Mari ran into the woods, the screams of the people slowly fading out of her head. She stopped nearby a tree and started to pant, she wasn't used to running this much. She looked behind her, to find the house completely gone.
The only thing she could see now we're the trees that made up the forest. She held onto the stick on her hand and breathed a sigh of relief. She touched her pocket and felt the amulet. Mari smiled, glad that those people didn't found it.
She looked up into the sky, it must be afternoon.
In the forest, Mari could sense an energy. Something that lurked in the shadows, something that seems almost invisible. Like it was there but not there.
"That's weird, but who am I to complain"
Mari grabbed the amulet and the stick, the amulet almost pulling her to a specific direction. She felt the amulet was leading her somewhere, so without thought she followed the force.
In no time she she arrived at a clearing, in the middle was a giant tree. Mari smiled in relief, she ran to the tree and dropped down to the trunk. She started feeling around the base, until her hands touched a weird object.
"That must be it!" Mari hurriedly removed the leaves and twigs, revealing a piece of stone buried in the ground.
"The rune..." Mari muttered, when she saw a symbol engraved into the stone. She touched the rune, and just like the symbol from the house, a jolt of electricity zapped her fingers.
Mari quickly removed her hand, flailing it around, in attempt to ease the pain. The jolt here was more painful than the symbol in the house.
Focusing herself she stood up and raised her arms, in a pose, ready to stab the rune. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. At a count of three she stabbed the stone.
1.....2.....3-----"Bang!"
Just as she was about to stab the stone a gun shot echoed throughout the forest, startling Mari. She looked behind her to see the three people from the house, covered in vines and scratches, their face not looking to happy.
"You know, what" The woman in the middle said, looking hysterical "We're done playing games little girl, come with us or die..."
She raised the gun and aimed it directly to Mari. The men beside her, only stood there quiet, but the rage they felt spread throughout the atmosphere.
"Ok...." Mari said quietly, she raised her hands and placed the stick on the ground. The people eased their bodies, but their expressions remained the same.
Mari laid the stick on the ground, her hand feeling the dirt. "Well, what's taking you so long? let's go!" The other man to her right said, he had a muscular build, no hair, and a square face. Mari only stared at the ground, ignoring the people.
"Hey, aren't you listening!" The other man said, he had more of a skinnier build than the man. He was now walking towards Mari, repeatedly calling out to her.
"That's it, come here!" He said, swinging his arm at her, but just before it hit a piece of root grabbed his wrist.
"What the..." The man stared in shock as Mari had her hand held on a tree root in the ground.
"Yeah, like I'm just gonna let that happen"
The ground began to shake, roots erupting from the ground, ensnaring the people. The men were dragged on the ground and pushed into a tree. The woman was swung across the air and pushed head first into the dirt. Her face starting to bleed blood.
Mari had her eyes locked on the three people, her sadness from before turned into anger. The roots soon had the three held up high, the men shaking with fear, while the woman was still in a daze after getting hit in the head.
"This. Is. For. Annabelle!"
The roots plunged their bodies in the cold heart dirt. The people coughing up blood.
Mari was now emitting a green glow, with a faint of red. The people tried to crawl away, but the roots held on to their feet. Mari waved her hands and the roots dragged their bodies across the field, their arms and chest, now bleeding rapidly.
"You think you can just hunt us?"
Mari spread her arms, her eyes now glowing brightly. The amulet behind her also emanating a blinding light.
"Well not happening!"
The roots raised the people in the air, with one swish it came crashing down.
"Enough!" the sound of the voice echoed throughout the forest. The roots stopped at mid air, mere inches away from smacking the people into the ground.
"Who's that?" Mari turned around, a root covered with thorns erupting from the ground. "That's enough Mari, you need to calm down.."
Mari's eyes widened at the figure behind him, he stood their, face stern and serious.
"Lloyd..." She said, her voice quiet, almost as if it was meant for herself "Mari you need to snap out of it, can't you see what your doing to them!" Lloyd raised his hands and directed the roots straight to Mari. She looked close at the bodies, her face contorting at the sight in front of her.
The people, their entire bodies were covered with blood, hardly breathing. They looked almost dead.
"No..."
She collapsed, the roots falling down to the ground, dropping the three unconscious bodies. All of a sudden, everything came down on her: Izzy, Annabelle's death, her almost dying, and now her almost killing them.
Tears poured down from her yes, the glow from her body disappearing. "I'm sorry" She managed to say, her voice shaking. Lloyd turned to look at her, his arm stretching out, hugging her body.
"It's ok" those words echoed in Mari's mind, his soothing hug making her drop down into his arms. With all the sobbing, Mari's body grew tired, her eyes started to close and her heartbeat steadying. After a couple more minutes she was now sleeping soundly in Lloyd's arms.
Lloyd watched the sleeping body of Mari, a smile appearing on his face. He had overestimated her, and now it's taking a toll on her body.
"It's over Mari, you can rest now"
______________________________________________
Mari woke up, she found herself lying in her bedroom. Glancing at her clock, she saw it was 5 PM.
She continued to stare at the watch, feeling something was off, and that's when it hit her. Everything that happened rushing to her, without thinking she ran out her room, only to see her parents eating dinner.
They looked at her, Mari ran outside telling them she had to do something. They were about to reply but Mari already left, the sound of her footsteps could be heard.
Rushing through the trees, sweating and panting, she arrived at the big old tree. She looked and saw Lloyd standing right in front of it, holding the stick from before.
"Lloyd!" The man turned around to see Mari panting "Mari! your finally here" He rejoiced, walking towards her, he patted her shoulder and gave her the stick.
"Quickly, go the front of the tree, and stab directly at the rune"
Before she could answer, she was already dragged by the Lloyd towards the tree. In front of her now was a big stone covered in moss, but now that she was looking closer, she saw markings all over it.
"Here it is, now you know what to do, stab it!"
Hesitating for a bit, Mari readied herself and took a stance. Looking at Lloyd, she saw his expectant eyes, nodding at her to continue. Seeing this she closed her eyes and the stabbed the stone.
A flash of green light, covered the entire area. Soon waves of energy scattered throughout the atmosphere, covering the entire forest like a piece of fog. Cracks started to form from the tree, they traced around it and spread out into the forest. The cracks filled with glowing energy disappeared into the trees as they began to release more of the green energy.
"Finally! I'm free!" Mari turned around to see Izzy sitting at the tree branch, smiling directly at her "And if it wasn't for you, this wouldn't have happened"
"Mari" Lloyd stood next to Mari, raising his hands towards Izzy "Meet Izzy the spirit of the forest"
Mari was now stunned, she just woke up and she was still processing everything that happened. The people, Lloyd, and now Izzy!
"But....But...Huh?" She couldn't even speak now due to her confusion, Lloyd saw this and chuckled "You see, when Izzy died here, her soul became the spirit of the forest, but because of that rune" Lloyd pointed towards the crack stone "It locked her away, keeping her powers and the magic sealed, she was only able to make contact through the amulet in the form of visions"
Lloyd showed her the amulet, it was glowing even more brighter, seeming to sense the amounts of magic everywhere.
"But, What about those people? and who made that rune?" Mari was full of questions, her brain still in the processing state.
"When I died, I wanted revenge, but I knew it was to late for justice. Now all I want is for someone to know my story, someone like me"
"You see Mari, Izzy here is a fairy just like you" He then brought back the amulet and gave it to Mari "I gave you this amulet because it was created by fairies, hoping that it would help you channel your powers more, but I did not expect for it to result into something like this"
Lloyd chuckled, while Izzy sat at her branch, directing her gaze towards Mari "As for those people, they were the ones who placed that rune" Mari perked up that statement, it does make sense, but why? why are they doing this?
"Mari.." Mari tensed up as she saw Lloyd's face, the light-hearted atmosphere now turned serious "I don't know who those people are, but they are clearly after magic or should I say against it. From how it looks, they seem to be repressing magic, keeping it from spreading"
Lloyd gestured through out the entire place, it was know more lively and bright, although the sun has just set "This place, it's a good source of magic, an emaclidite"
"emaclidite?"
"Yes, its a place that exhibits potent magical energy, usually people from my world would fight over this type of place on who gets the rights to own it" Lloyd walked towards the tree and sat down at one of its roots "But going back to those people" He looked at Mari, his eyes showing sorrow "I am so sorry for letting you go through that, I thought that maybe you could handle it and...."
Lloyd stopped, he didn't finish his sentence but Mari understood.
"Hey, it's alright" Mari tried to comfort him, even sitting right beside him and patting his shoulder "No it's not alright, you tried to ask for help but I denied thinking that you could handle this. I tired helping you, opening the door at the hospital but that's pretty much it"
"Wait that was you?" Mari kinda felt disappointed that her spell didn't actually work "Yes, it was me, I was actually following you making sure to keep you safe, but of course I failed at that. Even when you were chained, all I did was removed the chains to let you go, afraid of showing myself to them"
Lloyd held his head down, feeling ashamed of what he did. Soon memories started flashing right in front of him, a single tear drop appearing in his face
"They were right...I'm never gonna be like him"
Mari was taken a back by this, what did Lloyd mean at that? She wanted to know, but knew this was the wrong time, so instead of prying, she just did her best to comfort him.
"Don't think like that Lloyd, you've done the best you can, I mean look at me, I would have never learned to control my powers if it weren't for you, and I would have died or gotten someone killed" she said, remembering the black goo thing from before.
"Your right..." Lloyd's mood started to ease up, maybe he can actually do something great, maybe helping Mari with her powers might be the perfect thing for him.
"Thanks Mari" The girl only smiled, she looked around and saw some up rooted tree branch with blood on it "Oh my god! I almost forgot!"
She quickly stood up and turned towards Lloyd "What happened to the people?" her mind was now fearing the worse "Did they die!" uttering out the sentence sent chills down her spine, if she did kill them, then she'll be just like them.
"Don't worry" Lloyd to assure her "They're at that place you went to....the hospital!" Lloyd chirped as he remembered the name "The people said they suffered severe injuries to their brains? but to just put it simply their in a dead sleep"
"Dead sleep?" Mari's face was now Grimm, the word 'dead' making her face pale "You know, where the people go to a long sleep, sometimes lasting for years?"
"You mean a coma!" Mari yelled, Lloyd only seemed to nod at what she said "Yeah! that's the word those people called it, coma, c-o-m-a"
Lloyd kept repeating the word, as if it sounded alien-like to him, meanwhile Mari was contemplating her entire life right now.
"Wait, why didn't you just heal them?" Mari asked, Lloyd looked at her and shook his head
"I did try, but it seemed the damages done to their brains were to much, I couldn't risk it"
Mari only sighed, she was out of control and she almost killed those people, she needs to control her powers. Mari looked at Lloyd, seeing this he immediately understood what she meant.
"Hello, stiller remember me" that voice snapped them out, they looked to Izzy who was just floating around looking at them.
"Oh yeah!" Lloyd raised his hands and it glowed "Before I forget, we'll need to erect some protection charms!"
AN: Finally this is done! I'm so sorry this took so long, hope you guys didn't give up on this story. But you shouldn't worry, I have a week long vacation, and I can finally start posting more chapters, around Monday? Thank you so much to those who kept on reading, and please if you have any questions, reactions, or anything, feel free to comment, constructive criticism is ok...besides I need to know what I'm doing wrong, right?