"Wait, what do you mean blood returns to blood?" The businessman had found his voice again, though it came out cracked from the vomiting. "Who are you? Where are we?"
The witch's attention stayed fixed on Kasy, who stood frozen at the edge of the clearing, her face pale enough that the makeup she'd applied this morning for work stood out in patches.
When the businessman stepped forward, the witch's eyes flicked to him, a smirk pulling at her exhausted features.
"Where? Thou wilt learn in time, if time thou hast." Her voice carried amusement that felt cruel given their situation. "The world turns as it always has, only thou art standing upon it in a different when."
"Stop talking in riddles!" The wedding woman managed to get back to her feet, her phone still clutched uselessly in her hand though the screen had gone dark. "We need to get home. People will be looking for us. I have a wedding to plan, I have—"
"Home?" The witch actually laughed, the sound bitter rather than joyful. "There is no returning whence thou came. The working required mine last blood descendant in thy era, the final echo of mine line with strength enough to bridge the gap." She gestured at Kasy, who took an involuntary step backward. "She was the last thread connecting thy time to this. Without another of mine blood there, the path is severed."
"You're lying." One of the teenagers pushed forward through the group, his face still streaked with tears from witnessing the creature's feeding. "Send us back right now or I'll—"
"Thou wilt what?" The witch's exhaustion seemed to lift for a moment, replaced by something darker. "Make demands of one who could crush thee as easily as I crushed that beast?"
"You brought us here, you have to send us back, that's how it works, that's—" The teenager kept advancing, his fear transforming into desperate anger.
"No." Kasy spoke for the first time since being identified, her voice barely above a whisper. "No, I'm not going anywhere with you. I don't know you, I don't care if we're related, you can't just—"
"Blood calls to blood," the witch interrupted, her fingers already beginning to trace patterns in the air. "Thou hast no choice in this matter, child. Mine body fails, but thine is young and strong. We shall be as one, and through thee, I shall endure."
"You're talking about possession." Rou heard himself speak before he'd decided to, the words just emerging from the horror of understanding what the witch meant. "You're going to take her body."
The witch's gaze found him, studying his face for a moment longer than comfortable. "The quiet one understands. Yes, her flesh shall house mine spirit. Better than death, is it not? She shall live on, in a fashion."
"Like hell!" The second teenager, the shorter one, suddenly rushed at the witch with his fist raised.
The witch didn't even look at him, just flicked her wrist in his direction. His charge stopped mid-stride, his raised fist trembling in the air as his face went from red with anger to purple from lack of breath. Blood vessels burst in his eyes as he tried to scream but couldn't, his body convulsing as invisible forces compressed his throat.
"Stop!" Several people shouted at once, but the witch merely continued preparing whatever spell she was weaving around Kasy, who stood paralyzed with terror.
The teenager dropped to the ground, his body making horrible rattling sounds for a few seconds before going still, eyes fixed on nothing, blood trailing from his nose and ears.
"Let that be instruction for thee all," the witch said without emotion, not even glancing at the body. "I have neither time nor patience for thy protests. Mine enemies draw near, and I must prepare mine new vessel." She finally looked at the group properly, taking in their modern clothes, their phones, their complete unpreparedness for this world.
"If thou would live beyond this day, leave this forest ere the sun reaches its peak. The beasts hunt in packs when the heat rises, and thy strange scent will draw them like honey draws flies."
"You can't just leave us here!" The wedding woman's voice broke completely, real hysteria setting in. "We don't know anything about this place, we don't know how to survive here, you can't—"
"I can and I shall." The witch's hand closed around Kasy's wrist, and her scream cut off as her body went rigid. "Thy survival is no concern of mine. I brought thee here by accident whilst seeking her. Be grateful I granted thee understanding of the tongue spoken here. Without that gift, thou would be dead ere nightfall."
Someone else tried to move toward them, to stop what was happening, but the witch raised her free hand and everyone found themselves unable to step forward, held by the same force that had killed the teenager.
"The nearest settlement lies two days hence, following the river downstream." The witch's form was already beginning to shimmer, Kasy's body starting to fade alongside her. "Though I doubt many of thee will reach it. This world cares not for the weak or ignorant."
"Please," the businessman tried one more time, his voice steady despite everything. "Just tell us something useful, tell us how to survive, tell us—"
"Survive?" The witch's laughter echoed strangely as she and Kasy became translucent, already halfway to wherever she was taking her descendant. "Hide when thou hear howling. Trust no one who offers aid without price. Boil thy water lest the flux take thee. And pray to whatever gods thou know that the things hunting in these woods find easier prey."
Her final words came as barely a whisper, though they seemed to resonate in everyone's bones: "Welcome to thy new life. However brief it may prove."
The air folded in on itself where they'd stood, reality sealing the gap with a sound that made several people clutch their heads in pain. Where the witch and Kasy had been, only disturbed leaves remained, no sign they'd ever existed except for the compressed ball of meat that had been a monster and the cooling body of the teenager who'd tried to play hero.
The forest around them suddenly seemed louder, every rustle in the undergrowth a potential threat, every bird call a possible warning. Nine people remained, holding dead phones and wearing clothes that marked them as outsiders in a world that had already shown them it killed outsiders without hesitation.
"What do we do?" someone asked, but nobody had an answer that would matter.
In the distance, something howled.