“Are you speaking about the human girl?” Sister Jera asked Penny remembering the girl’s childish remarks while she had looked down upon Penny.
“Yes, but let’s not rule her out. It would be better to have a more stringent check than be sorry,” Penny replied to Sister Jera who quickly nodded her head in agreement. Penny was unsure if the vampire was going to stay here or was going on his own way therefore when both the girls started to walk, they heard him,
“I will come with you. You aren’t looking to pass the exam while I am. It will be easier to attain the dead bodies and pass the exam,” said the vampire, his red eyes fluctuating to look at both the women and he walked towards them.
Penny didn’t mind his company. The more people she had on their side to beat the black witches the better and easier it would be to capture the black witches.
The three of them left the place and started to walk in search of the next person. The forest was lush and wide, and with the thick trees and leaves that covered part of the sky, they could see in the uncovered part the sky had turned dark to an inky hue.
“What’s your name?” Sister Jera asked the vampire as they knew nothing about him.
“Henry,” he answered without asking the girl’s name but Sister Jera introduced herself and Penelope,
“I am Jera and this is Lady Penelope,” the man gave a curt nod and continued to walk along with them.
After they walked for twenty minutes in silence, the vampire asked, “How do you have so many weapons with you? Is it a witch thing?”
“We brought the weapons from the church,” Penny was the one to answer him.
“And here I thought a church was a holy place. Creating weapons to kill the black witches, how interesting. Do you think I could borrow one?” he asked them to hear the answer from both the girls,
“No.”
He might not be harmful now but they didn’t know how things could turn in their favor or against them. The weapons they had created to kill the black witches could also be used on them. It hadn’t been tested on white witches but what they had in their hands and pockets, it was a higher dose of poison which could kill Penelope as well as Jera.
The trio stopped walking to rest for a few minutes while also drinking water as they had stopped near a bank of the river. Penny sat close to the edge of the water, scooping the water with both her hands and sipping the sweet water as she took one sip after another to quench her thirst. The other two were aiming at the branch of the trees to have the fruits that were hanging there fall down.
Penny sat down next to Jera, and seeing the vampire nowhere in sight, she asked, “Where did he go?”
“To hunt an animal I think,” answered Sister Jera who was busy taking bites into the fruit she was eating. Penny realized that the man was a vampire who needed to feed on blood. Glad that he didn’t pick her or the girl sitting next to her as a meal, she ate the fruits that had been pulled down.
Wondering what it was and how much more was left, Penny pulled out the pocket watch from her pocket to see there was less than twelve hours they had in hand and nine people to inspect.
At the same time, Penny wondered what a long process this was when it came to pulling out information from the black witches. One of the ways could have been where the witches could be caught during the first exam but there were too many people who would have died and even in the second exam, there were deaths. Only that the number of people who died was fewer if one compared to the what-if situation in the first exam.
Minutes passed by but the vampire didn’t return that made Penelope worry if something had happened. Walking out and alone had turned out not to be an option as it was riskier to be targeted and killed than when they were in a group.
Slightly worried, Penny said to Jera, “We need to look for the man,” the younger witch nodded her head, throwing the remnants of the fruit which was going to eat. Just as they were about to leave the place, the man returned back, seeing them stand up and ready to leave.
Penny stared at the man for a few seconds, her eyes quickly trying to catch any oddity from his behavior or appearance, when she said, “We need to get moving. We are running out of time,” and they started to continue their walk in the forest. Searching and looking for the next living person.
After the heavy rain during the time of noon, the sky had considerably cleared and one could see the moon hovering up in the sky. Penny, who noticed it, wondered how the sky had cleared right away. She found it to be rather suspicious that it had happened so quickly in a span of a few hours because the way it had looked during the time of morning and noon it was as if the rain would arrive back during the time of night or midnight.
Something didn’t feel right. It was as if they knew most of the things apart from who the black witches were but there was a piece that was missing from this whole event. Penny knew she wasn’t overthinking this time.
And then they came to find another body which was placed on the tree.
“Only the black witches love to stick people on the tree,” said the vampire named Henry, “A vampire will often tear people’s hearts out. We don’t like dirtying our hands unless it is required.”
“Eight more,” Sister Jera commented and Penny shook her head.
“Look ahead there,” she tipped her head towards another tree to see two more men who were stuck on to the trees, “Five more,” as time passed by the number was narrowing one after another and every time they came upon a dead body, it only told them that those people who had died in here were innocent people, people who weren’t part of this unneeded fight.
Something flashed in front of Penny’s eyes and a light headache started to increase at the back of her head. She remembered seeing a paper in a person’s small hands.
‘What are you looking at?’
