It wasn’t until the muscles in Sarah’s legs finally gave out and she skidded across the dirt, and rocks, and twigs that she stopped running.
Crouched on all fours, Sarah inhaled sharply, sucking wind as she glanced behind her to make sure that she was alone in the woods, and then her eyes fell to the orb and the pillowcase that had become dirtied from the ground.
Sarah rolled to her side and wiped the sweat that was trying to freeze to her forehead, smearing dirt along her skin in the process. Still huffing, but having better control over her breath, Sarah peeled back the pillow cover and revealed the orb, being mindful not to accidentally touch it.
What sunlight filtered through the clouds from the height of the afternoon made the orb sparkle as she rotated it in her hands, keeping the cloth of the pillowcase to cradle the orb. In the daylight it was beautiful, like a solid sphere of crystal with diamonds sprinkled between it.
Sarah stood, still cradling the orb with the pillowcase, and spied a rock cropping to her left. She hurried over and raised the orb high above her head, and then brought it down with all the force her arms and body could muster.
She shut her eyes when the orb left her hands and turned away so she wouldn’t be struck by the shards that would be sent flying. She winced from the heavy thud of the contact, but the noise wasn’t the cracking, crushing noise that she had anticipated.
Sarah craned her head around, her eyes widened in disbelief as she found the orb in perfect condition. She dropped to her knees and hovered over the orb to get a closer look, but as she searched the orb’s surface, she found no fractures, no cracks, not even the slightest signs of a blemish.
With the pillowcase, Sarah picked it up and again heaved it high and slammed it down harder, this time not turning away. And like before, the orb cracked against the rock, and then rolled off into the dirt.
Sarah retrieved the orb and heaved it against another rock, and then a tree, and then the ground itself. But no matter the surface and no matter the force, the orb refused to crack. “Shit.” She huffed under her breath and then kicked the orb, sending it rolling against a tree.
Hands on her hips, Sarah remembered the holy water and the crosses that the priest had given her. If they worked against the witch, then there wasn’t any reason why they couldn’t have an effect on the orb. After all, it was used by someone who was evil, so it stood to reason that it could help destroy a weapon of evil.
Sarah removed the cross first and thrust out her hand, inching it closer toward the orb. She tilted her head back, unsure of the reaction the pair would create.
Arm shaking, Sarah moved the cross within an inch of the orb, but it had no effect. She relaxed and gave the cross a quick tap against the surface. Nothing.
Defeated, Sarah slouched and twirled the cross between her fingers. She stared at it then pocketed it before replacing it with one of the glass tubes of holy water. She shook her head, still amazed that the tiny sliver of water hadn’t frozen.
Keeping the cork in it, Sarah squatted next to the orb and cocked her head to the side, looking for any dent that she might have missed from earlier. When she found nothing, she uncorked the bottle and hovered it over the top.
She tilted the tube slowly, knowing that she couldn’t waste all of it, especially if she had another run-in with the witch. She suspected that the priest didn’t have this kind of stuff on demand. A drop would be enough to test, and when the first bit trickled out, she snapped her wrist back and corked it.
The droplets splashed against the orb and trickled down the sides. But as the line of water curved all the way down and pooled at the earth beneath the orb, Sarah saw no effect.
She quickly stood, spinning around in a half circle, tightening her grip on the glass tube, her arms shaking in anger. She pocketed the holy water before she accidently smashed it against the ground in a fit of rage and then kicked the orb, hard, sending it careening through the woods and disappearing into some low-lying shrubs.
“Fuck.”
Anger steamed off of her, and she paced the ground in quick turns, going over everything that the priest had told her, but when she couldn’t find the answer herself, she collapsed in the dirt.
If she couldn’t find the answer herself, then she needed to go and speak with someone who understood what to do. So she decided the best course of action was to return to the priest. If anyone could help, it would be him.
Sarah snatched the pillowcase off the dirt, not bothering to brush it off, and reached for the orb in the bushes, but stopped at the harsh snap of a twig.
The noise spiked her heartrate, and the adrenaline that had been missing flooded her veins. She snapped her head around toward the noise.
Barren trees, rocks, and soil greeted her view, but Sarah continued to scan the area. There had to be bears and such up here that she didn’t know about, or mountain lions, though she was so tired she knew that pretty much anything could kill her.
Sarah paused, her body coiled in anticipation for a fight, but the wilderness around her remained quiet. The tension in her muscles relaxed and she turned to pick up the orb, stuffing it back
