Chapter V. The eyes of death

Every garden had a guard watching it, the girls had to walk stealthily and controlled their breathing so it wouldn't be too audible, thankfully the walkway was busy so the sound of feet stamping and ladies chittering as they passed kept the guard partially distracted.

Each garden had short vine fences demarcating them so the girls had to jump over the fence, they did so quietly without alerting the guard that was too busy watching ladies passing .

For months, the girls had been practicing fence jumping thus they were prepared, it was especially tasking for Harmonica because her dress was a ball gown but during their practice, she always used a ball gown to practice until she learned how to manage the ruffles.

The trio continued scaling through the fences and didn't get caught until they eventually reached Princess Geishana's garden. Her garden had two guards instead of one . It was obvious they were protecting something but most people would just assume that it was one of the princess's spoilt demands. The two guards were patrolling around the large garden rather standing still like the guards in the other gardens.

For this particular garden, the girls have only created scenarios on how it would work. There was a secret entrance to the catacombs here, Harmonica was the one who found it while she was tending to the garden.

It was a form of punishment form Geishana to Harmonica but while she was trimming the grass, she felt the secret cabinet hidden under . At first, she ignored it until she had a vision about it that showed her vividly where the underground passage led to.

Her dreams were never wrong so when she told her coven members, they immediately started planning for towards this day although they weren't sure it was the myth King hidden in the coffin Harmonica saw.

To distract the guards, Josette mumbled a spell but the sharp guards heard her.

"Who is there?" One shouted then the two started approaching the invincible witches but a loud growl at the other end of the garden distracted them, they turned to where the sound was coming from and were instantly stunned by the small red-scaled dragon they saw.

"It can't be…" One of the guards said in disbelief, dragons were almost extinct, it was rare to find them out yet there was one growling at them, it was as if their eyes were playing tricks on them and indeed they were; Josette casted an illusion spell that was meant to keep her targets busy for a while.

The witches carefully walked to the middle of the garden. Since Harmonica was the one who knew about the secret door, she was the one who bent low and dug her fingers through the grass until she found the handle which she pulled up, revealing the dark passage . The girls went in one after the other before they closed the hood of the passage.

The guards didn't see any of this, they stood frozen to a spot looking at one particular flower bush and drooling. Their dull rusty red eyes were half closed. In their minds, they were fighting with the dragon but in reality, they were just moping.

The girls took hurriedly steps as they followed behind Harmonica who was the only one who knew the way. The underground passage had several other tunnels but Harmonica knew the right ones to go through, she had seen the place in her dreams a couple of times and she always woke up to draw it.

They had little time left, the illusion spell Josette casted would only last for 30 minutes on the condition that no one wakes the guards. The girls started walking calmly when they finally reached the catacombs.

Many vampires were resting there, some were dead while the others were hibernating, and any mistake could accidentally wake them.

Harmonica led the girls to the part of the catacomb that had a barrel spell hindering people from moving forward, the catacombs were a restricted area, and only its groundskeepers were allowed near it.

From where the girls were standing, no coffin stood out, they all had light orbs in their hands to see since the catacombs were very dark. They were physically calm but their hearts were racing loudly, fear of getting caught or becoming food.

Without waiting another minute, Josette casted a spell to lift the barrel but her first attempt was futile, thankfully, the girls expected this, they knew a basic barrel spell wouldn't be used to protect the resting place of the king.

Elsie pulled out a small potion from her pocket and threw it at the invincible barrel then she whispered loudly, "Now!"

Josette and Harmonica nodded and stretched their hands to the barrel, chanting the same spell. They repeated it until the veil fell but the spell left Harmonica bleeding because spell casting wasn't her stronghold.

She ignored it and walked in front of her cohorts just to stop in her steps, staring at all the coffins lined up ahead.

Elsie came to her side and nudged her. "Why are you just standing? Point out the coffin!"

"I… I don't which one it is," Harmonica replied absently.

"What do you mean by that?" Elsie asked almost raising her voice.

"This is where my vision always stops, it never showed me the coffin," Harmonica said with tears brimming in her eyes, she didn't think about this part of the plan mostly because she didn't think they could make it to this point.

"By the mother's bone! You brought us all the way here for nothing?!" Elsie tugged Harmonica harder. She was so angry that she was on the verge of hitting Harmony, they were over ten coffins lined before them each one had a vampire that would awaken the moment they opened their coffin so checking them one after the other was out of the option.

"I am sorry … I wasn't shown…"

"How could you, Harmonica?! We trusted you…"

While the two were arguing, Josette's eyes were fixated on the worst-looking coffin among the rest, it was as if the world around her stopped as she stared at it, she felt drawn to it and couldn't stop herself from moving towards it, fortunately, Harmonica caught her arm in time pulling her before she reached the coffin.

"What are you doing?" Harmonica asked, shaking Josette's arm as if she was trying to wake her up because her actions were like that of a sleepwalker.

"That is the one." Josette pointed at the rackety plain brown wood coffin.

Harmonica stopped shaking her and casted a doubtful glance at the coffin, she couldn't believe that a king would be put in there. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Josette answered without hesitation, her eyes never left the coffin.

Harmonica didn't believe her but she didn't want Josette to get hurt in case it was the wrong coffin so she stepped ahead of her, volunteering to be one to touch it.

She proceeded with caution and slowly stretched her hand to the coffin, her heart drumming in her ears but as her fingers brushed the surface of the wood but then on impact, she instinctively drew back because she got zapped.

She turned to her friends and smiled brightly. "This one is protected by magic!"

Vampires hated magic so none of them would want their coffin to be guarded by it. Josette came forward and casted a spell but instead of working, it bounced back, hurting her.

"The barrel is too power," she told them.

Elsie again poured another potion on the coffin and the other two chanted the same spell as they did before but nothing happened. The girls because nervous and panicky.

"Why is it not working?!" Elsie asked with a crying voice.

Harmonica who was already feeling lightheaded from casting that powerful spell almost lost her footing but Elsie caught her in time. This time they were all sure that that was the coffin and they had only a few minutes to spare because the red moon was already out.

Josette again zoned out as she stared at the coffin, out of the blue she felt the urge to bleed. As if she was in a trance, she walked to the coffin, ignoring the low cries of her sisters who were trying to call her back but Josette didn't answer them.

She dug her brittle, dirty nails in her left wrist until she started bleeding then she let the blood drop on the coffin as she chanted a strange spell; strange in the sense that it was not Harmonica that created it.

Immediately after she finished her chanting, the coffin busted open, and the force sent Harmonica and Elsie flying to the of the confined space they were in while Josette stood there frozen.

Someone rose upright from the coffin, his bright vermilion eyes bored into Josette's soul as he tilted his head. At that moment, Josette knew she was staring death in the eyes, and her lungs momentarily shut down.