Chapter 5: Chapter. 5 Falling home

Diana didn’t hit the floor of her bedroom. She fell and she fell and she fell until she was able to turn her body around to look downward. What she saw was impossible. She definitely couldn’t understand why she saw what she saw.

It was like she’d been thrown out of a plane and now hurtled towards the ground. It felt like air was cutting at her as she plummeted towards a sea of trees. I’m going to die. I’m going to be speared by one of those trees. She howled with terror and threw her arms and legs around in apanic. She became distracted by a strange shimmer in the air. It blanketed the ground beneath her like a mighty dome. She brought her arms up to protect her face as she anticipated colliding with something solid and dying on impact.

There was no impact. She fell straight through the shimmer and heard a soft humming as she did. The second she traversed it, the scene below changed. There was still a sea of trees, but directly beneath her was now a clearing. There were small fires dotted around in the field. More importantly, she could make out many people. They were wearing dark hooded cloaks, but they were there.

“HELP! HELP ME PLEASE!”

They started to look up and point at her, equally alarmed by her sudden presence. Many of them ran into a small circle and clasped hands. They swayed back and forth, and between them the air twisted and spiralled up towards Diana.

For the first time since she was a little girl, Diana prayed magic was real. She prayed that those people were witches, and that they were going to save her from a horrendous death as her body broke on the ground. Her brown eyes shut and she curled her arms and legs up into a ball protectively as she hoped with every fibre in her body that she wouldn’t die.

The air about her started to turn her body, made easier by the way she curled up. She span and span, and perhaps she started to slow in her decent, but it was difficult to analyse her velocity with how dizzy she was getting. Adrenaline fuelled terror, and now the vertigo being caused by being span as she fell, made it a fight not to throw up as well.

“WE’VE GOT YOU DIANA! STAY STILL!” That…sounds like…Her eyes opened wide as her heart clenched in her chest. M-Ma?! She whimpered and lifted her head up to try and find her mother.

“MA?!” As she span and fell she saw some blonde hair fluttering out of one of the hooded robes. Diana forgot to breathe. “MA!” She reached out for her, and fell out of the cyclone slowing her decent.

“DIANA NO!” The circle of hooded figures below lost the spell and the air went quiet. Diana was so close to the ground now, there was no way they could start again. The woman with blonde hair tried to run forward to catch her, but was held back by more hooded figures on either side. Likely because the impact would kill whomever she landed on. “DIANA!”

“Dyani!”

“Uff!”

Something collided with Diana in the air and she went hurtling at a right angle through the air. Her long black hair billowed over her face like a thick veil, and her ribs were bruised by the force of whatever hit her in the left side. She barely got her breathe back before she was winded by her landing. She questioned if she had landed at all for a full minute as her brain tried to do a quick systems check of her equilibrium. She was now laid on her right side in a thick bush. The leaves were dense with clusters of pale pink flowers and black berries scattered in the shrubbery. Saved…by a bush…

Diana’s brown eyes were half shut and her chest hurt as she forced air in and out of her chest. I’m alive. She started to smile and tears fell down her cheeks. I’m alive. Holy crap, I didn’t die. She winced and lethargically brought her left hand up to assess how badly bruised her ribs were. “Ooooo-yup. That smarts.” She winced and pushed her right hand down into the bush. Slowly and with questionable balance, Diana pushed herself up to sit. She looked up and saw that she was now surrounded by the hooded figures. They stood there silently watching her like ghosts. “…erm…this isn’t my bedroom?” Diana chuckled just before her eyes rolled back and she passed out into the bush that caught her.

“Is it gone?”

“Yes Coven Mother. Our wards are keeping it back, for now.”

“Good.” Many eyes looked down at Diana before the blondespoke again. “You were supposed to summon her into the circle on the ground.” The woman with long blonde hair hanging down from her hood chided another woman, who threw her hood back and smirked with red lips.

“Well it seems my calculations were a tad off, butI did it, didn’t I? I got her here Anna.” Elaina put her hands on her hips and huffed. “Would have caught her too, if she didn’t wriggle out of the spell when she saw you.”

“She called me Ma.” The blonde lowered her hood and revealed a face younger than Diana’s. “She thought I was Isabella...”

“Well, in her defence? She was hurtling hundreds of feet through the air at the time?” Elaina sassed Anna and moved to stand beside her. She clocked how the blonde stared down nervously at Diana’s unconscious body, and the muttering of the rest of the coven around them. “Alright! Show’s over. Our sister is home. Now go home and await your orders. All reverence to the Coven Mother.”

“All reverence to the Coven Mother.” Everyone bowed to Anna, who nodded regally and waited for everyone to leave. Or at least, to be out of ear shot.

“You’ve done so much already Elaina, but could you help me settle Diana in at home? I can do the heavy lifting. Hmm?” Anna turned to look to her empty side and chucked. “Yes of course, you will do the heavy lifting. Thank you.” She giggled and her hazel eyes glowed in sync with her right hand waving over Diana’s body. She weightlessly lifted up off thefloor and her body followed behind Anna as they headed into the forest and to the remaining two cars facing a dirt road. “I’ll get the door.” Anna opened the back door and Diana floated inside to land gently across the backseat. “Thank you Knox.” She lingered at the passenger door and sighed. “Time to go home Diana.”