Witch of Mintwood Mysteries 7-9

by Addison Creek

  “You have to get that door open. And you have to be quiet about it,” said Charlie.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” I told her.

  “Why don’t you use your magic?” Greer asked.

  “I’m worried that the dark ghosts will see it and know I’m here. If I can’t get out to help the other cottage, we might be in really big trouble,” I explained.

  “I’ll open the door silently,” said Charlie.

  “Good luck,” I told her.

  Charlie was in fact remarkably good at opening doors without making any noise, so much so that I wondered how often she snuck out of the farmhouse without our being the wiser. I had a feeling she did it more than she admitted to.

  By the time the door was fully open, all of the dark ghosts had gone past. We snuck down the cottage steps as quietly as we could. It wasn’t until Greer, who came last, hit the final step that there was so much as a creak. At that very moment, something darted out from underneath the porch steps. For a split second I was afraid it was another dark ghost, then I realized that it was just a ghost with a dark personality.

  “What do you three think you’re doing?” Paws asked.

  “Saving the day,” said Greer.

  “It’s night,” Charlie edited.

  “While sounding like a freight train?” Paws demanded.

  “We’ve barely made any noise at all,” I whispered.

  He was about to say something else when I held up my hand. That wouldn’t have carried much weight, except that I was holding my wand in it.

  What I saw in front of me stopped my heart. And their mouths.

  Dark ghosts were surrounding the next-door cottage.

  Even if we wanted to get the guys out, the dark ghosts were so tightly clustered that there wasn’t a chink we could have used to sneak between them.

  Jasper, Hansen, and Deacon were trapped.

  Seeing Wendell making his way to the front door, I dashed forward without a second thought. Paws muttered something about the idiot witch as I raced away.

  I raised a hand and said, “Stop right there,” trying to put as much authority behind my words as I possibly could while keeping my voice low. These cottages weren’t exactly airtight. If I spoke too loudly the occupants might hear me, and like I just said, the last thing I wanted was for Hansen to discover that I was a witch.

  Wendell turned around maddeningly slowly. He was very fat, and I didn’t think he could move fast at the best of times. At the moment, though, it looked like his deliberate speed was intentional. By the time he was facing me I could see how very gleeful he was at the sight of me.

  Not only was I there, but I was confronting him.

  In other words, I was doing exactly what he wanted me to do.

  The assortment of dark ghosts with him were a ragtag bunch. I didn’t look at them closely except to notice that when they first caught sight of me they also leaned forward . . . as if they wanted to attack.

  I pushed that impression out of my mind. There might be a lot of them, but that didn’t matter. I really hoped that didn’t matter.

  “I was hoping you’d come out,” Wendell gloated, “but I wasn’t sure you would. As you can see, we’re trying to attack you at your most vulnerable. Love always does that to people. Makes them weak.”

  “It’s a mistake to involve my friends. Coming after me is one thing, but attacking them is another. Sneaking onto my property is one thing, but letting me find you about to attack my friends at a public campground is a bridge too far,” I shot back.

  I tried to keep my voice even. I was about to do battle with dark ghosts. Really, for the first time. Everything rode on the next few moments.

  The way Wendell was smirking at me proved that he wasn’t afraid. I shoved my own fear deep down where I hoped it would be undetectable

  “You’re coming for us,” said Wendell. “I see that. Nothing has even started yet, though. You haven’t seen Ellie in months. Why do you think that is? The battle is coming. Tonight we just wanted to give you a taste of what the future holds for you, little witch. Everything you’ve ever feared will come true. Very soon.”

  Quick as a flash I waved my wand, a move I’d been practicing when I had an idle moment. It was a lot like when people say to just do squats or something in the kitchen to work out. I would never do squats, but I did try to do a little wand work now and then. I had practiced pulling my wand from my sleeve as quickly as possible until I got good at it.

  And faster.

  Green sparks flew everywhere. They flashed toward Wendell, who was forced to duck. Given his girth, he had a hard time getting out of the way. He landed heavily, then it took him a long time to rise to his feet again. When he did his eyes were locked on me in anger.

  “That was foolish. We’ve trapped you and you are sorely outnumbered,” he hissed.

  “You threatened my friends. I just made clear that that’s worse than attacking me directly. It’s the middle of the night and I’m busy sleeping. If you’re going to attack me, get on with it. Otherwise run along,” I said.

  “We don’t run. We are here to deliver a message, and I intend to deliver it. From this moment forward you shall know no peace. Everyone you love is in danger until you surrender Mintwood to its rightful witch,” he said.

  “You don’t have to stand here and listen to this nonsense, you know,” said Paws. He had stayed in the shadows, but he now came forward, plopped at my feet, and glared at the ghosts surrounding the cottage. Again, the dark ghosts leaned forward as if they smelled something that pleased them.

  “If it isn’t your useless sidekick. I did wonder when he’d show up. It took a bit longer than I expected,” said Wendell.

  “He comes when he’s needed. Why waste his time on you?” I said.

  “You keep insulting me. Grave move given that you’ve shown no ability to defend yourself or those you care about from dark ghosts,” said Wendell.

  “Actually, I’ve defended myself from you a number of times. I’ve made it clear that I’m not going to be afraid, and furthermore I’m not going to do what Ellie wants. She isn’t the rightful Witch of Mintwood. I am. I will no longer tolerate these threats. You dark ghosts are waste of my time,” I said.

  “You tell them,” said Paws encouragingly.

  “You’re right. This isn’t a negotiation,” sneered Wendell. “Because you’ve already lost. If you haven’t noticed, we’re the ones surrounding your cottage. You had no defenses up.”

  For the first time since confronting these ghosts I felt off-balance. Should I have put defenses up around the cottages? Now it felt like maybe so, but those took an awful lot of witchy ability. If I had learned one thing from trying to perform a séance with Scarlett and Josephine, it was that big spells took a lot of magic.

  “Don’t think about that now. He’s just trying to distract you and make you feel guilty,” said Paws under his breath.

  His words weren’t quite quiet enough.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing, and I plan to succeed.” Wendell’s eyes still stared me down. He glanced around at the other dark ghosts. He had been ignoring them so far, but now he rallied them around him.

  “This is the witch who is keeping the Dark Witch from her rightful place! She refuses to give up her land to our master. We must defeat her. She must understand that the dark ghosts are not to be trifled with. Attack!” Wendell’s voice boomed out.

  If he hadn’t been a ghost, he certainly would have awakened the occupants of the cottage. Luckily, so far my voice had been quiet enough that they hadn’t heard me. Had they been listening, it would have been a very one-sided argument, since I was the only person speaking in a voice they could have heard.

  Suddenly, dark ghosts flooded me from all sides, and Paws was instantly on all fours hissing. I pulled my wand out again and whipped it around in a circle, spinning along with it. There was no longer any sign of my friends.

  “Jasper and the others, get them out,” I y
elled to Paws.

  “You think it’ll be that easy? You have another thing coming,” said Wendell through gritted teeth.

  He knelt down, blocking more of the doorway so that Paws would have to run through him to get to my boyfriend. I sent green sparks in every direction. As fast as I could move and as fast as I could perform a spell, I attacked the ghosts that were attacking me.

  “I’ll get them out. You don’t have to worry,” said the cat.

  Chaos took over.

  The dark ghosts that were trying to swarm me were not very brave. As fast as they could attack, the green sparks from my wand scared them and forced them to rush away. Wendell was hollering something very loudly, and I had lost track of the cat.

  Breathing hard, I knew I couldn’t keep it up for much longer. I might be keeping the dark ghosts at bay, but there were more of them coming. I had no idea how many Wendell had brought with him, but it was a lot.

  After a few brief moments when neither side had the edge in the battle, I saw Wendell trying to light the dark ghosts on fire. How he was managing it I had no idea, but a thrill of danger rushed through me. He was going to burn the cottage down.

  With all of my friends inside.

  Now their only hope was Paws.

  To put it another way, we were all in big trouble.

  Wendell looked as if he was about to attack again. He grabbed for Paws, who was still trying to find a way into the cottage. The cat scurried around him and slipped through his hands. Wendell fell over on his side as he continued to grope for Paws.

  The ghosts were overwhelming me. There was no way I was going to stop all of them. They were going to overrun the cottages.

  Suddenly, Charlie and Greer were on either side of me, both wearing their jewelry. Sparkles flew from my wand and circled the jewels, making them brighter. It wasn’t until now that I noticed my own green necklace glowing the brightest green I had ever seen. I glanced gratefully over at my friends.

  The dark ghosts shrank again from the spectacle of the three of us united. The magical jewels of my grandmother were protecting us against the attacking ghosts.

  They scattered.

  The next instant Charlie yelled, “We have to help Paws!”

  With the ghosts swarming and my friends coming to help, I had lost track of the ghost cat.

  My eyes scanned the mess of magic and ghosts in the darkness. Finally I found the figure I was looking for. I had trouble locating Paws because he wasn’t at ankle level anymore.

  He was now in the clutches of Wendell.

  I raced forward and pointed my wand at the hulking dark ghost. Our other attackers had scattered, the sight of Charlie and Greer with their magical jewelry having scared them away.

  Paws was scrabbling furiously against Wendell’s clutches. It was clear that the dark ghost hadn’t thought he’d have to contend with a cat tonight. Why, I couldn’t imagine. He knew about Paws; everyone knew about Paws.

  Paws hissed ferociously and Wendell’s eyes flew open as if he was in pain. He dropped Paws, who landed on his feet and jumped away.

  My roommates and I surrounded Wendell, who was breathing hard but still looking victorious, despite the loss of his supporting ghosts. He was just starting to reach for the handle of the cottage door when Paws came flying from under the porch and latched onto his wide pant leg.

  Wendell clearly hated cats.

  He cried out and tried to shake Paws off, but his efforts were hopeless. The next instant Wendell disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke. At first it looked as if Paws was going to be sucked away along with him, so I dove forward, terrified of losing the cat. Charlie and Greer must have concluded the same thing, because they lunged after him as well.

  The three of us landed in a heap on the stairs. Paws was the only one left unscathed. He landed gracefully and turned around to look at us.

  “Awkward,” he said, then started licking his paws.

  The cottage door opened. All three guys stood there looking sleepy. Deacon gazed down at Greer lying in a heap.

  “Clearly, I missed something,” he said.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  We didn’t have long to sleep after that. I was too nervous from the dark ghost attack, so I kept sitting up to look out the window. Prickles of fear kept making me think that Wendell and his cronies were coming back, but every time I looked, the guys’ cottage remained quiet and so did the air around ours.

  If the situation hadn’t been so dire, the look on Deacon’s face when he opened the door would have been comical. Hansen had just shaken his head, said he was all partied out, and gone back to bed. Jasper helped me up, but his face remained serious. He clearly didn’t believe the explanation that we were just being silly outside in the middle of the night. Deacon only believed it because it was definitely something he himself would do.

  On a normal day I wouldn’t have gotten out of bed for a very long time, but this wasn’t a normal day. We had to get to the Mintwood cemetery to try to find Burke as quickly as possible. The nameless beaver had said he’d be there, but I had no idea for how long. He probably wasn’t very close to his skeleton at this point, and I didn’t know how long that situation could last.

  Charlie was going to wake up and go with me. There was no way she was going to miss this part of the story. Greer kindly offered to stay behind and keep an eye on the cottages. Staying behind, of course, also served her agenda of sleeping as late as possible whenever possible.

  Charlie wondered how Greer was going to keep an eye on anything with her eyes closed, but Greer declined to answer that particular question.

  By the time I sat up, Charlie was already awake. We dressed quietly and left the cottage. It wasn’t entirely dark anymore, but it was still a long way till sunrise, so we had some time during which we might still catch some of the ghosts that stayed up late. Or early, depending on how you looked at it.

  It felt strange to leave the campground. Although we had only gotten there a couple of days ago, it felt like we’d been there forever. Driving out of the woods was like going into another world.

  No one else was stirring as we left, and I considered that to be a good thing. If someone noticed us leaving, they might wonder where we were going. I didn’t want to have to explain it to anybody.

  Still in shock from the night before, Charlie and I didn’t speak much on the drive back to Mintwood. How the dark ghosts had known where we were I couldn’t guess.

  Furthermore, they had chosen to attack my friends, knowing I’d come to the rescue; Wendell had counted on it. The very thought enraged me. Not only that, but I had come as close as I ever had to being found out as a witch.

  That wasn’t good.

  Hansen and Deacon didn’t know what I was. Jasper knew but had never really seen me in action. He had come very close last night.

  “Do you think Burke will be at the cemetery?” Charlie asked.

  I sighed. “I hope so. I also think I need to practice my magic.”

  Charlie’s face filled with concern. “You might have a point. You did really well last night, but next time they’ll be ready for you. You should maybe look into some spells that will help against them. Apparently you can’t just assume they’re only going to attack the farmhouse.”

  “Right. They clearly have other targets in mind. I’ve just never seen any books about battle spells among my grandmother’s things. She was so peace-loving, I can’t even imagine,” I said.

  “That’s probably why Ellie has always wanted Mintwood,” said Charlie.

  She had put her finger on something that had been bothering me for a while. I had been so busy with other things, I hadn’t really had time to think about it. Now I did.

  Why was Ellie targeting Mintwood specifically? Sure, she had known it was my grandmother’s, and she was familiar with it. But that didn’t explain why she thought it was hers or why she wanted it so badly.

  There were other towns around here; she had even formed her own magical community, which sh
e called Puddlewood. I was sure that’s where all the dark ghosts from the night attack had come from, and probably where Wendell was at this very moment. Her little town was technically located in Hazelwood—for now—but I couldn’t make heads or tails of what that had to do with her targeting Mintwood above all the other neighboring communities.

  Leaving that mystery aside for the moment, I brought my mind back to prospect of meeting Burke’s ghost. Since the roads were clear of cars, we were almost to the cemetery already.

  As usual, the cemetery shed light was on. Funnel the ghost dog hated the dark.

  Several ghosts sitting in a corner of the grounds appeared to be playing a game of cards. When they saw me they waved merrily, and I waved back.

  Charlie smiled at them and they looked more skeptical. They had heard the Witch of Mintwood had friends who could see them, but they were a little mistrustful of such arrangements.

  “No Paws with you today?” Funnel asked as he loped up to us.

  “We had a pretty eventful night last night. He decided he needed his rest,” I said.

  “He also doesn’t like dogs,” said the dog.

  “That’s true too,” I said.

  “What brings you here?” Funnel asked. He was sitting under the shed light, looking as if we had awakened him from a sound sleep. His ghost form was just starting to fade for the day.

  “We’re looking for someone,” I said.

  “Doesn’t surprise me. Lots of ghosts hang around here. To tell you the truth, I’m surprised you don’t come looking for them more often,” said Funnel.

  “Has anyone been looking for me?” I asked.

  “Not that I’ve heard. If someone had said something to me, you know I would have come and told you myself,” he said.

  “I appreciate that. We’re looking for a ghost named Burke. The first time you saw him was probably about a year ago,” I told Funnel.

  “Oh, sure. Him. He comes here all the time,” said Funnel.

  “Where is he now?” I asked.