I woke up on the ground, rough tarmac kissing my cheek. I pushed myself up and looked around, I was lying in the middle of the street in front of my house.

_How did I get here?_

I tried to remember what had happened but everything was fuzzy. The last clear memory I had was walking to Emma’s house which was… last week?

_What happened since then?_

I stood and started walking towards the house, I was unsteady on my feet and barely got two steps before I fell against my brother Matthew’s car. I looked down at myself, I was bloody and bruised and burned and my clothes weren’t in a much better state.

A memory came back to me then, I was somewhere dark, Emma was standing next to me. There was this woman, dark hair, dark eyes, dark clothes but skin so pale it couldn’t have been healthy.

“You best stop now or you will regret it!” The woman had said, actually she had more hissed it than said it.

_Stop what?_

I tried to remember who she was or what we were doing there but I can’t, I just know something bad was going on.

The woman had said something else. She had said: “I will make your whole world fall apart if you keep going!” And Emma had said she would do it either way.

What were me and Emma up to?

I needed to get inside, maybe Matthew knows what we were doing. I stepped up to the door but it was locked and I didn’t have my keys. I knocked and another mole moth came back to me.

Me and Emma were in that dark place again, we were kneeling on the floor with a bag in between us. Emma was laying out stones from the bag in a pattern.

“I told you to keep out of this!” The woman’s voice came from the shadows. Me and Emma jumped yo our feet.

“We know exactly what you’re doing, you witch!” I yelled.

“And we’re going to stop you!” Emma said.

“With your little ritual?” She laughed. “You cannot stop me! I warned you what would happen if you kept going, and now you must pay!”

She started reciting something in a foreign language and her eyes glowed amber. Me and Emma collapsed to the floor, then everything went black.

Next thing I knew I was on the street.

_Oh my god. _I thought. _A real witch!_

The door opened and there was Matthew, I was so relieved to see him I didn’t even acknowledge the blank look on his face.

“Matthew, thank god you’re alright!” I said.

“Who are you?” - those were the hardest three words to hear in my life. This is my punishment for not stopping, he doesn’t even know me!

This is how my whole world fell apart.