Curse

Snow was amazed at how intricate the curse was entangled with Mr. Roger's magical energy. It was so twisted into knots that she didn't know where to start or how she would do what Mr. Rogers had asked for.

"It's bad, huh?" Mr. Rogers spoke carefully, watching her expression.

"Well…"

"I get it. It's bad."

"It's not impossible."

"Which is better than nothing."

"So, shall we start?"

"Is it going to hurt? And if it hurts, would I be able to kiss it away?" Mr. Rogers jokingly replied, winking at her.

"You're going to need to deal with it." Snow said sternly. She rolled her eyes at him. It was the same old Mr. Rogers that she remembered, and for some reason, she kind of missed his teasing.

"Ouch, my lady. That's quite rough."

"I'll think you'll do fine." Snow closed her eyes. Her hand reached out, glowing white. Her eyebrows furrowed. Her mind was focused, trying to figure out how to untangle the knots without damaging Mr. Roger's natural energy. Both energies were harmonizing among each other so well that she had a difficult time picking out the two.

It wasn't until she was able to see the thin green line that wrapped around him tightly like a boa constrictor that she was able to peel the curse away. At first, it resisted. Her hand sweated, and her eyes moved rapidly. Even the energy around her finger was becoming heated with blue fire that the others stepped back in fear of getting burnt themselves.

With a deep breath, the holy fire sparked around her like a blazing inferno, making her sweat even more. The energy finally listened to her, burning away all the curse. It wasn't until she was able to reel it in, allowing her to breathe much more quickly than before.

"It's done." Snow opened up her eyes. The energy sucked away from her body, making her exhausted. She never thought she would be so tired from washing away one curse, and she had a few more to go through.

Swaying, Mike hurried and scooted a chair over toward Snow. Snow sat down, holding her head. She didn't expect the sudden dizzy spell and exhaustion to smash into her at the same time.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes."

"It took quite a bit out of you."

"Yes, it did."

"We can rest before you break the others," Mike said with concern.

"Just give me a moment." Snow waited for time to pass by, allowing her to regain her lost energy by meditating.

"It seems to work." Mr. Rogers said with interest. He barely changed. The others wondered if he was even a noble vampire anymore.

"How so?"

"I still have my power, but now I can shift between humans and vampires. Snow's magic is keeping half my power in check." Mr. Rogers was pleased with what Snow had done.

"Impressive as always, Ms. Saintess."

Snow waved her hand in front of her.

It took a moment to gather up enough energy for her to tackle on the next.

This time she had enough to go for a second round. Rodney walked over. Mr. Rogers got up, taking a seat in front of her. His glazed blind eye stared at her.

"You don't understand how excited I am to be able to see again," Rodney said with a sigh. "The number of times that I have tripped over things stubbed my toes, and even had to have Angie walk me around until I could walk around without too much trouble. It took me two weeks to be able to walk without a walking stick. Then another month to be able to fight. It wasn't until two months I was proficient enough to raid higher level dungeons without the fear of dying."

"That's quite impressive," Mike spoke. He wasn't there with Rodney for three months as they were busy with their own guild work.

"You read?" Snow asked, her magic was slowly spilling out into her hand. She was ready to try again.

"Hit me," Rodney said with a nod.

Snow, once again, closed her eyes. She could see the intricate knot of colors wrapping around Rodney tightly around his eyes. Anywhere else was free of the curse. The closer she observed the curse, she could see black and green wiggles of worms swimming tightly in a ball.

Grossed out, Snow hesitated.

"Is everything okay?" Rodney asked with concern.

"Kind of?"

"Why a question mark?"

"Well, if you see what I see now, it looks like a ball of worms digging in your eyes." Snow's stomach turned. With a deep breath, she tried her best to calm her stomach.

"Worms?"

"Yes. A Lot of it."

"Can you do anything about it?"

"I can. Just give me a moment."

"Sure."

Her stomach settled, she reached back towards his eyes. This time, the flaring energy of blue flames wildly flickered around her hand. Rodney started to uncomfortably squirm. He seems to reel backward, trying to get away from her.

"Someone grab him." Snow hissed. She didn't want him to run away.

Mike shuffled forward. He grabbed hold of Rodney's back. In that instant, Snow saw another large knotted twist of energy from the curse around Mike. It was trying to reach toward Rodney in the hopes of assisting him.

Snow cursed under her breath. There was no time to dilly dally as she knew then that she needed to wipe both of them out before it could assist each other. Her magic dangerously flared, blinding everyone in the vicinity.

Pouring everything she got, her magic lunged toward Rodney's eyes and Mike's body, searing away at the worms that were trying desperately to cling on. Snow felt the flow of energy pushing against her will, trying to fight back.

She gritted her teeth, sneering at the curse before her. She wasn't going to allow it to win. With one last burst of energy, Snow snaked her energy around them, squeezing them both until the curse crackled. For a moment, Snow thought she heard something pop.

Reeling back her energy, she forced her magic back inside her. Heavy breath was present, making it difficult to breathe. Her lungs felt as if they were being squeezed, and her heart erratically beaten. She wasn't used to breaking such horrible and powerful curses, especially most of them didn't require physical strain on her health.

Mr. Rogers reached over to grab her shoulder. "You're going to be alright." He softly spoke, impressed by Snow's tenacity to break two more at the same time.

"Thanks." Snow weakly said. She calmed her body as best as she could.

Both Rodney and Mike were dazed for a moment.

Suddenly, Rodney broke out with pure happiness. "I can see!" He jumped out of his seat, throwing his hand in the air. "I can finally see!"

On the other hand, Mike was looking at his hand, a smile blossoming at his lips. "Well, now, I didn't expect that."

"What?"

"I got stronger." Mike had slowly said. "I can feel it."

Rodney had stopped jumping around. He came over with a goofy smile on his face. "Thank you, Snow. You don't understand how difficult it was to learn how to fight without my eyes."

Snow waved her hand, pleased that she could help them.

Suddenly, another Snow burst through the door.

"Snow!" The fake Snow shouted.

Snow snapped toward the voice. She gaped, startled by the sudden entrance of another her. If it wasn't for the voice's familiar sound, she would not have noticed who it was.

The Fake Snow threw herself at Snow, circling around her hand around her neck.

"Where have you been?" The Fake Snow wailed, crying hard as the make up on her face was smearing.

"Heather?" Snow asked with a slight stutter. It weirded her out to see another her, hugging her. She would have thought it was some kind of doppelganger, ready to slay her to take her place if it wasn't for the familiar voice.

���Yea, dummy!" Heather was crying, she hugged her friend tightly.

Snow wasn't used to seeing herself crying, which she found uncomfortable. The others around her looked away, unsure what to do to see such an expression they weren't used to.

"I'm back." Snow tapped her friends back.

Heather wailed harder.

"Calm down." Snow chuckled, trying to soothe her friend.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I missed you!"

"I know."

It took a moment for Heather to calm down, but the warmth from her friend had made her realize that she was finally home. She never wanted to ever forget her friends again. A soft smile slowly crept on her lips, dazzling anyone who was watching. Snow closed her eyes and hugged Heather as Heather's magical skin was slowly peeling away to bring back her normal appearance.