch, who tried to support the boy’s weight as he fell, but she only ended up falling with him.
“Oh Jack, oh Jackb…” The witch sobbed into his chest, his body already cold with death.
“Little scared, failure.” The Daisuke-creature mused above the witch, its red painted claws a breath away from her. “You did not cry for us, why should you cry now?”

It made no sense what this odd amalgamation of failed boilfriends past wanted with the witch, but she finally lifted her tear stained face to it.
“I cried for you.” She told it through gritted teeth. “I cried for both of you.”
The creature only tilted its head and extended one long clawed finger toward her face.
“Will you cry for him? The one you’ve replaced us with? Will you cry when he burns up?”

In a startling moment of the deepest fear Belladonna had ever experienced, she whispered a quiet but stark “No” of helplessness, before she rose to her feet and ran. It was hard to see due to her sobbing, but her feet knew where to go and the witch quickly arrived at the Undead dorms. With scrambling feet and aching palms, the witch found the room she wanted. With a force that felt as if it nearly broke her hand, she slammed her fist on the door several times as she shouted.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the door opened with a soft “Mrrr?”.
In a second the witch had launched herself at the zombie boy, her arms vice-like around Mort’s neck as she muttered “Thank you”s between her sobs. She pulled back, grabbed his face and pressed a kiss to him that he received with his own sort of passion before he pulled away to look into her face.
“What wrong?” The boy replied with such a serious tone that it made the witch cry harder. He ushered her inside and dug out the blanket from before as he set her on his bed. He placed a soft kiss to her forehead and listened to her story.
“There’s something chasing me and it killed Chuppi and Jackb and no one can see it but me-e-e-eeee!” She wailed in a voice so choked by crying it was almost impossible to understand her. But a cold arm wrapped itself around her and cradled her close, so for that a few precious moments she felt safe.
“You say… Chuppi… D-dead?”
“Oh Hecate, it killed her!” The witch began, her tear and dirt stained face angled up to his. “And Jackb too! It’s this… It’s this strange, grey monster—“
“Hunter?” Mort interrupted, his own face grave with a heavy dose of pain. Had he been close to either Chuppi or Jackb? Belladonna wasn’t sure, but her hands gripped at the front of his shirt and the blanket feel away, unneeded in the sudden warmth of the room.
“No, its… Hecate, it’s a boil I used to know…” Almost dated, much like you… Too much like you. “He disappeared.” But it’s also the first one too. It’s also the first one I wanted to love. But he went insane… “But it’s not him. It has wings and claws and he was just a wisp and—“

An orange glow had begun in the edges of the witch’s vision, but only now that Mort had zoned out from her did it make sense.
Please, no…

Belladonna stood up from the bed and turned to the door to see the creature from before, only now he blazed with fire, a red-hot demon.
“Bells?” A voice behind her asked, but Belladonna only stepped forward. If this creature wanted her, it could have her, but it would not have Mortimer.
Yet as she lunged forward toward it, the fires only brushed her skin with the lightness of gauze. The creature faded through her and continued on toward the bed.
For the third time that day the witch shouted “No”, but it did nothing.
It did not stop the burning creature from reaching out its claws and capturing the boy in its grasp.
It did not stop the tortured sound of anguish that burst from Mort.
And it did not stop the whispers, those jackdamned whispers.

The creature held the burning boy to its chest protectively and though Belladonna grabbed at the creature and actually was able to dig her fingers in, it did not stop. It seemed not to notice her futile attempts and when it finally opened its arms, only ash fell forth. The witch collapsed into the little pile and she collected the little pieces of grey on her fingers. All that was left were these tiny flecks that held nothing of the boy she had once known.
“You cry, little witchling. But tears have no purpose.” The thing said as it advanced toward her. It crouched down in front of her and reached out a too long hand that wrapped around her chin and forced her to look into its eyes. “They are an empty gesture, as empty as your heart.”
No matter what she wanted anymore, to fight, to scream, to run, to get away… It didn’t matter. The fight inside her had died, the emotions were all gone. There wasn’t anything else.

“You let them die… You let him die. You let us get hurt.” The creature told her as the pressure on her face increased, until its claws punctured five holes on her face and throat.
“I… I’m sorry.” She replied in a broken, stilted voice. It was her own voice, but she couldn’t recall opening her mouth or forming the words.

“You are not sorry, you selfish b***h.” The words were like a slap to the face and Belladonna could only stare up at the creature. “You care naught for anyone but yourself—“ “You’ve got to—” “You would cast everyone you know into suffering—” “It’s not real, it’s just a—” “You have no love, no heart, you are worse than what you fear. You are a helpless little—” “ITS JUST A DREAM”
But that was folly. This was real and happening.
Before the witch could say anything else, the world went black.