Story 19: Werewitch

"So how do we kill it?" Murderface's rough voice foisted itself upon everyone present. Her jaded eyes swept the cottage's sole room. Very warm orange and yellow crackled from the tiny fireplace, casting shadows on the walls. Kyoko held the door shut, looking around for something to hammer into place.

"HAHAHOWOOOOOOOO!"

"Wh-what was that?!" Cried the young man, huddled in a corner far away from the door. Murderface glanced at him. He shook with fear.

"A witch. A werewitch, to be exact."

"Whaaaaaaa-"

"You need a silver bullet, blessed by the Blessed Lady, in order to kill the Countess." The gnarled old hag spoke, voice rustling across her dirty floor with the fragility of her bones. She pointed her shaking hand at Murderface, face half in shadows. Her more sinister side was illuminated, a wild light in her eye. Murderface glared at her.

"A silver bullet? Blessed Lady? Where'll we find either one!" Kyoko lamented, back against the door, legs propping her against it.

"The Abandoned Cathedral where you'll find she, and she the silver bullet give to you."

"You're not lying to us, hag?" Kyoko looked at the cottage's owner with sharp eyes. The hag returned no retort.

"She has no reason to lie to us, Kyoko." Murderface rumbled, with her eyes dead on the hag.

"L-lets just wait til morning. Then we can run away."

"Morning will never come." The short haired girl spoke again, turning her attention toward the fearful male.

"And we can't run away," Kyoko interjected. "We better get this done with now." She uprighted herself, gripping her lance anew. She began to open the door.

"You can come with us or stay, I don't care which. Just don't get in our way." Murderface told him before joining Kyoko outside. Both magical girls made their way into the twisted metalwood forest.

The man stayed, with the hag watching him but offering no words. Finally he shook his head, muttered about being crazy, and ventured after them.

---

The forest had many creatures inside. Wolves mainly, twisted ones with a mad desire for human flesh and blood. Kyoko and Murderface sliced their way through the metalwood forest, with its twisted branches that cut with the slighest of ease, leaving a river of mercury behind. The boy stayed close to them whenever possible, fleeing whenever danger presented itself.

Flesh marred with cuts, they managed to survive their encounters, and stumbling over a tree root, Murderface found a ruined cathedral. With the roof gone and windows hollow, it was exposed to the outside elements, with the clearing around it littered with weeds.

"Could it be?" Kyoko murmured, crouching down beside Murderface's laying form.

"Might be. Best to check it out." Murderface stood up, with Kyoko rising with her, and made her way toward it.

Kyoko walked beside her, head gazing over her shoulder. With a wave, she had her impromptu principal follow.

---

"Oh woe is me," spoke the Blessed Lady, eyes downcast to the broken stone floor. The ruins of her cathedral stood around her, like a carcass' ribcage left rotting in the moonlight. She stood where her altar used to reside, with a forlorn, sorrowful expression. Her dress, a pink, puffy, frilly affair, was slightly torn, but mostly dirty, with the colors fading. "I am stuck in this forsaken ruin, with naught a believer nor purpose for existing..."

The tattered Blessed Lady then noticed movement in her sphere of influence, pivoting her eyes toward the source. Past her split ends, she saw two girls, purple and red, with a boy, brown, cautiously walking toward her.

"Ah, visitors, a rare sight to behold." She patiently waited for the three to arrive to her.

"Are you the Blessed Lady?" The red girl requested, a slight accent to her voice. The lance she held in her hand rested upon her shoulder, sprouting upward like the ruin around her. The Blessed Lady focused on that when talking to her.

"I may be once have been the Blessed Lady." Her words were cryptic to red, who scrunched up her face, but to her, they were crystal clear.

"If you are," Purple interjected before her companion could continue speaking, "then we have need of your silver bullets."

"Why should I give you my blessed silver bullets?"

"Because," Murderface paused. "We desire to kill the Countess."

"Countess Draculina?"

"Yeah?" Kyoko piped up, uncertainty written on her face and coloring her tone.

The Blessed Lady stared. With a searching gaze, she stared. With a gambling gaze, she stared. And with a tiny smile, she stared.

"The Countess drove my flock to the four winds, and brought the torch to my church. She cursed me to this altar, so that I would never venture beyond it. I wish to see past this forest, and create another flock. Will you kill her in my name?"

"Yes." Without hesitation, Murderface replied, giving her one quick nod. In her eyes the Blessed Lady saw her conviction. It burned bright with a killing desire, the same mirrored in her partner's eyes. The boy, however, was unsure. Uncertain. He was scared, this she knew. Scared of them, of her, of everything around him.

He came into existence in this world very harshly, this much she gleamed from his eyes.

With a waving of her hand over her other opened hand, a soft, hot pink circle manifested itself in the air. It got stronger, more vibrant, until it turned into a beautifully pure silver revolver. It dropped down to her palm, with her hand giving way noticeably. Of the highest craftsmanship, it shone the moon's ever radiant light, casting its rays upon the bespectacled eyes of Murderface. She stared at it, eyes wide.

"Inside lay six blessed bullets, all silver. You must remember to not miss a single shot. All six bullets must breach the Countess' heart for them to be effective."

With gun in hand, she extended it toward her. Murderface took it in her deft hand, fingers curling around the handgrip and trigger guard. It had good heft, and a wonderful feeling to it. Turning it, she liked the look of it in her hand.

With a nod she gave one last look at the Blessed Lady, turning away from her to deliver her wrath upon her enemy.

"So that's all?" Kyoko asked, watching Murderface leave, turning her head back to the girl. The Blessed Lady nodded. "Well then, see ya." She joined her friend, passing the boy on her way. He, too, was about to join when the Blessed Lady wiggled her finger at him, lips curled in friendship's warmth.

A little fearful, he walked up to her.

Murderface stopped at the broken arch of the entrance way at Kyoko's request, who watched the little show. Murderface sighed, getting a cigarette out of her opened pack and lighting it with a match. Smoking from the cig, she watched with much indifference.

The two held a dialogue for a few minutes. The boy left her with more confidence, a bit more comfort in his own skin.

The Blessed Lady watched them leave, but Murderface, narrowing her eyes slightly, felt her eyes on her most acutely.

---

Stepping out, a black coach dashed in front of them, coming to a halt on the drop of a dime; the carriage shaking to a standstill. Black wood composing its structure with black steeds with red eyes and hard hoofs that scraped at the ground, it menaced with a terror all of their own. A monster with a thin disguise of being human sat at the driver's perch, head turned their way. With a wave, the door opened up; an invitation in richest blood.

Kyoko turned her head to Murderface. "This witch has seen far too many horror movies."

Murderface simply nodded, and accepted the invitation.

---

The moon, bright and full, shone in the sky, dressed in gossamer clouds. The mist hung heavy in the air, especially so around Castle Draculina, the destination in which their black coach laboriously ferried. Gothic in style, bats swarmed it with mad patterns wrapped up in chaotic energies.

"That's where this Werewitch lives?" The young man asked, peeking a look at the Castle. Both Murderface and Kyoko remained quiet, desiring a quick end to all this as soon as possible.

A sheer cliff side to their right, with the raging sea below, and the twisted metalwood forest to their left, they sped closer to the Castle; unharassed by the inhabitants of the forest.

Bats soon swarmed the coach, swirling around it like a storm before going back to the castle. The Castle imposed its stone masonry upon them, surrounding them in its cold influence as the coach skittered to a stop. Immediately stepping out, Murderface cast a glance at the driver's seat only to see he had disappeared before diverting her attention back to the doors.

Kyoko and the boy stepped out, and the trio made their way to the doors...

which creaked open, mist swirling down the stairs from inside.

---

Inside the Castle, rich tapestries and grand architecture were laid out in the open, all there to impress anyone that entered. The two magical girls weren't, but the boy was.

"Wow, it's like one of those..." He took a moment to figure out what he wanted to say. "Like one of those old, old movies I saw once!" His voice echoed.

Kyoko and Murderface examined the surroundings, looking for their one objective. They found it naught anywhere in sight.

"HAHAHAHOOWOOOOOOO!"

The creatures of the night composed their nocturnal symphony, much to the worry of every nerve present.

"Looks like we'll have to find her." Kyoko's eyes pivoted to Murderface, who stared back from her red glasses.

"We'll have to split up to end this quickly."

"Yeah, that seems for the bes---"

"What!" The tagalong that they saved spoke up, glaring at the two with incredulity in his voice. "I can't believe what I'm hearing! Split up? After all of this, inside the vampire's lair?! Are you two insane?! Haven't you seen the movies? Really now, I can safely tell you where we'll find this Countess. She'll be downstairs, in the crypt, sleeping in her coffin."

All the while he vented on the two, they looked at each other, then at him, disgusted and irritated expressions etched into their faces.

"It's still midnight, the Countess will be up and about right now."

"No, she won't be! Trust me, and follow." The young man, impudent and agitated, stomped off to find the inevitable staircase leading to the crypt, muttering under his breath.

"Fine, let him go." Murderface shrugged, glancing at the tapestries. "We'll just split up and sear-"

"Come on, Murderface. He's the only reason why we're in here." Kyoko hissed, stomping off to find him.

Murderface sighed.

---

They went through many rooms. One was for grand masquerades, many more for guests, and private rooms with skeletons in the closets off-shooting those. Knights in their dull armor lined hallways. Libraries full of ancient tomes of forbidden knowledge lined their expensive wood bookshelves.

However, everything was in a state of flux. A glossy film separated the two realities. The realities of the Castle's former golden age, in which royalty furnished their surroundings to vibrant colors, and that of the current state, in its ruin, with spider webs everywhere, dust choking the air, and carrion fell crawling along the floor; all resided in the same time, in the same place.

"Isn't this weird, Murderface?" Kyoko quietly commented, eyes shifting to and fro. Murderface grunted in reply, hands on the silver revolver; always ready for anyone hostile to show themselves.

The man pushed open one door, holding up the torch in which he took from a wall in his haste, and spied stairs.

"Down here." He motioned to the two girls behind him, then went into the darkness. The party made their way down the expansive stairs, swirling in circles gradually until finding the bottom. The crypt laid out bare before them, a place where it was permanently in ruin. Cobwebs wafted in the air like butterflies. Pillars still stood, cracking under the bulky weight of an eon generation old castle. Dust was thick upon the rock ground, feet leaving visible prints behind.

"Now where is that coffin..." Muttered the torchbearer, casting his illuminated vision to and fro, his feet taking him deeper into the lair.

"Hey, over there!" Kyoko pointed. To the side, butt up against a crumbling pillar, laid a coffin. A dash toward the coffin and a pushing of the lid revealed the Countess' sleeping form to the trio.

Her eyes opened, red pinpoints in the darkness.

"Velcome to my Castle, I hope my children haven't giv--"

Murderface snapped the Blessed Lady's Revolver up, pointing the muzzle at the chest of this damned witch. Itchy trigger finger flinching, it belched out flashes of light and blessed silver; illuminating the immediate surrounding and inflicting terrible wounds to the witch.

When the bullets ran out, Murderface took the revolver, flipped it, and began bludgeoning the Countess with it using all of her might. She kept slugging away, beating bloody jelly, until bone was chalk, until the witch was nothing but dust; until Kyoko was holding onto her, telling her that the barrier had disappeared.

Stopping, huffing for breath, Murderface looked around to find herself back in Mitakihara.