That car pile-up did not happen by accident. She must have swept through every car windscreen and screeched through every living being in her way, just to get to me.

My head ricocheted backwards as the taxi driver slammed on the brakes. And as my head rebounded forwards, she came to a screeching halt just an inch from my nose. I stared in horror into the eyes of a being consumed by an anger so ferocious that I could feel it exuding from her very being.

“You tricked me!” she snarled. The ripped tendrils of her dress billowed behind her in gusts of wind that weren’t there. Not in this realm, anyway.

I inched myself to the right, trying to move away from her icy and oppressing presence. But she simply followed my movement, baring her teeth, utter hatred in her eyes. 

“No, Cassandra, I didn’t realise! The hedge witch told me she could help!”

“Help, you say?” she said, her raspy voice chilling my very bones.

The pale blue spectre gave a short, bitter chuckle. 

“Help in the form of a Witches’ Circle, set on trapping me in a Thorne Keepers box?”  she hissed. “That kind of help?”

I shook my head, my eyes wide, my nose numbing from the closeness of her presence. 

“I didn’t know, Cassandra, really I didn’t! They tricked me too! I thought they'd got you so I was going to see Herod, to see if he could free you somehow. Ask the taxi driver. He’ll tell you I was on my way there!”

I knew fully well that wasn’t going to happen. Because the taxi driver was sitting in the seat in front, veins turned to ice, and frozen forever more, just like the other drivers and passengers in the cars piled up before me. 

Petrified, I believe, is the term. Petrified to death.

Oh, I was going to see Herod alright. But not to help set her free. I was going because a little birdie told me he was blessed with the rare talent of Cloak-Casting.

If Herod could cast his Shrouding Spell over me, then Cassandra would never find me again. Even if she were ten feet away from me, she would still not be able to detect where I was. She wouldn’t even recognize me if someone pointed me out in front of her and screamed my name.

It came at a price, of course. But it was a price I was willing to pay.

And anyway, that was all irrelevant. 

Because at that point, I was in the grip of Cassandra’s gaze. And I was slowly… slowly… freezing to death.

It's not something I wish to experience ever again, let me tell you.

I made it out, of course. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. And I made it to Herod eventually. Cassandra seeks me to this day. But she'll never find me.

But for me, it's kind of a case of, 'out of the frying pan and into the fire'. Because the debt I must repay to Herod is eternal. And it will consume every day of my life from now on. But at least I'm alive.

At least I'm alive.