‘No one knows the spell, or how to reverse it,’ Felicity Bat went on. ‘It’s my gran’s secret invention. No one has ever figured it out and no one ever will.’
She snatched the Peggy doll, ready to rip her head off.
Just then, the door flew open. ‘CURSES! CURSES EVERYWHERE!’
It was Miss Flint.
‘My shop! It’s gone! Destroyed! The roof is off, the window is smashed, the WALLS ARE GONE! CURSES! THE CURSES HAVE GOT US!’
And then she ran out again. This time through the wall.
Felicity Bat stared dumbfounded at the Miss Flint-shaped hole in the wallpaper.
Fran shot some glittery dust in Felicity Bat’s face and Tiga snatched the Peggy doll back.
‘Oh this is so boring,’ Felicity Bat said, wiping the glitter off her face.
Tiga felt like she had smoke coming out of her ears. ‘You are finished, Felicity Bat! I am going to tell everyone what you did and they are going to run you out of Linden House! Peggy will be Top Witch again and we will figure out how to turn her back into a witch.’
Felicity Bat grinned, which wasn’t what Tiga expected her to do at all. Felicity had lost. They had won. So why the grin?
‘I suppose you’ve won, Tiga,’ began Felicity Bat. ‘There is nothing I could offer you. Well, I could tell you what your real surname is, and where you come from in Sinkville and who your mother is. All I ask in return is for you to give me Peggy.’
‘You’re bluffing!’ Fran cried. ‘Her surname is Whicabim.’
‘It’s a made-up name, Fran,’ Felicity Bat said, levitating above them. ‘Never in the history of Sinkville has there been a witch called Whicabim. That Miss Heks she used to live with above the pipes must have made it up, probably as a joke.’
‘I did think it was weird that when you jumbled up the letters in your name it spelt “I am a big witch” …’ Fran mumbled.
Tiga could barely think – her mind was racing like Fran trying to out-fly Julie Jumbo Wings. She marched towards Felicity Bat. ‘And how do you know that there has never been a Whicabim?’
‘Well?’ squeaked the Peggy doll.
‘We found it in the Mmmf,’ Aggie Hoof said proudly.
‘The Mmmf?’ Fluffanora scoffed. ‘No one can find anything in the Mmmf.’
‘Crispy did,’ Aggie Hoof said proudly.
Felicity Bat kicked her.
‘Well, we will just ask Crispy to give us the information then,’ Fran said.
‘She just had to look for the word “Tiga” in documents,’ Felicity Bat said, waving her hand dismissively. ‘She didn’t read the documents properly – she knows nothing.’
‘WHAT ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT?!’ Tiga cried.
‘No witch called Whicabim has ever lived in Sinkville. You’ve been using the wrong surname this whole time, but I know what your real surname is.’ Felicity Bat took a seat on the sofa and smoothed out her skirt. ‘So, Tiga, I don’t have all day, what will it be – the information or Peggy?’
‘How will I know you’re telling the truth?’ Tiga asked.
‘You won’t,’ Felicity Bat said.
Tiga looked from Fluffanora to Fran to the Peggy doll and then to Felicity Bat, who was grinning a mad grin.
‘And what’s to stop me just going to the Mmmf and finding this information out for myself?’
‘Well, the extreme dust in the place for one,’ Aggie Hoof said. ‘Also, Fel-Fel burnt the file. The information’s only in her brain now.’
Tiga shot across the room and grabbed Felicity Bat’s hair. She just levitated up high and shook Tiga off.
‘Oh hurry up and make your decision,’ Felicity Bat snapped.
‘Stop!’ Fluffanora cried, looking from Tiga to the Peggy doll to Felicity Bat. ‘Tiga, think about this.’
‘I don’t have to,’ Tiga said instantly. ‘I choose Peggy.’
Fran covered her eyes.
‘OK, your real name is – WHAT? YOU CHOOSE PEGGY?!’ Felicity Bat spluttered.
Tiga nodded and held the Peggy doll close to her chest. ‘I choose Peggy.’
Felicity Bat floated in the air and blinked at her.
‘Fel-Fel?’ Aggie Hoof whispered. ‘That’s not what you wanted her to say … is it?’
It wasn’t what either of them had expected.
‘You think everyone will behave as selfishly as you, Felicity!’ Tiga said. ‘But we will not.’
‘I think there are occasions when I might …’ Fran mumbled to herself.
‘Do you really think I would leave Peggy here, with you? I’m going to tell all of Sinkville what you did!’ Tiga went on. ‘And all the other witches like the Toad editor, Darcy Dream.’ She pulled the Darcy Dream doll out of her pocket and bellowed the speaking spell.
‘We are going to chase you out of town!’ the Darcy Dream doll squeaked.
‘EXACTLY,’ said Tiga.
Fran smiled proudly at her as Felicity Bat floated about in the air, utterly gobsmacked.
Fluffanora tapped Aggie Hoof on the shoulder. ‘Shoeland doesn’t exist, by the way. I made it up.’
Aggie Hoof stared at her closely. ‘No you didn’t.’
Fluffanora lifted the shoe off Aggie Hoof’s ear and whispered, ‘I really did.’
‘WHAT?!’ Aggie Hoof squealed. ‘But then that would make me … AN IDIOOOOOOTTTTT!’
Tiga marched to the door and flung it open. ‘WITCHES OF RITZY CITY! I AM TIGA AND I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU!’
Felicity Bat and Aggie Hoof looked at each other and then pelted out of Linden House, towards the winding road that snaked up and up and wrapped around Pearl Peak.
‘Darcy Dream?’ whispered a witch as she dropped a load of Brew’s bags. ‘Is that you?’
‘Meredith!’ Darcy Dream squeaked from the doorway where she had flopped. ‘Take me back to Toad magazine headquarters this instant!’
It is me, Darcy Dream! I am back, although I am still a doll, so my assistant Meredith is very kindly writing this for me because my fingers are made of fabric and cannot grip a pen.
I was NOT playing hide-and-seek. I was turned into a doll by Aggie Hoof and her evil pal Felicity Bat.
As revenge, I have bewitched Toad magazine with a special spell just for Aggie Hoof. If she DARES to touch a copy of this magazine, it will shoot slime at her face and steal her shoes.
38
Celia Crayfish’s Playroom
Fran straightened her beehive of hair. ‘Well, that’s them gone!’
‘I have a feeling Felicity Bat will be back again,’ Tiga groaned.
‘Thank you so much, Tiga,’ the Peggy doll squeaked.
‘We have to figure out how to turn you back,’ Tiga said.
‘And we need to find out what your surname is,’ Peggy squeaked.
‘AND we need to find Eddy Eggby,’ Fluffanora insisted. ‘Peggy, I think she was turned into a doll too, by Celia Crayfish all those years ago when Celia was only a baby.’
‘We could start with Celia Crayfish’s playroom. It still exists. I found it a couple of weeks before they turned me into a doll,’ Peggy squeaked. ‘It’s hidden behind a little hatch under the stairs.’
‘She must be here! She just must!’ Fluffanora shouted.
Tiga was beginning to worry Fluffanora might be disappointed as she squeezed herself through the dusty hatch and clawed her way along the cobweb-covered hallway.
It was really unlike her not to comment on the dust or cobwebs.
She turned to Tiga with cobwebs dangling from her eyelashes. ‘Isn’t this BRILLIANT?!’
‘Is it much further?’ Tiga asked the Peggy doll.
They followed the corridor as it curved left and right and got narrower and narrower. As they walked, the little lights that lined the walls flickered to life, illuminating portraits of Celia Crayfish as a young girl.
Celia Crayfish peeping out of a cauldron.
Celia Crayfish levitating in the air.
Celia Crayfish stomping on beetles.
>
There was a creaking sound and a couple of lights went out.
‘I don’t like this,’ Fran mumbled.
‘I bet the Eddy Eggby doll is in her playroom,’ Fluffanora said, as she ripped a portrait off the wall and forged on ahead. ‘How far is this playroom, anyway? Ah! Here’s the door.’
She kicked it with her sparkly shoe and sent it flying off its hinges, revealing, well, not a playroom, that was for sure.
Tiga gasped.
‘That,’ said Fran, pointing a tiny finger at what lay beyond the door, ‘is a forest.’
39
Slime
Felicity Bat raised an eyebrow. ‘Why are you covered in slime and not wearing any shoes?’
Aggie Hoof dropped her Toad magazine and SCREAMED.
40
Into the Forest …
The air in the forest was cool, almost frosty, and the trees seemed to whisper nothing but bad things.
‘HANDS UP WHO WANTS TO GO BACK NOW?’ Fran bellowed, stretching an arm in the air.
‘It’s over there,’ Peggy said, peeking out of Tiga’s pocket. But because she was a doll she couldn’t point or nod or anything like that.
‘There?’ asked Tiga, pointing Peggy at a line of crooked trees.
‘No, it’s –’ Peggy began.
‘Here?’ Tiga asked, pointing her towards another line of crooked trees.
‘I’VE FOUND IT!’ Fluffanora shouted.
Tiga raced over to where she was hunched, next to a tall and spindly tree. Carved into the trunk were the initials C.C. and around it was a ring of terrifying-looking stone dolls.
Tiga tapped one of the stone dolls with her foot and it sank slowly into the ground, followed by the one next to it, and the one next to that.
Fran covered her eyes.
‘Pretty elaborate entrance for a playroom,’ Tiga mumbled.
The C.C. on the trunk glowed brightly and then BANG! The tree split in two, opening up to reveal a helter-skelter slide. A black shimmering liquid sploshed down it, spiralling down and down until there was no light to see if it went any further.
Fluffanora threw her hat across the forest like a frisbee and leapt on to it. Within less than a second she had shot off down the slide and vanished completely.
‘FLUFFANORA!’ Tiga yelled, as she tucked the Peggy doll into her skirt and tore off after her.
Fran stood whistling by the tree for a moment and then felt really guilty.
‘I’M COMING, TIGA! FABULOUS FRAN IS ON HER WAY!’
As the water slide swirled its last swirl, Tiga slipped from the end of it and felt herself free-falling through the darkness.
She could just make out a small light, getting brighter as she hurtled closer towards it.
‘Fran!’ she cried, as the fairy soared really close to her, with a very bright finger.
‘Well, this is very odd,’ Fran said, wagging her glowing finger about to reveal lots of floating toy boxes engraved with doodles of dolls.
Tiga somersaulted through the air.
‘Oh look, ground!’ Fran shouted as Tiga landed with a thump on top of Fluffanora, who shoved her off, leapt to her feet and started rummaging in the hundreds of toy boxes that filled the room.
‘Eddy Eggby’s got to be here, Tiga!’
Tiga slowly un-crumpled herself and scanned the room. Unlike the cobwebbed corridor, the dusty hatch and the creepy forest, the room was perfect, like it was brand new. An ornate black toy train blew its horn as it tore around a track that circled above their heads.
‘It’s an exact replica of the Sinkville Express,’ Peggy squeaked.
‘The Sinkville Express?’ Tiga asked. ‘I’ve never seen it.’
‘It’s not been in the sky for years,’ Fluffanora explained. ‘Celia Crayfish took it down. It used to connect all the cities in Sinkville.’
She marched to the corner of the room, grabbed a broom and soared up to the toy boxes floating in the darkness above them. When she opened one, it was empty. She flew over to one of the trunks and opened that too. Again, nothing.
‘Where are all the dolls?’ Fluffanora said crossly, as she zoomed about in the air.
Tiga and Peggy got to work on the things that were scattered across the ground – mostly cauldrons, cuddly frog toys and board games. Tiga really liked the look of one game called BROOMSTICK BOOM, but there wasn’t any time to try it.
Fran sat back in the air and watched, occasionally flicking her finger and lifting things for the others if they needed it. She also sneakily tried to rearrange Tiga’s hair, which she had decided was a bit messy.
‘Stop that!’ Tiga said as she felt her hair ruffling and rearranging itself into a large beehive. ‘FRAN!’
‘You would look wonderful with a beehive!’
Peggy giggled. Tiga turned to glare at Fran and that’s when she spotted it. Propped up against the wall behind Fran was a painting. A painting of Celia Crayfish. She must have been about six or seven years old in it. She was sporting a twisted grin and clutching a small doll wearing a hat with a huge pompom …
‘Fluffanora?’ Tiga said.
Peggy spotted what Tiga was looking at. ‘Fluffanora …’ she squeaked.
‘Oh, what’s the point in having a load of floating old trunks and cupboards if you don’t keep the thing I’m looking for in them, for FROGS’ SAKE?!’ she shouted, kicking one of the cupboards and falling off her broom.
She landed with a thud next to Peggy and Tiga. ‘What are you two staring at – oh my frogbags, it’s EDDY EGGBY BUT SHE’S A DOLL!!!’
41
Pompom Hat
There was no mistaking that the little doll in Celia Crayfish’s claws was the fantastically fashionable Eddy Eggby.
But where was she now?
It had been weeks since they had fallen into Celia Crayfish’s old playroom and found the very convincing evidence that Eddy Eggby had been turned into a doll. But they still hadn’t tracked her down.
Fran had even mentioned the incident on her TV show Cooking for Tiny People, which she assured Tiga was watched by millions. But still not a single witch or fairy had come forward.
Peggy was still a doll and Miss Flint’s shop had been closed down (because Fluffanora had taken the roof off it, and all the sides, so someone had just hung a CLOSED sign on the only shelf that remained standing). No one had seen Miss Flint for days, but everyone knew she would be in big trouble when she was found.
Fluffanora had rebranded Linden House ‘Dolls HQ’ and was demanding to stay there, so Mrs Brew had joined them, along with about fifty Brew’s shop witches, who were all buzzing about the place helping out with the mission to find Eddy Eggby. All the Brew’s witches had come dressed as weird-looking witch detectives, with froggy hats and slick black jumpsuits should they need to chase or attack.
Their time to attack did eventually come, one quiet night when the grand old clock in the corridor coughed nine and there was a massive bang downstairs.
‘BACK OFF, YOU RITZY CITY FOOLS!’ a witch bellowed.
Tiga crept down the stairs. In the dim light of the hallway she could make out a circle of Brew’s witches around a tall dark figure standing in the dim light.
‘Miss Flint!’ Tiga cried, racing down the stairs two at a time, clutching the Peggy doll. Fluffanora was behind her (in an eye mask – she had been sleeping). When she got to the bottom of the stairs she ran straight into a statue. Fran was behind her (also in an eye mask). She also banged into the statue.
‘What are you doing here, Miss Flint?’ Tiga asked, stepping past the little Brew’s witches. ‘You’re in a lot of trouble.’
One of the lanterns bobbing up and down outside the window was gently casting a soft glow down the corridor and on to Miss Flint’s old face. She looked like she had never looked before. She didn’t look angry. She didn’t look furious. She looked really, really sad.
‘Before I start,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘I don’t like them witches from Ritzy City. None of you. Bu
t I would never hurt a fly. I did once hurt a fly, so that’s a lie. But I did it by accident. Sat on it.’
‘ARE YOU SURE IT WASN’T A FAIRY?!’ Fran asked, her nostrils flared.
‘It was a fly. Because I sat on it up there in the world above the pipes,’ Miss Flint said.
Tiga took a step forward. ‘Were you terrorising children up there?’
Miss Flint shook her head madly. ‘No, no. I told you, I would never hurt a fly, apart from that one I sat on.’
‘Well, what were you doing up there?’ Peggy asked.
Miss Flint stepped closer to them. ‘I was delivering dolls; Celia Crayfish asked me to take them up there. But I didn’t know they were cursed witches! I thought they were dolls. Some of them looked like witches I had seen before, but I just thought they were dolls modelled on them! I didn’t know they were real witches! Everyone’s been talking about what Felicity Bat did to Peggy and those other witches, but I promise I didn’t know. I didn’t.’
Peggy, Tiga and Fluffanora all gasped.
‘So …’ Fluffanora said. ‘Let me get this straight, you didn’t know that many of the dolls in your doll shop could be cursed witches?’
Miss Flint shook her head.
‘And, at the request of Celia Crayfish, you took some of those dolls up to the world above the pipes and left them there?’ Tiga asked.
Miss Flint nodded.
‘I hate to say sorry to Ritzy City witches, but I am. I’m so sorry. I had no idea. When I was little I dreamed of opening my own shop. I wanted to fix things. There were so many dolls lying around the place that no one took the time to help. I wanted to be the one that helped. I worked hard at that old sandwich shop, Nibblers, and got enough sinkels together to buy my very own shop and I was proud of that place. And now it’s gone.’
Tiga looked at Fluffanora, who was guiltily looking at her finger.
‘The curses got it,’ Miss Flint continued. ‘The walls fell off and everything.’
Tiga kept looking at Fluffanora. She expected her to say, ‘Oh, sorry, it wasn’t the curses, it was actually me.’ But she just mumbled, ‘Curses are terrible things …’
Witch Switch Page 9
