Whumptober 2025, Day 4 - Her Hand in Mine
Prompts - "Don't be scared, I've done this before.", Non-human whumper, loss of powers
possibly the worst thing I've ever written, but my hand is cramping, so here you go.
It was unbearably hot and cramped. Their body's close enough to touch. Stuck in a dark room. Her father would throw a fit if he knew where she was.
Locked in a witch's closet, magic bubbling near their faces. Green and acidic. Bright and eye-catching. Right in front of them for the taking. They could do nothing but stare in awe. Magic had a way of doing that to you. It makes you want to burn your hands off just for a taste of power. Power like no one could comprehend.
"How did you do this?" the princess spoke, eyes stuck staring into the burning cauldron. The witch somehow pulled the stars from the sky. The unexplainable magic they didn't understand was staring back at them. Stuck under a cage of metal.
"It's always been natural for me, princess," the words fought out of her mouth. The witch was just as stuck as the other. Wishing for all that magic. "I couldn't tell you if I tried."
As their hands brushed, the two pulled away from their want of the green before them to stare into one another's eyes. Want replaced by want. They both knew what they wanted, what had been happening for months under the guise of safety and changing the world. Amplified by the dim candles and how the green reflected in her eyes. They spent a month on this moment, and they could throw it away with a touch.
But not know, not in this moment. When the years the dear princess spent watching her kingdom crumple over magic, others couldn't possess. Families taken for their "own good". Magic became a thing of control and separation rather than the beauty set out in front of her eyes. It had to leave, without a thing to control; there could be no control. It was the easiest solution.
Her father, the high and mighty man he was, with the spoons bent at the dinner table and the swords bought every year when he got a little too angry. Though all of the flaws his magic held, he would look down at those with nothing. Those with bright hair or tears of gold. The beauty magic held spread out in front of him in human form. He hated it all. Hated the weakness set before him. Like he hated the witch and all who were like her, their unrelenting power. How the magic they held made them inhumane. Able to take him off his throne with a hit.
To him, all of them had to go, so in her eyes, magic had to go.
"Look at me," a hand placed so roughly under her chin, forcing her away from the beautiful green. "This is going to hurt. Hold my hand."
She would follow any command the girl gave her, even if it killed her.
The cauldron bubbled dark green. Warning them of their actions. An acidic feeling that would pour over them all. The pure horror that the princess would receive. Their secretly good and overly hated soldier. She could change the world, and they would hate her for this one action. The magic knew it. It knew the beginning and end of the world; it always would.
One flick, a hand waved over like a sorcerer. A nod of confirmation. It was all over. The decision was made.
A pain ripped through her stomach. Pour her open, phantom limbs she never knew she had, forcing out of her body. Tear her apart like the day the magic joined her system. Mind filled with grief of something she never knew, and nerves on fire. All of it was gone in a moment. A moment where she wondered if they all felt like this. The world she just cursed. Written apologies screamed out in their cramped little room. She would never feel pain like this again. You couldn't. It wasn't man-made, and everything that magic was, was gone.
Though it felt like it. With a pain indescribable by any standard. The magic was not gone. Magic could never leave. Never stop watching over their shoulder. It simply moved. Didn't hold their hands anymore. The disrespect had gotten too much, and the princess of red changed it all. Not gone but simply away.
At least the witch was holding her hand. She knew it would end one day, like the spell they just cast, but for now. Through all the pain, drowning her out. She was holding her hand
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