76 Chapter 75: Friends to keep

"Elize! You're back!" A familiar chirpy voice exclaimed.

Elize turned around to see Agatha walking towards her with a huge smile on her face. All of a sudden she started feeling nervous. She was not ready to face her yet. She needed more time. What was she supposed to do? Her first reaction was to hide. But since she was already spotted, that was not an option. She looked away, turning a blind eye towards the girl walking towards her, and hastily started packing her clothes. 

New thoughts started plaguing her mind. If Agatha and Aileen was only keeping her home for her benefit, then why didn't they explain it to her? Did they have something to hide? Maybe it was just Aileen's idea. Maybe Agatha was only following instructions. But Agatha would surely have known since she was also there when performing the ritual. She should have told her the truth then right? She remembered the fire message that the two hid from her. They had scurried off to somewhere hurriedly soon afterwards. What was it that they were hiding form her?

"Uhh…not really." Elize murmured through clenched teeth.

Why now?! Why did she have to turn up now? Elize knew that she wouldn't be able to tlak to her friend without exploding. And she didn't have time for that, if she wanted to leave before Aileen came knocking on her door.

"What?" Agatha asked, surprised.

Irina was the first to catch on to her change of mood. She gave Agatha a sympathetic glance and told Elize, "You can wash up and change if you want to. We don't want extra attention on our first day there do we?"

Elize was thankful for the interference. She nodded her head and walked towards her bathroom. Every step felt weak. Her heart was throbbing madly in her chest. She was not ready yet. Not yet, she kept repeating to herself. She didn't want any more answers today. All she wanted was to leave.

"Can someone please explain what is really happening?!" Agatha suddenly shouted, annoyed at the treatment. 

Elize stopped in her tracks. Her palms clenched into fists. 

"She's coming with me to the academy." Irina answered.

"What?! Then what about me?" Agatha whined.

"You can come too if you want."

Elize turned around quickly, shooting Irina with a death glare. The red heaired witch battered her eye lashes at her innocently with a smile. 

"No. She's not going anywhere with me." Elize said, pointing a finger towards Agatha.

Agatha raised her eye brows at the finger pointed towards her. Taking a confident step forward, she said with narrowed eyes, "You have been missing along with Zack for the past three days."

"Yeah well." Elize shrugged, shaking off the question.

She wanted to say "deal with it" but then she held her tongue. Her tongue had not been the most modest since she had turned human. 

Elize was about to explode. She had enough pent up frustration in her to beat someone to death.

Unable to hold back, she yelled, "Well I don't know. Why don't you all give me an explanation first?! No one told me that I'd lose my powers! Why didn't you tell me before the ritual?!"

Agatha was taken aback for a moment. Gult flashed on her face.

"Well, we thought you'd know since you proposed the idea." She said in an apologetic tone. Pausing for a minute, she asked with a curious expression, "By the way, how did you come to know of the ritual? It is taught only at an advance stage of witchcraft."

Elize didn't expect that question. She knew that she couldn't divulge her tryst with Luna to anyone. Hence she avoided answering it.

"Well I didn't know!" She said, throwing up her hands in mock frustration. "And don't answer my question with another question!" 

Agatha rolled her eyes. "Oh common. You can't blame me for that. If we didn't perform the ritual, you would have died, given the fact that it was poisoning."

"What?" Elize exclaimed.

Poisoning? How can this be? Luna hadn't mentioned anything about poisoning. As far as she remembered, the woman had said something about freeing her soul. 

"That's what Aileen thinks."Agatha said, "She doesn't think that the rock that came up that day was the Tohar Sehlah. It could well have been some conjured rock with poisonous properties. I mean she had all the symptoms of coming in contact with one of those. But anyway, the cure for both are the same, since your soul seemed to have been affected by the poison. Hence the freeing ritual." 

Suddenly Irina burst out laughing. "Is that so?" She asked Agatha. She then looked towards Elize and asked, "What do you think Elize?"

"How would I know?" Elize shrugged, dismissing the question.

Irina's smile made her feel unsettled. Surely, there was something more to it all that the witch knew but was not disclosing. What was it? Elize wondered.

"Ofcourse." The red haired witch replied, shaking her head. 

Elize was going to ask the witch for an explanation when she was suddenly interrupted by Agatha.

"Look, I know you were annoyed at me for not explaining things to you." The witch said, with a sigh.

"Eh? No! I'm annoyed with you because- because-" Elize stuttered. 

"That night, I was the first one to come in. I saw you closing the Book of Lost witches." Agatha said nervously.

Elize was stunned. Did she just get caught?! 

"What? I- no.." She stammered, unable to deny the claim.

Agatha shook her head.

"I won't pry." She said, "I'm not asking you what you saw in that book or whatnot." The witch paused and took a few steps towards her, closing the space between them. Taking Elize's hands in her own, she said, "You mean the world to me and I.. I just can't stay sane knowing you're angry with me. Believe me, I'm on your side. I have always been since the day Zack barged into Aileen's place with an unconscious you."

Elize wanted to cry. No one had ever said such things to her, especially not a girl. Agatha was the first person in her entire life to call her a friend. She remembered how the witch had followed her down to the dungeon in Aileen's house and helped her rescue Zack, when she clearly knew that it would land her in trouble. She had kept her away from trouble and fought with her over and over again in fights that she had no reason to partake. She and Irina became her family when she was feeling all alone. Elize reprimanded herself for being harsh towards someone like that. She wanted to give in. She'd give in after getting the answer to one more thing, she told herself.

"What about the fire message that you got that night then? Where did you go with Aileen?" She asked.

"The witches in the village had informed us of spotting a wolf like creature. They thought that it was one of the crazed werewolves who somehow got inside the boundary that we painstakingly set up."

"A wolf like- creature?" Elize asked, surprised.

The image of the huge creature that attacked her in the forest flashed in her mind.

"Yeah." Agatha confirmed.

"Why didn't you tell me about it then?" Elize asked, baffled at the answer.

She knew that she would still have sneaked out of the place. Her reaction was due to what she had seen in the Book of the Lost Witches. But at least she would have been better prepared to face the attack when it happened.

Agatha looked at her with eye full of sympathy. "Well, you had lost your powers Elize." She said, squeezing her hands. "We didn't want you getting more vulnerable than you already were. We knew that it would find its way to you. That's why we had to find it before it reached you."

Elize knew that her friend was right. If she was a walking wolf magnet at that time and if mere wolves could spot her, then finding her would have been a piece of cake for such a scary creature, whatever it was. The memory still brought immense fear into her heart. She was pretty sure that she would have died if not for Zack showing up out of nowhere.

"Ohh…and did you find it?" She asked, hoping that they had. She didn't want that nightmare to become her reality once again.

Agatha shook her head with a smile. "Not really. There were no cracks in the shield even towards the pack's boundary. I guess it was just a false alarm. Some old woman might have mistaken a rabbit for a wolf." She said giggling.

Elize's mouth fell open. Did her friend think that it was a joke?

"I don't think they were mistaken." She said awkwardly.

"What?" Agatha asked, her expression suddenly turning serious.

"That thing did not come by breaking the boundary. It was already on our side of the Island when I was passing through the forest. And you were right, it came for me." Elize replied nervously.

"What?! Are you serious?!" 

Agatha appeared shocked. It seemed that everyone had mistaken it for a false alarm. 

"Yes. I think it was affected by my blood the same way that the other wolves were. But for some reason, it had turned back when it saw Zack." Elize replied.

"Zack? But why would that be?" Irina asked, suddenly curious.

"I have no clue." Elize shook her head. She continued, her eyes widening in fear. "And this thing was so huge. I mean, it could have taken Zack out with one swing, yet it turned back and disappeared into our part of the Island once again."

"Did Zack see it then?" Agatha asked.

"No. I don't think so." Elize replied.

"Did you tell him about this?" Irina enquired.

"Well, I mentioned something along the lines. But I don't think he understood what I was talking about." Elize said, shaking her head.

"This proves my theory that the Island is no way safe for you anymore." Irina said, her hands on her hips.

She quickly turned around and whispered a spell. One by one, her clothes flew into her bag. 

"Irina is right. You have to leave ASAP. I'll inform Aileen." Agatha said, offering her help.

Without waiting for a reply, she quickly turned around. Elize caught her hand before she could walk away. The blonde witch turned back in confusion.

"No-" Elize said awkwardly.

"What?" Agatha asked, confused.

Elize sighed. "Don't tell her anything. I don't want to see her right now."

"Is this about something you saw in the Book of the Lost Witches?" Agatha asked, her brows raised.

Elize quickly nodded. "Yeah. Don't ask more." 

Elize knew that she couldn't explain it to Agatha as of now. She herself didn't know what to make of what she had seen. But she was not ready to trust anyone from the Island for now, not even Aileen. Especially not Aileen- not after how she had reacted to her opening the book.

"Fine I can send her a fire message once we reach there." Agatha agreed without probing further.

"Would you like to come with us then?" Elize asked nervously.

That was her way of apologizing to her friend. She hoped that Agatha would forgive her. If they could have a fresh start somewhere away from this cursed place, she knew that everything would work out fine.

"I'd love to!" Agatha exclaimed. She turned to Irina with a pleading look in her eyes. "Can I?" She asked with a pout. 

"Of course silly!" Irina said laughing.