Witches Brew Part 16 (Reward Story)

Loona - Thank you so much for supporting me like you have! I hope you enjoy

For those who have been following this one - this part drives the story forward. We learn about Gigi and Nezemica's past from a fairytale. However, Loona's situation is dire. She needs to escape!

Witches Brew 16
Loona stares blankly, her eyes flickering with sudden waves of sorrow. Gigi’s final moments rake at her heart like frost biting into a spring blossom.

Was it her fault? Was she not strong enough?

“L-Loona?” Katie leans in with an uneasy expression. “Did—”

Katie trails off. He can’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

“Gigi….?” Loona mutters before scratching harshly at her face. “Where is he?”

Katie hangs her head.

Loona’s heartaches, and she can’t seem to stop scratching. The itch just won’t go away. She draws blood on her cheek.

“I wasn’t strong enough, Katie. He died because of me….”

Loona’s fingers tremble as she drags her nails again across the raw skin of her cheek, the sting a dull whisper beneath the screaming in her mind.

“I couldn’t stop Nememica,” she chokes. “She’s too powerful. To shut off from reality. Maybe just too evil.”

“Loona, stop,” Katie whispers, stepping closer.

But she doesn't hear him. Loona digs harder now as if tearing away the flesh could erase the guilt. Her nails leave jagged streaks, blood mixing with salt as tears blur her vision.

“I wasn’t strong enough.” Loona’s voice cracks caught between a sob and a scream. “Katie, I wasn’t strong enough. T-They all got hurt because of me….”

Katie stands beside her in the bed, his hands hovering in hesitation before he finally grips her wrists, halting her savage itching.

“Stop, Loona!” he says, louder now, firm but not harsh. “You’re hurting yourself.”

A single tear rolls down Katie’s face. “You can’t fix this by tearing yourself apart,” he says, his voice softening. “Gigi wouldn’t want this. You know he wouldn’t.”

“I’m sorry,” Loona whispers again and again, the words barely audible.

Katie holds her wrists tighter. “I know,” he murmurs. “I was the last to see Gigi. He’d become very agitated and kept repeating that ‘it’s finally time.’”

Loona’s eyes grow wide.

“Loona,” Katie lets out a long breath and then slowly lets go of her wrist. “I think he knew what was going to happen. He told me that you would need us more than ever.”

Katie bites her bottom lip before looking up, deed into Loona’s eyes. “Everyone’s really scared, Loona. W-what happened out there?”

Loona’s lips part, but no words come out. Her mouth moves and then freezes. Her chest tightens. She stares at Katie, eyes wide and vacant, as if the words on her tongue are too heavy for her mouth to speak.

She failed. She couldn’t save them. She couldn’t save any of them.

She opens her mouth again, breath shaky. Her fingers twitch.

“I-I... I don’t know,” Loona finally croaks. “I remember screaming. And Nezemica….she—” Loona's voice cuts short. Her eyes dart to the floor, unfocused. “S-S…She’s more powerful.”

Katie reaches toward her again, but Loona flinches, clutching her arms as the sensation returns. This time, sharper and more intense.

“No—no, no, no…” she mutters, frantically dragging her nails up her forearms this time. The itch has moved. It’s everywhere. Beneath the skin. In her blood.

“Loona, look at me,” Katie urges, his voice shaking. “We need to get you out of here. The city is under siege, and they are blaming you.”

Loona’s heart sinks. “B-Blaming…?” she whimpers.

“Apparently, some ancient barrier protecting the city from Nezemica has been shattered. Anguish attacks are happening on the hour.” Katie rubs her face before looking away down at the floor. “We’ve all been ordered to evacuate into the heart of the city. The Vanquish Squad’s new leader thinks that’s the best place for us to make our last stand.”

“I need to help,” Loona says suddenly, forcing herself to move.

Her body shakes as she tries to fight her way out of the bed, clutching Katie’s shoulder for balance. “I n-need to stop Nezemica.

Katie stands with her, but he doesn’t let her move further.

“No,” he says, his voice low and burdened. “You can’t.”

Loona blinks. “What?”

“You’re not cleared to leave the hospital,” Katie explains plainly. “Loona… as soon as you’re stable, you’re being held for investigation.”

The world stills around her.

“What… investigation?” she asks, voice barely audible.

Katie’s jaw tightens. “They’re saying the Apex was sabotaged. That you sabotaged it in your attempts to aid Nezemica. They’re all saying that you’re corrupted.”

The air is yanked from her lungs, leaving her gasping in shock

“I—I would never—Lance is my—he was—” she stumbles on her own thoughts and feelings. “I-I...I would never. He’s m-my friend….Maybe more than a friend…..”

“I do know,” Katie cuts in, stepping forward. “But that’s not how it looks, Loona. You were discovered together. You were covered in his blood. And... no one else remembers what happened between you. Lance is yet to wake up.”

Loona almost goes into free fall. The weight of the world pressing down on her, she just stares blankly at the wall. For the first time, she can’t feel anyone’s heart. Not even Katie’s—like she’s subconsciously shutting herself down and closing herself away.

She’s falling into despair. Into Anguish.

Loona doesn’t speak. Her gaze is hollow, fixed on nothing. The silence stretches between them like a canyon. Her fingers twitch, but she no longer moves to scratch.

Katie shifts, reaching behind him to rummage through the satchel he’d dropped when he came in. “Erm, Loona,” Katie smiles softly, trying to lighten the mood. “I’ve got a new recipe for you to try. It’s a ‘feel good’ cupcake that I thought we could sell in the tavern.”

Fumbling in his satchel, Katie forces a smile as she struggles to find it.

Loona’s gaze doesn’t shift. She’s lost within herself.

Unable to find the cake, Katie instead, nestled deep in the bag’s corner, is a book. Worn, old, and slightly too large for the bag’s inner compartment.

“…What is this?” Katie mumbles, frowning. “I didn’t put this here.”

He lifts it slowly as the bindings would break. The cover is soft leather, faded at the edges, the title etched in curling silver letters:

The Kind Witch and Her Shadow

Loona’s eyes blink. Her head tilts slightly.

“There’s a note on this,” Katie says to himself as he begins to read it. “Too Loona, from Gigi.”

Confused, He holds it out to her.

“The Kind Witch and Her Shadow…” Loona reads, barely breathing. “D-Do you know this story.”

Katie shakes her head. “Sounds like a fairytale. But it’s not one I’ve ever been told.”

Loona takes the book into her hand. She opens the cover, and instantly, she feels the warmth of Gigi’s company, if only for a split second.

On the first page, in spidery handwriting, a dedication reads:

“If you’re reading this, you are the one I’ve spent hundreds of years waiting for.”

Loona stares. Her heart skips a beat.

Katie steps closer. “Loona?”

She turns the page and reads the story allowed.

Once, in the long-forgotten hush between mountains and sky, there lived a wandering witch. She brought a simple promise: “I will bring happiness to even the hardest of hearts.”

One day, she came upon a town soaked in sorrow. Its people walked with bent backs and hollow eyes. Laughter had become a ghost, joy a memory too distant to touch. The witch, moved by the ache in their hearts, stepped into the square and raised her voice.

“Let me ease your burdens,” she said. “Let me mend what grief has torn.”

And so, she stayed.

For years, she wandered from door to door, casting no grand spells but listening, holding hands, speaking gentle truths. She healed old wounds not with magic but with kindness, soft as candlelight. The townspeople began to smile again. They planted flowers. They sang to their children. They forgot what sorrow felt like.

But even light casts a shadow.

As the seasons turned and her soul grew thin with giving, a small kitten appeared at her feet with eyes as black as coal. The witch did not question its coming. She was too tired.

The kitten curled beside her wherever she went. It purred sweetly, followed her like a shadow, and then, one day, it hissed at a weeping child. Days later, it clawed a man’s face. It grew, week by week until it was no longer a kitten but a wild thing with teeth like knives and a voice that sneered.

“Why do you take the burden of their sorrow?” it asked. “You take their suffering, witch, and make it your own.”

The townsfolk began to fear the cat, but they said nothing—for the witch still brought them peace. And always, the cat sat at her feet.

But the witch knew. She knew it grew with every person she helped.

However, the witch continued. Growing weaker as the cat only grew stronger and louder in his convictions.

“Witch, you will fall into despair,” the cat told her. “You must leave them or fear losing yourself.”

The witch, however, had grown accustomed to her status as a hero among the people. She wouldn’t heed the cat's warning. She lived for the happiness in their hearts, ignoring the depths of sorrow building within hers.

One night, under a pale and sorrowful moon, she lured the cat into an old stone house at the edge of town. She spoke a spell made of her own blood and memory, slicing through herself with words sharper than any blade. The cat screamed—not with pain, but in utter despair—and she locked it inside, sealing the door with iron and her last ounce of will.

From that day forward, the witch was never the same.

Her laughter grew crooked. Her thoughts tangled like thorn vines. Without the cat, she was whole. She wandered the streets speaking riddles, forgetting names, blessing birds, and cursing bread.

The townspeople, once full of gratitude, turned their eyes away. They whispered, then shouted. And in time, they banished her and drove her from the town she had saved.

And in that sealed house at the edge of the forgotten town, the cat waits.

Waits for a heart that will connect them once again.

Loona’s voice trails off in thought. “A heart that will connect them once again…..”

“L-Loona…?” Katie asks, watching Loona slowly close the storybook. “Is that story about Gigi? Is Gigi the cat in the story?”

“A heart that will connect them once again…..?”

Loona turns to Katie, who’s found the cupcake with a heart on it and is holding it out towards her.

“Katie,” Loona looks at the heart on top of the cupcake Katie has lovingly made for her. “I think Gigi might still be alive!”

Katie’s face lights up before quickly becoming confused. “W-what?”

“Nezemica….,” Loona begins to softly smile. “Her heart. I felt it. Made of stone. No happiness. Not an ounce of her wanted me to help her—so I couldn’t.”

“Okay….?” Katie scratches her face. “Do you think Gigi’s inside Nezemica?”

“Yes!” Loona shouts out, throwing one arm into the air before winching in pain. “I don’t fully understand it right now, but I think Gigi’s sacrifice had to happen. He’s created the bridge I need to connect with her heart directly!”

Loona tries to get up but instantly collapses in the bed.

“I…,” she winches in pain. “I need Lance. We need to face Nezemcia one more!”