by Paul Kater
"I wonder why it's there," Hilda said. "And like that."
William nodded. "It's strange. Now, Zelda is strange also, but that doesn't explain it all."
"Maybe..." Hilda said, looking at her wizard. They both thought the same thing and looked up. It was just in time to see a large object coming down, towards them. The object had once been a few floors of the Denton Building and now was reassigned to crush-duty.
"Crappedy crap!" They moved to the side, out of the block's trajectory, but that was not enough: the block altered its course and kept coming. The couple made a few fast zig-zag moves, but the block was determined to join them.
"Split up," Hilda ordered, and they did. Hilda dropped away to the left, William to the right. Half the block followed Hilda, the other half went after the wizard, so that was not a proper solution either. At least it was obvious now why Zelda had ripped the building out of the ground.
At top speed the two magical people were able to stay out of reach of their concrete followers, but they knew they could not keep that speed up for too long. Magic did drain their energy.
William made a sharp turn and then steeply climbed up. The block that was after him shot away for quite a stretch as its mass did not allow it to manoeuver as fast as the man on the broom, but it did not give up. "Holy Bejeebus," the wizard cursed, "that witch is insane and scary."
"William!" Hilda shouted at him, also through their bond. "Come over to me!"
He knew she had an intention with that, so he set course for the witch and reached her in less than two minutes. "Quick. There is a lot concrete coming up to squash us."
Hilda did not answer. Instead, she took William's broom in a deathgrip and yanked it as she shot upwards after several death-defying seconds. "This'd better work."
It worked. Below them, the two concrete blocks were coming up towards them, but Hilda's timing had been perfect. The two blocks collided and their speed took care of the rest. Also her pick of the location had been good, as there were no houses beneath them. Giant lumps of concrete, steel and wiring started tumbling down, as the magic that Zelda had stored into the blocks started dissipating. Even a witch as formidable as she could not keep all that together.
"Damn it, you witch, you did it!" Relief spread through William as they both watched the result of Hilda's action.
"I am glad you approve," Hilda said. "This was close. It also tells that Zelda's getting desperate when she resorts to things like that to crush us." She was already searching for the evil witch but there was no trace of her. "Crappedy crap. She's gone. I am sure I sensed her when we were flying like crazy." In a major bad mood the two flew back to the metal dome of containers, to check on the witches and the devil-worshipping allies they had left them with...
-=-=-
The magical people worked together with the witches and the devil-boys to get the metal dome in order for the great reception, as they had code-named their action. Buster had gone out and collected some more of their fellows. They had worked on cleaning up the place, to Rodney's dismay ("it is not so bad!"), and Stephen was insulted when the women had insisted on coveralls before they dared to get to work inside.
Hilda had told them what they had seen and done while they were out, and again warned them about the serious danger that they were all getting into with this thing. "Zelda is a particularly bad and clever witch. And not afraid to hurt people either. We have a building lying on its side which proves this. I don't know what's gotten into her, but it seems that coming here has given her some amazingly uncanny ideas about using witchcraft. So I say this again: she is not afraid to hurt people. Tory here is living proof. We are going to push her to limits, so she may resort to dramatic actions."
"Like seriously injuring people?" Gladys asked. Her face showed however that she knew that was not dramatic enough.
"To kill them too," Hilda said. "It's not a joke, people. This is fix or fall."
Everyone was silent for a while, as the impact of Hilda's words sunk in.
"And you can't just whack her and getter done?" Buster asked. He emphasised his whack by slamming a fist in the palm of his hand.
"If we could, do you think we'd have waited so long?"
"Uh. Guess not." Buster slammed his palm again, just to show he could and was not afraid.
A table fell over.
Stephen jumped up, as did many others. He was the only one who said: "What the fuck's that?"
"Looks like a table fell over," William stated the obvious. "Remarkable though. Tables don't fall over just like that."
"Yeah. That's what worries me," said Stephen. The man walked over and put the table back on all four legs. He pushed and shoved it a few times. It remained where it was. Stephen made a sound and walked back to the group. As he came closer, he stopped walking and stared past them. "What the fuck..."
Hilda and the others wondered and looked at where Stephen was gazing. They were just in time to see the entrance-door slowly close itself. With a metallic clang the door bounced against the container and opened again for a few inches.
Rodney got up and dashed to the door, throwing it open while he challenged the person who did that to show himself. It was a good attempt, were it not that there was nobody to show himself. Or herself.
"This is creepy," Vivian whispered. "Not sure if I like this. Is this Zelda's doing?"
"No," Hilda said. "Zelda's not that subtle. She'd have the table fly at us or so. But she's not around. I would know if she was."
"Then what was it?" Vivian asked.
Hilda shrugged. "I don't know. Stephen? Is this something you're accustomed to?"
The big man shook his head for a moment and then seemed to change his mind. "Sorta. It's what can happen when we summon demons."
"Demons? You got demons here? Tell me more!" Hilda was all ears and professional interest.
"Demons? There are demons here?" Tory looked around and started a sideways motion towards the door, a mode of movement that her coven sisters adopted.
"Where are you going?" William asked.
"Outside," was their unified answer.
"Don't get lost," the wizard warned them.
Stephen explained to Hilda and William that in the meetings that his group did, there often were demonic rituals. "We wanna call up some kick-ass powers of the dark realm and see what happens."
"And then tables fall over," Hilda nodded understandingly.
"No," Stephen said, his face sagging, "usually it's just a fucking ashtray that moves a bit.
Hilda nodded. "So when a table topples over without a reason, that means something big was happening, did I get that right?"
Stephen nodded again. "Yeah."
"I see." Hilda flicked a finger. The table fell over. "Looks like I am something big that happens."
Her joke did not go down all that well with Stephen and his boys, but they did not dare to do anything to the witch. Stephen ordered Buster to put the table upright again.
"We'll be here tomorrow. Late afternoon. Get the show going. And that bloody witch better show up," Stephen barked. "We're all sick of her screwing around here."
"She does? I never got a chance to-" Buster started.
"Shut up!" Stephen's comment was loud and clear enough for Buster to do just that.
"Thank you, Stephen," said Hilda. "We'll be here also. Now, if you gentlemen would be so kind to take these ladies home again, that would be really kind of you."
The gentlemen grunted at being called that, but they were desperate enough to get rid of Zelda. They took the ladies home.
33. Let's party
The day had gone by in a rather nervous atmosphere. Also Hilda and William were more tensed than usual and they could not put a finger on the why. Maybe it was because they were teaming up with so many different people and groups to bring Zelda's terror to an end. Or was it that they had witnessed these inexplicable effects in the metal cathedral, the things that had unsettled Step
hen and his fellows?
They sat in the kitchen with Gladys who had sort of taken them in. Remarkably enough, they all agree, there had not been any Zelda-induced disturbances during the night, nor the day.
"Makes me feel all kinds of funny," Hilda shared with them. "She usually is this silent only when she's up to no good."
"Try not to worry about it," said Gladys. "Maybe she is just planning something."
"But that's what worries me." Hilda sat back on her chair and made her coffeecup float over the table as she seemed to be engaged in some deep thoughts.
William watched her face and read the frowns, the movement of her eyebrows and the twitches of her mouth, and decided that it was not a doomsday scenario that unfolded in the witchy mind. "We should start heading out soon," he said at the right moment.
Hilda nodded and magicked all the coffeecups clean and back into the cupboard where Gladys had taken them from.
"Oh Goddess," their host said, "I am so going to miss you guys."
"We are not gone yet," Hilda said with a wink. "Let's first make sure that our biker friends made sure to collect the others."
Stephen and some of the others had agreed to pick up Tory, Vivian and the others, to get everyone in place at the right time. William would carry Gladys over with Hilda on the lookout. The two of them always were the main target of Zelda, so care had to be taken.
"Are we ready?" Hilda asked Gladys as they were standing in the backyard of the house. "Nothing forgotten?"
"I'm not sure what I could forget," said Gladys. "We're going for all or nothing tonight, right?
