Into the Ever After...

I breathe in deeply as I feel the ley line pull me through to the Ever After. I’d been here once before, years ago, after I had graduated from college and first learned to teleport. Back then, I had been naïve, bright eyed and doleful, and my trip into the Ever After had been a wake up call to what the witch species had lived through.

Looking around now, a cold shiver runs down my spine and settles in my stomach. I had arrived in the dimensional mirror of New Orleans. I kept my breath shallow, telling myself I needed to stay quiet, but in actuality, I didn’t want to breathe in the air. It tasted dead, stale, and thick, like a closet that had been unopened all winter. The sky held a yellow haze, as if the sun wanted to get through but was trapped behind an amber blanket.

I jump as I hear a sound resembling a twig snapping, and scurry quickly into the shadows, keeping myself on guard. I push my back against the wall, feeling my pulse race, waiting for a long moment, my ears practically twitching as I listen. Nothing. I peer around the corner, taking in the scene slowly. No mistakes. Closing my eyes, I tap into a line, spindling the ley line energy into my head, ready to use in an instant. A smile curves up my lips when I feel the power swirl around my thoughts, as if being in the Ever After and using ley line magic was what I was born for.

As I open my eyes, my smile drops. Standing before me, staring at me with leering eyes were three demons, their faces hidden by the hoods of their black cloak. I cry out in fear, flinging my newly spindled line energy at them in an attempt to distract them long enough to escape, but it is futile. The three tap into a line simultaneously and hurl a wave of black magic at me, dissolving my white energy into nothing, and tearing through me, knocking me unconscious.