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The cabin was long abandoned and in need of work. A For Sale sign blew in the light breeze, the asking price faded from it. Trees, in never ending rows, surrounded the cabin; pink blossoming flowers showed they were still alive.
The air was fresh, clean, untouched.
A lake stretched out behind her.
Seemed like the perfect place to hide away. No doubt people would be looking for her after what she had done.
Wanda wasn’t perfect and she never claimed to be, but she had zero intention of hurting anyone. She thought… She thought everyone was fine, at peace. Unbeknownst until a few days ago that her own tortured mind was suffocating the residents of Westview and leaving unnecessary characters locked in their bedrooms, or struggling at the edge of town.
And Vision.
And Tommy.
And Billy.
Her family… Gone. Nothing, but a figment of a life she craved.
It seemed so strange to her that it wasn’t real, that they weren’t real. She had carried the boys, grew them in her womb, over a few hours, but still. She had given birth to them, the physical pain almost as bad as her emotional.
She could compare it to Pietro. Losing him. The sudden feeling of suffocating pain spread over her as their ties severed.
She couldn’t make pain like that up. She couldn’t just make her children up.
Right?
They couldn’t just be some piece of an incomplete, and dare she say, incorrect spell. Just something gone wrong. A mistake.
But they were. All three of them were. She could still smell them, feel their hands holding on to her, desperate and terrified hugs.
Tears dripped down her cheeks and Wanda quickly wiped them away.
She would hide here.
__
Her body hummed with a new energy. One she liked, but one that terrified her. She had felt that hum before, always pushing it down and away. Vision had commented on it a few times, wondering what Wanda was holding back.
She didn’t know.
She didn’t know she had this power. She could always feel her magic getting stronger. Steve and Natasha made sure she was as ready as they could make her, despite not knowing how to deal with powers like hers.
She saw the figure the day the Mind Stone unlocked her powers. The woman had returned to her in dreams, but Wanda always hid from her. Waking herself up in a panic to push her away.
But she always came back, her arms open and inviting, her power immensely alluring.
Wanda had denied her right before Thanos had made his appearance, sealing the fate of her beloved Vision and then herself with the snap of a finger.
Then in Westview she felt the hum again, the urge strong as she played out the fantasy around her. As she hid her grief.
Then Agatha opened it all up for her. Returning her to her trauma. This time, Wanda let her in.
The Scarlet Witch had engulfed her.
Agatha said she would destroy the world and Wanda refused it. Wanda loved the world, even though she hated the way it made her feel. She refused to follow that prophecy. She was more than that. The Scarlet Witch would be too.
__
The Dark Hold was overly enticing. It’s plethora of knowledge at her fingertips, but she couldn’t bring herself to open it. She could hardly get out of bed, let alone use her magic for more than mundane things.
It made a buzzing noise every time she got near to its place in the closet, like cicadas. The buzz engrained itself into her head, striking her at sudden moments with fever. It was becoming excruciating, bringing her to her knees.
She spent most of her time outdoors, enjoying the view of the lake, or walking through the trees.
“Wanda.”
She spun on her heels, hands up in a dark red glow. Nothing revealed itself and she let a deep breath out. The buzzing ringing in her ears.
“Wanda.” The whisper came again, a dark gruff voice that sent chills up her spine.
She let out a cry, ripping at her ears as they rang. Her knees made contact with the ground as she rolled into the fetal position. Tears streamed down her face.
“STOP!” She screamed.
“Wanda.”
Haven’t I suffered enough?
“Wanda.”
The redhead mustered up her strength, pushing herself to her feet as she quickly flew to the cabin. Her head pounding and her vision blurry as she pushed her way inside, gripping the spinning room for support. The sound only got louder, piercing into her eardrum like a knife. She screamed again as she came into her room, dropping to her knees.
Wanda persisted. She was stronger than this trick, this pain. She crawled along the floor, and ripped open her closet door. The room suddenly fell silent and she let out a sob of relief.
The book lay there, inviting her to open it. The hum of her powers crackled through her veins as she reached for it.
The pages were soft and filled with symbols that suddenly made sense to her. Spells and history of times before the concept of time and the Earth we know filled her mind.
She could see everything.
Suddenly the book flipped for her, showing her a spell.
“Astral Projection?” Wanda questioned softly, her eyes scanning over the words.
The redhead’s chest lurched forward and she dropped the book, the color red filling the room. Wanda yelped and scrambled back, The Scarlet Witch floating above her.
She had barely even thought about it…
She was Astral Projecting. In seconds…
She moved her right hand, her astral form copying her movements, her eyes glowing an eerie red. Green and red locked line of sight and a smile crept on both of their faces.
Then she was gone, Wanda absorbing her darker half back into her. The redhead breathed deeply, crawling across the floor and back to the book.
All of this knowledge at her disposal. She was a fool to have turned them both away for so long.
Agatha mentioned that her spell was flawed. What if she could correct it? Bring her family back into existence without parameters and pain? Could the book do that? Could she? Could The Scarlet Witch?
It felt warm in her hands, the pages turning to reveal more to her.
__
Wanda took a drink of her tea, holding the white cup close her her body as she looked out on the lake, the water reflecting the morning sun.
A piece of her was disconnected, in a different part of the house, flipping through The Dark Hold. The astral projection muttered to herself, ripping through page after page with glowing red eyes and a dark looming within her.
Wanda felt the darkness, ignoring her own warning signals as she desperately was looking for any answer. It was her new obsession, getting her family back.
While her physical body attended to her human needs, her higher form scoured the book day and night. Wanda never tired and her form never broke, unlike Westview did when her emotions and stamina got the better of her.
Wanda felt her astral form lurch, snapping her head to the right. The sky tingled with an unknown energy. A disturbance.
“Mom! Mom! Help us!”
Wanda’s concentration snapped as she dropped her cup, the white porcelain shattering over her deck. The Scarlet Witch returned to her body, the book thumping to the ground within the cabin as a sob left Wanda’s mouth. Her hands shook as she looked around her. “Boys? Boys?” She screamed, tearing through the house. She overturned furniture, even opening up cabinets that had no logical way of encasing two 10 year olds. “Boys! Please, Billy! Tommy! Where are you? Mommy’s right here, please come back to me.”
The book let out a piercing buzz that made Wanda cover her ears in agony, like it was snapping her out of her frantic state.
Wanda ran to it, gripping it in her hands like it was one of her children. “Show me. Help me find them.”
The pages flipped once again, her eyes glowing red as it opened her mind to more spells. More power. The darkness only grew within her.
It had Wanda hooked, just as it wanted.
The corruption was beginning.