Subj: [COLLINS-LIBRARY] Petofi's Maze chapter 23
Date: 3/15/99 6:19:43 PM Central Standard Time
From: miranda

Chapter 23

With outstretched arms Quentin lunged at Petofi. He fastened his hands around Petofi's thick neck and squeezed. Petofi waved his hand and in an instant Quentin was sailing through the air. He hit the wall and crumpled to the ground.

"Quentin!" cried Beth as she ran to his side.

Barnabas grabbed the sword requested by "Magda" and swung at Petofi's hand. Once again, with a simple wave, Petofi warded off his foe. Barnabas was thrown through the air and hit the stairwell.

"I see I shall have to dispose of all of you tonight," Petofi said matter-of-factly. "A pity."

"You lie!" Julia said. Everyone, including Petofi, stared at her in silence. She stuck out her finger and waved it in Petofi's face. "You evil liar. Are you so afraid of Magda that you cheat Quentin out of his last day?"

"The gypsy," Petofi breathed. His lower lip trembled and he stepped back away from her.

Quentin had never seen Petofi so afraid of anyone. "Magda is that you?" He asked as he rose to his feet.

"Yeah, it's Magda. I knew Petofi would try something like this so I kept watch."

Petofi straightened up confidently. "I will not be defeated by a lowly gypsy!" he roared. Petofi stretched out his hand and an invisible force began to push Magda away from him. Despite the fact that she was losing the battle, everyone stood in awe that Magda had the strength to resist. Petofi easily threw Quentin and Barnabas across the room and there was no doubt he could have easily killed them. Magda was coming uncomfortably close to the roaring fire. Barnabas tried to rush forward and help, lest Julia's body be destroyed in the fire, but he couldn't move from where he stood.

Magda strained against the power of Petofi. "No!" she shouted. "I call upon the strength of my ancestors!" Magda took a step forward and then another. She grabbed the discarded sword and lunged at Petofi. She brought down the sword and sliced off his ugly, deformed hand.

Petofi cried out in pain and dropped to the floor. He mutely watched Magda bend down and pick up the main source of his evil power and then he fainted. Magda walked over to the black pot in which Angelique had earlier prepared the strange mixture. "Is it done?" Magda asked Angelique. She replied in the affirmative and Magda held the hand over the pot allowing drops of blood to drip into the liquid. She mixed the contents and than poured some into a glass. She held it out to Quentin. "Drink this. By a potion you were cursed, by a potion you shall be healed." Not wasting any time she turned to the others and asked, "Where are the portraits?"

Beth and Barnabas scrambled to the covered pictures and brought them over to Magda. She ripped open the wrapping revealing the grotesque pictures of Quentin and Beth. Beth involuntarily gasped at the sight of what she would look like if she had lived this long naturally. Magda waved the hand in front of them and softly mumbled to herself.

Suddenly Petofi, who had apparently recovered from his ordeal, was on his feet and yelling, "I still have power you gypsy witch!"

Magda took the hand and held it over her head. She chanted loudly in an unknown language that even Angelique did not recognize. Magda cast the hand into the fire. It exploded into a ball of flame. Petofi screamed. His body hardened and transformed into ash. It crumbled to the floor in a heap.

Everyone stood in silence. It was unbelievable. Beth spoke up. "Is he gone forever?"

"Yes," Magda said quietly. "He is gone."

"Look at the portraits," Barnabas exclaimed.

Everyone gathered around the pictures of Beth and Quentin. They now both had a chalky film over them. Angelique knew well that this meant they no longer had any magical powers.

Magda faced Quentin and Beth. "You are both free. The portraits are worthless. You will both age like normal people."

"And I am cured of the werewolf curse?" Quentin asked.

"Yes, you and your descendants." Magda replied. She gazed down at the ash heap that was once the Count. "I must leave now and go to my rest. It has been a long time and I miss my Sandor."

"Thank you, Magda, for everything," Quentin said.

"It is the least the I could do. I started this madness and now I have ended it." She looked around the room at each person. "Goodbye." With that Magda departed from Julia's body and went to her eternal rest.

Epilogue

Afterward, Quentin and Barnabas went to the mausoleum to see if Chris indeed was no longer infected by the werewolf curse. His human form confirmed that the curse had been eradicated forever. Quentin and Beth continued to live in the Old House with Barnabas, who actually welcomed the company. Despite being vulnerable to death and injury again, it was the first time in over 70 years in which Quentin and Beth actually felt alive.

As for Barnabas, Julia, Angelique and the rest of the Collins family, perhaps their relationships and lives will be further explored in a future story.