“Stop this nonsense!” said Lucinda, swooping into Gothel’s garden like a wild harpy. “I won’t have any such thoughts flooding your head!”
“What?” said Gothel, looking at Lucinda with surprise.
“No! We can’t have our little witch contemplating such foolishness!” said Martha, joining her sister, hovering over Gothel.
“Yes, what would your sisters do if you left them?” said Ruby, also appearing out of nowhere.
Gothel stared at the odd sisters, wondering if they were real. They don’t quite fit in this setting, she thought. Then again, neither did she.
“Oh, I assure you we are real,” said Lucinda, laughing. “We are very real indeed!”
“I can’t believe you’re actually here!” said Gothel, not trusting her senses.
“Why do you look so old? Where is the flower? Why haven’t you been using it?” asked Lucinda.
“You haven’t lost it, have you?” asked Ruby.
“No, it’s still hidden among the yellow wildflowers, out there somewhere.” She motioned to the field of wildflowers.
“Are you sure?” asked Ruby, fretting and trying to spot it among all the other yellow flowers.
“Yes, of course I am. Why? Do you want to take that from me as well?”
“What are you talking about? We’re here to help you, Gothel!” said Lucinda, clearly hurt by Gothel’s words.
“You’re here to help me? Really? After all this time? Now that I’m ready to die? I don’t want to live in this world! I don’t want to suffer in it alone. I can’t have my sisters back, and I will never have my mother’s magic! There’s nothing to live for!”
“Gothel! Get up at once and come with us to the field! You will use the flower’s magic to make yourself young again! And we will find a way to bring your sisters back! I promised we would help you, and we will! We have been fighting for our own sister’s life!”
“I don’t believe you!”
“Don’t you? Would you believe me if I told you we put our lives at risk and scoured the ruins of your home in the dead woods to find your mother’s blood?” asked Lucinda, her hand on her hip.
“You did?”
“Yes, Gothel. You know we love you. Look,” said Lucinda, holding a small glass vial of blood in the palm of her hand.
“This isn’t my mother’s blood. This isn’t the right bottle.”
“The original was broken. Most of it was spilled on the floor of the vault. I salvaged what I could and brought it straight to you. You have been on our minds all these years, Gothel. I’m sorry time moved slowly for you in this place. I’m sorry you let yourself wither away, but time works differently for us. We don’t know why. Now please, take this blood, Gothel. Be the witch you’re meant to be!”
“Will it work?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
Gothel woke up in an endless sea of yellow wildflowers with the odd sisters looking down on her with their giant bulging bug eyes and goofy birdlike expressions. She hadn’t noticed when they were talking earlier, but they somehow still managed to look young after all those years. Sure, they looked older than when they were girls together, but they looked so much younger than they actually were. She wondered if anyone would have guessed all of them were hundreds of years old.
“You’re looking quite young again yourself,” said Lucinda, reading Gothel’s mind and offering her hand to help Gothel to her feet.
“Our time in the dead woods together as girls feels like a lifetime ago,” said Martha.
“Many lifetimes, actually,” said Ruby.
“It feels like yesterday to me,” said Gothel.
“And yet since you’ve moved into this house, time seems to move slowly for you,” said Lucinda.
“Come on, let’s go into our house. It’s closer. You passed out after you drank your mother’s blood,” said Martha.