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As Ro left the safe lounge, everyone grew a bit tense, especially Matt. she was going by herself, what if something happened? Matt found himself following right behind Ro and he would’ve kept going if Joey hadn’t stopped him.
“It's better if she goes alone, don’t worry, we’ll be right here if something happens.” Joey said to attempt to calm Matt down. Matt hesitantly agreed but stood very close to the door, he wouldn’t let anything happen too Ro. Even Manny stood fairly close to the door, not as close, since he wanted to be near Nikita, but he worried for Ro as well.
The moment Ro left the lounge and walked a few steps she saw the witches about to murder the lady. She speedwalked over and said in what she felt was the most polite way to speak “Good evening, Sorry, I just need too..” She pointed towards the blonde haired lady, “Borrow..her”
The witches and the lady looked at her, the witch that was holding the knife, preparing to kill the lady, spoke up first. “Would you like to trade places with her?”
Ro stepped back in response and quickly shook her head no. The witch seemed to be ready to kill the lady, but she stopped, and looked at Ro, with a glint of curiosity in her eyes. Suddenly she seemed to have an idea and she made the other witch stand the lady up and push her towards Ro. Ro seemed so relieved and reached for the ladies hand, but then the witch spoke up again.
“You may have the lady, but you must follow me.” Ro nearly froze. What did she want? She grew anxious but kept a smile on her face.
“Ummm, may I ask..whyyy?” The witch seemed to have a menacing yet, weirdly calming expression as Ro asked.
“Dont worry, we promise not to directly hurt you.” Ro wasn’t sure whether to trust them or not, but she couldn’t let her friends down. So she nodded in agreement, helped the blonde lady up and pointed in the direction of where her friends were, in which she suddenly took off. As she did the two witches stood directly besides Ro and began to lead her to this shack that had appeared not too far from where they were.
As the blond lady barged inside the safe lounge, Matt nearly tackled her, thinking it was one of the witches, but he saw that it was the lady. She was shaking and seemed absolutely petrified. Manny and Joey helped her onto the couch while Nikita sat a bit further away, not wanting to be near her as she found her a bit creepy, but Matt was more concerned about where Ro was.
“Where is she? Where’s..where is Ro?” Matt said, fearful of the fate that may have fallen upon his sort of but not really sister. The lady could barely get words out but she spoke.
“The witches...they...they took her somewhere, but i dont..think she’s dead” Matt breathed a slight sigh of relief, hearing the fact that Ro was most likely alive. However something inside him still yelled at him for not taking her place and talking with the witches.
Matt, despite wanting to rush to find Ro, sat next to the lady. “What can you do for us?”
Nikita piped in, saying, “Yea, we’ve had to go through a lot to save you hunny, where is mortimer and can you help him or not?”
“I believe...I may be able to help”
Meanwhile, As the witches lead Ro to the little shack, they explained to her that they needed a sacrifice for their ritual to be complete. They refused to explain what the ritual was for, but they promise Ro that they would not sacrifice her, as they deemed her too pure and respected her response of saying she didn’t want to be the sacrifice. As they stepped inside, Ro saw a multitude of witch like items, potions, skulls, animal body parts, seeing those made Ro gag, and an array of other things, however, Ro didn’t have much time to look around as one of the witches, the one who was about to sacrifice the lady, brought Ro to a back room that was only lit by candles and seemed to have one of those voodoo straw “dolls”, a piece of paper, and a red pen all laid out on a table that had a purple cloth over it. This creeped Ro out a fair bit and she wanted to run away but knew she wouldn't be able too.
The witch only said “I believe you know what you have to do” and waited. Ro was confused at first, but then the horrible truth hit her, the needing of a sacrifice but not sacrificing her, the straw doll and paper, they wanted Ro to choose one of her friends, to be the sacrifice.
“No...no please no, don't make me do this.” Ro pleaded, tears filling her eyes. She couldn’t bare to see any more of her friends die in general, how could she choose one to just kill off. It wasn’t fair.
“You asked not to be sacrificed, and you took away our sacrifice, this is the only way” the witch simply said in response, not moved at all.
“What...what if i just sacrifice myself?” The witch shook her head no.
“It's too late, the process has already begun.”
Ro knew she had no choice, she had too. She had to pick one of her friends to die right there, with no warning...she was reminded of safiya and she nearly broke down, but she knew she couldn’t, at least not now. She considered her options. She couldn’t even think about killing Joey or Matt. and, despite everything, between manny and nikita, she just couldn’t kill manny. So, that left only one option, Nikita.
She wrote down Nikitas name with the red pen, the ink looked and smelled way too similar to blood, which made everything even more unnerving. She finished writing the name and looked at the witch, still shaking and tears streaming down her face. It would be her fault for nikitas death and solely her own. However, with the little hope she had in her heart, she hoped that this was all some sick joke and that Nikita would be okay. The witch smiled and grabbed the paper, then the doll, and then, like magic both suddenly burst into flames almost instantaneously in her hands before crumbling into ash. And all of a sudden, a small silver ball appeared in Ro’s hands. It was the final piece needed for the artifact.
“It is done, you may return to you-” before she could even finish Ro quickly took off out of the shack and directly to the safe lounge, with a prayer in her heart that everything was okay.
Back at the lounge, the blonde lady was explaining what exactly happened to Mortimer when suddenly a scream was heard. Everyone turned to see Nikita, on the floor, burning alive.
“NIKITA!” Manny screamed as he ran over in a panic, not sure what to do. His best and closest friend, was on the floor in front of him burning alive. Matt and Joey also ran over. They tried to use the pillows to smother and put out the fire, but nothing worked, the flames just grew more and more until Nikita remained motionless. Once the screams were gone, the fire suddenly disappeared. Manny broke down in tears next to Nikita’s lifeless and burnt body. What just happened?
“What...wha..Nikita..” Manny could barely get any words out. Matt and Joey were both in shock.
Ro suddenly burst into the lounge and everyone turned around. Any hope she had was suddenly crushed as she saw Nikita’s body on the ground and Manny in tears.’
“No... no, no, no no no no!” Ro rushed over to nikita, nearly dropping the small silver ball but she rested it down on the table before looking down at her body. Knowing it was her fault, she did that to her. She stepped back and nearly collapsed on the ground, she buried her face into the couch seat and wrapped her arms around her head and sobbed. Manny wasn’t even able to process what might’ve happened, he couldn't contain himself. Matt was able to figure it out however, and he kneeled down and tried to comfort Ro by rubbing her back while Joey was still trying to process what happened.
“Im so s-sorry” were the only words Ro’s little voice could get out. Matt then hugged Ro while she continued to sob. It felt like the reality of everything had crushed her once again. She was solely responsible for the death of one of her friends again.
“I'm a monster...”