She didn't know what this place was called, but it felt eerie. Since the door had opened, the cries of pain had suddenly quietened down. In the dim light, she noticed a few people's bodies in there, people she didn't know of, who lay on the floor.

  When she finally found Cillian, his body was near the bridge. She tried to wake him up. Before realizing it was just a body, an empty shell as the soul was still intact with the Corvin's body.

  "Okay," Julie said to herself, before picking up Cillian's body and dragging it with her back where she had come from. Thankfully the body was lighter than she had assumed it to be, making it easier for her to take it back in the same path.

  When she got closer to the door, she heard cackling sounds that came near Cillian's foot, which was on the other side where she was standing. Raising her hand, she tried to bring out light, but her ability didn't seem to work, and the place where she stood started to turn colder.

  Julie started to drag Cillian's body again when suddenly she found it hard to do so as if his body had turned heavy. She used all her force to pull him, but it was of no use.

  'Do you need help? It seems like you could use some help……' whispered a voice next to her.

  'Give him to me, let me get a little closer,' said another voice, the whisper eerie enough to raise goosebumps on Julie's skin.

  Julie turned her head to the right, and her breath turned heavy as she hadn't expected someone here to speak to her. "Who is there?" she asked in a firm voice.

  "Out…" said Cillian, whose entire body was breaking and turning to dust. "The other side of the door is… not safe," he said to the counsellor, who was waiting for Julie to return.

  Mr. Evans deeply frowned, and he walked near the door but couldn't step in. He called out, "You need to get back, Julianne. Do not speak to the others!"

  Julie heard the distant voice of Mr. Evans, and she tried to drag Cillian's body which was only a few meters away from the half-open door. When she had entered, she had pushed the door wide open, but somehow, it looked like the door was going to close.

  'You smell so good, and a witch. Perrrfect,' came another voice, and Julie could only feel her panic rise that there were dead people around her, whom she couldn't see.

  She shouted back to Mr. Evans, "I am not able to drag his body back!"

  "You cannot stay there for long!" came the distant voice of Mr. Evans again. "The longer you stay in there, the faster you end up being one of them!" he advised, his voice turning worried.

  But Julie didn't know how to do that. A trickle of coldness ran from her shoulder to the length of her arm when she caught sight of a rotten hand near her. Her body froze in slight terror, and her mind raced. The spells were not working! Maybe she should have thought this through, but then if she took her time, Cillian would transcend to this side of life, and it would be hard to bring him back.

  "I cannot use the spells!" she informed Mr. Evans, and his hands clenched.

  When Mr. Evans turned to the Cillian, the Corvin's legs left an imprint of dust-like particles on the floor, as the woody legs had disintegrated. The Corvin was making some sort of gurgling noise, and the vampire moved closer to him. He couldn't hear what the Corvin was saying, but he caught the faint words,

  "Dark…tap……"

  Mr. Evans returned near the door and shouted to Julie, "I think you need to use the dark magic. Tap into it."

  Julie cursed herself when she felt someone grab her ankles and hands, pushing her away from Cillian's body. The creatures in here didn't want Cillian's cold body, but they wanted Julie's body, wanting to trade their lives with hers.

  She felt the creature's nails dig into her skin, pulling her in different directions as if they wanted her for themselves. In pain, she closed her eyes, trying to remember the pages and the lines of the spellbook that she had tried to memorize.

  While being tugged around, she tried to pull herself away from the creature's hold and fell on the cold, dusty floor. She turned around, unable to see them yet. When she finally placed both her hands on the ground, she pushed her mind to remember and uttered the spell. Suddenly a radiant orange light emitted from where she sat, and as the light started to spread around her and further away, her eyes widened in horror.

  Julie caught sight of creatures who were like shadows. They didn't have a proper face, no hair, and no clothes on them. But they did have mouths with jagged teeth that looked like scavengers.

  What were these things?! Julie had never heard or seen anything like this before, and it brought a trickle of fear that ran through her blood. Tapping further into the dark magic, she got the blinding light out that had the creatures around her scream in pain while being pushed far away from her.

  But this also affected her, making her head and chest hurt.

  As she had momentarily gotten rid of the creature, Julie continued to pull Cillian's body, and she stepped out of the door while being helped by Mr. Evans to get a hold of the body.

  The creatures screamed in anger, and some of the shadows had been furious at her. They tried to catch up to her.

  Julie quickly got hold of the doorknob and harshly closed it.

  Turning to look at the Corvin, Julie went to him and anxiously called his name, "Cillian?"

  But Cillian didn't respond. He didn't move, and his body continued to break. Was she late? Her stomach fell, and she turned to look at the body that she had dragged from the other side. She finished the last line of the spells in a hurry, hoping for it to work.

  "Is it done?" asked Mr. Evans while Julie waited for something to happen. For Cillian's actual self to move, but he didn't.

  "I followed everything as it was written in the book," replied Julie, her eyebrows knitting together. Minutes passed, and the Corvin's body had disintegrated entirely into the finest dust, leaving only the black cloak.

  Julie sat down on the ground, feeling her energy leave her body, and disappointment came to fill her mind. She had hoped to bring Cillian back, hoping he would always be there, another person who was close to her mother. But she had failed.

  Mr. Evans placed his hand on Julie's shoulder to comfort her, "It isn't your fault."

  "If I had found him sooner, I would have been able to save him," whispered Julie, her eyes lowered, while she stared at the dust that was all that was left behind on the ground.

  She could have saved him if she was faster if she knew what to do. But then, for his body to react like this and what happened yesterday, it was out of the blue. For so many years…… things had been left untouched, and all these things had started to react since she had tapped into the soul energy of the deceased witches of Willow Creek.

  "You didn't know," said Mr. Evans, and his words only confirmed that she was the reason. She had activated something that had been dormant for centuries.

  Her shoulders slumped, and she continued to stare into space. She wondered how many people she would end up putting in line because of the domino effect that took place around her. A heaviness came to fill in her chest, and she clenched her hands.

  "Ms. Winters. We should take Cillian's body and bury it," Mr. Evans informed her, but Julie didn't respond to him until she asked him,

  "How far was I late in saving him?"

  The vampire knew that Julie's abilities surpassed her mother's abilities, but she still had a long way to go when handling the loss of people. Mr. Evans said, "Sometimes…… No matter how much we try to save something, it is never enough. You cannot blame yourself for it. Just remember that he did the best he could do, and had a second life."

  "I wish he had continued to live," responded Julie, and Mr. Evans softly smiled at the girl's words.

  "We all wish for people to live as long as we live, but some people's journey with us is short," replied Mr…… Evans.