Last week Eldritch found herself trapped in her own mind, a prisoner of the poison Belladonna forced her to inhale. Yet by the efforts of her friendly spiritual companion, Belinda, Eldritch found an escape from her torment.

That escape did not come without a price, for we cannot weigh the loss of Belinda’s experience and wisdom until Eldritch needs it. Indeed, dear reader, that loss fuels her current predicament. For in seeking a means of preventing Belladonna from finishing her vengeance fueled fight against her former tormentors Eldritch has called forth a spell that were Belinda here to admonish against she would never touch.

But alas! We may merely watch as the energy twists itself into formations and weaves that do nothing to betray the spell’s true design. Beyond the sight of human eyes, a sigil whirls into existence. Indeed, this sigil has naught to do with the physical plane.

In the hallway outside of the school gym, Eldritch continues to empower her spell. She, however, does not spy the sigil. Invisible, it forms itself to the twisting shimmer of a bell and rings forth once before collapsing into raw energy that rushes back into Eldritch’s hands to fuel the rest of her chant.

The ring of this bell vibrates on a frequency no human or beast has ever had the misfortune of hearing. They may count themselves lucky, dear reader, for this sound is the sound of madness! But a single note is enough to shatter the psyche of any unfortunate enough to hear its peal.

Down and down it goes, ringing throughout the planes of existence. On it goes for innumerable distances until it reaches a towering throne of black flame and brimstone. Deep beneath the bedrock, the sound trickles towards one of the innumerable shadowed figures hoisting the stone seat above the inferno below.

The results of this summons will await another time, dear reader, for our attention flies back to the completed spell of Eldritch. She stands, wiping the sweat from her brow with a smile. A determined look fills her eyes as she looks down at her hands. They are not empty, one carries her trademark dagger and the other sports a reddish hammer that seems to shine with an unholy gleam.

“Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches. A spell to end spells. One love tap from this and you’ll be back to good ole Bella.” She says with a smile. Hefting the hammer, her grin widens and she turns towards the door, “Time to go smack a b-”

“TIME TO DIE!” comes the shout of Belladonna from inside the gym.

Sparing no more time to consider the ramifications of her spell or try to come up with any type of complicated plan, Eldritch uses her hammer to blast open the doors and marches into the gym. Once inside she points her dagger at Belladonna and shouts, “You owe me a rematch!”

Whirling away from her pot of acid and captives dangling above, Belladonna spots Eldritch. Then she shouts back, “Stupid Maiden! You can’t save them, you’re too late.”

Eldritch pauses, obviously the distance between her and the trussed up captives at the center of the gym. Then she smiles. “Hey Belladonna, you wouldn’t happen to be a fan of those Marvelous superhero movies would you? Because I’ve got a hammer, sooo…”

With this, Eldritch hurls the hammer straight at Belladonna. The iron missile almost smashes the villainess before she can roll to the side. Embedding itself into the bleachers with a mighty crash, it shakes through the wood and leaves behind a crater. Temporarily stunned by the devastation, the pair merely gazes in wonder at the force of the mystical hammer.

Belladonna is the first to recover, with a hiss she begins to hurl bolts of acid at her enemy as she backpedals towards the exit. Reacting slowly, Eldritch’s shield only barely rises in time to prevent her from eating a face full of bile. Unable to dodge the barrage she finds herself driven back as forced to watch as Belladonna makes her way to the exit on the other end of the room.

With a wicked grin, Belladonna pauses her assault and shouts, “Hey Maiden, it’s time to choose between catching me and saving the unworthy!” With this pronouncement, she sends an arc of acid flying towards the ropes holding the three tormentors above the acid bath.

Cursing Eldritch rolls forward and begins sprinting towards the three dangling girls. They begin to thrash about violently, shaking the ropes in a desperate attempt to avoid the fate flying towards them. Eldritch pushes herself to the limit in a desperate attempt to overcome the speed of the flying scythe of bile! But for all her magical powers, she is merely human dear reader and cannot fly faster than a speeding bullet!

With a shriek, the three begin to tumble as the rope severs! Just as they tumble to a hairsbreadth above the acid, they stop moving with a sudden jerk!

Glancing about frantically, the quickly realize the source of their salvation. Eldritch has sent her whip out to secure the broken ends of the rope. A mystical barb embedded in the severed half of the rope still connected to the girls maintains their precarious position.

With a laugh, Belladonna saunters back into the room. “Well, well, well, did you really think I would abandon my prizes just like that Maiden?” She says with a smirk. Slowly, she marches back into the light. With this, Hailey realizes that the taint she saw on her friend before was merely a precursor to her current transformation.

Now, tendrils of toxic green slime weave out of Belladonna’s hair. Her eyes are pure green with black dots at the center and her skin is a pale purple that completely washes out Bella’s naturally dark color. The outline of loosely fitting clothing that made up her cocoon before has slickened down to a rough pantomime of Bella’s body. Her form carries cysts and boils, however, giving it the appearance of an ill-fitting and uncomfortable bodysuit.

Her expression is wild and unfocused, the black dots changing direction and darting about constantly as if terrified. The halo of messy hair accentuates her haggard look. With alarm in her eyes, Eldritch looks her up and down.

“Bel? I think she can’t handle the… Bel…” Eldritch smiles grimly, “I guess I forgot,” she continues before wrapping her hand around the base of her whip and grunting as she begins to hoist the three girls.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Elly,” says Belladonna in a playful tone bordering on madness. “I think we should just let them dangle for a bit, and you should keep all your attention on keeping them hanging.”

Belladonna sends a lazy bolt of acid flying at Eldritch’s feet, forcing her to dance to the side and temporarily lose her grasp of the whip. The girls slip a few inches closer to death. A bead of sweat rolls off Maggie’s head and sizzles as it falls into the pool of bile.

“That’s a good girl Elly.” Belladonna vaults over some scattered debris and marches a bit closer to her target. “What? You were so talkative earlier, now you’ve got nothing to say?” She says with a pout.

Eldritch groans under the weight of the girls and leans back, trying to offset the weight. Unable to hoist them any further the strain is clearly getting to her.

Out of one of Belladonna’s hands comes a blade of shimmering green. A haze similar to the one she caught Eldritch with in the library appears around the other. “Hey Elly, I’ll let you pick this time which way you want to die.”

“How…” Eldritch pauses to catch her breath before she continues, “how do you know it’ll work, I beat your mind toxin last time.”

Belladonna pauses, visibly weighing Eldritch’s words. Then she shrugs, “Well looks like you’ve made your choice. And you’ve got a point so just to be sure I’ll toss you in the pool right after I’m done with the other three.”

Arms shaking Eldritch lets the girls slip another inch towards doom. Gasping in pain she says to Belladonna, who is now close enough to converse normally with, “You never said if you’re a fan of the Marvelous movies.”

Confused, Belladonna pauses. Then she says, “I’m not. The heroes all talk too much. Why do you ask?”

Suddenly, Eldritch’s fatigue seems to drain away! In an instant, she stands tall and says with a smile, “Because I threw my hammer.” Then Eldritch puts out one of her hands.

Belladonna has no time to dodge as the Malleus Maleficarum flies back from its resting place towards Eldritch’s waiting hand. She can only activate her cocoon, which promptly bursts apart as the hammer blasts it apart. Flying away from the impact Belladonna crashes into the ground.

Soon as the hammer touches her hands, Eldritch wastes no time in racing towards the pool and smashing it into the acid. At a touch, the hammer dissipates the magic leaving behind a crater. With a relieved sigh, Eldritch lets her whip lose and watches the three bullies tumble to the ground.

Ignoring their cries of indignation at the slight fall and entreaties to be untied, Eldritch turns towards the reeling Belladonna and cracks her whip before starting to march towards the fallen figure.

“No more shield huh Belladonna? Well that’s what the Hammer does, it cancels out magic. So I just need one solid hit and so goes your little ritual.” Casting her eyes about, Eldritch steps lightly, “Speaking of, what did you do with the book?”

But the reeling Belladonna has already provided the answer. In her hands is the spell book, sappy, bright orange blood runs down her wrist as she flips through the text in frantic motions. Seeing this, Eldritch races forward intending to strike her again and dispel the enchantment about Bella.

Before she can close the gap, Belladonna finds her page and begins to hiss in incomprehensible tones. A few moments later, she disappears in an explosion of acid. Twirling her dagger into a shield Eldritch ducks the spray, but when she lifts her head Belladonna is nowhere to be seen!

Glancing about in trepanation Eldritch takes almost ten seconds locating the missing girl. Belladonna descends from the rafters above with a splatter of sickly looking toxins. Riding the wave, she creates a miniature waterfall as she moves above Eldritch towards the window and the potential escape route of the roof.

Dancing away from the waterfall that threatens to drown her, Eldritch sends her whip towards the rafters and begins to climb it like a rope. Just as Belladonna secures her escape out the window, Eldritch reaches the catwalk on the top of the gymnasium. Racing after the villain, she smashes through another window behind Belladonna’s exit and rolls out onto the sunny roof of the school.

Atop the rocks that grace the flat top of the building, the two girls stare one another down. Both know that the first to move will break the uneasy truce that has each of them staring warily across the divide. Slowly, Belladonna shifts the book in her hands as her blood drips down her arms.

A drop falls free of her arm and tumbles down to the gravel just as a similar drop of sweat tumbles from Eldritch’s brow. Hailey covertly readjusts her grip on the haft of her hammer and rolls her dagger between her hands. The two lock eyes and prepare for the final exchange of blows. The only sign of the tension is a subtle tightness about Belladonna’s eyes and a slow exhalation of breath from Eldritch. Aside from this, they seem as still as statues, from a distance almost appearing as a vision of a pair of lovely gargoyles adorning the roof of St. Cecilia High.

Next week the two face off in the final showdown that will end as Hailey makes a desperate attempt to save her friend without ending her life in… “The Demise of Belladonna!”