Charlotte and the Witch Ch. 1 Pt. 1

Charlotte’s body shook her awake. Her legs stood her up and her eyes went to the stone she had carved earlier. She waited patiently and obediently as the witch would try to wiggle her fingers in just the right way to change something whole and natural, into a complete abomination.
Charlotte could do nothing but closely watch as she practiced her magic. The fact that her body used the stone statue of herself as a target for the various spells she observed herself cast horrified Charlotte. She waited in suspense as the witch crumbled her likeness in thousands of different ways.

Charlotte hated living in the dark cave, but her body didn’t seem to mind. When she needed to eat, her hand would feel the ground to find the life forces of vermin that she would catch, kill, and cook with one flick of the wrist. The only source of light was the dancing orb her body had created above her head. Her rests were infrequent and inconstant. Charlotte began to realize she was trapped, but without her captor and the power she possessed, she would be dead anyway.

The moments her body spent training blurred together. The witch had quickly gotten used to the ability to harness the magic she had brought with her into the child, but would still train harder and harder, as if to improve further her own capabilities. Charlotte had begun to believe that she wasn’t the first person to be possessed by this witch. The old lady before her, and most likely even more before the old lady were possessed in a similar manner, and forced to serve the witch until old age. Charlotte had accepted this fate, as many before her had, but wondered why she was able to think so clearly about it. With each passing moment, Charlotte felt smaller and smaller.

Charlotte noticed that the bears that the witch had slaughtered were not there anymore. She also noticed that the steps her legs took no longer felt straining on her physical form. She felt herself sit down, blink, then stand up. That's all her rests felt like to her. Blinks. She couldn’t dream like she used to. The prison offered no form of escape, even in spirit. Her body stood up again, as it had done countless times before, but this time, turned towards one of the walls. Her hand felt the wall, and then blasted a large hole through the wall. The resulting light was brighter than anything she had seen. This light was different from something the witch could have made, it burned her skin.

She stepped through the hole in the cave to find a familiar forest, but everything seemed... smaller. Not tiny, like she was a giant, but tree branches that she had recalled as being out of reach were now within reach. She wanted to climb one of the huge trees, but her body just made a small motion with her hand. A sort of mist appeared where her hand swiped. She saw herself in this mist. A young girl. She didn’t look like a baby anymore. Her face was pale, her hair was long and dark. She saw herself in this mist getting smaller and smaller. She saw the tips of trees, then the trees turned into a green blur. One corner of the mist wasn’t covered in this green.

Charlotte’s head turned, her eyes stared off into forest at some distant target she couldn’t see. Her hand dismissed the mist, and her legs walked off into the forest. There was a quietness about the forest. No animals could be seen or heard, no birds were singing and the twigs underneath Charlotte’s feet weren’t snapping as she walked over them. The quietness seemed almost unreal, even more unreal than the fact that her body was walking without her control.

Her eyes wouldn’t allow her to admire the forest, to take in the nature that her wandering mind wanted to. The trail that her feet were walking on looked boring and repetitive. The few flowers that were allowed into her vision were pretty and colorful, but, as much as she wanted to, her body wouldn’t allow her to walk up to them, and bury her nose among the petals to smell these gifts of nature. Free will isn't something Charlotte could have any more. Each tree blurred by, the forest seemed to pass through her.

Charlotte noticed the sun had set. The sky was dark and her body was cold. Her hand pointed itself at the ground and a hole appeared. Her feet jumped in and sat down. Her hands raised and the hole was sealed. Charlotte’s eyes blinked.