CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A GLIMMER OF HOPE

It had been a few days since Josie escaped or well took back the control of her body.

Since then she managed to sneak into her childhood home and take her fathers wand. She had been staying with Molly.

The older witch was back on her feet and better than ever. Josie on the other hand, due to taking back her body was left without any powers. The wand only amplified the magical genetics that were left in her DNA.

During those days she'd been gathering her strength and practicing her spells and trying to find something specific to help Melaina.

She'd been getting extremely frustrated because she couldn't find the specifics that could work. Black ink stains her hands as she wipes away a few beads of sweat and lets out a yawn.

Molly insists that she takes a break and get some fresh air, Josie keeps disagreeing and throwing herself back into the hunt for the perfect spell.

✦✧✦✧

The sounds of a stable heartbeat on the monitor can be heard as you enter her hospital room. Many tubes stuck in her body as her chest moves up and down gently. Eyes closed, as they have been for the past few days. A brace around her neck.

Her hands being gently stroked and played with by none other than the boy she'd been lying to for months.

He traces circles in her palm, hoping that she'd react the way she did a few hours ago, when her fingers twitched slightly. She knew he was there, Cameron swore he almost started crying when he felt the slight movement.

He remembers it as clear as day. The moment he heard about her 'accident,' he had decided to surprise her with a picnic but didn't expect to see all of her family run out of the house.

Next thing he knew he was driving behind them just in time to see her being taken to ICU. Covered in blood. What accident could've caused this.

Things weren't adding up, Cameron had noticed this for quite sometime now but he  ignored it, but now, his girlfriend had been involved in some freak and clearly life threatening accident that couldn't have been caused by a car.

But he decided to keep all questions to himself until she was awake and healthy. 

Although he'd been here for a few hours and he never wanted to leave, his grandparents asked him to come home for a few hours to rest.

"I'll be back later baby." Cameron says before kissing the top of the unconscious girls hand.

He places the hand back onto the bed. He stands up and kisses her forehead. As he backs away towards the door he turns back to her. "Please wake up."

With one more glance he leaves the room and exits the hospital.

Another person wanders into her room, probably tenth person today. He pulls the chair closer to the bed. His eyes scan over all the bouquets of flowers, 'get well soon' cards and balloons.

He glances at his friend, the same tubes sticking out of her body, the same neck brace, same stitches and bandages on her face and around her body.

"Hey Melaina. You've been out for a few days now. No one is taking this well. Especially because of how shitty we treated you before all of this happened. Maybe if we listened, you wouldn't be here." Rick takes her hand and gulps to hold back the tears forming in his eyes. "I'm so sorry. You're the closest person I have to a sister and I let you down. Everything is falling apart, Yolanda left the team, Courtney thinks one of us might be next and I don't know how Eclipso might come for us but I know you would've been able to help and make things better. Like you always do."

At this point the tears had already trailed down his cheeks, he wipes them away with his sleeve.

His mind flashes to the day that Dominic brought her to the hospital.

2 DAYS AGO

With Martina's help, they managed to get to the ICU and watched everything almost fall apart from the other side of the doors.

Harleys is in the room,she tries to stop the bleeding. While also keeping a close eye on the heart monitor. Due to the storm she was one of the few doctors at the hospital so she had to save the girl on her own. 

Harley being outside was called in to help, but seeing the state of her longtime friend made her freeze.

Hadley rushes over to her daughter who's face is wet with her salty tears. "Baby I need you to focus. I know you're scared but I really need you stay with me here. Okay?" Harley quickly nods head before he mother gives her a set of instructions.

She uses her powers to get a white cloth and quickly presses it onto her friends neck.  Hadley gets the equipment needed to stitch her wound.

"On three move the cloth." Hadley tells her daughter as she gets her hands ready. "One...two...three."

Harley moves the cloth away and Hadley gets to work. As the older redhead stitches the bleeding wound. Harley hold Melaina's hand. The seventeen year old feels some sort of relief when Melaina squeezes her hand or moves her fingers every now and then.

The moment Hadley finished, she cleaned up the rest of the area that was covered in blood.

Harleys heart starts to race when she stops feeling Melaina's slight movements in her palm and stops seeing her chest go up and down. She tries to trace circles in Melaina's palm in efforts to get some sort of reaction out of her but instead the heart monitor starts blaring and the dying girl starts seizing on the bed.

"Mom!" Harley screams.

"Shit! Harley, Dominic, Martina hold her down." Hadley commands as the two join them, the King women holding her down on one side and the two magicians doing the same on the other side. 

She doesn't stop shaking. "Mrs King, what's happening?" Beth asks as the rest of the JSA enter the room.

Now blood was streaming out of Melaina's nose. "I don't know darling. Dear God what is happening to her?" The moment the older King woman finished her sentence Melaina stopped shaking.

But a long lasting beep came from the heart monitor. "Mom!" Harley cries as more tears pool in her eyes. "Melaina stay with me, okay stay with me."

Hadley King uses her abilities once again to bring the defibrillator to her. "Move back!" The two of them move away, Harley stays by her side. Hadley takes the paddles and rubs them together. "Clear!"

The older redhead presses the paddles onto the fifteen year olds chest, there's still a beeping sound.

"Dominic turn it up, 250." Hadley instructs him.

He increases the voltage and Hadley King rubs the paddles together again. "Come on kid. Clear!"

Yolanda clutches onto Courtney's hand as Rick does the same with Beths'.

"All the way up Dominic!" She says to the boy, he turns it up to the highest point.

Hadley rubs the panels together, practically feeling the electricity running through the wires. "Clear!"

Melaina's chest raises into the air and lands on the bed with a thump. Still nothing. Eyes closed, raw bruises still scattered all over her body but no heart beat.

Martina backs away from the dead girl with her hand on her mouth to choke down the erupting sob, Dominic pulls her into a hug.

Tears pool in the eyes of every single JSA member, Rick storms off and Beth follows. Yolanda  feels her legs give in as she slides down the doorway. Courtney stands there frozen.

What just happened?

"No! Melaina, please fight." Harley begs as she starts shaking her body.

"Harley, baby, she's gone." Hadley says as she wipes away her tears, while trying to pull her daughter away.

"No! Mom, let go of me!"

As if things couldn't get any worse, Diana arrives at the 'perfect' moment. "Eddie is on his wa—" the demigoddess pauses when she takes the time to read the room.

"Courtney, Yolanda, what's wrong?" She asks the two girls as she gets closer to the room.

The two girls look and prepare themselves for the pain they were about feel, come from the mother of the recently deceased.

Diana reaches Courtney's side and looks into the room where she hears sobs.

The moment her eyes land on the bloody body, her own body fills up with this pain. "Oh God! Melaina!" As she gets closer she registers the flatlining heart monitor and the wounds and bruises. "Hadley, who did this... to my baby girl?"

She asks as she turns to the shorter red head. "Diana..."

"Who did this to her!"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Diana, I'm so sorry okay. I really tried... but she's gone." Hadley says to her as she wipes her tears away with her thumb.

"She can't be gone... she's only 15." Diana says before another sob escapes her throat. "She's only 15."

The sobs and cries of the famous, elegant and gracious Wonder Woman fill the hospital room making the children cry more.

An idea sparks in the young firecrackers mind. As much as she doesn't want to let go of the girl, she knew she could bring her back, it would definitely take a lot out of her but she had to try.

She pushes herself to her feet and gets hold of the defibrillator, holds the panels and closes her eyes.

Memories flash in her mind from the first time she did this. It almost killed her, but right now she didn't care. She had to bring her friend, no her sister back.

She rubs the panels together to gather some voltage. "Please let this work." She whispers to herself as she rubs the panels faster.

"Harley, what are you doing? Marty asks the girl, she ignores her.

"I'm not letting her die. So I'll do what I have to do. " she says, the orange sparks and energy forming gain everyone's attention.

Her hands and eyes both glow the same hue of orange. She raises the panels in the  air.

In the brief moment that she moves them apart, they all see orange sparks of electricity in between the panels before she plants them onto Melaina's chest.

And in that moment, the room glowed a bright orange and a brief blurry image of a phoenix formed behind her.

All the group knew, whatever Harley did and however she did it made bought Melaina back, made the heart monitor  start beeping at a normal rate and made her chest heave up and down.

PRESENT DAY

It's like every single second from that day replayed in his mind as he watched his friend breath softly on the bed.

Just as he was about to get trapped in his thoughts again, the sound and feeling of his phone vibrating in the pocket of his jeans pulls him out.

"Beth? What's up?" Rick asks the girl as he places the phone against her ear.

"Uh we kind of need you at the Pit Stop, right now." The dark skinned girl tells her friend in a distressed tone.

"Beth, you sound worried. What's going on?"

"Just get here, please."

Rick takes one last glance at Melaina before standing up and says "Please wake up, I need you." And walks out the room.

✦✧✦✧

The moment he enters the garage Beth speeds towards him. "Before you enter, you should probably brace yourself." She warns as they walk towards the door.

"Why would I need to brace my-" he stops when his eyes meet the familiar brunette.

He feels an overwhelming amount of Rage consume his body as he clenched his fists and marches towards her.

Courtney and Beth stop him before he can do anything.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Rick yells as he points at Josie.

"Just let her talk Rick."

"This is bullshit Court! Defending your girlfriend who should be 'ex' by the way at a time like this! She put Melaina on life support and has been helping Eclipso."

"What I have to say isn't bullshit."

"Please enlighten me 'Josephine.' What could be so important that you came all this way? To finish the job? If so, I'm not going down without a fight." He rants before pulling out his hourglass.

"If I'm right, this could save  Melaina's life." She says quickly making the three of them pause and turn to her. "I just need you all to sit down and listen because for this to work we all need to work as a team."

The three share a look before taking a seat on the stairs. "So Melaina isn't healing because Josephine basically stole her Themyscirian powers."

"Themysciria is where Wonder Woman, her mom is from right?" Courtney asks.

"Yep and without that, Melaina won't survive much longer even with the life support."

The trio share a look before Rick runs his hands through his hair. "This plan better work."

"If everything goes according to plan then it should" she assures the trio.

"You aren't sending us on a suicide mission, are you?" Rick asks the brunette.

"No. I promise, this is actually more of a risk for me than any of you." Josie says to them, Courtney furrows her eye brows and the brunette notices.

The blonde looks at her properly for the first time since she walked into the Pitstop half an hour ago. She notices how swollen and puffy her eyes are, how she's been rubbing the back of her neck or sinking her nails into the palms of her hands. How she's been on edge since she got here but also really drained. The blue eyed girl looked into the eyes of the girl she'd fallen for a couple months ago. They were filled with agony, regret, pain but they were also absolutely exhausted, she was absolutely exhausted. How she hadn't smiled since she got here or how her hair was messier than usual. How when Josie first walked in, there were faint tear marks on her face that she wiped away whenever no one was looking.

Now Courtney was angry with her complicated loved? Yes. Was she also worried about her? Yes. For Courtney Whitmore knew that this wasn't how Josie Zarick carried herself.

There was also a glimmer of hope in her eyes. That was the only thing keeping her together, the only thing that motivated her to come and ask for their help in the first place.

"That really doesn't matter though." Josie mumbles trying to get the three to brush over her words.

"So, what's the plan?" Beth asks.

"We need to find my ancestors tomb, get him to tell us where the tree of souls is, free the souls and get them to rip Josephine out of my body." She explains to the three as she picks up her book, when she looks back at them she is met with confused and shocked faces.

"That's all Josie? That's all?"

"Well that's a start." Beth says trying to lighten the mood.

"If your ancestor is dead then how are we supposed to find out where this tree is?" Courtney a questions before Beth adds.

"Why are we looking for a tree?"

"And why are we freeing souls, how does this have anything to do with Melaina?" Rick asks the brunette who's head is getting filled with all the questions.

"The only safe way to get Melaina's Themyscirian powers back into her body is for Josephine to die. And in order to kill Josephine I need my ancestors help to free all those souls who will be able to kill Josephine for me." Josie explains.

"How are dead people supposed to kill a psychotic witch?" Rick asks as he gets more and more annoyed.

"Like Courtney asked, isn't your ancestor dead?"

"Jo." Courtney calls as she looks at the Brunette who's standing on the other side of the room. "You aren't telling us everything, I can tell." 

Josie takes a deep breath, closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. "People call it The Blue Valley Massacre." She starts, she could practically see the dread  fill Beth's eyes.

"I thought it was just a myth?"

"It's not. It's actually a good thing not many people know about it. But the Massacre happened, except it wasn't people. It was magic folk. Two hundred witches and warlocks and over a hundred magical creatures." Josie explains as she checks her bulky note book, filled with spells and theories that Josie has done the days prior, for the accurate numbers. "My ancestor murdered all of them and burried their bodies around a tree, binding their souls to this town. The last witches well the ones that survived, of the settlement that was once in this town, cursed him and banished him from every coven on the planet." She continues.

There were a few seconds of silence, the three were shocked. They could tell it was something big but they didn't think it was something like that.

"The massacre was over a thousand years ago, how is he still alive?"

"The survivors cursed him, to live an eternity of solitude. He could've killed them too but once he realised what he had done he felt horrible. So he dug a tomb deep into the ground. Rumour has it he lies a couple hundred metres above the earths core, but it's still hot enough to make someone pass out seconds after getting that far down." Josie answers Rick who nods his head. "After that to protect what was left of magic kind they banished any and every Zarick member from all covens across the world. That's why my dad and mom live here and not in Salem or New Orleans."

"We'll need their help so that we can remove Josephine. Josephine is something magic folk like to call, in simple terms the Parasite of Darkness. When a witch or warlock reaches a certain age, the dark side of their abilities and them merge and when that happens the coven works together to remove it and kill it. Because if that dark side gets to power, it can take over their body and trap the good side in their minds and force them to watch as they destroy everything." The brunette continues as she closes her book and her sleepy eyes meet Courtney's who has been watching her the whole time. "Since my father is dead." She purses her lips to keep the tears back. All these months she'd stuffed down all the mourning she was supposed to go through.

"The souls are the only thing that can remove and kill someone as powerful as Josephine. Once she's dead Melaina's Themyscirian powers will go back into her body and she'll be back on her feet within a few hours." Josie finishes.

"Why do you need us?" Beth asks.

"Can't you ask your ancient witch friends?" Rick adds.

"It'll take a lot more than me to find this tomb and the tree but I really need to prove to you guys that I'm really sorry. I want to do this with my friends well I hope you'll all be able to call me that when this is over. I just need to talk to Yolanda and hope she'll join us." She explains to the three who notice the sincerity she's displaying.

Rick turns to the girls next to him who both nod their heads. "When and where do you need us?"

"Midday tomorrow, we'll meet here and Molly will teleport us to the woods, that's where the tomb is."

As much as she agreed with this plan, Courtney couldn't ignore the feeling that Josie still hadn't told them everything. What she didn't realise is that the big twist and secret would reveal itself within the next twenty two hours.

Within 30 hours, the Zaricks will be no more. A bloodline come to a close with a gruesome death.

RECAST ANNOUNCEMENT
( many more are coming lmao )

emmy raver-lampam as diana prince

AUTHORS NOTE!!!
soooo here's another chapter

Probably one of my longest ones

About fourteen more to go before this book is done

SEASON 3 ON THE 31st OF AUGUST 🫶🏾🫶🏾

things are about to go down hill lmao <3

Oh and I recasted Diana because it just felt right lmao ( and some other reasons )

Anywhoo hope y'all enjoyed