Mother Knows Best (Villains 5)

Change the fates’ design

Save what has been lost

Bring back what once was mine…

What once was mine

Then, suddenly, Hazel’s and Primrose’s bodies started to convulse. Their eyes opened briefly, locking their gazes on Gothel. “Please, let us die!” said Primrose before her eyes rolled back in her head and her body violently shook.

“Say it again!” Gothel screamed. “We have to save them!”

They said the words again as Gothel’s sisters’ bodies thrashed on the greenhouse floor. It was a grotesque image, their poor frail bodies thrashing about, as if some invisible force was beating them senseless. A putrid black oil poured from their mouths, and they continued to convulse, causing Ruby and Martha to scream in horror.

“Sisters! Stop the theatrics and say the words!” screamed Lucinda. She tried to give Gothel an encouraging look, but Gothel could see she was just as frightened as Gothel was.

“Come on! Say it again, this time using all of our power!” screamed Lucinda.

Flower, gleam and glow

Let your power shine

Make the clock reverse

Bring back what once was mine

Heal what has been hurt

Change the fates’ design

Save what has been lost

Bring back what once was mine…

What once was mine

Hazel and Primrose sputtered something unintelligible, spitting the black oil-like substance all over Gothel and the odd sisters. Their bodies seized one final time and then stopped so suddenly it startled the witches.

“Did it work? Did it work?” Ruby asked.

Gothel was slapping her sisters on the cheeks, trying to rouse them. “Hazel? Prim? Wake up! Hazel!”

Gothel was beside herself. She couldn’t stop crying. She was slapping her sisters harder and harder, trying to wake them, until finally Ruby and Martha had to pull her off them. Lucinda put her face in front of Gothel’s so she would have something else to focus on. “Gothel, look at me. Listen. They’re gone. There is nothing we can do. We tried our best.”

“No! I won’t give up!” Gothel scrambled back to her sisters, clawing at the ground, trying to get to their bodies, as the odd sisters held her tight in their embrace. She made a terrible guttural scream that broke all the windows in the greenhouse, showering glass on all of them. Gothel was cutting herself on the glass as she struggled on the ground to get to her sisters. Lucinda put her hands over Gothel’s eyes and said the word sleep, putting Gothel into a deep dreamless sleep, ending her pain. Lucinda couldn’t stand to see Gothel in such torment. She couldn’t imagine what Gothel must be feeling. Losing her sisters was Lucinda’s greatest fear.

Her heart broke for Gothel, and for Primrose and Hazel.

At least Primrose and Hazel have each other in death, she thought.

Gothel was now alon

e.

Gothel slept as if in a fairy tale. Almost endlessly. Her sleep was not a curse; it was a blessing bestowed by the odd sisters, who had been sent away by Jacob in the chaos after Hazel’s and Primrose’s deaths. Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha left without a fuss but not before leaving Gothel with one more enchantment. One more bit of magic.

“We are so sorry for your loss, little witch,” they said to her as she slept.

“The world is dark, selfish, and cruel. If it finds the slightest ray of sunshine, it destroys it,” said Lucinda. “Do not wake until your heart heals,” she whispered in Gothel’s ear, kissing her on the cheek before she took her own sisters by the hands to make their way out of the dead woods.