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Nametag:rook
ONE CAN NEVER BE TOO THIN OR TOO WITCH
The three girls followed the thin old man into the stone
tower. The very thing they would have never ever done. And in
fact, would have warned any young beautiful woman such as
themselves from ever doing. That is; to follow a complete
stranger into a stone tower through a doorway that had never
been there before.
The stone tower was well known. It stood at the end of a
triangular shaped building where the street Cherry 'Y'-ed
into the streets Oak and Maple. The tower was not connected
to the building in any way. It stood alone. The building was
a historic landmark due to its age but it had an ugly history
of sweat shops and garment industry and now low rent
apartment slums for its reality. The tower stood aloof upon a
little extension of the triangular building edge. A little
spit of green grass framed in a sidewalk.
The reason the tower was well known was no one really knew
who built it or why. It had roots going back to the
revolutionary war and thus was much older than the glass and
iron triangular building which had had many names over the
decades.
But unlike the triangular building the tower was not on any
historic register. This was because no one could fathom what
it was used for; some guessed it may have been used for
making shot for muskets or used as a lookout tower or guard
house of some kind. But all guesses fell apart for the tower
did not quiet seem to fit such a structured purpose.
Unlike the triangular building that had many names and was
currently going by the ungainly one of; Martin's Chemical
Inc. Named after the company who had bought it and
refurbished it as apartments. The tower only had one name.
For over two hundred years it had always, officially or
otherwise, been called, 'The Witches Tower.'
The name confused those sorts of people that like to know
what something is or does or die or was even more so. The
sort of people who make up boards like the historical
society.
To confuse them even more to the point of angry exasperation
the tower had no doors and no windows. In fact numerous tests
including x-rays and sonic readings and even physical
drilling and boring into the tower had all concluded it was
utterly solid.
The tower was made of white marble through and through and
seemed to serve no purpose at all.
And of course there is nothing historical about that to any
board or committee but it's just the sort of thing that made
it so beloved by the citizens of the city.
It's hard to turn a solid hunk of stacked cylinder blocks
into a tourist attraction though and the towers location out
near the industrial park didn't help its appeal any. The
local police found it odd that it was the only piece of
upright or horizontal structure in a four block radius that
had no spray paint tag on it. The graffiti artists wouldn't
come near it. Day or night. Especially night, when all odd
manners of local rumors persisted about the tower.
And now in broad daylight three very attractive young girls
had just followed a blind man with a walking stick into the
structure through a door that had never existed and which
ceased to exist as soon as the last of the three had swayed
her sexy full round behind through it.
The three girls were scarcely known to each other and had
only been walking down the street together that mid-morning
because they were on their way to a soup kitchen to help out.
One as a regular volunteer, one as Saturday detention from
school, and the third in a bid to be senior class president
and needing some community service to out do her chief rival
Jeremy Wallbanger.
Jeremy came from a wealthy construction family who had just
built a gymnasium for the school that year with an indoor
pool! Donating much of the time and materials in the process.
Which of course meant they paid other people to work there
without getting paid their usual even more in return and used
up a lot of left over materials from projects they had over
billed and took hefty tax breaks on top of it all. So this
'charity' work on the gym had paid for their summer vacation
to Crete.
I won't tell you which girl was which in that regards but I
will tell you a bit more about each of them.
The tallest one was a red head with long curly hair down to
her sexy perfect cheerleader bubble butt. She had large
almond shaped gray eyes with an oval face and small nose
sprinkled with freckles. She had pouty thick lips and spoke
with a slight slur as if she had just taken a shot of
novocaine in the jaw.
She had long, long limbs and a narrow slender torso with a
pair of huge breasts and had not worn underwear since puberty
had set in to stay; all of this being public knowledge.
Her name was Sestina Verse and she was of the odd conjunction
of old Latin and Irish mix that made Boudicca beat her
breasts with a dagger and grind her chariot wheels over a
Legion.
The next tallest at a full head shorter than the red head was
an hour glass shaped girl with a pear shaped behind and even
larger fuller firmer breasts than the red head of which she
seemed overly proud considering how tight and thin her
braless shirts always were.
She had dark eyes and short shoulder length coal black hair
with blunt bangs and her name was Raven Saint-Croix. The boys
at school always called her, Murder Mac Croix, as she always
seemed to have sex with groups of boys at a time which she
left them spent and lifeless as corpses as she hopped about
looking for another stiff dick to satisfy her insatiable
needs.
The last of the three was not much shorter than the second
but of a much more slender build. Her breasts were not as
large as the previous two but still quiet oversized for her
waif-ish body.
She had long straight black hair, so black it had blue
highlights when the sun hit it, which was rare indeed.
Her skin was pale as milk in moonlight and she tended to pur
when she was thinking which thankfully was not often. As a
girl who purrs while standing next to you or lying under you
is most disturbing and can only lead to trouble.
She had large piercing ice blue eyes and could out stare a
clock. She spoke in very rapid clipped tones that one tended
to get lost in following and then would punctuate the ramble
with some bit of tired and true wisdom that had absolutely
nothing to do with the situation at hand.
Boys found her so bizarre and weird that despite her drop
dead gorgeous looks they just stayed the hell away from her
and most girls who wanted said boys to lay them did the same.
Of the three girls she was easily the most beautiful which
was truly saying something as they were all super model
contenders. Of the three girls she was the only one who had
never had sex; other than with cucumbers and bananas. But
then they had all hit the vegetable and fruit bins of their
refrigerators a time or two or three or four or...
So three incredibly sexy healthy horny high school students
followed an old blind man into the Witches Tower; seriously
what could possibly go wrong?
*************************************************************
The old man gave them tea. Two of the young girl's had never
had tea before and sniffed suspiciously at their cups. The
third had tea often but couldn't stop wondering why the man
had dropped leaves into the pot and then strained the
beverage as he poured it into their cups?! Hadn't he ever
heard of tea bags?! And not the kind that bump off men's
foreheads in John Waters movies either!
They all set their cups down untouched but devoured the tray
of biscuits which thankfully turned out to be cookies!
And then pulled out bottled waters out of their purses and
filled them with backwashes of crumbs of all colors and sizes
as they smacked their lips and smiled around the odd room.
The iced lemon cookies went over well. The blind man noted
that for future reference. He noted everything for future
reference. He liked to keep up with the times. He had been
keeping up with the times now for over two hundred years. He
liked to think he was, 'hep' and 'with it'.
That might explain the velvet suit he was wearing. He had
just steam cleaned it on his own personal steam iron machine.
He had gotten it from a Chinese laundry in Peaking. Good
trade too. What on Earth did he need with Captain Kidd's gold
bars anyway?
The man encouraged the girls to wander around the rooms.
There were many, many rooms. Not one of them even remotely
wondered how a tower only thirty or forty feet in
circumference could have dozens of rooms that ranged in size
from small and cluttered like the tea room to massive ball
rooms. This puzzled him slightly and he hoped he had chosen
well. Dumb girls did not last long for the task at hand.
He could hear them whispering easily. He could hear a leaf
fall a hundred yards away during a hurricane.
They seemed to think he wanted to have sex with them and they
were amusing themselves on how they would make sure not only
not to have sex with him but flirt with him until he
embarrassed himself.
That was better. It was always better when they were
comfortable with sex. That made the task much easier.
They were wearing school uniforms. Tight white sheer blouses
and short pleated skirts. They were obviously not wearing any
kind of underwear and he smiled as he thought he had chosen
well indeed. With this he decided to get down to business.
The girls were also very excited to get down to business.
They had been promised a good chunk of money each. Money
being the one thing they never seemed to have enough of;
despite blowing the richest guys in school or selling hand
jobs in the parking garage downtown. They sure the hell
weren't going to put up with the shit of working as a whore
for Wal-Mart minium wage!
Still they weren't going to hump this old geezer no matter
how much he was offering. So though they had unbuttoned
several buttons and kicked up their hems as they sat down
with ankles crossed. They were ready to bolt for the door as
soon as the 'job' was fully explained.
As it was they froze dumbfounded all thoughts of sexy cock
teasing in hope of getting some money without putting out
wiped from their minds. What had he just said? What?
"I said, I am offering you the job of tower witches. We
currently have, ah, a few vacancies for the position. You
have to be eighteen to twenty-one to fill it. Older or
younger is a no go. You have to-"
"Wait a minute," Sestina Verse spoke up waving her long wrist
long fingered hands. "Did you say, 'witches'? As in wicked of
the west?"
"Hold on," Raven Saint-Croix wrinkled up her small nose. "You
mean you want us to dress up as witches as some kind of
publicity stunt for the tower. Right?"
"OHHHHHH. Cosplay." Sestina nodded. "Yeah, I dig it. Done it.
No problem. Are we talking bedroom or kitchen cosplay?"
The girl with skin as pale as milk in moonlight simply said,
"witches. Cool. I always wanted to be a witch."
The old blind man smiled broadly at her and nodded. He stood
up and motioned his finger to them. "Then let me grant that
wish my dear."
I have not told the name of this third girl. The one who boys
found so daunting and eerie. I have not told you her name
because she has not yet said it. I will tell you mine though.
Since we seem to be at the beginning of the story at last.
My name is Adele Blanch-Orchard. And I am the towers cat. I
used to be many other things before I became the towers cat.
I was the villainess in many, many stories, but alas I am not
the villainess of this one. In this one, I am just the
fucking cat.
The three girls followed the blind man who tapped his cane
all about into another room. There are no stairs in the
tower. The tower does not work like that. The blind man only
uses his cane when he has company.
The rest of the time he flies about slowly from room to room
wailing like a banshee and using echo location to find his
way. But I guess he thinks that would be off-putting for
company. Of course he can't SEE that dreadful suit he wears
for company either. I think a naked old man floating about
howling in screeches is less offensive than a crushed velvet
purple and green pin-stripe suit with bell bottom trousers
and a yellow tie wide enough to land a sea plane on, but then
again... I am just the fucking cat.
He took the girls into various rooms showing them the
trophies and the glories. He never takes them into the
basement of course. Where the other side of the coin lingers.
Where when things go wrong and stay stubbornly wrong they are
placed out of sight and sound behind hopefully very strong
enchanted bars.
He told them all about the long steeped tradition of the
Tower Witches and how they fight the good fight against
monsters in the shadow realm. That place, just under the
surface of our own. Where if bad things are left unchallenged
and unchecked they leak through like a seepage and puddle and
then corrode existence it's self, until they eventually take
physical form and do some seriously nasty terrible things.
The task of the Tower Witches is to go into that shadow realm
and deal with the worse of the lot. The most threatening of
nearing crossing over into our world as we known and love it.
That's the brochure version of the job. The nutshell Hamlet
was so keen on.
The real version has teeth. Lots of teeth. And the teeth are
attached to some wonderfully scary things. They just don't go
bump in the night. They scream, slather, tare, rend, rip,
rape, eviscerate, castrate, and embalm, in the cold sweaty
night. And that's just for starters. Once they get really
warmed up you'll want out of that damn shell faster than you
can say, 'to be or nut to be!'
When he had them all flushed at their new clubhouse which
they could come and go and use as they liked and giddy about
the exciting new job he took them to the ring room. That is
the kicker. Once they enter the ring room its a done deal. No
young girl in her right mind can resist it. So of course its
where the nitty-gritty comes out as well.
I had to see this. It's the best part of the show. So I
followed them. Walking on the ceiling so as to stay out of
sight and to avoid being stepped on. Teenage girls are so
clumsy.
Besides I was curious about no name girl. I can read minds
inside the Tower easy enough.
But I refuse to read the minds of teenage girls. They leave
you feeling hot and sticky and horny for days. Nothing is
more embarrassing than to be caught licking your own
genitalia by a disapproving blind man. Who I doubt even has
any of his own!
"This is the ring room," the old blind man made a sweeping
gesture with his well manicured slim hand. "There are well
over ten thousand rings here. When a witch reaches twenty-one
and steps down she creates a ring of her own to leave behind
for the next witches to use."
"Wait, tens of thousands? How is that even possible?" Raven
smirked.
At least that girl had a brain. Of sorts.
"Once you enter the Tower of the Witch all time outside
stops. You can be in her for hours, days, weeks, months, and
when you leave only moments will have passed." The old man
raised a hand to stop the next question and held the pause.
He had been doing this for centuries now. "You also stop
aging when you enter the tower. So for all the time you spend
here it will be retained only as memories not in physical
aging. That, is how there are thousands upon thousands of
rings. The Tower has hosted thousands upon thousands of
witches."
He paused dramatically and then added in a somber tone, "And
of course there are many, many versions of the tower
scattered across the lands."
That was a big show stopper. But once a teenage girl she can
stop her aging she rarely hears more.
Time for some of the dirty details now.
"Of course, you man choose any ring. Each ring houses a
single spell. It is wearing the ring that gives you the magic
to cast that spell. The more you work the magic and more
developed you become as a Tower Witch the more rings you can
wear at the same time. And thus the more spells you can cast
and the more powerful combination of spells you can cast."
Here it comes.
"You can not wear the rings and wear the clothing you are
wearing now. You have to choose something out of the wardrobe
in the next room. Clothes fashioned by previous witches as
well."
All those glittering jeweled rings in so many, many beguiling
styles and strange cryptic designs and all calling out to be
chosen and worn and to live again. They weren't hearing shit
the old geezer was saying now. Time for him to take full
advantage of that.
"The fights you are to undertake against evil monsters in the
shadow plane. Well, you can only take certain objects with
you in there. That is a crux of the magic rings powers and
limitations."
He was trying to ease them into the dressing chamber. Or
really the 'undressing chamber'. All that gold and precious
gems they were drooling like school boys over their first
found porno mag.
It took some blushing and some squabbles and some serious
threats of walking out of that perverts house! But in the
end, as they all do, they stripped naked and chose their
outfits. Because you couldn't choose a ring until you chose
your outfit. He would not unlock the glass cases until they
had stripped naked and put on their Witches garb.
Experience.
If they will get naked with the promise of all those rings to
try on and wear dangling there in the near future. Then they
would do anything. Like let themselves be teleported via a
grimoire into the shadow lands and fight insanely stupid
monsters with nothing but a few magic rings on their young
fingers.
The read head, Sestina Verse, choose the most revealing
outfit of the three. Nailed that one. They were too
inexperienced to mix and match so they had to wear sets. She
chose the one with the large wide brimmed pointed classic
witch hat. I am certain she just dug the hat. It came with a
cape. She may have liked that as well. And finger-less opera
gloves of black lace. And thigh high boots. And a slim silver
chain belt with a couple of tiny white pouches attached to
that. And nothing else. Her entire body was exposed. She was
a natural red head and obviously had never believed in bikini
waxing.
Raven chose a more modest ensemble. A hooded cloak with a
bustier and g-string panties. I bet next time she shows up
she will have bikini waxed a lot more thoroughly, as is she
was showing a lot of pubic hair around the small camel toe
digging g-string. She also was wearing a pair of stiletto
heeled thigh high boots like Sestina but unlike her had
obviously never wore high heels before. She wobbled around
the room clutching at the ring cases and hoping no one would
notice.
She wore short wrist gloves. Also finger-less. The rings
needed to contact directly with the flesh of the girls at
first. Latter they could wear gloves with fingers.
The nameless girl wore a short almost Gothic lolitta dress.
All in white with lots of flimsy see through fabric and
stiffened lace. She had lace knee high stockings and white
low healed buckle shoes.
I am sure Raven was envious of those shoes.
So the red head was all in black hues. The short black haired
girl all in purple and blues. And the nameless long black
haired girl in nothing but white.
Sestina was showing everything she had and rocking her naked
body hard.
For all her white lace and layers the nameless girl was the
next in pervert exhibitionism flashing. She was leaving
nothing to hide. It may have been behind flimsy layers of
milk white lace but you could still see every crease and
crevice of the girl. She kept her pussy shaved bald and had
what boys would call a 'coin slot' pussy.
Seems everything about the girl screamed, 'cute!' Made me
feel like puking up a hair ball just watching her glide about
the room. All sparkles and shimmers and smiles.
Raven could and was pulling her hooded cloak closed over the
front of her body so even though the bustier underneath left
her large areolas peeking out over the low top and the g
string looked like a shiny purple triangle set upon a patch
of grassy hill at night. She managed to keep that all under
wraps.
Of course fighting a monster with one hand clutching your
cloak front shut was going to be interesting right up until
it killed her. Of course she was more likely to turn an ankle
at any second and break her neck that way than be torched by
some vile beast.
The old man had unlocked the glass fronts of the ring cases
now with a snap of his showmanship hands.
They hit the rings like a pack of hyenas on holiday in a
hospital nursery.
Hard to blame them. Not only was it some of the most
beautiful jewelry in the world but each ring held in the palm
or slipped on a finger shot strange sensations of pure power
through the body. I am sure every clit in that room was at
attention and ready for business.
Each ring told its memorizing story as soon as it was
touched. And what is more romantic to any young woman than a
good feverish story?
The old man went about the room trying not to get run over or
elbowed too badly as he slipped a simple silver neck choker
over each girls throat.
This simple pendant was important as he kept repeating to the
gaggle of gooses. It would whisk any girl almost near death
back to the Tower of the Witches. All wounds were
automatically healed when one returned to the Tower.
Of course there was no real guarantee it would get you out of
the Shadow Lands and back to the Tower before you actually
died. It was far better to turn tail and run and whisk your
own sorry ass back if things had gone horribly and terribly
astray.
They weren't listening. They never do once the rings are out.
They were gushing to one another and not listening at all to
one another to try this one or that one or look at this!
There were the high-fives of volley ball practice. Nothing
ruins girls for life than gym class volley ball practice
where every single instant requires high-fives and cheers of
support and clapping. Lots and lots of god damn clapping.
Boys feel power in their dicks. Girls feel power in their
dicks as well. Controlling destiny is what fucking is all
about unless you are drunk. Luckily were almost always drunk
until its too late and were married and destiny now controls
us.
The rings were a new kind of power for these girls. For the
first time in their lives they had dicks of their own.
That kind of power is not easy to live with. So much easier
to roll over and claim to have a headache. Your birthday's
coming up. You can have a blow job then.
There wouldn't be any more nights of rolling over now.
The nameless girl bothered me. That the old man had not
noticed that she had not given her name bothered me even
more. The names, whether fictitious or real, were important
for the Tower Witches. It was a verbal contract after all,
hinted at but never disclosed until things got messy as they
always did and they suddenly realized there is no getting out
early.
Three years in one's youth seems and sounds so ridiculously
short a time period.
But three years in a timeless Tower in an ageless cradle
fighting monsters is a very, very long time indeed.
Not stating a name could be grounds for a legal loop hole. I
wondered why the old man had missed it or if he was playing
her like he often did with the difficult ones. And she was
going to very difficult. You could tell. All that cute soft
spoken sweetness, there was a butterfly wing puller in there,
hiding behind those long lashes and coy shy smiles.
She was the one who saw me and pointed me out to the others.
Laying their upon the ceiling above them. But she had waited
to tell the others. She took several minutes to observe me
and think and smile. She was going to very dangerous indeed.
She reminded me a lot of myself in my younger years. And that
made me shudder.
*************************************************************
They picked their rings or the rings picked them. It's always
hard to tell when they are that green. And the old man
quickly pushed, prodded, nodded them back into the wardrobe
room and past it into the work room.
The work room was where the giant grimoire was ready to
dissolve them into phantoms and whisper them through the
cracks of time and space into the Shadow Lands.
They had no idea what was happening and giggled and jostled
about like drunk teens at their very first kegger wondering
if the cute boy would let them play with his cock without
thinking it meant anything or boorishly think they were a
slut.
The red head sobered up at the last few seconds just before
she went 'poof' like the others in a puff of lilac smelling
smoke but by then it was too late and that questioning
frightened look in her widening gray eyes was priceless.
As soon as they were gone the old man staggered back into the
wardrobe room and collapsed upon one of the wooden benches.
He sighed and pulled out a polka-dotted handkerchief and
wiped his brow. He no longer sweated. He had not sweated in
over a hundred and thirty years. But old habits are hard to
overcome when no one is there to point them out to you.
And my relationship with the old man was far from friendly.
He had his job to do and I had mine. I headed to the basement
section of the first and only floor of the Tower to get back
to my job.
*************************************************************
As soon as they reformed out of the mist and swirling fog the
brunette with short hair yanked up her hood on her cloak.
This caused her to become invisible.
Not very encouraging when you wing-man disappears before
anything even happens. Sestina sighed and then took as good a
look around as she could in the swirling fog.
They appeared to be in a small niche in some huge stone room
where the walls meld up to either a roofless sky of black
seething clouds or a very, very distant ceiling hidden by
black and seething clouds.
The nameless girl had her hands on her hips and was smiling a
very wicked smile. She was more than ready and itching to
unleash her new magical powers.
Sestina couldn't tell it that was reassuring or just ape shit
scary. After all she didn't know the soft spoken girl except
by her reputation which thinking about that rep made her
realize ape shit scary was the way to go with that.
Sestina took a step and 'ouched' into the invisible Raven and
sighed what she realized was going to be a lot of sighs this
day. "Look why don't you ditch the invisibility thing until
its necessary."
"Says you!" Raven snarled back. Her voice sounded like she
was speaking from the bottom of a well. That raised some more
hairs on the back of Sestina's neck.
Raven was invisible. The rings had some sort of safety 'on'
in the Tower that only the old man could unlock in extreme
emergencies. So there was no testing, no practice before
entering the Shadow Lands. Part of her was convinced that the
magic wasn't real despite the rings whispering to her and a
cat who could sleep on the ceiling.
But here was Raven and she was invisible. It was sort of
creeping her out. Because if the rings and the clothes could
actually really cast the magic they were supposed to then
they had just really been sent into another world to fight
evil bad ass monsters who naturally would be fighting back
with magic of their own?!
Worse she was beginning to suspect the quiet girl was a full
blown psycho. She was now grinning ear to ear. Unable to take
it any more Sestina snarled at her, "what, pray tell, is so
damn funny?"
The girl didn't flinch in her smile but simply pointed up
slightly into the fog and said in her soft voice, "Monster."
Sestina shot her head around so fast she felt like she had
almost broke her neck. At first there was only the swirling
fog lit from some source that she still could not work out.
It was as if the fog its self was glowing. She was just about
to give the long haired girl an ear full who was giggling
softly when she saw it.
It did not come out of the fog. The fog simply thinned for a
second and there it was. The upper half of it anyway. It was
staring at them. With many, way too many, eyes above a long
evil looking snout that was edged in way, way too many teeth.
It looked both amused and pissed at the same time until
Sestina realized it just looked hungry.
Seeing the beast hovering there about thirty feet tall above
them caused Sestina to blurt out, "HOLY SHIT!" Far louder
than she meant to, considering she had not meant to say
anything at all.
This caused the nameless long haired girl to giggle again but
her giggle was cut short and she frowned and said, "hey!"
When something invisible slammed into her and raced off with
wobbly heel clicks into the fog.
The heel clicks grew louder and something bumped into the
rather panic stricken Sestina to give a horse well whisper,
"there's another one right behind us! Only it's somehow
nastier."
Sestina couldn't think straight. She could only frown and
repeat, "nastier?"
"Yeah," the well voice said in the swirling fog, "It has two
heads."
"Two heads?!" The long haired girl fist pumped and continued,
"awesome! Dibs on that one!" And she turned took a few steps
and raised her hand and a sheet of lighting shot of the tip
of her finger.
"Fucking cool!" The girl added as the bolt zipped around and
then stuck home producing a huge hissing roar behind Sestina
and the invisible Raven who was clutching Sestina's upper arm
with vice like fingers of both her hands.
Sestina raised her own rather shaking hand and after a
moments hesitation the incantation came to her tongue and a
long black whip covered in barbs shot forth. She had been
shooting blindly into the fog where she had guessed the
monster might be or had been. But just as the spell erupted
out of her fingers the monsters face appeared with mouth wide
open just a few feet from her and descending fast.
The spell caught it right in the mouth and chunks of foul
flesh and blood showered down upon them.
Raven appeared suddenly next to her with ring hand raised and
her other hand pulling back her hood. The rings won't work if
you are using any of the magic of your clothes.
Raven shot a cloud of large black purple glowing crows from
her spread palm. Sestina had wondered why the girl had chosen
a ring that was used for scouting out locations but she
jumped back as the murder of crows began to caw and peck and
scratch at the creatures wounded head. The spell had a long
duration effect of several minutes where both Sestina's ring
whip of thorns and the long black haired girl's ring of
lightening bolt had brief cool downs between uses.
The murder of crows was causing the monster in front of them
fits but the one behind them though bleeding and damaged was
now slapping paws and claws at the long haired girl who was
force to roll and dodge the attacks.
Sestina turned and feeling her ring ready again joined the
long haired girl who was breathlessly firing from her one
knee at the creature. The lightening and thorn whip hit it in
its open mouth. It was enough for the beast for it snapped
its jaws shut and fled back into the fog appearing to be
mortality wounded.
All three cast their spells at the first monster and it left
no doubt to its effect as its countless eyes went from
gleaming red rimmed black to milky gray. It fell dead almost
directly upon them.
All three girls stood their panting and shaking as their
racing adrenaline and jangled nerves sent their hearts
racing.
The long haired girl who had her hands on her knees looked at
her white short hemmed dress now splattered with blood and
moaned, "not cool."
"Don't worry I don't think we 'do' laundry," Sestina
whispered.
"Sooooooo, we head back right?" Raven gave both girls a
pleading look. "I mean we kicked monster ass and now we go
back and get paid and hell kick back and get some real food.
Right?"
Sestina frowned. She wasn't sure. But it didn't feel like
those were the 'right' monsters. It was more like the guy who
brought you to the dance and you let him feel you up a bit
and maybe slurp on your nipples in the car;
but it was the hung stud fighting with his girl friend who
was getting the penetration this night.
"I don't think those were the monsters we are suppose to
fight," the long haired girl hummed and looked around her in
the fog. "We can't see shit in this," she growled.
"Psycho is right," Sestina muttered and then bumped sharply
into a stone staircase. "Ugh. Ah, let's see where these steps
lead to?"
The steps lead up and out of the fog. The fog hung over a
layer of the large stone room of about ten to fifteen feet
off the floor. Moving above the glowing fog showed them the
rest of the room. There were a lot more of the room above the
fog. Bridges, arched rooms, a whole city up there. A city
like an Esher print. All the hallways and rooms melded
without direction or sense of gravity.
All visible in the clear. Of course seeing it meant it could
see them.
A thing vaguely man-like almost humanoid saw them and walked
off the stone ledge it had been sitting at a table and chair
made of bodiless limbs upon, and walked across the air until
it was only a few yards from them.
It scoured down at them. It spoke from a hole in its chest.
The head having no mouth or eyes. The eyes were on the finger
tips it held out at them like tree branches; twitching as
they blinked.
"Tower Witches?! Haven't seen your kind here in ages! What
are you slumming?" The thing gave a horse deep rattle that
must have been laughter.
The burnt skinless thing turned and barked, "Burning Witches
come say hello to your sisters."
They appeared from out of somewhere above and dropped down
through the maze of layers of rooms and hallways and endless
staircases.
Women burning. Skins of flame and smiling and howling and
insane with rage.
"Come," the almost a man thing sighed. "Come give your
sisters a hug. Welcome them to the Twisted Mirror."
"Twisted Mirror? Then these aren't the Shadow Lands?" Sestina
couldn't help herself in asking.
The thing turned away from the approaching screaming burning
naked women and made that horrible laugh again in its wet
wheezing chest, "no my pet. The Shadow Lands begin way, way
up there." He pointed high above him into the dark swirling
clouds. "Nasty shit up there. That's why I prefer it down
here. Down here where the refuse and lesser weaker stinks
dwell. Up there is the lords and kings. The stuff pushing to
the top; up against the skins of the worlds. Down here we
just take it easy peasy as pie."
The burning witches were quiet close now. You could feel the
heat of their burning flesh. For the first time Sestina
realized the man thing had a beer can in one of its eye hands
and was taking swigs into its chest as it waited for the
burning witches to arrive down those maze of stairs.
"Ah, think we need to regroup and take a pee break," Raven
whined and once again clutched Sestina's arm.
"Second the pee break," the nameless psycho girl squirmed
unable to take her frightened eyes off the group of
approaching screaming red and black charred burning witches.
"Right." Sestina gasped against the incredible heat of their
approach. "Back we go." They touched their silver pendant
chokers and in very, very, very long second they turned to
whisper and smoke and reappeared back in the work room. The
grimoire shutting with a snap of its binding as they blinked
and looked around them.
The old man appeared from the wardrobe room holding a sauce
pan and wearing an apron which said, "Eat the Rich" and
showed a bone in the nose cannibal smiling upon its front.
"What happened?" He nervously asked.
"Hey, my clothes are all clean again," the long haired girl
joyously cried out.
"Are you making dinner? I am SO starved," Raven pushed
forward and out of the work room chasing the delicious scent
in the air.
The long haired girl followed her with smiles almost
skipping.
"What happened?" The old man said again. His blind eyes wide.
Sestina sighed. "We didn't make it to the Shadow Lands. We
were in something called the Twisted Mirror? We did kill a
few monsters there but not the ones we were meant to kill."
The old man raised his head up to the roof of the chamber and
shook his head. "They never listen in the ring room. Why do I
always forget that.
Child, the book meant to send you to the Twisted Mirror
world. You don't think we would whoosh you away to the Shadow
Lands untested and unprepared do you? The Twisted Mirror is
bad enough. And as far as killing monster. ANY monster killed
lessens the pressure of the dark against our world. And two
of them on your first outing! That's wonderful! But I am
curious. What made you decide to return? Hunger? Drink? Fear?
Exhaustion? Magic can be very nerve wracking and tiring. Why
I can remember-"
"It was the burning witches," Sestina interrupted the old
man's reminiscing before it got started.
The old man instinctively looked down at the cat which had
just entered the room.
The cat spoke, "did you kill any of the burning witches?"
"Ah, no. They had skin like lava. We turned tail and ran back
here." Sestina half laughed at the idea of a talking cat and
then stopped herself and frowned.
"Good," the cat said simply. "Then we haven't lost a ring."
The blind old man sighed deeply at this and seemed to droop
his entire upper body as the cat turned and padded out of the
work room.
"What did it mean... haven't lost a ring? These magic rings
like we just used? I thought you said Tower Witches made
these rings when they retire." Sestina shook her head at the
old man who shrugged as she left the room as well in the cats
wake. Her boot heels clicking fast upon the marble floor and
echoing down the halls.
"They do. They did. But not all Tower Witches stay the path
of good. Some, most, succumb and become evil." The old blind
man said quietly to himself. And then he pulled himself
upright and set off to return to the kitchen. Teenage girls
get hungry so fast and had such large appetites. He hoped he
had made enough. Then corrected his thought; for when it came
to Dodo in cranberry sauce one could never have enough!
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