“Thanks for giving this to me, Zoey!” said Bridgette with a huge smile. “This is so exciting!”
“Uh, no problem,” I smiled uneasily back. Bridgette was maybe a little too pumped to watch some kids vandalize a police station.
“Is your cat guy here, too?”
Bart materialized on the console. “Evening, Bridgette.”
“Cat dude!” she cheered.
“It’s Bart,” he shrugged.
“Bartholomew, actually,” I smiled.
“Don’t tell people that!” he hissed.
“Anyway, where are the kids?” I asked Bridgette, looking around for them “Are we too late?”
“I think you just beat them here,” she said, looking behind her. I followed her gaze and saw a group of five figures running, each wearing all black with hoods up. Two were carrying large duffle bags, and all of them had spray cans in their hands that reflected in the moon light.
I closed my eyes, trying to focus on a friend. Using my beacon magic, I called out to them over and over, giving them an indication of where my location was. I hoped they picked it up.
“Here’s what’s going on, Bridgette,” I said, opening my eyes. “One of them is a pixie-”
“Oh, like a fairy?”
“Uh… basically,” I said, glancing over at Bart. He shook his head, but now wasn’t the time for semantics. “He’s been casting a spell on these kids, making them commit small crimes for his own amusement. We’ll jump out of the car when they get closer, and I’ll try to corner the pixie. Try and stop the others if you can, but if not it’s not a huge deal.”
“You’re going to try to get the pixie?” asked Bridgette. “Why not just let him go?”
“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “If we just let him go, he could just keep doing this. Or worse, he could go to another town where there aren’t any witches to stop him, and ruin the lives of more kids.”
“Oh, okay,” nodded Bridgette. “This is going to be so cool!”
“I hope so,” I mumbled. Bridgette didn’t know I had no way of actually getting rid of the pixie, but there was no reason to worry her. Hopefully.
We waited as the teens ran by the car. Sara and Jake were in the front, Rob and Tim in the middle, and the chubby Henry bringing up the rear.
“Stop right there!” I shouted, opening up the car door as Henry passed.
All of the kids stopped and turned around. They all looked at each other, than ran off in different directions.
“They’re scattering!” shouted Bridgette, taking off after two that went to the left.
Reaching my arm out to the back of one of them, I focused on the joy I felt with Drake during lunch that day. The kid stopped running, completely held in place. A thin glowing gray light outlined the teenager, as if it was what kept him trapped.
“Good job,” said Bart. “I knew you’d get it on your first go.”
“Well, well, well,” giggled the boy, held in place. “You figured me out, huh?”
“Looks like I did,” I laughed, trying to keep a hold of the spell. I slowly used the hold spell to spin the kid around so that we could see each other face to face. The moonlight exposed Rob’s face, contorted in a nasty looking smile.
“I must say I am impressed, my dear witch,” he snickered. “What gave me away? I was being oh so careful when I saw you with your rat companion.”
“Hey! I’m a cat!” hissed Bart.
“You were really quiet,” I nodded. “Too quiet, honestly. If you had spoken up more, I might not have been able to figure it out. The other thing that gave you away was spray painting your nickname on the wall of the library.”
“Wasn’t that grand?” giggled Rob. “I decided after that to spread my name all around Twistchapel, starting with the police station here. That way, everyone would know the great Puck! Admittedly, though, I was hoping you would just think it was referencing a hockey puck. At least for now.”
“I did initially,” I nodded. “A friend pointed out the literary reference, however.”
“That rotten William,” spat Puck, changing his tone for the first time. “I knew I should’ve burned that blasted book. I let it go since he wasn’t that specific about me, and presumed the work would disappear after his death. How was I to know that you humans would become obsessed with such a poor writer, and keep those books around for hundreds of years?!”
“I’d have thought you’d make more of an effort to hide your name,” I said. “Changing it from Robin Goodfellow to Rob Goodfell isn’t that clever.”
“I suppose not. I’ll make sure I’m a bit more careful next time.”
“There’s no next time,” I said. “By the way, why did you keep knocking off soup cans in my store?”
“Oh, that? These stupid children are in school for hours, and I get bored. I figured I might as well have some occasional fun without drawing too much attention to my presence.”
“Zoey, I got a couple of them!” said Bridgette, dragging two of the kids back with her by their hoods. It was Sara and Jake.
“W-We didn’t do anything!” said Sara.
“I-I’m sorry, M-Miss Foster,” said Jake, on the verge of tears. “I-It happened again.”
“You don’t have to worry anymore, Jake,” I smiled at him. “It won’t be happening anymore.”
“You see now, that’s where you’re wrong,” said Rob, his wicked smile returned. “It will be happening again. The way I figure, if you could really get rid of me, you would’ve done it by now. Who uses a simple hold spell if the intent is to banish?”
His eyes flashes red briefly, and he began to laugh.
“Hey, knock it off!” said Bridgette.
I looked over to see Sara and Jake wrestling out of her grip, ultimately breaking of out of it. They both were smiling, no longer the scared kids they were just a moment ago.
“See that?” laughed Rob. “It did happen again.”
Sara brought her arm back, ready to through a strike at Bridgette. With my other hand, I reached out and pointed to Bridgette, summoning up a feeling of protection before Sara swung. As the girl threw her punch, her fist connected a few inches from Bridgette’s face with a shield of purple electricity.
“W-What was that?” asked Bridgette, reaching up and feeling her face.
“Ah, so you have a few tricks up your sleeve,” said Rob. “No matter. You can only cast both spells for so long. How will you do when you need to protect yourself as well?”
I glanced over to my right, where Henry and Tim were quickly approaching me.
“I got you, Zoey,” said a materialized Bart, hopping up and scratching at Henry’s face. Henry pushed the cat off, who then jumped up and swatted at Tim’s face as well.
“You and your friends are just wasting time,” laughed Rob. “These kids are no more use to me since they’ve already been caught on camera once. I’ll have them kill you and this other woman. I’ll have them forget about me completely, and then I’ll skip to another group of kids here in Twistchapel while these go off to jail for murder. I will hop from group to group, changing my appearance each time, until Twistchapel is effectively under my control.”
“W-Why are you doing this?” I asked, trying desperately to hold on to feelings of joy or happiness. Our imminent deaths and the bleak future for these kids and Twistchapel weren’t really helping me.
“I’m tired of always being seen as the jester or the annoying little bug,” said Puck, a look of disgust returning. “I deserve to be a ruler. I’ll embed in all of these kids positive thoughts towards me, and as they grow they will come to think of me as the one who can save this town from corruption. Since I’ll have total control of the next generation, it’ll just be a matter of time until I run this town.”
“Relinquo!” shouted a voice.
“W-What is that?” said Rob wavering for the first time. His eyes widened as he looked past me. “W-Who are you?”
“Revertere ad Alterum,” continued the voice.
“No!” shouted Rob. “Kids! Stop that man! Stop him!”
“Non revertetur!”
I watched as Rob began to spin inward, faster and faster, changing shape from a human into a furry beast, then a purple humanoid, until finally he blinked out of existence.
I dropped both of my arms and breathed a sigh of relief. That had been a close one.
“W-What’s going on?” asked Jake, looking around.
“My hand really stings,” said Sara, checking out her hand. She looked back up at Bridgette. “D-Did I try to hurt you? I-I’m so sorry!”
“It’s okay,” said Bridgette, hugging the girl and trying to calm her down. “Everything is going to be okay now.”
I turned around and looked down the street, where a man dressed with a pair of reflective ski goggles smiled back.
“I found the scroll, by the way,” said Allen.
“I could see that,” I said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, I was sleeping,” he shrugged. “I didn’t think you were in that big of a rush-AH!”
He yelped and dropped the roll of paper as it caught fire, quickly burning up without leaving any evidence.
“Why does my face hurt?” asked Henry next to me. He face had several scratch marks from Bart.
“I might’ve gone a little overboard,” admitted Bart.
“You didn’t,” I smiled down at him. “Thank you for your help, Bart.”
“Eh, it looks bad if you die under my charge,” shrugged Bart, giving me a wink.
“Why are we here?” asked Tim.
“You all are carrying spray cans and look like you’re up to no good,” I said loudly, getting all of their attention. “You’ve got till the count of three until I go into the police station right now and tell them they’ve got some troublemakers outside. One…”
“L-Let’s go!” shouted Sara, grabbing Jake’s hand and making a run for it.
“Two…”
Tim and Henry looked at each, then dashed off as well.
“You’ll make a good aunt,” laughed Bridgette, walking up to me. “If I ever need some help with my baby, I know who to call.”
“Any time,” I smiled. That was actually kind of fun. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, thanks to you!” she said. “That purple lightning thing was cool! How long have you been able to do that?!”
“Just a couple of months,” I shrugged.
“What happened at the end? Did you make him explode?”
“Not exactly, and it wasn’t me,” I said, shaking my head. “I had my friend, Allen, find a scroll to banish the pixie to the Other. He was the one yelling all the Latin.”
Bridgette looked around. “Who’s Allen? And where is he?”
“Allen’s a vampire,” I said.
“Really?” asked Bridgette. I watched as Allen slowly crept up behind her, keeping a finger over his lips to let me know not to say anything. “Like, a hot one, or a scary one?”
Allen leaned in close to Bridgette, fangs stretching out and eyes going completely dark. When he was right next to her neck, he said, “Why, hello there.”
Bridgette screamed. Loudly.
Bart and I looked at each other.
“I hate to admit it, but I see now why he finds it funny,” said Bart.
“Me too,” I smiled.
Epilogue
I put my signature on another form, moving it over to the ‘done’ pile on my desk.
“Phew,” I said, looking down at my ‘to do’ pile. “I need to make sure I’m getting more work done when I’m helping with these cases. It all just piles up if I don’t.”
“Procrastinating seems more up your alley,” yawned Bart from the couch. We were both still tired, even though it had been two days since Puck was banished back to the Other.
I gave Bart a look as my office phone rang.
“Foster’s Market, this is Zoey speaking,” I said.
“Zoey, this is Charline Baker,” said the voice on the other side. “I’m one of your cashiers.”
“Yes, Charline, I know who you are,” I sighed. “What can I help you with?”
“Well for one thing, when I flick the switch for my register number to come one, there’s a full two point five second delay.”
“I’m sorry?”
“It takes nearly three seconds from the time I flip the light switch on to when it actually shows that my register is available for customers,” said Charline. “In those three precious seconds, a customer could feel that only Bridgette’s register is open, and then get stuck in her line. Heaven knows how many customers we’ve lost because they didn’t want to wait in her long line, while they didn’t know mine was available.”
“Is… is this really why you called?” I asked, staring down at my paperwork. “I’m kind of busy, and there’s nothing I can do about the delay on your register light.”
“I see,” said Charline shortly. “I’m sorry to have bothered you with business losing information. The other thing is Jimmy Ralin from the produce department is ready to speak with you. He’s been growing antsier this whole phone conversation, so you might want to let him in.”
“Send Jimmy in, Charline,” I said, shaking my head. “Thank you.”
“You wanted to see me, Miss Foster?” asked Jimmy as he opened the door. “Sorry for the delay. Charline wouldn’t let me in until she called you…”
“Yes, it’ll only take a second,” I said as he close the door. Charline was going to drive us all to an early grave. “You mentioned needing some more help in the produce department the other day.”
“Yes, ma’am,” nodded Jimmy.
“You felt that I wasn’t giving you the tools to succeed.”
Jimmy blushed, but still nodded.
“Well… I agree,” I nodded. Jimmy smiled, visibly relaxing. “I should have thought it through better when I promoted Eric out of your department. I’ve looked for a new candidate, and am happy to tell you that we’ve found one.”
“Really? So soon?” asked Jimmy with a giant smile.
“And you know him!”
“I do?” he asked, surprised. “I didn’t think any of my friends were looking for a job right now…”
“He’s even closer than a friend, silly. It’s your brother! Jake!”
Jimmy’s jaw fell open. “J-Jake?”
“Yes,” I smiled. “I heard he was starting to get into some trouble, so I decided to help him stay off the streets. I think having a job and learning some responsibility could do him some good, don’t you?”
“I-I, uh…”
“He’ll start Monday next week, and I’ve got him working the same shift as you for the foreseeable future so that you can show him the ropes.”
“O-Okay,” he said, nodding. He stood there for a few second more in silence, taking in what I just told him.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?” I asked.
“N-No, I was just… I’ll get back to work,” he said, opening the door again. “Thanks for the additional help… I think…”
“Anytime,” I smiled.
“Poor kid,” laughed Bart as the door closed. “He’s never going to ask you for help again.”
“Aw, I’m sure he’ll warm up to working with his little brother,” I said.
My office phone rang again. I guess I wasn’t meant to sign any more of these forms today.
“Foster’s Market, this is Zoey. How can we help you today?”
“Hey, Zoey,” came a wonderful face. “How are you doing today?”
“I’m doing well, Drake,” I smiled. “How about yourself?”
“I can’t complain.”
“Why’d you call me on my business phone instead of my cell?” I asked.
“This is a business call,” he said. “I want to prepare a nice dinner for a hot date this weekend, although I haven’t asked her yet. I was curious if your store carried arborio rice?”
“We do, in fact,” I laughed. “Sounds like you’
re making her risotto. Lucky girl, this hot date of yours. Coincidentally, I am free this weekend.”
“Perfect.”
“How is work going?” I asked. “Any new reports that sound like it could be teens doing more crime?”
“No, they seem to be on the straight path for now,” said Drake. “The only strange reports I’ve heard in the last few days was a woman screaming bloody murder next to the police station at night. When my colleagues went outside, they didn’t see anyone.”
“Maybe you guys should put up more security cameras?” I asked. Poor Bridgette. After she screamed, we had to leave quickly, and I don’t think she’s fully recovered from her first Allen experience yet.
“Probably couldn’t hurt. Well, I should probably get back to work. I look forward to seeing you this weekend.”
“Same here,” I smiled, hanging the phone up.
“New case yet?” asked Bart.
“Not at the moment,” I said.
“Good. Maybe I can finally catch up on some of my shows!”
I giggled as I went back to my work.
Finally, a bit of peace. I’m not sure how long it’ll last, but I’ll take it.
The End.
The Stolen Santa
Twistchapel Cozy Mystery Short – Christmas Short
by Alexandria Westbay
Chapter 1
“Don’t you just love the snow?” I asked Bart as we walked into Foster’s Market, the small grocery store I owned. I clicked the lock button on my key fob a few dozen times, hoping one of them worked.
“Not particularly,” he shrugged. “I can’t feel it anyway, so it doesn’t really matter to me.”
Bart was my familiar, who for whatever reason kept the form of a cat. He was immaterial and could only be seen by those with a connection to magic or the paranormal, such as myself. Even though witches typically got their powers in their early years, mine didn’t come until I was thirty. Bart had been helping me ever since.
“You’re missing out,” I said, hearing the locking beep from my car.
“Yeah right, Zoey. I’ll take no temperature over freezing any day of the week,” he said, as I wiped my feet on the mat before continuing into the store.
Twistchapel Witch Cozy Mystery Box Set: Books 1-4 plus Christmas Short Page 26
