‘Mummy, she’s so cute,’ Jack pleaded.
The mother tugged her son away. It wasn’t even that she was bothered about the cute little poodle much; it was the homeless old woman who owned it. She looked mighty unsavoury.
‘Oh, my dear little Mandy, they don’t want to stroke you,’ the old woman whispered to the dog.
Amanda looked at her feet to see why they didn’t hurt any more. A howl emitted from her mouth as she noticed that her feet were fluffy white paws. Her whole body quivered with fear and confusion. She was a dog.
‘Mummy, that dog looks frightened. It’s shivering all over.’
The old woman had heard what the boy had said to his ugly mother.
‘Oh, dear, little Mandy, did you hear that? Are you shivering, little Mandy? Goody, goody,’ the old woman laughed as she picked up the poodle. ‘I’m hungry for your fear, little Mandy.’
Amanda felt herself being lifted by the horrible woman. The smell of her body — putrid, bad eggs, bad vegetation, just bad, bad, bad. She whined and squirmed in her arms, only to feel a sharp pain in her posterior. The old woman had pulled at her tail.
Ouch! I hate you, bitch! she thought.
‘Ooooo, little Mandy has learned to speak with me,’ the woman cackled. ‘Listen well, my dear. I am your worst nightmare, and I will be feeding from you for a long, long time to come. You are simply perfect. You’re such a scaredy coward.’
She poked her finger under the poodle’s chin, blowing fake kisses. ‘I’m so glad I found you first, before any of the others. They’re always looking for humans who are a soft touch like you. Makes you nice ‘n’tasty.’
Amanda refused to talk back to her. She wanted nothing to do with the monster who had made her into a dog. A dog, of all things. She ought to have bit off her stinking finger, poking her chin like that.
A strange sensation of a throbbing deep pain in her veins, made her hackles stand up. Urine trickled down between her back legs. She could not control the shaking of her little fluffy body. The old woman didn’t seem bothered about the dog urine running down her arms; she simply laughed.
‘The more I scare you, little Mandy, the tastier you are. I eat your emotions. I feed from your fear and I’m getting very fat. Did you like my little spell of pain? Delicious.’
Amanda truly was scared of her. She wriggled about and managed to jump out of the woman’s arms, promptly vomiting on the floor. Before the woman could scoop her up again, a small boy ran by and yanked at the poodle, picking it up off the ground.
‘You don’t deserve this dog!’ he shouted.
The old woman was furious. It was the same brat who had passed them by with his ugly mother. Where was that ugly duckling?
‘I’m keeping it and you can’t stop me.’ He quickly turned heel and ran. Amanda didn’t know a little boy could run so quickly. He smelled of cherry sweets. His body was all warm and soft.
‘Stop that fucking kid! He’s nicked my dog,’ the old woman yelled for all to hear.
The one thing she couldn’t do was use her magic for all to see. Nor could she run, because she was stuck in such an old body, a cursed punishment put on her by that Slayer that followed her around whenever he could find her.
She decided to play innocent and stood there crying, hoping the crowd around her would catch the kid. ’He’s stolen my doggy,’ she cried out loudly. ‘Little Mandy is all I have in the whole world.’
Instead of pity, she felt pain. Someone was hammering at her hat with an umbrella. Turning to see what was happening, she saw the ugly duckling.
‘What have you done with my son, you stinking tramp? I can’t find my little boy anywhere. I know you’ve kidnapped him. You had that wild look about you. You’re just a dirty rotten old bag. Where’s my baby?’ The mother sobbed whilst beating the old woman.
The old woman, on her part, was angry at the ugly duckling because her bastard of a son was a thief. Taking the ugly duckling by the hair, she yanked so hard the hair ripped from the woman’s head. The mother screamed. The old woman punched her bottom jaw. As they tussled on the bench, a crowd of youngsters soon gathered. Some cheered the mother on; others took the side of the old woman. None attempted to stop the altercation.
From a distance, a police car cruised by, drawing slowly closer to the scene. The car halted and the police officers got out of their vehicle to see what the crowd of youngsters were up to. As they attempted to gain access to the centre of the crowd, a passing bus was veering out of control. None in the crowd knew what was heading their way, except one person. The old woman had seen the bus stopping before the crowd had grown. She had cast her spell on the driver before she had ripped the ugly ducklings hair clean from her scalp, but a spell took time. Whilst she punched and kicked at the ugly duckling, her mind controlled the driver on the bus. As soon as she heard the engine of the bus close by, the old woman disappeared. All heads had turned to the bus; no one noticed the absence of the old woman.
The police officers and onlookers at the back of the crowd took the brunt of the collision. The front of the green bus had turned a dark red. The driver could not see what had happened through the blood-covered window. The spell was gone. He had no idea why he was bulldozing into a crowd of people with his bus. Slamming his foot on the brakes, he froze in his seat. What the fuck had he done? Passengers ran screaming from the bus, shouting about a crazy bus driver.
A middle-aged woman watched from close by, soaking in the wild emotions from the crowd. The chaos was wonderful, bursting with flavours so strong that she knew that, at last, her body was getting younger. She hadn’t eaten this well in hundreds of years. Oh, she had to do this more often.
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK
They hid in a circle of leafy green bushes, watching the event unfold. The boy watched his mother, not sure what to do when that horrible old woman hurt her. He didn’t want his mother to be hurt, but he had to save the dog from the monster.
‘Don’t worry, little doggy. I’ll take you home, and we’ll go to my mummy soon.’
The dog slowly curled on the ground, tail between its legs, ears back, a tiny whine coming from its throat. Amanda was petrified. How could she tell Jack who she really was? She had witnessed what had happened to that witch. She’d changed form to a younger woman. What was that all about?
The boy picked up the dog again to go and find his mother. He turned around to find a scruffy man watching him. Again the dog whined. Amanda just seemed to go from one scary situation to another. She recognised the man from the bus. He was the weird guy behind her.
‘That’s a cute dog you got there, Jack,’ he said in a tone as friendly as he could muster.
‘Well, she’s not mine, really,’ Jack admitted. ‘We’re running away from her cruel owner.’
‘That’s mighty brave of you, being a little boy and all. Don’t you think it might lead to trouble for you and your ma?’
‘My Mum will be fine. She likes dogs, really. Besides, I can’t just leave it.’
‘Maybe I can help?’ the scruffy man suggested.
Amanda yipped. She didn’t want this guy to help! Who the hell was he, anyway?
‘Ssshhh, little doggy,’ Jack said as he tightened his grip on the dog, afraid it might jump out of his arms. ‘I think you’re frightening her. We need to go and find my Mum.’
‘You’re a brave boy, Jack, and I want you to do something that you’re not gonna like.’
‘I really need to go find my Mum.’ Jack was becoming a little worried about the scruffy man.
‘Don’t be afraid of me. I want to help you and your little dog,’ the man tried to explain. ‘My name is Charlie and it’s my job to try and help all the dogs that that witch… er, I mean that old woman owns. She doesn’t look after them too well.’
‘Are you from the dog helping people, then?’ Jack couldn’t remember the long name the dog helpers had. He had once visited them with his friend who had lost his dog and was looking at all the ‘found’ dogs. They ne
ver did find that dog.
‘Yep, I help dogs, that’s for sure,’ Charlie replied.
‘You talk funny,’ Jack noted.
‘Sure I do, ‘cos I come from another place. Now listen, here’s what I need you to do...’
Charlie explained the plan as simply as he could. It was not often he enlisted the help of a child, but the innocence factor might help. The witch would never suspect Jack was working with a Slayer.
Strangely enough, Jack found himself walking up a hill, but he couldn’t quite remember where he was going or why. More importantly, however, he still had the dog and that was all that seemed to matter.
Walking down the hill towards him was a woman who looked like she couldn’t walk very well in her high heels. ‘Aaah, Jack, there you are,’ she shouted at him.
‘Who are you, lady?’ he asked, unsure of whether he should know her or not. Maybe his mum had sent her to find him.
‘I’m the owner of that cute little dog you have there. Now give her back to me or I might have to do something horrible to you.’
‘Will you look after her?’ Jack wasn’t sure this was the right thing to do but he just couldn’t remember why he was walking around with a dog. He knew he lived halfway up this hill, and his mum would go nuts when he got home; he wasn’t supposed to wander around without her. She had said when he was ten he could have a sleepover at his friend’s house, but she had never said anything about him having a dog.
‘Okay,’ he agreed. ‘You can have her, but you have to give her these jelly beans. They’re really important.’
‘Of course, sweetie,’ the woman leered down at him. ‘Give me my little Mandy. I’ve simply been frantic since I lost her.’
Jack wasn’t sure about this. The dog started shaking and the woman just didn’t seem at all nice.
‘Look, just don’t forget her jelly beans, she really needs them,’ he sputtered and promptly passed the shivering dog to her.
He watched her walk off with the poodle in her arms. She was laughing loudly at nothing. He couldn’t see what was so funny. Never mind, he had to get home or his mum would be frantic with worry.
‘Hah, jelly beans indeed! Shall I tell you what I’m going to do with your very special jelly beans, my sweet little Mandy? I’m going to eat them, and then I’m going to eat you.’
Amanda had understood everything that Charlie had instructed the boy to do, then the man had stroked her tenderly and told her it wouldn’t be much longer. He’d also wiped the boy’s memory, but she had no idea why. She only knew that the man seemed kind after all.
The woman popped the jelly beans between her bright red lips. She loved being younger. Her lipstick reminded her of blood, so she had thickened it to the extreme. To everyone else, she looked like a crazy woman, dressed in rags with a huge mass of hair and bright red lips. To herself she was beautiful.
She continued to walk up the hill and squeezed the dog close to her bosom. She had every intention of having a delightful supper.
‘I have all sorts of ideas lined up to have a huge feast, little Mandy. Thought we might start by visiting your little friend; I want to eat the ugly duckling he has for a mother. I’m going to show her what real pain is. I might even let you eat her heart and free you, poochee-pooh, what do you think of that?’ She said as she poked her finger under the dog’s chin.
‘Hmm…’ The woman stopped abruptly and wavered in her footsteps. ‘What the fuck has that kid given me?’ she wondered, looking at the jelly beans.
Amanda managed to jump out of her arms. The woman was trembling; her lips were quivering. She didn’t look at all scared, just absolutely furious. The skin around her eyes started wrinkling. Arms wavered around as she lost her balance. Fingers turned to skeletal bones. It was just like the Slayer had said; the witch’s skin was rapidly shrinking.
Then plop!
Amanda sniffed at the piece of leathery skin that landed on the floor. It looked like a deflated balloon.
‘Well, well, my little one.’ She heard Charlie’s voice. ‘What would you like to make with a bit of left over leather?’
Amanda thought that she’d love to make her into a shoe, since she had liked feet so much. It would have been very fitting. She nuzzled the leather and was just about to dare herself to put it between her teeth when a small human leg kicked it out from under her.
‘Awwww, that dog has let down a ball,’ a small boy shouted.
Another larger boy tackled the piece of leather from him and passed it on to another boy.
‘You’re right about one thing, Amanda; she would have made a great leather shoe. Of course, you can never rid the world of the witches, but it’ll keep her quiet for a while. Now then, we need to go visit your ma and see if we can’t magic you back into your own body.’
Amanda wagged her tail.
The children kicked the odd ball around, laughing and having fun. Charlie and Amanda watched for a while and waited until the children had finished. No-one attempted to pick up the weird ball. The boys dispersed and Charlie collected his prize.
‘Now we have to think how we can keep this one from re-generating, and I think I have just the thing.
MARY, HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?
‘Answer the door, will you, Amanda?’ the woman shouted at the sound of the knock.
Max was trying very hard to take his new role seriously, but being a girl really sucked. When he opened the door to find Charlie with a fluffy white poodle, he felt a great relief. Charlie had promised him that if he could find the girl, then he could change their souls. It would mean, however, that he’d have to be a poodle. Not a nice thought, but more enticing than being a girl. He wondered if he’d be a male or a female poodle.
‘Can we speak with your Ma?’ Charlie asked. ‘Just say I’m a neighbour.’
‘Come on in, Mr Slayer,’ Max said in a loud voice so the mother would hear. ‘Mum, this is Mr Slayer from down the road,’ he said, introducing Charlie to his mum in the garden.
‘Oh, hello, Mr Slayer. Can we make you a cup of tea? Amanda, put the kettle on. What a lovely little dog. What’s its name?’ She got up from her knees, garden trowel in hand, and fussed the poodle. ‘I’m Mary,’ she said, as she took off her muddy gloves.
She approached a table and chairs in the garden. It wasn’t really warm enough to be sitting outside, but Charlie didn’t mind, as it would make his conversation flow easier.
‘Funnily enough, she’s called Mandy, and yes, she is lovely,’ Charlie responded. ‘Amanda tells me you like to garden,’ he said.
‘Well, I dabble, but I’m not always good at it.’
‘In the US, we have a new kind of fertiliser. Really helps if you bury it around the base of a tree. Does wonders.’
‘Funny you should say that,’ Mary said, pleased to be talking about gardening, one of her favourite means of relaxation and forgetting that slob of a husband she was stuck with.
‘I put a small plum tree in this autumn and it isn’t doing too well at all. How do you think I could get hold of this stuff?’
‘Well, ma’am, I just happen to have some left over from my garden.’ He put the witch’s leathery skin on show.
‘Yuck,’ Mary expressed with a screwed up nose. ‘It doesn’t look very healthy.’
‘Ah, well, it works better than horse manure, which stinks your garden out,’ he replied.
‘What do I do with that, then?’ she asked curiously.
‘First you have to bury it in a fairly deep hole under the tree. Then you surround the base of the tree with silver bells and cockle shells. The base elements in the silver and the shells, combined with this little wonder, create a sort of enclosure for the roots of the tree. Nothing bad can get in, and all the goodness can’t get out, or was it the other way around? Something like that, anyway.’
‘Silver? I can’t leave silver in the garden, and where will I find bells? Really, you Americans are very extravagant.’
‘That’s okay, Mary. I just happen to have
some right here in my pocket.’
The girl and the dog had been following the conversation with interest. The girl looked at Charlie in surprise.
‘I told him you liked gardening, Mum, and he said he’d bring something special ‘round. I really think you should give it a try if you want your plum tree to grow in the summer.’
‘I can do better than that, Mary,’ Charlie said, as he stood up. ‘I’ll do it for you; then you can be sure it’s done in the proper manner. If you don’t do it right, who knows what badness might get at your tree.’
‘Hmmm, you’d better get on with it, then,’ Mary agreed, not too sure. ‘My husband will be back soon and he’s a bit grumpy, so we ought to get it done quickly.’
Mary went into the house to start to cook her husband’s dinner. Charlie took the trowel and began to dig a deep hole near the base of the sapling.
‘What was that all about?’ Max asked in his new feminine voice.
‘The bells are the guardians and the shells are the prison. It’s an ancient spell I’m using to keep this bitch buried.’ As he attempted to put the patch of dried leather into the hole, it wriggled.
‘We need to get on with it quickly. She’s starting to wake up,’ he said to Max.
The poodle started digging frantically with her fluffy paws. She wanted rid of this baggage.
‘That should do it, Mandy, slow down, girl.’ Charlie patted the poodle thanking her for the assistance.
Leathery blob buried, spell set in motion. Charlie was happy he’d done all he could. Now to see to the kids.
‘Max, with the mother in the house we can perform the final part. Assuming you both want a happy ending out of all this?’
‘I, for one, don’t want to stay a girl,’ Max chipped in.
Mandy barked her approval.
Mary looked through the window watching the strange American with his odd ways. She had to get dinner done, so she turned away and peeled the potatoes. Her husband would be home soon.
13 Bites Volume I (13 Bites Anthology Series) Page 7