Samantha, Mystic Maiden

A timid, slightly middle-aged doctor suddenly found himself completely trapped, squirming to get out. He was bound up in ropes so tight he could barely breathe, let alone speak. He was struggling to tell his superior, who was right next to him, staring him down, what he was, what his family was like. His superior happened to be an older, strung-out-looking man, slowly, but surely, approaching him with a gun to his face, with a menacing scowl on his own long, intimidating one.

He Struggled to speak, but eventually mustered the energy to open his own mouth.

"What are you doing to me?" he said.

"Funny you should ask, Dr. Ditko. What I am about to do...cannot be explained through normal conversation," he said. His voice was so calm amid the danger, that it was downright frightening. He was holding a gun, clocking the rifle as he was inching towards him, glaring at him as he got closer and closer, getting more and more intimidating as he approached him. His thumb and forefinger focused themselves on the trigger of his gun, ready to fire and end his life in an instant.

"What do you mean?" he yelped out in pure anguish.

Dr. Dunham, while clearly annoyed and disgusted by his complaining, turned around to tell his spiel to him.

"I have...heard of an ancient prophecy in the books of yore. One that, if true, will certainly lead to my very death. I...have crossed lines of science that man was not meant to know."

"Funny you should ask. You are familiar with the League of Shadows, are you not?” he said as he was giving his spiel.

“I guess so?” he gulped in horror. “I mean, I’ve worked for them and all as an agent, but to be honest, I haven’t done a lot with them”

“The reason I ask, is because I have been trying to discover a great power. The power of eternal youth. A special power that mankind has been trying to discover for centuries, if not millennia. To do so, I have drained the life fluids of many. Many innocents. And I, dear sir, have no regrets,” he said.

“Why would you do such a thing?” Dr. Ditko said, gulping in horror at the man’s actions.

“Because...A god like me has no reason to care for the boundaries of human life,” he said.

“Because of my actions, the daughter...the daughter of someone I know will murder me. Murder me in cold blood. Perhaps it is your own daughter?" he said.

"How would you know?" he cried. "Surely you cannot be familiar with my daughter or family history, let alone me!"

"Bold of you to assume I know nothing. As for you, sir, I have studied you dearly. I...know who you are. I know about your family,” he said."You are part of the League of Shadows, aren’t you? I know, for I know...everything. I am giving you a choice here. Either you tell me the whereabouts of your family, or I fire this gun. You have until the count of ten. I am counting in the binary language," he declared, his voice somehow completely stoic as he conducted his whole ordeal.

Dr. Ditko tried to scream, but was bound too tightly to do so, as Dr. Dunham clocked the trigger on the gun.

"One, ten-"

"Please don't do this. I have no daughter who-" he was about to say, until Dr. Dunham eventually fired the gun, pulling the trigger much sooner than he said he would.

The bullet flew, piercing right into the young man's heart. He bled profusely as he lost his ability to live, eventually collapsing to the floor into a deep pool of red blood, dying slowly and painfully, screaming in agony as he died. He could not tell Dr. Dunham a word about his own life, let alone his own family.

Meanwhile, a young, attractive, gothic woman in a black dress, ran up to approach him, wearing nothing but a white dress, but a henchman of Dr. Dunham's pulled the rug underneath her feet, making her painfully fall to the floor in the process as a sharp blade lying on the floor pierced her leg. When she finally got up and saw that he was dead, she screamed in horrifying shock.

That young woman on the side happened to be none other than Samantha Strange.

Now, on the outside, Samantha looked like any other 17-year-old girl, with almond-shaped eyes,

short hair, bright red lips and beige-white skin. If you didn't know her backstory, or family history, you'd think she was just another goth girl.

She also had dark purple highlights in her hair and bright purple eyes to match, both of which were completely normal for her, no dye needed. She had both qualities to show that a special power was taking hold of her.

Until recently, however, she had a pretty normal life for the daughter of a sorcerer. Then, she started to have these awful nightmares, out of the blue, in the middle of January. She would see innocent doctors, ones who had previously worked with her father before he retired, getting murdered in various gruesome ways.

Aside from the one who was shot in the chest, she witnessed another such doctor getting drowned in a lake.

"Have you no shame as to what you have done to me?" said Dr. Dunham to the young doctor, charging towards him.

"Done to you? Sir, I'm not even familiar with your"- he responded holding up his hands.

"Nonsense. Tell me, or I shall drown you." Dr. Dunham stopped and pointed.

"I don't even know why you're doing this to me!" the young doctor cried in a terrified voice, flailing in his hands as he continued to stumble towards his attacker. "I don't want to die!"

"Then tell me about your family," Dr. Dunham said. "TELL ME!"

"Why should I?" snapped the young doctor, who stopped and faced Dr. Dunham in false bravado.

"Because...why I do what I do..." he said.

"Pardon me?" He scoffed.

"...cannot be explained through regular conversation," Dr. Dunham finished.

"I have no interest in hearing your reasons! Just please, please, please let me live another day!" he cried.

"If you have no interest in hearing my spiel, then I have no choice but to drown you, frankly," he said, with an exaspearated sigh.

He used his telekenesis to focus on the man in question, bending the blood in his body to thrust it into the lake using nothing but his own mind, all with a devilish grin on his face.

Meanwhile, Samantha was holding flowers at the side. She was witnessing the entire incident, completely horrified at what was happening in front of her very eyes. She wanted to move, but it was impossible for her to do so. She was literally frozen in shock, unable to scream, let alone move. She was eventually able to scream, but not before several drops of the dead doctor's blood flew into her mouth, giving her a taste of his very death.

Now, because of her wild imagination, Samantha refused to believe that these nightmares had any real recurring meaning to them.

Underestimating how intense the forces of evil in her life & how much they could control her, she tried everything she knew to stop the nightmares. Essential oils, drinking milk before bed, even getting a musician to play lullabies before bed. She even consulted a special books from her father's study to find methods of sleeping well. But the following night, she had yet another horrifying nightmare.

In this particular nightmare, Dr. Dunham had tried to set another innocent doctor on fire.

Walking slowly towards him, holding a stick with a blazing fire on its top, he said to the victim-

“Any daughter of yours, she is set to kill me."

"Daughter? I'm not even married!" he screamed.

But it was too late. Dr. Dunham had thrown the blazing fire onto him, making him scream in pain as he was burned to a crisp. Samantha only witnessed the final event.

She got so frightened at what she saw in her dreams, that she decided not to sleep at all.At night she would wander around the house, sleepwalking and mumbling incoherently in a white dress around the Sanctum Santorum. "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, and Mourners to and fro, kept treading - treading - till it seemed, that Sense was breaking through."

"Samantha, we need to talk," her father said.

"Okay, Dad," she replied.

"I've heard you up at night. Why is that?" he said, ruffling her hair with his fingers.

"I hear voices in my head and that's what frightens me," she replied to him.

“Voices?” he asked. “What do you even mean?”

“Well, these “voices,” actually come in the form of nightmares,” said Samantha. “I see all these doctors...doctors you work with, dying all these cruel and unusual deaths.”

“Oh dear,” said her father. “But...be honest with me. What is the real reason that you’re screaming at night? Are you sick?”

Samantha didn’t know how to respond.

"My dear, be honest. Can you tell me why you are like this?" her father asked her.

"No,” she replied.

"In that case, there's probably a spell that can help you with your night terrors." He then proceeded to his study, retrieving his big book of spells. "Ahh...here were go,”

Now I lay me down to sleep

Pray the lord my soul to keep.

If I die before I wake

Pray the lord my soul to take."

"That ought to work in no time," he told her.

Samantha said nothing, but merely smiled. Despite cleary being aware of the danger, she smiled for the sheer hell of pleasing her dear father.

As expected from Samantha, The spell he had cast did no good. She had a nightmare so horrifying it put all her previous ones to shame. She was at her house, and she witnessed one doctor being disintegrated into dust as if his body was made of the flimsy substance. Though he screamed for help as his body was melting away into total nothingness, and while she wanted to save him badly, she couldn't do anything about it. She was completely paralyzed, trapped in a chair with metal restraints, feeling electrocuted as the energy draining out of her as if there was a battery inside her. The psychological pain was so horrifying that she screamed as if she were dying. Dying horribly like all the doctors in her dreams, for it was all she could do.

She was so horrified, she woke up that morning screaming, and rushed into her father's bedroom.

"Daddy, you've got to help me!" she said. "I'm so scared!"

"Let me guess, it didn't work?" he said.

"What do you think?" she said.

"Daddy, I need to go to the hospital. I'm messed up!" she cried.

"Now, let's not rush to conclusions,” he replied.

"I had another nasty nightmare last night," she said.

“Would you like to tell me about it?” asked her father.

“When we get to the hospital, maybe?” she asked.

Smiling cheekily at her comment, her father decided to give in to her demands.

Even though it was three in the morning and she was wearing nothing but her white satin pajamas and slippers, he still drove her to the hospital.

"Dad?" she asked in a meek, sleepy voice.

"Yes?" he asked.

"You stayed up all night to take care of me, and now you're driving me to the hospital. Aren't you too exhausted to drive?" she asked him.

"Not at all,” he replied.

"Really?" she asked.

"Nope,” he said.

"Wow. What's your secret, Dad?" he replied.

"I'm more powerful than most men. It's...um...a long story."

"Why? Please tell me!" she said.

“Welll...um...I honestly didn’t expect that I’d have a daughter who’d be so interested in my story.”

“Well, I am,” she retorted.

“Oh honey, you wouldn’t really care about how I became a wizard. It’s just…boring magic stuff!”

Samantha, however, held her ground and insisted that her father tell her.

“Daddy, please tell me!” she told him. “I’m begging you to tell me!”

“Okay, fine,” he said. “Long story short, after Daddy was in a really nasty accident, he decided

to go to Tibet to study magic. And soon enough, Daddy was able to create spells out of his hands.”

You still doesn’t describe his journey well enough, thought Samantha to herself, but before she could ask him more, they were at the hospital.

A beautiful auburn-haired nurse came to talk to Samantha.

“Oh hi, Christine!” said the doctor in a rather awkward tone of voice, giving her a hug.

“Um...Stephen?” she asked.

“Why is she here?” she asked, looking over at Jessica.

"She's been having nightmares, and I have no idea why," said her father.

“She’s having nightmares?” asked Christine. “Fine, you can say that about a lot of teenage girls. People don’t get hospitalized for that.”

“It’s not that,” replied the doctor. “These nightmares aren’t like anything I’ve seen before. I mean, she’s screaming at night, moving involuntarily in unusual ways, contorting her body in the weirdest ways-”

“Stephen, what did I say about that cult!”

“Christine, for the ninetieth time, it’s not a cult!”

“And for the ninety-first time, if you haven’t joined that cult she wouldn’t be such a mess!” she snapped. “Now, will you please stop wasting my time and get out of here!”

“Look, my daughter is having all these...horrendous nightmares, and I’m not leaving until she gets help!” he snapped.

“It’s true,” said Samantha. “Sometimes the nightmares are so terrible, I do terrible things in my

sleep. I honestly wish I wasn’t like this.”

“Okay, fine,” said the nurse. “You can see the doctor now.”

Eventually, she was taken to see another doctor.

“You see, my daughter...she’s having unusual visions at night that are making her scream and go berserk. As her father, I often have to deal with the strange and unusual, but this is too strange and unusual even for me,” said the doctor.

“What do you mean?” said the other doctor.

“Well, she says she’s seeing doctors killed, and for her, it’s so horrific, she can’t stay calm, let alone sleep at night.” he replied.

“Well, then, we’ll have to look into her condition, but in the meantime, she can stay here,” said the doctor, guiding them to a sterile-looking hospital room. “Hope she doesn’t mind.”

That night, she had a strange dream.

“Samantha Strange?” she asked, calling for her.

“Yes?” she asked.

“You were asking to see me?”

“I don’t believe so,” said Samantha.”

“Foolish!” she said. “You’re Dr. Strange’s daughter, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

“You appear as though you haven’t had a lot of sleep,” she said. “What’s the matter?”

"Interesting you should ask. I've been seeing strange visions at night, of medical doctors being murdered in the most peculiar ways," Samantha told the nurse. "They kind of resemble the doctors that Dad works with. In fact, they look completely identical to the ones he works with…." she went on.

"I see," she replied. "Go on.”

"I feel terrified for all the poor doctors who are getting killed!" she exclaimed. "And I know that dreams aren’t real, but...I have a strange sensation as though my dreams are. Real, I mean."

"Oh dear,” said the nurse, baffled by Samantha’s condition, but figured that, since Samantha was under her care, decided to do whatever she could to make her feel comfortable. She decided to tell her more about her father.

“Samantha, as I was saying earlier, there is a reason behind your special power. Just like you are no ordinary teenage girl, your father is no ordinary man," the lady told her.

"What do you mean?" she asked her. "What makes him so extraordinary?"

She looked at her, apprehensively.

"Tell me about my father!" she exclaimed. “Tell me!”

"Okay, okay, fine. Your dad, he used to work as a doctor with me, until this texting- while driving accident robbed him of the use of his hands. So, he went to Tibet to study under us. However, there were those whose power merely corrupted them. To stop them, your father decided to create his own community, called the League of Shadows, to take them on. However, it didn’t work. Your dad's cult tried to destroy him, but it didn't work. Dr. Dunham was just too powerful," she said.

"So that explains why I have natural purple hair and eyes!" exclaimed Samantha.

“Exactly!” said the lady.

“I have one question,” asked Samantha.

“Yes?”

“How can you prove you’re really the way you are?” she asked.

“Pardon?”

“Well, I know with all my issues, they’re somehow connected to this whole spiritual power. Can you demonstrate for real?”

Suddenly, The Ancient One used astral projection to push Samantha out of her body. It was awfully quick, but Samantha was still shocked.

“Your father would know,” she asked. “Surely, if you look at your father’s studies, he’d surely know about the ways of the Mystic Arts, wouldn’t he?”

“Wait a minute. First I have nightmares, and now this bald lady is telling me I’m a superhero fated to stop this evil guy. Guess the only logical reaction is to freak out.”

And freak out she did. As she screamed, suddenly, the nurse came in to see her.

“Well, well, well. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” she snarked.

She tried to run out of her room, but the nurses were able to get her back to bed.

“No, I can explain-” she said.

No, no you can’t she thought to herself.

“She looks calm enough,” said the nurse. “Perhaps we can take her home tomorrow?”

“That doesn’t sound reasonable,” said the other nurse.

“We’ve done all we can,” said the other nurse. “I think as long as she’s calm now, she’ll be fine at home.”

“Okay, fine,” said the other doctor.

The following day, her father came to pick her up from the hospital.

"Excuse me, may I please see my daughter?" he asked.

“Well, If you’re interested in speaking to her, she’s out screaming like a banshee,” snapped the nurse.

Despite her difficulties, Samantha was well enough to come but slept the entire day. While she stopped having the nightmares, she was still having terrors at night- she would start thrusting all over the place, as if an invisible force were in control of her, and screaming loudly.

She decided to do some research on her father's practices, so she went to the Sanctum Santorum library.

“Hm...what have we here?” she said to herself, looking through her father’s books.

Suddenly, she found a big, dusty old book, right in the middle of the place.

“Ah… here we go,” she said, pulling it out of the bookshelf.

According to the book she found, her father was working alongside a man named Benjamin Dunham. His corrupt magic often clashed with his own practices, as he was studying rather corrupt practices to become immortal, which involved draining the life fluids of others. Thus in turn inspired him to create the League of Shadows as a secret organization to take him down. The cult's plans were unsuccessful due to the nature of Dr. Dunham's magic, as any plan perpetrated by the League to stop his work was either usurped by his own power, or found out by him and immediately halted by his magic. However, all hope was not lost, as a prophecy told him that the child of one of the founding members of the League would kill him. He was not sure who the child would be, which was why he was murdering various doctors and making them look like suicides. He didn't even check to see if they were married, let alone actual parents. Just the fact that they worked for him was enough to get them killed. And eventually, he would

commit a mass murdering scheme upon the entire city.

Eventually, an monstrously evil demon had his way with a young woman, her own mother, in the most horrific way possible. He appeared to her as a being so powerful and incomprehensible that trying to resist him was utterly impossible. Unable to get an abortion due to the nature of the baby's conception, Dr. Strange decided to use his own seed, via magic means, to replace the specimen used to impregnate his wife. However, that didn't stop forces from trying to halt the baby's birth, as she was cursed to be unable to give birth on any land where the sun shone. After enduring extreme pain for who knows how long, she eventually gave birth inside the Sanctum Sanctorum.

It was at that point that Samantha Strange, the young woman who would take on Dr. Benjamin Dunham, was finally born, much to her family's delight.

"What's that book that you're reading over there?" asked a mysterious man who had witnessed her.

“Oh, it's just something that I was interested in," she said.

"Very well then. Are you, by any chance, the daughter of Dr. Stephen-"

"Why are you asking me about my dad?" she asked back.

"Because I am Dr. Dunham, one of your father's colleagues. You're not by any chance-"

"No…" she lied to him. This man might be her father's arch-enemy, and she surely didn't want to blow her cover. She had also completely forgotten his own name!

After peering over to look at the book, he said, "The book says otherwise," he said. "You see, Samantha, I have heard of your night terrors. In fact, I have been putting them in your head. Now that you're here, I have a...surprise for you."

"He reached into his giant leather satchel, took out an extremely sharp-looking knife, and showed it to her with a deadly grin on his face.

Samantha was so scared that she wanted to scream, but she remembered that it was a library, so she merely gulped.

Then out of nowhere, she let out a dark purple, almost black, burst of energy out of the palm of her hand, and knocked out the knife, which cut his hand.

"What on earth?" he exclaimed, looking at his bloodied hand.

Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!" she exclaimed, getting paper towels to clean up the blood, baffled as to what had happened.

"Thank you, dear. You're too kind," he said in a calm tone of voice that masked his true nature.

"I honestly don't know what happened," she replied. “I was holding the knife, and then, this happened!”

“Oh really?” he asked. “That’s adorable. I can’t wait to see you again, sweetheart.”

One day, Samantha went to school as normal. Her first class was classics, and while her tired state made it difficult to concentrate, however, one line towards the end in particular struck out to her.

"But how did we end up here? The entire city was in a Bacchic madness. Dionysus has destroyed us all.”

"How could someone drive so many women insane?" she asked, raising her hand.

"Funny you should ask that, Samantha. He said that he was a son of a god, they merely laughed in his face," said the teacher. "You could probably see what happens next."

Soon enough, the bell rang, and everyone went off to their classes. As she tried to navigate through the swarms of students, Samantha took deep breaths to calm herself.

Almost immediately, she collapsed onto the floor without warning. The only person who had clearly noticed was her friend Arya.

"Samantha? Samantha? Are you okay?" she asked. She didn't respond.

Arya immediately pulled out her cell phone and called 911, which was the same one that Samantha had stayed at before.

"Hello, is this 911? My friend here is lying unconscious and I don't know what to do," said Arya.

"Not to worry," replied the nurse, who just so happened to be the same nurse who had taken her that fateful night her father had brought her. "We'll get her here soon enough."

After being driven to the hospital, Samantha was finally awake.

"Good morning, sweetheart," said the nurse.

"I...uh...must have had a terrible vision. In it, my father was brutally murdered," she said.

"Oh my goodness!" said the nurse.

"So that means that-" she said before she was cut off. As it turned out, her father had narrowly averted his own terrible death by using the "Dreamscape" spell, which could transport others into dreams, to transport Samantha into the dream to save his life.

“What the hell just happened?” she asked, starring out into the clear abyss. “Okay, Dad, please tell me this isn’t one of your stupid magic tricks again.”

Suddenly, a ghostly figure entered the room.

“Dad? Daddy? Is that you?" she called out, desperately wanting it to be her father.

"Hello there, Samantha darling," said Dr. Dunham to her, in a tone of voice that resembled her father’s. "I have your daddy. All he has to do to be set free is to sacrifice his daughter, yourself, to me.

At that point, she had finally found her father, right next to him. He appeared to be more

disheveled than usual, with unkempt hair and a scraggly beard, and was trapped through the Eye of Agametto that Dr. Dunham had had for himself.

"Do whatever you want to me, but please leave her alone," he said in a state of tranquil fury.

"Funny you should say that," he replied, grabbing Samantha with the knife he previously had. "As I said, either you sacrifice yourself to me, or she goes."

"Prepostrous!" he said. "You want us both dead. I have a way to save the both of us."

"Make me," said Dr. Olsen.

"Oh, I'll surely make you…" he said. He then set himself free with the Hosts of Hoggorth, then transferred some of his power into Samantha.

"Daddy, what's happening to me-" said Samantha, a little shocked at what was happening.

"You'll see," he said.

Samantha felt the power that was growing inside of her. Suddenly a dark purple light shone on Dr. Dunham's knife, flying toward Samantha's hand. Yet, instead of piercing it, rather, the handle had come to her hand, giving her the power to attack him. She then flew the knife at him, piercing his shoulder. The magic in his system regenerated the bruise there as if it was nothing.

"Wow…" she said quietly. "It's times like this you gotta recognize the weapon in your mind."

With tranquil fury at what happened, she then proceeded to kick into overdrive with her father's magic and proceeded to back-flipp at him. She then karate-chopped his neck, which made him drop the knife.

"Samantha, how do you know this man?" her father asked her.

She then told her father why the strange man had tried to kidnap her back at the library.

"So you see, this doctor found me at the library, he recognized me as your daughter, one thing led to another, and, well…"

"Dr. Dunham- Dormamuu!” her father replied. "So that's why you've been acting up at night! Samantha, I am so sorry about this!"

“What, you’ve forgotten about him already?” asked Samantha.

“Why, yes,” said Dormamuu. You’ve forgotten about me already?”

He then turned to him.

"If you so much as lay a finger on my dear Samantha, there will be a terrible price to pay!" he shouted at him in a stern fury, while thrusting a bright orange magical beam of energy at him.

He meant business, but Dr. Dunham couldn't care less about what he said. He wanted to kill Samantha, or at least her father.

In that case… he declared. “It’s time you witness my TRUE form!”

“Don’t you see, Samantha?” he asked in a terrifying tone of voice. “I am the embodiment of your worst nightmare. I am the demon that has terrified you throughout your entire life. And now…” he declared. “You will witness my TRUE form!

His body mutated from that of a seemingly ordinary doctor, into that of a horrifying monster. His muscles bulged out, his face distorted into something grotesque, and his whole body overpowered her. Samantha looked horrified.

"I'm not afraid of you," she exclaimed, standing right in front of his horrifying shape. It wasn't quite true, in fact she was absolutely terrified, but she wanted to show him who was really going to win this battle, the battle between the young maiden and the horrifying, morally corrupt beast.

She then thought for a moment, realizing that, through all this time, her father had taught her how to utilize her anger to fight her inner demons. As her powers grew, so did her desire to stop him.

As her eyes glowed a deep purple, she slowly mustered the ability to overpower him. Suddenly, she created a spell so powerful, even the most powerful of demons would be unable to overcome it. Gritting her teeth, she drove a spell straight through his heart.

“That’s beautiful, sweetheart,” said Dormamuu. “Any other magic tricks up your sleeve?”

Suddenly, Samantha decided to transport him into her own dream, using the “Dreamscape” spell through her father. In her dream, he died a horrible death at the hands of her magic- she had used a spell to make him evaporate into the floor, wholly conscious.

Dr. Dunham screamed in pain, then finally disintegrated into the floor, where he shrunk back into his old self as he died. Afterwards, Samantha hugged her dad, then smiled.

"You are more powerful than you could ever imagine," he told her.

"Thank you," she said quietly, then thought for a little while. "Hey Dad?" she replied.

“Yes, my dear?" he replied back.

"What will happen when his company knows he's dead?"

"Not an issue. We'll just say he died in an accident. That will give him a taste of his own medicine, wouldn't it?"

"It sure would!" replied Samantha.

Her dad said nothing, but just smiled.

My work here is done he thought to himself.