“I’m in,” Lila said through a hidden psychic link as she materialized in Tabitha’s hideout. “Wait for my signal so we can end this once and for all.”

“We’ll be ready,” her mother’s distant voice cracked back along the link. “Be careful, dear.”

Lila glanced around, taking in the sight of Tabitha’s fortress. It loomed like a jagged wound in the earth, its stone walls pulsing with dark runes that seemed to shift and writhe as if they were alive. The air vibrated with latent power and malevolence, whispering threats into her ears.

The Inquisitors marched her through winding corridors filled with enslaved souls, humans and supernatural creatures alike, each one bound in chains of shadow. And the dark magic of the sign of evil. They passed by in silence, their eyes glazed with despair as they moved about their assigned tasks in honor of their Goddess.

After what felt like an eternity, they reached the heart of Tabitha’s lair. The vast chamber was draped in red velvet and black silk, the opulence of it suffocating. Lila’s eyes were immediately drawn to a figure seated on a high throne — Tabitha.

The evil witch lounged without worries, her fingers twirling strands of Penelope’s hair. Lila’s heart clenched as she saw her friend kneeling at Tabitha’s feet, eyes wide and worshipful, like a desperate dog begging for attention.

“Penelope!” Lila gasped.

Her friend’s head snapped up, brown eyes meeting Lila’s with no hint of recognition. It was like staring into a mirror and seeing only emptiness reflected. Something inside Lila broke at the sight.

“Lovely, isn’t she?” Tabitha purred, running her fingers along Penelope’s cheek. “So submissive now that she’s been trained.”

“Penelope,” Lila whispered again, sadness creeping into her voice.

But Penelope didn’t respond; instead, she curled closer to Tabitha, clutching the hem of her robe with trembling hands.

“Do you see what awaits you?” Tabitha said, smirking at Lila’s despair. “You will join her soon enough.”

“You said you would release her!” Lila spat.

“And did you believe I would keep that promise? Silly girl! I don’t play by your rules or anyone else’s - I make my own!”

For a moment, the world swayed around Lila as though she were standing on the edge of a great abyss and it was pulling her toward it. Doubts assaulted her mind like furious specters: Was this how they would end? Would Tabitha break them both before hope could take root? She clung to her resolve even as it threatened to slip from her grasp.

“Your precious Resistance can’t save you now,” Tabitha taunted, relishing each crack in Lila’s composure like sweet nectar. “No one will come for you.”

As the Inquisitors forced her forward to kneel beside Penelope, Lila fought to keep panic from overwhelming her. She couldn’t give up hope—not yet. She needed to find strength in knowing that this hellish moment had always been part of the plan, and she had planned so much more than this evil witch could imagine.

“I’ll make you watch as I rip everyone apart,” Tabitha promised. “Better yet, I’ll have you destroy your loved ones in my name. How does that sound?”

“Pure insanity just like everything else that comes out of your mouth, you filthy bitch! Your hatred for everything good and precious in this world will be your doom.”

Tabitha laughed, a sound that chilled the depths of Lila’s soul. “Ever defiant, even when you should be begging for mercy. Why waste your breath pretending to be strong?”

Lila held Tabitha’s gaze, refusing to look away. “Because I know how pathetic you are.”

“Is that so?” Tabitha mused, her voice dripping with feigned pity. She stroked Penelope’s hair with deliberate care, cruelty gleaming in her eyes. “I think she needs a reminder of my true power.”

With a flick of her hand, she sent Penelope sprawling across the floor. Dark energy snaked around her.

“No!” Lila screamed, struggling against the Inquisitor’s grip.

Tabitha’s magic lanced through Penelope like a storm of agony. Lila’s friend convulsed as if she were drowning beneath invisible waves. The shackles that bound her were invisible yet unbreakable, and each tendril of pain drove deeper than the last.

“Some people never learn,” Tabitha sighed, reveling in Lila’s anguish. “But that’s alright - I enjoy teaching.”

She leaned back on her throne as if bored by the scene before her, though triumph shone like a terrible beacon in her eyes. “Do you see now? You are helpless! Even your pathetic friend knows it.”

Lila’s heart tore with each of Penelope’s anguished cries. The temptation to break and give in loomed large, like a shadow waiting to swallow her whole.

But instead of despair came a spark, a fierce determination rekindled at the sight of Penelope suffering.

This was part of the plan, too: enduring Tabitha’s torments long enough to strike when least expected. It was cruel but necessary to lull her enemy into a false sense of security.

“Your curse is nothing compared to our bond!” Lila shouted, finding strength even as they dragged her down into darker depths than she’d ever known.

“Oh, but it will be,” Tabitha whispered, watching as Lila fought against the inevitable decay of hope. She reeled her friend in, and Penelope collapsed against her, trembling and hollow-eyed. “I’m more powerful than the Congregatio ever dreamed of being—and more powerful than you.”

“You might be powerful,” Lila said as Penelope shivered beside her on the cold stone floor, “but deep down, you’re all alone. No magic spells will ever change that.”

“And soon, you’ll be just like me,” Tabitha shot back. “All the love bled out of you until nothing remains but a deep hunger that can never be satisfied. I wonder what you’ll say then.”

“I’ll always tell you to fuck off.”

Her mind raced even as those words left her lips. All around them, voices echoed in chorus through the decrepit hallways, singing hymns of terror and devotion to their dark queen.

Tabitha yawned with exaggerated disdain, the sound echoing like a growl. “This banter is tiresome. Let’s finish this.”

She rose from her throne, black robes trailing like liquid shadow behind her. With steely confidence, she advanced on Lila.

“No!” Penelope cried out, a flicker of resistance breaking through the magical conditioning, but Tabitha silenced her with a mere glance.

“Worry not, my pet,” she cooed. “You’ll have a subservient sister soon enough.”

The Inquisitors held Lila firm as Tabitha towered over her, eyes gleaming with sadistic promise. A darkness more profound than any night gathered at her fingertips, swirling and hungry.

“You will wear my mark,” Tabitha intoned, her voice resonant with diabolical power. “And you will love it.”

She reached out and pressed the abyssal brand against Lila’s chest.

Agony seared Lila’s very soul, a pain deeper than flesh, cruel and consuming. It was as if every moment of despair she’d ever experienced had been compacted into an instant of pure suffering. She tried to scream, but the sound died in her throat, drowned by a torrent of black magic.

The sigil burned into her skin with malevolent light, pulsing like a vile heartbeat in time with Tabitha’s triumphant laughter.

“Give in, slut,” Tabitha commanded as Lila writhed beneath her hand. “Give in to me now.”

Lila felt herself being dragged into that horrific abyss where nothing remained but utter submission. The sensation was overpowering, a relentless pull tearing away at her very essence.

Something else clawed at her consciousness - the suffocating realization that her grip on reality was disintegrating, not just here and now but for all eternity.

It was a rapid descent, far quicker than her most dreaded imaginings had foreseen; Tabitha’s power was an unstoppable force, far beyond their darkest fears.

As the blackness engulfed her mind and her resolve seemed to shatter like fragile glass in a storm, one sentence pierced through the encroaching oblivion:

“Please forgive me…”

The darkness closed in, absolute and suffocating. Lila floundered within its depths, lost to all but the pounding rhythm of hate that reverberated through her. She was alone in a vast abyss where nothing existed except a relentless hunger and a malignant need to consume all life.

She felt Tabitha’s mark, a seething brand on her soul, spreading like ink through her veins. It blotted out everything she was and left only rage and hunger in its wake. Evil whispered her name with too many voices to count, each one devouring her thoughts from within.

And then she saw something even more horrific than those voices: herself, a specter enslaved by malice. This dark reflection was submissive and obedient, but the worst part - the part that threatened to break her - was how much it looked like Tabitha.

It leered at Lila like a twisted mirror image from hell itself. Shadows curled around its limbs like chains. Its mouth opened with a soundless scream.

“The old Lila is dead,” Tabitha screamed inside her brain. “You belong to me now.”

Another flicker of consciousness cut through the oppressive dark, but it was consumed, absorbed into the seething, venomous mass that wouldn’t stop until she admitted defeat.

“This is what you want. This is all you were born to be,” the shade mocked her through its silent shrieking.

Lila battled against the rising tide of dread, her mind a battlefield of denial and resistance. Yet in the darkest recesses of her soul, where doubt and terror reigned with an iron grip, an unshakable fear gnawed at her resolve. 

She couldn’t escape the haunting thought that perhaps Tabitha had been right all along—that beneath the facade of everything she cherished lay a ravenous void, an insatiable abyss poised to devour the entire world to satiate its endless hunger, even if only for a fleeting moment.

Her reflection multiplied; countless abhorrent Lilas surrounded her now, each one chanting wordlessly as they drew closer and closer until their cold shadows transformed her from the inside out.

“Dead?” she mumbled. No. Not yet.

Suddenly, there was movement within the darkness. A ripple, subtle and almost imperceptible, broke through the suffocating stasis. It whispered past her ears like lost memories, soft murmurs filled with defiance and names she could scarcely remember.

As they grew louder, one thought flared against the surrounding blackness:

“We’re coming, Lila.”

With those words came visions, dreamlike images that pierced through her prison of shadow. They flickered before her eyes like tenuous beacons: Alondra speaking spells of rebellion into existence; Fiadh framing intricate plans built on daring and risk; Her mother Sarah who loved her more than anything.

And Penelope…

Penelope standing amidst them all, her freedom crushing the shackles of servitude. Just a human, and yet her best friend, the one person to deserved it all, innocence that had to be reclaimed at all costs.

Recognition slammed into Lila with brutal force, fracturing the bleak shell that encased her mind. This wasn’t an empty promise; this was real! Her friends had not surrendered. They were coming for her, and they would fight until there was nothing left.

Hope roared back to life, a fierce flame obliterating the ashes of despair that had smothered her just moments before.

The oppressive reflection of subjugation trembled, like smoke ravaged by a tempest, teetering for a heartbeat longer… then exploded into oblivion as Lila surged with an overwhelming sense of purpose, her spirit blazing with newfound intensity.

No!

She would never be Tabitha’s puppet! With renewed strength, she pushed back against every hateful tendril attempting to bind her spirit. Beyond these psychic walls lay freedom - and beyond that? Revenge.

But first came survival, the impossible but tantalizing chance that they could win this war, and so Lila held on to the fragile thread connecting them across dimensions of cruelty.

“We’re coming, Lila.”

She drove it deep into herself like a lifeline and held fast as reality cracked open around her once more.

Lila pushed back with all her might as the light within her absorbed the sign of evil that pulsed against her skin. Radiance surged through every part of her being, a fierce luminosity expanding and intensifying with terrifying speed.

So bright, so sudden, it blinded everything in its wake.

The brilliance grew into an overpowering wave, filling the dark abyss until there was no room for shadow or despair. For one terrifying moment, even Lila didn’t understand what was happening. The sigil that had once been Tabitha’s triumph now turned against its creator; it blazed instead of burned, lights of many colors searing away at the dark.

Unstoppable.

“Too much!” screamed countless voices inside her head, echoing through realms that had never known this kind of power. They screamed in unison as they were drowned by a light more intense than anything ever unleashed upon them.

And then she heard Tabitha’s voice above all others, shrill with panic:

“No! Impossible!”

Lila felt herself rising like a phoenix from ashes unspeakably black; she was no longer buried but reborn, not just alive but luminous in every sense. She had seen her future: submission and death, and fled from it with all the fury left in her soul.

The shadows binding her shattered into nothingness. The mark on her flesh, which had claimed victory ahead of time, changed into something astonishing, a bright glowing emblem that resonated pure defiance. As Lila’s spirit brimmed with unstoppable energy, this symbol expanded outward until it engulfed everything around it with radiant fury.

Pure light exploded across dimensions long ruled by darkness. Flashes of horror flickered past her consciousness as Tabitha’s malevolent realm struggled against obliteration. She felt the witch herself recoiling at this unexpected reversal—her laughter now choked to silence by terror only hinted at before.

Lila exulted, expanding more fiercely than even hope could have dreamed possible. A floodgate within had burst wide open; where once stood fear and doubt, now lay courage beyond measure.

“No!” Tabitha shrieked, her voice shaking with disbelief and anger. “You’re not that strong. You’re not…”

And still, Lila’s radiance grew. More light poured from her like a supernova, bending every trace of evil to her will. At last, the crushing weight lifted; she could breathe again, and so she did, drawing strength from everything she remembered loving and all that she was fighting for.

The oppressive silence shattered to pieces as she exhaled and burst through reality’s fragile shell, exploding back into consciousness with such force that Tabitha staggered back in shock.

The room around them was ablaze with spectral luminescence. Every shadow yielded to Lila’s glowing presence. Her skin pulsed with white-hot energy as even the smallest traces of dark magic melted away beneath her fierce touch.

The young witch rose from where she had been pinned down moments before, eyes blazing. A radiant halo flickered around her entire body, refusing to be extinguished.

The Inquisitors scattered, panic etched into their faces as they scrambled to escape the uprising of ferocious intensity emanating from what they thought would be nothing more than a vessel of submission and death.

Tabitha remained transfixed, trapped between wrathful pride and genuine fear as Lila stood before her, a living testament to an unbreakable defiance…

… and smiled.

((to be concluded))