Shattered Worlds

"You really don't know how to stay out of my way," the imposter snarled as electricity sparked around her form.

"That's enough, brother," the cat said. "You've done enough harm. Stop this right now."

Wait. What? Brother?

Veronica's bulging eyes burned holes into the imposter's back.

The imposter laughed. "Excuse me? You're telling me to stop when you're stuck in the body of a cat. What are you going to do?"

"If you really won't stop your madness, then I'll end you here and now," the cat said.

"Just try it."

A bolt of lightning shot of the imposter's hand soaring through the air towards the trio that had just arrived. They dispersed, and the lightning bolt struck the ground behind them. The floor exploded, sending pieces of wood everywhere. Leta immediately sent a barrage of icicles toward the imposter, who destroyed them with a wave of her hand.

This is bad. I need to get out of here before I get caught in the crossfire.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. She was still tied up. Maybe if she had her broomstick—it had landed several feet away from her and was impossible to get to—or something sharp like a knife to cut the ropes, she could get free.

She frantically scanned her surroundings, looking for something nearby, when her eyes caught sight of a broken piece of ice. Unable to find anything else, Veronica scooted over to it as more spells flew through the air. Once she was close enough, she pressed the ropes against the ice piercing the floor and rubbed them against it like she had seen in the movies. As she did this, she kept an eye out for the men in case they decided to stop her.

Fortunately, it seemed that no one noticed what she was doing or just didn't care about her. Veronica admittedly found it hard to focus on escaping too. With the intense fight between the imposter and the trio happening, it was easy to get distracted.

Fire clashed with water, followed by lightning colliding with earth. Echo and the black cat darted around, aiming to get close, only to be pushed back by a spell. This didn't deter the two animals, as they continued to swerve and dodge the spells, with several coming dangerously close to hitting them. Leta continued to act as support and fired a spell whenever it looked like the imposter would actually land a hit on either Echo or the black cat.

Veronica could honestly say she had never seen a fight quite like this one. Even the fights that had happened in the mansion so far had nothing on the one in front of her. However, she didn't miss how the imposter hadn't moved from her spot since the start of the fight.

The trio were furiously giving it their all, and the imposter was calmly firing spell after spell.

It was even more obvious that the imposter was toying with them since she had a wand while Leta used a broomstick. This was never a fair fight to begin with.

Suddenly, Veronica felt the ropes snap. She immediately ripped the ropes off of her and scrambled to her feet.

"Veronica, watch out!" Leta screamed.

The moment she heard her name, Veronica didn't hesitate to throw herself on the ground again. As she landed on the ground, she felt a wave of heat pass over her. Veronica glanced up in time to see a fireball crash into the opposing wall.

That had been too close.

She pushed herself to her feet as the imposter said, "It looks like one of you had the sense to find a way to get freed." Veronica didn't react to her mocking tone. "What are you going to do now? You don't have anything to fight with."

Veronica hysterically wanted to ask why the imposter was stating the obvious.

Even though she was free now, there was no way she would be able to pick up her broomstick and cast a spell quickly. She seriously doubted that the men would let that happen. Of course that was assuming that the imposter didn't attack her first.

"Hold it," Leta said, raising her broomstick. "We're your opponents."

The imposter sighed and waved a hand. In a blink of an eye, Leta was blasted back. She completely disappeared from view, almost like she had never been there from the beginning.

If there had been any doubts that the imposter hadn't taken the fight seriously, they had just been erased by her display of power.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on her," Echo screeched as he dive-bombed the imposter.

With a flick of the imposter's finger, Veronica's familiar crashed into the wall, creating a sizable dent. A scream cut through the air, and Veronica vaguely realized she was the one screaming.

"Devin!" the black cat howled as it threw itself at him.

The imposter caught the black cat by the scruff of its neck and held it up in the air. It hissed and howled, scratching at her arms, but the imposter didn't bat an eye. She tightened her grip, threatening to choke the life out of the cat. Veronica was frozen stiff as she watched the horrible scene unfold in front of her.

This had to be a bad dream, right?

Th-that's right. I must have hit my head. When I wake up, it will all be just a bad dream. I just need to wake up.

However, no matter how hard she tried to wake up she couldn't.

The black cat's cry of pain cut through Veronica's hysteria, urging her to do something. Without thinking, she threw herself at the imposter. Veronica crashed into the imposter's back.

She wasn't sure what she was expecting. Maybe she had hoped it would distract the imposter enough to loosen her grip on the black cat to give it a chance to escape, or maybe she had hoped she had caught the imposter off guard and knocked her to the ground to buy herself some time. Veronica wasn't sure, but none of those things happened.

Instead, the imposter didn't budge an inch and coolly stared back at her. "What are you doing?"

The imposter didn't give Veronica a chance to react as she spun around and caught Veronica by the throat. Veronica gasped and kicked at the imposter to no effect.

It was like kicking a stone wall. She would know. She had tried once and regretted it.

"You know I thought you were interesting, but now you're just annoying. You really should have taken my offer when you had the chance," the imposter said as she squeezed Veronica's throat tighter.

Veronica dug her nails into the imposter's hand and struggled more violently. Dark spots filled her vision as a familiar sensation overtook her. Before she could lose consciousness, something ripped Veronica free from the imposter's grip. She gasped for air and coughed violently as she pressed a hand to her throat.

What was with everyone grabbing her by the throat?

This wasn't the first time it had happened today, but she really hoped that this would be the last. She wasn't sure if she would be lucky the next time it happened.

Once she recovered from the choking, she took a moment to glance back at the imposter. Veronica balked at the sight of the imposter facedown in a sizable dent in the ground. She blinked several times, but the image didn't disappear as the imposter finally pushed herself up. Then Veronica noticed how something clung to the back of her dress and slowly looked up. She stared blankly at the person behind her.

Is that a toddler?

The little girl was smaller than Veronica, which said a lot since Veronica was the youngest witch there. She was practically half of Veronica's height. Veronica wasn't tall by any means. She was pretty average in height. That meant that the little girl had to be younger than her.

"Who are you?" the imposter spat. "Where did you come from?"

Instead of answering the imposter, the little girl glanced around anxiously. "Oh no. I'm going to be in so much trouble. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm really going to get scolded."

Hearing such eloquent words coming from the toddler changed Veronica's opinion about the little girl's age. However, her attention was drawn away from the little girl to the imposter, who was literally on fire. Despite the distance between them, the duo were still close enough to feel the intense heat emitting from the imposter—or maybe that was just how powerful the flames were.

"I said what are you?" the imposter snapped as he sent several fireballs at the duo.

At the sight of the incoming fireballs, Veronica moved to run away, but the little girl's grip on her dress caused her to stumble over her feet. She nearly fell flat on her butt if it weren't for the little girl holding her up with the same hand grabbing onto her dress. Veronica didn't have time to be befuddled over the little girl's incredible display of strength with the fireballs almost on them and closed her eyes to brace herself for the pain.

"If I'm going to get in trouble anyway, I might as well do something," the little girl said.

There were loud gasps and shouts all around Veronica, who had no clue what just happened.

She should have already been hit by the fireballs, but she didn't feel a thing. Veronica didn't think the other witches helped her out, as none of them were in the position to help her even if they wanted to.

Wanting to know what was going on, she opened her eyes. The sight in front of her was enough to make her eyes pop out of their sockets and her jaw drop. The fireballs hung in the air right in front of the duo, almost as if they were frozen. Veronica stared at the frozen fireballs before turning her gaze to the little girl still holding onto her. Then the little girl made a flicking motion. In an instant, the fireballs were gone, and the imposter was embedded into the wall.

Wha-what just happened?

Veronica couldn't wrap her mind around what she was seeing and looked around to see if everyone else saw what she had seen. Given everyone's reaction—the witches had varying emotions plastered over their faces, with the majority being shock and fear while the men were tense and eyeing the little girl suspiciously—she was pretty sure it was real and looked back at the little girl, who had a sheepish expression on her face.

"Oops. I didn't mean to hit him that hard. I'm really going to have my head bitten off after this," the little girl muttered.

"How did you do that?" Veronica blurted out.

She immediately slapped a hand over her mouth, but the damage had been done. The little girl looked toward Veronica with wide eyes.

Covering her mouth with a hand, the little girl murmured, "Did she hear me?"

Even though Veronica was tempted to ask the little girl what she was talking about, she didn't get a chance to as the imposter shrieked, "What are you doing standing there for? Get them!"

In a blink of an eye, the duo was surrounded. All the men in the room had rushed over to follow the imposter's orders, which probably meant that the imposter was their leader.

"Sorry about this, but orders are orders, kiddo," the clown said as he continued to hold Veronica's baby sister to his chest.

Veronica's face contorted with rage as she snapped, "Don't you bring my baby sister into this."

None of them men reacted to her words other than to charge at the duo. Veronica stared like a deer in headlights when she felt herself being lifted in the air. Startled, she glanced at the little girl lifting her up in the air.

She gave Veronica an apologetic look as she said, "Sorry about this, but I'm going to need to toss you."

"To—" Veronica didn't even get the chance to finish her sentence as she was thrown up into the air.