Good old New England. I always like going there in the fall to see the leaves change, and it was the center of the worst crap in the world. Any time any monster popped up, half the time it was here. That’s one of the reasons I don’t travel the world much because for the most part they are here. I do get to leave the country every once in a while, though.
The reason I was going this time was because there were a bunch of cats vanishing. I know what you’re thinking; it’s probably a coyote. If it was do think I would be telling you this story? No, and it’s not a werewolf either. I know dogs chase cats, very funny. This was very cut and dry. Any time cats go missing it only meant one thing: a witch.
Witches have been around since the beginning and they might have even started a few of the other monsters. Now, I know that it is common that a witch will always have a black cat with them as a pet but that is so far off. What witches really do with cats is use them for ingredients in their messed up potions or spells or whatever crap they do. So, when cats go missing I go looking.
I hate witches. The stuff they could do is beyond stupid. They could make things appear out of thin air, lift me off the ground without touching me, and who knows what else. Their power seemed almost limitless. I’d rather run into a wall headfirst 17 times than face a green-faced magic beast. This is what I do though so I didn’t have a choice.
The air was cool and the sun was shining in the town of Salem, MA. I hoped that after I was done here I could take a couple of days to relax but that barely ever happened. The only reason I paid attention to the town name is because I have been here numerous times. It’s a hot spot. I guess that makes sense with all of the Salem witches back in the 1600’s. That was all a hoax, though. The real witches were never caught, because they are good at what they do. They weren’t caught by humans anyway, but that’s a story for someone else to tell.
It was getting close to Halloween time and it was a Saturday so the place was pretty busy. Downtown was packed with tourists and the general public. I hated Halloween since I pretty much lived it everyday. The ride was long and the witch was going to be impossible to find during the day so I decided to find something to eat. I just got some take out, though, because I wasn’t in the mood to sit in a restaurant by myself. You would think that with all the time I spend alone that I wouldn’t mind but I do, so drop it.
As I ate the steak sub I bought from the pizza place I watched everyone walk around, enjoying their sunny weekend. I was jealous. They all—well, you too I guess—get to live their naïve lives and not care about fighting things you only see in horror movies. I remember when I used to be able to live like that. Life was so simple and my biggest worry was if I was going to get the dinner that I wanted. Funny enough, that wasn’t really a problem anymore.
I missed my parents. I might put on a tough guy persona and I am, don’t think you can come attack me and I won’t beat the crap out of you because I will, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have feelings. Sometimes my thoughts were drowned by the memory of their deaths but I tried not to think about that too much because at some point something usually ended up broken. Like a stick or a car door.
While trying to avoid those bad feelings, I tried to think about the last time I was here. There was a pair of vampires, surprisingly enough. Those things are just like mosquitoes and every time I kill one four more pop up. It was very aggravating. Anyway, so there were a couple of vampires snatching people up and I had been tracking them from somewhere in Maine. I finally caught up to them here. They were trying to grab a couple out for a walk but I saved them just in time.
“Thank you so much,” the man had said. “How can I ever repay you?”
He repaid me by never remembering when I erased his memory. Sometimes it was tough to do that but I had too, otherwise I could be tracked, which would be terrible because with my job comes with too many questions. Those were questions that I just didn’t want to answer.
I wanted to find the witch as soon as possible to get rid of it so I needed to start asking around. They usually stayed off in the woods but there were a lot of woods so it would be better to try to find an exact location. I couldn’t just go around asking about witches because, well, I was in Salem and people wouldn’t know about real witches. The worst part was they could be any one. They had the ability to hide their true form and look like a normal human. I told you witches have stupid powers.
I finished up my sub and went to start finding the people with missing cats when there was a voice behind me.
“Wes Parker,” the voice said.
It wasn’t very often that I heard someone say my name—almost never actually—so it certainly caught my attention when somebody did. I knew who it was before I even looked at her.
“Kelly,” I said. “What a surprise.” Remember before how I said I was the only one who could protect the world? I wasn’t exactly being 100 percent truthful. There’s this secret organization, that doesn’t work with the government I don’t think, that searches out and fights monsters as well. I don’t know when they were formed but I do know that it was a paladin that started it.
Kelly and I go way back. Basically I saved her life. I’ll tell you about how we met some other time but not right now.
“What brings you here?” she asked. Her name is Kelly Johnson but I don’t think that is her real name. She has been in the agency for about six years, I think. She’s about 30 years old with blonde hair and she was absolutely gorgeous.
“Oh,” I started, “I’m just here for the foliage.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Why are you here?”
“Visiting family.” Yeah I’m sure. I don’t know why we always danced around the point like this but we do.
“How are the kids?”
“Let’s just get to the point.”
“OK.” She doesn’t have kids. At least I didn’t know if she did.
“What do you know?”
“Probably as much as you do, maybe even less.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“Believe what you want. All I know is that it’s a witch.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. If cats go missing then that’s a witch. I know you know that otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” Witches were rare. I myself had only run into maybe four before this one. I didn’t know for sure that she knew that because we had never ran into one together but she was there so she knew something was up.
We were both sitting on the bench looking out at the people passing by us, no longer looking at each other. I wonder how long it was going to take her to ask me to join her organization. I still don’t know the name of it.
“Why won’t you come join us?” she asked me, right on cue. I could understand why they wanted me to join because even though a paladin started the organization, there were none left, except for me. So it only made sense that they would want someone like me at there side.
“Nah,” I started. “We’ve got a good thing going here. We see each other when we can, no strings attached. Let’s not ruin that.”
Kelly just nodded her head. She might not be smiling on the outside but I knew she was in the inside.
“I did run into something interesting a few weeks back,” I told her. I didn’t mind sharing some information with her. It couldn’t hurt. We might go back and forth like we didn’t know what we were talking about but in the end we would do what we can to help each other out. We were trying to accomplish the same thing and rid the world of monsters.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“I was in Indiana fighting a pack of vampires.” Remember them? I’ll give you a quick refresher, like last weeks episode. I was in Indiana fighting a pack of vampires that were trying to turn a bunch of people, but like always I killed them all and cured all of the people. It was all in a days work.
“Nothing out of the ordinary there.”
“Yeah, except there were almost 20 of them.” That was enough for her to turn and look at me th
en. It was just as much as a surprise to her.
“What were they doing?”
“Oddly enough they were turning more people.”
“They weren’t just using them for food?”
“No and they were doing it fast, too. I’m surprised you guys missed that one.”
“Any ideas why?” she asked, ignoring the last comment.
“No. Might be nothing.”
Kelly didn’t looked convinced, but then again neither was I. There was definitely something weird with a vampire gathering of that many. The most I’d seen before was maybe four or five but that was it.
“Why don’t we work this one together?” Kelly suggested.
“Come on,” I said. “You know I don’t play well with others.”
“Just figured you might have a change of heart. On our own then I guess. Just stay out of our way then.” She wasn’t really on her own. She wouldn’t last a second by herself, even with the amount of training and the weapons she has.
“May the best man win then?”
“I’m not a man.”
“Neither am I.” I’m a paladin. I guess that I am still technically a man but I’m not a human so I’m not. Stop spitting hairs.
“Hmm,” she hummed and the left.
I watched her as she walked away, mainly because it was almost impossible not to. I was sure that even if I didn’t want to work with her that at some point we would end up together anyway. Any time we were in the same town fighting the same monster we always did. Well, her and the other six people who were on her team. I wonder just how far their resources stretched out. They had to have had more than I did because I just had my axes, my Desert Eagles, the Internet and a credit card with no limit and no payments needed.
There was a jingling somewhere close by. It sounded like a small bell, like something you’d find on a dog or a cat. A cat! I scanned the crowd trying to find the source of the noise and saw it running down the sidewalk. That might seem ordinary. It might also seem ordinary that there was a little girl chasing it except for the fact that it wasn’t a little girl.
I followed the “little girl” down the street while she was chased the cat like her life depended on it. To be honest it seemed a little bit obvious to me but I couldn’t take my chances. I had my bottle of water from the pizza shop with me, which was good because I was going to need that.
We both ran for about half a mile before I caught up to her and she turned around to look at me. Before she had time to utter some stupid spell I threw the water right into her face and waited. I waited longer, and I waited even longer. It occurred to me that I might have made a big mistake.
“What was that for?” she said as she started to cry.
“I…” I stuttered. I looked around and realized that everyone was staring at me, and more importantly one of them was a cop. I could have run but that would only draw more attention to me and I couldn’t just wipe everyone’s memory of this because there were too many people. Needless to say I was in a lot of trouble.
“What are you doing?” the cop.
I looked back and forth between him and the girl several times.
“She looked thirsty?” I tried. So, thirty minutes later I found myself sitting in a jail cell. Don’t worry, though, this isn’t the first time I have been arrested before so I would get out of this.
I was surprised that the water didn’t reveal her true identity. I guess that was her true identity, though. Oh, right. Sorry. Water will force a witch to show her true form. What did you think, that it would melt her? HAHAHA. Please pull your head out of your…sorry, but seriously try to forget any ideas you have about how to kill any monster because more than likely you are very wrong. If you end up being right then good for you. I’m very proud.
I needed to figure out how I was going to get out of there but I would probably just do what I did every time that I was put in jail: wait for the late night shift, wipe everyone’s memory, and then break my way out. Bending the bars for me is like snapping a twig to you.
The cop who arrested me walked over to the cell and looked in at me. I recognized him. I didn’t know who he was personally but I had seen him when I had been there before. He was trying to stare me down but I just looked right back at him. There was nothing that he could do to me that made me afraid of him.
He was tall and well built. I’m guessing that he is somewhere in his late thirties, maybe early forties, because he had salt and pepper hair. He wasn’t the chief or anything but I could tell this guy liked authority, but not in a bad way.
“What were you doing?” he asked me.
“She had a spot on her face so I just wanted to clean it off,” I cracked. He just chuckled. It was faked, of course.
“You’ve come into my town and started making trouble. I don’t like it.”
“I don’t imagine you get too much trouble here.” None that he knew of anyway.
“No, and I plan to keep it that way.”
“Listen Officer--,” I took a closer at his nametag, “Bennett, I wasn’t trying to start anything.”
“Then do you plan on telling me why you felt the need to splash water on the face of an eight year-old girl?”
I looked at him for the longest time, not really sure what I wanted to say. I could sit there and just say nothing. Eventually he would just walk away angry, but that didn’t seem to be the best route.
“I just needed to make sure,” I finally said.
“Make sure of what?” he asked.
I just started to laugh uncontrollably. I couldn’t believe that I was about to tell him but there was really no harm in it. “To make sure she’s not a witch.” I had the hardest time getting it out but I finally managed. There’s no need to fuss about it, he’s not going to believe me.
The expression on his face went from amused to somewhere between anger and confusion. I didn’t blame him. If I were in his position I would probably be feeling the same way.
“Either you’re hiding something,” officer Bennett began, “or we’re going to end up tossing you into the loony bin.”
“I have a feeling that I am going to get out of this just fine,” I told him.
“Dreams of grandeur.”
“What are you holding me for anyway?”
“Disturbing the peace and assault.”
“That second one is a stretch, don’t you think?”
I guess that he was done with me because he just walked away and left me to think. I made a stupid and rash decision to just throw water on the girl, especially in front of the entire town. Where were her parents? Never mind. I should have waited until she was out of view or followed her, but I figured I had the upper hand on her so I didn’t want to waste that. I’m only seventeen; cut me some slack. I have impulses you know.
As the day passed by there were no other visitors brought into the holding cell with me and the place was quiet and relatively boring. That should be good but I was getting kind of anxious just sitting there and waiting. It wasn’t like I was afraid of what was going to happen. I already told you I knew how I was going to get out of there. Just sitting still not trying to find or kill something made me want to kill something—not a human.
It was getting pretty close to nighttime and I knew that Officer Bennett would be leaving soon. I needed to make my move soon. The problem from here was I was going to have to be careful who saw me if I wanted to remain under the radar while I was searching for the witch. Plus if I ever wanted to come back I was probably going to have to erase some memories before I left.
Bennett walked toward me. This was going to be easier than I thought. I wasn’t going to have to try to get his attention and come over to me. He started to open the door and I was a little troubled by that.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He looked at me and I could tell that he was aggravated. “You’re free to go.”
“Huh?” I said, dumbfounded. I had never just been let go before so you could understand my confusion
.
“Look’s like your getting a pass on this one,” said Bennett. He was really unhappy.
“OK.” I slowly stood up and started to walk out. “I don’t like to question situations like this but why?”
Bennett just nodded, so I turned. I instantly understood when I saw Kelly standing there in a suit.
“Ah, right,” I said. “It has been a pleasure Officer and thank you for the hospitality but I will see you around.”
He grabbed me by the arm and held me tight—as tight as a human could, anyway.
“You better hope not,” he said, “and if you step one toe out of line you won’t get any ‘get out of jail free’ card again.”
“Noted,” I said and he let go. As I walked toward Kelly I raised my eyebrows and grinned. She shook her head, trying to tell me not to do anything stupid. That’s what I got from it anyway.
When we walked outside we headed for her car.
“You bailed me out,” I said. “You are so sweet.”
“I couldn’t leave you in there,” she said. “You know too much.”
“You know I could have gotten out, right?”
“Yeah but this way was much cleaner.”
I nodded my head.
“How did you get me out?” I asked her.
“Don’t worry about it,” she answered. “Just try not to be so careless from here.”
“No promises.”
After we climbed into the ridiculously nice car—maybe I should consider joining—she put it in drive and we headed out.
“We need to go to my bike,” I said. “I’m guessing they didn’t find it or I’m sure they would have asked a lot more questions.”
“They don’t have it,” she informed me.
“How do you know that?”
“I took it when I saw them arrest you. Don’t worry it’s safe.”
I was very concerned with the fact that she had taken my bike without my permission, even though I appreciated that the police didn’t find it, but there was something else that was bothering me.
“You knew I was in there all day and waited until now to get me out?” I asked her, kind of aggravated.
“Yeah,” she replied matter-of-factly.
“Why?”
“I figured you could have used the time to think.”
I was mad. Not only did her agency obviously have more power that I realized, but she also wanted to teach me a stupid lesson. It’s not like I didn’t know how stupid I was. She didn’t need to prove a point.
“Whatever,” I whined. “Just take me to get my bike. Where is it?”
“Back at the hotel my team and I are staying at,” she replied.
“Good. I could use a room, too.”
“We’re not paying for your room.”
“I don’t expect you to.” I felt like I could smack her I was so mad. I wouldn’t hit a girl or woman, though, even if they could kill a vampire. I’ll just splash water in their faces.
The motel wasn’t far from the jail cell but that didn’t really matter too much because it was just far enough for us to not make it. All of a sudden everything around us shifted from houses and businesses to a wooded area. Now that might seem weird to a normal person but those that are familiar with a witch know that this is not that out there. I wonder if she moved us or was just creating an illusion. Either way it wasn’t cool. I told you—witches’ powers were beyond ridiculous.
All of a sudden the car grind to a halt.
“I’m thinking this isn’t the best time to stop,” I pointed out.
“I didn’t stop,” she said.
“Crap.”
The doors whipped open and the two of us were ripped from the car like we were rag dolls. I landed on my back and rolled off into the woods. I was quick to recover, though, because I couldn’t let Kelly face off with the witch by herself. She wouldn’t survive it.
When I reached the other side of the road and found her holding her arm I was sure that it was broken.
“Are you OK?” I asked her.
“I’ll live,” she said, “for now.”
“We need to get out of here.”
It was already too late, though. The witch was floating toward us, hovering a foot off of the ground with a cloud of mist trailing behind her. Something about this witch seemed different, like she was stronger than what I was used to. She let out a blood curdling laugh that made my skin crawl.
“I have grown tired of your presence,” she said in a low, booming voice. “Now you will pay the price.”
The problem was, we probably were. My bike had anything that I needed to get rid of the witch but I had nothing. Fire was the best thing to use against them but I didn’t even have a lighter. It’s their kryptonite. If I tried to attack her she would just turn me into a rabbit or something crazy like that.
That didn’t matter, though, because I had to try. I ran toward her and leapt in the air. Then there was a bright, white light.
I woke up in a cheap motel room with Kelly standing over me, waiting. She really was beautiful but seeing her just standing over me was kind of creeping me out.
I was confused because the last thing I remember was running at a witch and her flash banging me.
“How did we get away?” I asked her. “I thought we were toast.”
She pulled out her gun.
“Are you going to tell me that you just shot her?” That seemed impossible.
“No,” she answered. “This is a flamethrower. You didn’t think I would go up against a witch unprepared, did you?” She was indicating that I did.
“I didn’t expect to get arrested.” I hated the fact that a human was able to stop the witch and I wasn’t.
“Right.”
“That was weird, right? I mean I have only gone up against a couple of witches but this one seemed strong. I could feel it.”
“I wouldn’t know. That is the first witch I have faced.”
“Really? Then how did you know what to do?”
She just looked at me.
“Right,” I said. Her agency really did know its stuff.
Kelly walked away from me and went over to her computer, a cup of coffee sat next to it. I wasn’t a big coffee drinker myself. I didn’t understand what all the hype about it was because it tasted disgusting. Stretching my arms high in the air I stood up and tried to shake off the ache in my body. That witch really did a number on me, whatever she did.
“So,” I started, “what’s on the agenda for today?”
“You get out of here,” she blurted.
“Jeez. Just kick me out the next morning.”
“You’re the one who wanted to work this one alone.”
“True. Where’s my bike?”
“Outside.” She threw me the keys.
“Thanks.”
Without another word I walked out of the door and found my motorcycle, looking all kinds of good. I looked it up and down to make sure that there was nothing wrong with her.
“They didn’t hurt you, did they girl?” I asked her. No I’m not crazy. Don’t tell me none of you out there don’t treat your car or bike like this. Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Anyway, I climbed on my bike and headed for the closest food place that I could find. I hadn’t eaten since the day before at lunchtime. Paladins burned a lot of calories and therefore needed a lot of food. That being said I needed something and fast. There was a nice place that had really good burgers so I stopped in there. Halfway through my burger I wished I hadn’t, though. The little girl whose face I splashed was sitting on the other side of the diner.
I whipped around and sat on the other side of the booth so that my back was facing her, hoping that she hadn’t saw me. That didn’t help, however, because Officer Bennett sat across from me right as I sat down.
“Good burger?” he asked me.
“One of the best I’ve ever had,” I replied.
“If I’m ever having a bad day I always come here and get myself one.”
/> “I can understand why.” I wasn’t really sure what he was getting at.
“I told you I didn’t want to see you again,” he said.
I had just taken a bite of my delicious burger so for a little bit I just chewed on it. My mother always taught me never to talk with my mouthful.
“I just came here to get some food,” I told him. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“I can promise you that if you put one toe out of line I will know about it. I’m going to be watching you. If you move I will see it. If you whisper I will hear it and if you sneeze you better believe that I will be there to say bless you. I will have an eye on your every move. I may not be able to just kick you out of my town but I can arrest you if you mess up again and that pretty little blonde won’t be able to get you out again.”
I nodded my head and knew that his words were true, but honestly all I had to do was zap the guy’s brain and he would never know that I even existed. I had no intentions of leaving until I saw that witch dead by the blade of my axe. Officer Bennett could do whatever he wanted but he wasn’t going to be able to stop me.
“OK,” was all I said.
He stood up and straightened his uniform. “Have a good day.” Then he was gone. I wanted to be out of there soon because I didn’t want the girl to see me and I needed to get some headway on the witch, before she flash banged me again—or worse.
I quickly ate my food and then left. Luckily enough the girl didn’t see me, so I got out of there before she had the chance. I quickly looked up some of the families whose cats were missing and nothing about any of them really stood out to me. So, I closed my eyes, pointed my finger, and chose the one my finger landed on.
As I approached the house it was a large white house with blue shutters and two floors. There was a garden of flowers in the front and a stone wall lining the front perimeter. It kind of reminded me of my house. To be honest my parents were kind of rich. My dad was a software developer for a very large company but I honestly don’t even remember the name—it all seemed so distant to me.
The walkway from the drive to the house was made of stone and there were little lights lined up on both sides. No, they weren’t on--it was the middle of the day. Come on, try to keep up. There was a little boy sitting on the porch, clutching a stuffed animal. He was probably as old as the girl whose face I splashed and he looked liked he had been crying. When he saw me coming he jumped a little bit but I held my hands up, trying to let him know it was OK.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi,” he replied.
“You OK?”
“Fluffy is missing.” Fluffy. Seriously?
“I’m sorry little guy. What happened?”
He shook his head. “He didn’t come home one day. I think it was the scary lady.”
That certainly peeked my interest.
“What scary lady?” I asked him.
“The one who looks in through my window at night,” he answered. I felt chills running up and down my spine. If I woke up to a witch staring at me I am pretty sure I would need a fresh pair of pants. Something about that was strange.
“When is the last time you saw her?”
“Right before Fluffy…Fluffy disappeared.” That makes more sense. She was watching the cat, not the kid—I hoped.
“Look,” I started but the door opened up, interrupting me.
“Who are you?” shouted what I assumed to be the mom. “Jimmy, get away from him.”
Jimmy walked away from me but he wasn’t as scared as when he first saw me.
“You’re that kid that threw water at that girl,” she stated. Crap.
I went to throw my hands up to delete the memory but Kelly came strolling out, so I stopped. I wasn’t sure if she knew about that and I didn’t want to give my ability away.
“Thank you for your time, Mrs. Tibbs,” she said. “I will gladly escort Wes out of here.”
“How are you not in jail?” Mrs. Tibbs asked me.
“I… uh…” I stammered.
“Let’s go,” Kelly ordered.
We walked down the pathway and Mrs. Tibbs stared at me the entire way.
“You know you shouldn’t say my name,” I said.
“Stop,” she blurted.
“OK.”
She grabbed my arm and spun me around. She was stronger than I gave her credit for.
“What?” I asked.
“We have a big problem.”
Of course we had a problem--we had to deal with a witch. I didn’t know why Kelly thought any different before.
“Yeah,” I said. “We haven’t found the witch yet.”
“It’s more than that,” Kelly explained.
“How so?”
“Just get in the car.”
“OK, but are you going to tell me what you mean?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
“I have my bike here.”
“Right. Meet me at the library then.”
“Seriously.”
“Yes.”
She didn’t say another word but got in her car and drove away. If there was something that was freaking her out then it was probably worth finding out what she had to say, but I looked back and saw that Mrs. Tibbs was still looking at me. If I didn’t do what I needed to then she was just going to keep worrying and probably cause me a lot of trouble while I was there. I walked up to her.
“Don’t come any closer,” she warned me.
“Look,” I said, “I just want to apologize.”
“You can apologize all you want but don’t take one step closer to me.”
“OK.” I was close enough anyway. “I just want you to know that you won’t have to worry about me.”
“You bet I won’t.”
I raised my hands and let the light shoot out of my hands, wiping the memory that I had ever been there. I got back on my bike and headed for the library, curious about what Kelly had to say. I could have just stayed and tried to get it out of Mrs. Tibbs but there was no way she would have talked to me. So, my options were limited.
I arrived at the library and it was surprisingly busy, which made me nervous. Everyone seemed to recognize me just for splashing water on a girl, so that wasn’t good.
Kelly was waiting outside for me.
“Come on,” she said.
“Why are we at a library?” I asked.
“Maybe you should stop asking questions and just follow me.”
“Lead the way then.”
We made our way through the library and I kind of expected us to head right to the computers, even though she probably had her own with a connection wherever she went, but instead we headed for the basement. I wanted to ask her why but I also didn’t want to be a pest so I just continued to follow, wondering what she was doing.
Once we got down to the basement Kelly started searching through a shelf of books that looked like they hadn’t been checked out in over a hundred years. She pulled a particularly large and old one, and brought it over to a table. We were all but alone except for one employee who was pointlessly organizing the shelves.
She started flipping through.
“You know if there is anything that we need to find we could probably just look on the Internet,” I told her. Although, I knew that there were some things that couldn’t be looked up that way.
“Yeah,” she replied. “Here. Look.” She turned the book and pushed it my way. I looked at the page and read the title: The Terrible Three.
“The Terrible Three,” I said out loud. “The first witches.”
“I was talking with Mrs. Tibbs and she just brushed over it. I pressed it further but she didn’t know anymore, but then I remembered reading about it a long time ago.”
“Yikes. These three certainly lived up to the name they were given.”
“Yes. They were the most ruthless and evilest of witches that have ever walked this Earth.”
“Yeah, I remember. What’s your point?”
“I said I had never ran into a
witch before,” she started, “but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know about them. The amount of cats that have disappeared is astronomical, which would probably mean a large spell. You also mentioned that the witch felt strong.”
“Yeah, I did.” I could feel it in my gut when we were almost killed by her.
“These witch sisters terrorized throughout the ages until sometime in the 1500’s.”
“Right. Two of them were burned but the third no one ever saw again.”
“Exactly, but there have been supposed sightings throughout the years,” she continued.
“Yeah I know but I still don’t see why you think this involves her.”
“The last time she was seen was during the witch trials where 28 cats went missing.” A little something left out of the history books.
I thought about how many were missing this time and the number landed right on 28. Uh oh.
“If I’m right,” Kelly started, “we have one of the first witches here in Salem and whatever she is planning she is going to do it very soon.”
It was Halloween and we still hadn’t found the witch. For those keeping score at home that was five days since we last saw her, and four days since we were at the library. Based on the conversation that Kelly and I had I would have expected to run into the witch by now. It was Halloween, like I said, so it would make perfect sense that she would wait until then. All Hallows Eve was the night when witches’ powers were amplified. So, it wasn’t that far out there to assume that she was probably going to perform something huge that night.
It was still pretty early in the day so there really wasn’t any trick or treating yet and it was doubtful that whatever the witch was going to do she was going to do it in the daytime. It just wasn’t their style. The only problem is we still didn’t find out where she was hiding or where she was trying to perform the spell the last time. It only made sense that she would do it there again.
I ended up staying in the same motel as Kelly and her team. I hadn’t really seen any of them yet because they had been off doing their own investigation. It made sense for me to stay there, though. If this really was one of the terrible three then we were all going to need all of the help we could get.
The morning was cool and there was a light breeze pushing all of the fallen leaves around. There was a heavy overcast giving the day a nice ominous feel. I hated that. Halloween was bad enough as it was; I didn’t need this gloomy setting.
The motel had two levels and I was walking down the stairs when one of Kelly’s teammates or coworkers or whatever you want to call it was walking toward me. It was Lenny. He was a tall guy with a ridiculously strong build. If I wasn’t who I was I would have been intimidated but I wasn’t. He always looked angry but that could have been the fact that he absolutely hated me. I wasn’t really sure why but it might be because of the one time that I sort of broke his nose… and his jaw… and knocked out three of his teeth. That was all with one punch. If it were me I would have gotten over that by now. It was six months ago already.
“Hey, Jenny,” I said. “I mean Lenny.”
He looked like he wanted to punch me in the face but the last time he tried that he was the one who got punched. So, I think he knew better than to do that.
“Go see Kelly,” he said bluntly.
“That wasn’t very nice,” I pointed out. “It makes me not want to do it, even if wasn’t Kelly being rude. So, can we try that again?” Don’t act like I’m the jerk. He started it.
“I would love to just knock you out.”
“You can’t.”
“Let’s not make this difficult.”
“Well, I have things to do. Please give my regards to Kelly.”
“Fine. Kelly would like to see you.” See how fast he turned around. Kelly was in charge and she sent Lenny to come get me. If he went back without me than I’m sure she wouldn’t be a very happy camper.
“That’s better,” I said as I pushed past him. He gave a little shove back but I let it go. I had to give the guy some boost in confidence. If I were ever in a compromising position I would hope that he would have my back. Not that I would need him to.
Everyone was in the room doing various things: cleaning guns, packing grenades, and sharpening knives—the normal stuff. There were five of them in total. The last three were Damien, Greg and Lola. Damien was short with a shaved head, Lola was tall and scary, and Greg looked like a cross between Sloth—the character not the animal—and a jackal. He was very ugly. Kelly was looking over a map.
“You ever hear of Google Maps?” I asked her.
“I have an idea of where the sister may be,” she said, ignoring my comment.
“Where may that be?”
“In Salem Woods.”
“That’s kind of vague. Maybe you might want to be more specific.”
“It somewhere here, a few hundred feet from the golf course. It’s hard to tell for sure.”
“That’s a good place to start.”
“Let’s go.”
Everyone quickly finished what they were doing and got ready to go witch hunting. We needed the bare essentials: anything that could create fire and very powerful guns. Big guns wouldn’t kill her but they certainly will slow her down. You shoot a witch right in the head and it wouldn’t do crap. I could cut her head right off and she wouldn’t be dead. She won’t be able to move but if you put the head back on it will heal right up and she’ll be right as rain. It’s very disturbing.
“Do you have a flamethrower?” Kelly asked me.
“No,” I answered. “I’ve got a lighter and lighter-fluid. That will be fine for me.” Honestly if they had flamethrowers in the form of guns I would love one but I didn’t want them thinking I needed their help. Well, any more that is.
I followed them on my bike all the way to the woods. I wasn’t really sure where the planned on parking since it was the middle of the day, especially with all of the stuff we had with us. I couldn’t just march around with my axes and desert eagles. We found a nice quiet spot, though, and I decided to just carry my bag with me until we were in the woods.
As we hiked through the condensed trees I tried to heighten my senses because if the witch caught us off-guard, which she probably would, we were going to be in a whole heap of trouble.
“It should be right up ahead,” said Kelly.
“OK,” I replied. “Let’s be slow about this.”
We all slowly stalked forward. When I reached a bush I peaked over but there was nothing other than an empty clearing. It didn’t mean she was there, though. I stepped forward into the clearing with a bottle full of fluid and lighter in my hands. I stood there for almost three minutes.
“I don’t think she’s here,” I said.
“I’m right here,” a soft whisper spoke in my ear.
It was exactly as I said it would be. The witch caught us—more importantly me—off guard. I wasn’t proud that it happened but I knew that it would so there was no sense getting bent out of shape about it.
I woke up tied to a tree, as was the rest of the group, and it was nighttime. The rest of them were still unconscious. The witch was standing by a giant cauldron—yeah, some things are very stereotypical—and whatever she was mixing smelled horrible. That was expected, though, given what she was cooking. Plus there was no telling what else she was using.
She looked just like I expected her too. Her skin was green, she had a long nose and she wore a pointy black hat. Ha. Just kidding. Witches are so hideous that they actually make me cringe every time I look at them. Her skin was gray and looked like it was rotting, and there were patches of hair on top of her head. Her purple eyes—yes, just like The Witches—looked into her brew like she wanted to drink it, even though it was scolding hot. I started to wonder why she hadn’t killed us yet because normally a witch would have.
The witch eventually noticed that I was awake and started to float over towards me. It creeped me out a little bit.
“A paladin,” she said in a
surprisingly gentle voice. “I haven’t seen one of you in years. Not since I killed the last one.” True or not that certainly sent my stomach for a spin.
“A witch,” I replied. “I haven’t seen one of you since the last time I killed one.” She merely smiled. It was a horrible one but a smile none-the-less.
“I could feel you the moment you came here. You’ve been poking around ever since but you were taking so long I thought you would never find me. I really must thank you for bringing all of them here with you.” I was surprised she was able to get the better of everyone. She really must be the last sister of the Terrible Three.
“What do you want with all of us?” I asked her.
“Time,” she said. “In time.”
“You’re the last sister of the Terrible Three.”
“I haven’t heard that in centuries. My name is Belinda.”
“Wes.” I figured what the heck.
“I know.” Comforting.
“You were here back during the Salem Witch trials?”
“Yes I was.”
“I’m assuming that whatever you were doing back then you are now doing again?”
“You would be right.” I was surprised that she was answering me so quickly, but that meant she was more than sure she was going to kill me or that there was nothing that I could do to stop her.
“What were you doing?” I asked her, knowing what she was going to say before she did.
“The same thing that I have been doing for the past five centuries,” she started, “bringing back my sisters.” I’ll keep the language PG-13 so I won’t say the words I really want to say, but oh crap. If I couldn’t even get the better of her, what was I supposed to do against three of them? It took almost a dozen paladins to take down all three of them.
“I always enjoy a family reunion. Maybe I could go get some refreshments.”
“Soon.” What did that mean?
“OK, then. I don’t suppose that you will tell me why we are all here?”
“You are here tied up so you do not interfere,” Belinda explained. “They are here because I will need them to bring my sisters back.”
“What do you mean? What about all the cats?”
“Yes, that is for them to drink. I need to draw their souls to bring them back. How do you think the trials started before?”
“Some girl just wanted to start drama?”
“Hardly.”
“So were some of them actually witches?”
“No,” she said. “I got that stupid girl blabbing so the town was distracted. I didn’t fool the paladins, unfortunately.”
As she was talking I was trying to figure out a way to get out of the ropes but she put some sort of spell on the them so there was no getting out of it. I honestly didn’t see how I was going to possibly get out of it. I had pretty much accepted the fact that I was going to die. The worse part of it all was that she was so calm, and seemed so careless about it.
“Are you going to use my soul?” I asked her.
“I can’t,” she said. That was a relief.
She took one of the cats and tossed it in the pot. There was a loud sizzling sound and a loud pop. A puff of steam flew out and the smell amplified by a hundred.
“I think it is about ready and the moon is full,” she said. “Time for you to go.”
“Why did you wait all of this time?” I asked trying to stall.
She looked at me for a moment. “There are certain stars in alignment. It is beyond your understanding. Goodbye.”
I expected for her to kill me, but instead she just lifted the tree right out of the ground and sent me soaring through the air, back towards the center of the town.
I’ve been tossed into the air more times than I can count, but I have never been tossed while I was strapped to a tree. I don’t think I have ever been thrown that far when I didn’t have a tree tied to me. I was kind of impressed. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t die.
When we, the tree and I, hit the ground it definitely hurt. The tree all but exploded and we both skidded across the pavement for a good 40 feet. It was quite the scene. The worst part of it all was that it was right in the middle of the town, which meant that everyone who was out, and that was pretty much the entirety of Salem, saw it happen.
I looked around at everybody as they stared at me in complete awe. All the kids were dressed in costume, with bags of candy, as well as some of the teenagers that just had trouble letting go of their youth. I would have probably reacted just the same if I weren’t used to the impossible. I leaned back to crack my back and attempt to regain my strength. It was going to take a lot to erase everyone’s memories at once.
Officer Bennett was stalking toward me with his gun pointed right at my head.
“Don’t move,” he said. “Put your hands up.”
“Which is it?” I asked. “Don’t move, or put my hands up?”
“Put. Your. Hands. Up.”
“Seriously? You do realize that I was the one who was just tossed halfway across town, right? Why would you want to shoot me?”
“You stepped a toe out of line.”
“If you arrest or kill me then this town, and quite possibly the world, will be over.”
Bennett stopped for a second, momentarily believing me. He should. That, however, was short lived. It was a tricky situation because I needed to get away from him but at the same time I didn’t want to be shot. Hey, I’m fast but I’m not that fast.
“There’s a witch,” I started. “One of the first. She’s trying to bring back her two sisters and if she does it is over. There isn’t much time left.”
Bennett stared at me, as did everyone else, and he slowly started to lower his gun. He was starting to believe me. I quickly flashed my beam of light and wiped everyone’s memory, except for Bennett. In the blink of an eye—a human eye—I grabbed the gun and ripped it out of his hands.
“What did you just do?” he asked.
“I made their lives easier,” I told him. “They won’t remember this.”
“What are you saying, that you can erase memories?” I nodded. “If that’s true, then why didn’t you erase mine?”
“I need your help.”
“My help?” He was staying relatively calm considering what had just happened. If I was naïve like all of you guys and I saw a guy fly through the air with a tree attached to him, I would probably need a change my pants.
“Yeah. Get in the car.”
Surprisingly he did what I told him and got in the car. I would have figured that I was going to have to erase his memory as well but he stayed cool.
“Where are we going?” he asked as we climbed in his car.
“She’s right by the golf course,” I said. “Use your lights but not the siren. I don’t want to alert her. She’ll probably know before we get there anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just drive.”
Miraculously he drove forward with the lights spinning but no siren. It was pointless because she was going to figure out we were coming. I had no idea how I was going to beat her. Well, I know I needed to blast her with fire but was falling a little short on how I was going to do it. It didn’t matter. I’m the master of improv… when it came to killing monsters.
We pulled up to where we left our vehicles and got out of the car.
“OK,” I started, “I need you to stay here.”
“Why?” he asked me.
“Because it is dangerous.” I ran over to my bike and pulled out another bottle full of lighter fluid and lighter. I ripped up part of my shirt and stuffed it in the top of the bottle.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to need this to kill her.”
“I can’t just let you do this.”
“Look, you can believe me or not believe me, but I think you kind of do otherwise we wouldn’t be here right now. You can try to stop me but the fact is I have to go burn a witch.”
Officer Bennett just stared at me like
an idiot. It was amazing how quickly he changed from wanting to knock me out to listening to what I was telling him. Although, seeing a 30-foot tree flying through the air, and a person attached to it that survived, would make anyone question what they believe to be reality.
“Please don’t follow me,” I begged him. “It’s going to be hard enough getting everyone out alive.”
“Everyone?” he asked, but I didn’t stick around to answer him. I really hoped that he wouldn’t come after me but knowing him he probably would.
I wasted little time getting back. What surprised me is everything looked exactly how I had left it. Belinda was floating by her cauldron and everyone was still tied to the trees. I thought for the longest time about what I was going to do.
“How long are you going to hide back there?” Belinda asked me. Crap.
I came out from behind the tree. “For as long as I could.”
“I am not surprised to see you back here.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
“You have sealed your fate.” She tilted her head back and lifted her hands in the air. The ground started to shake and that is when things went south. Ghouls, a witch’s go-to trick, rose from the ground. They aren’t hard to fight but they are extremely hard to kill.
There were about eight of them and they converged on me fast. I didn’t have my axes with me. Belinda had them along with my guns, so I had to rely on my fists. It was a brawl, my favorite.
I took down one, and then another, and another. I was dropping them like flies and that scared me, a lot. It should have been a long, annoying fight with them but it was ending quickly. I got down to the last one and I felt my body jerk. It was all over. The ghouls were just a distraction while the witch prepared a spell to pin me to the ground. I couldn’t even twitch my fingers.
“Rise my sisters,” said Belinda.
It was all over and there was nothing I could do about it.
I fought against the spell so hard but it was like a building was on top of me, holding me down. So, I just lay there while she continued to chant away, bringing back her awful sisters. We were all pretty much screwed. Great job, Wes.
It looked like everyone was starting to wake up and they were extremely confused. Kelly looked over to me.
“What’s happening?!” she shouted. Belinda was so loud and there was so much wind I could barely hear what she was saying.
“We lost!” I yelled back.
“Great!”
“Rise my sisters, rise,” Belinda chanted.
I needed to do something to stall her.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Ugly!”
She stopped chanting and looked at me.
“Too chicken to kill me?!” I asked her. She smiled at me and then continued. That was pointless. This one was a real pro.
Kelly and her team went stiff with their faces up in the air. A white mist was being pulled out of them and slowly gravitating towards Belinda. She was drawing their souls and there was nothing that I could do about it. My insides were boiling and I started to shake with panic and rage. I hadn’t felt so helpless since my parents were killed.
“Rise my sisters,” Belinda repeated. “Rise!”
There had to be something that I could do. If I didn’t then we really were going to die. Miracles do happen sometimes, though, as a flaming bottle flew through the air and smashed right into Belinda. She lit up like a Christmas tree. Wait, sorry. That was terrible. Give me a second, I’ll think of something better. Oh, yes. She burned up like scarecrow. There, perfect. OK. That sucked too. She was on fire and dying, alright?
The screams were so loud I felt like my head was going to explode. I started to feel her hold over me lift and the souls were returning to their rightful bodies. Belinda eventually stopped screaming and fell to the ground. She was toast. I turned around to see Officer Bennett standing there with my lighter in his hands. I knew there was a good reason that I brought him with me. I stood up and walked over to him.
“I thought I said to stay by the car,” I said.
“Yeah,” he tumbled. “I…uh…yeah.” He was too stunned that he found out witches existed.
“Cat got your tongue?” Sorry. Bad taste.
“I can’t believe it.”
“Well, you can take comfort in the fact that you won’t remember any of this.”
“No! Don’t. I want to remember.”
“I can’t let you do that. It isn’t good for me.”
“I won’t say anything, but I need to know if there are witches in my town.”
I stared at him, realizing that he was probably right. If something bad happened here it was probably good if he knew about it. Plus if I ever came back here it would be nice if he didn’t try to arrest me every time.
“OK,” I said. “I trust you. Go, though, before they notice.”
“Are you going to cut us loose?” Kelly asked me. Bennett took off.
“You can’t let him go,” Kelly ordered.
“It’s fine,” I assured her. “He won’t remember a thing.”
“Oh. Good.” I guess she did know I could erase memories. Oh well.
I finished cutting everyone loose and we stood over the witch.
“We need to bury her,” stated Lenny.
“No we don’t, Jenny,” I said. “That’s only if you cut off her head. With fire she is done for.” He cracked his neck like a real tough guy. It was so cute. We buried her anyway because we couldn’t leave a burnt corpse lying around.
After she was six feet under we went back to our vehicles. Kelly’s team was packing in and so was I. Kelly walked over to me.
“I’m glad we stopped her,” she said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Me too.”
“Where are you headed off to next?”
“I don’t know. Wherever the next monster pops up.”
“Yeah.”
We stood there for a moment.
“Is this where we kiss?” I asked.
“I’ll see you around, Wes,” she said and took off. She had trouble hiding her feelings for me. I love older women.
I finished packing up my stuff and climbed on my bike. I drove down the street, satisfied that I rid the world of another witch--one of the first, too. She did burn up really quick, but it didn’t bother me.
The wind batted at my helmet visor and the air cooled me down. The sun was starting to peak over the horizon and light up the world. The world is a scary place but you can sleep well, for I am here to make it safer. Monsters, beware. Sorry that was a really bad ending.