Page 48 of Bewitched By the Wicked Witch
"For years, I have endured your small-minded cruelty, your baseless rumors and petty jealousies born of fear and ignorance. And now, you have the unmitigated audacity to blame these disappearances on me without a single shred of evidence beyond your own prejudice and superstition!"
My eyes flashed with purple fire as I called upon darker aspects of my magical heritage, the forbidden spells that skirted the edges of acceptable practice. The air crackled with electricity while the acrid scent of ozone mingled ominously with smoke from their torches.
Lifting my arms, I began chanting in an ancient tongue, the words flowing from my lips like poisoned honey while the mob fell silent, their faces slack with mixture of awe and horror. Tendrils of inky blackness threaded with sparkling stars swirled around my levitating form in patterns that suggested both beauty and terrible power.
"By the power of shadow and righteous spite, I cast this curse upon you tonight!" My voice rose to a fevered pitch. "Let your lands be barren and your livestock sicken, may your milk sour and your bread grow stale! Let boilsand blisters mark your bodies until the undeniable truth of my innocence is revealed. You are forever banished from my presence, unable to touch me or my family!"
The darkness surged forward, engulfing the mob in writhing, spectral shapes that made them scream and flail wildly, batting at unseen entities with their pitchforks and torches. I watched with grim satisfaction as they turned tail and fled, their courage crumbling when faced with actual supernatural consequences.
But Tommy, demonstrating his characteristic stubborn stupidity, remained standing. His eyes blazed with white-hot fury as he raised a trembling finger to point accusingly at my illusion.
"You evil witch!" he sputtered, spittle flying from his thin lips. "You think you can frighten us with your foul sorcery? We will never rest until justice is served!"
With a final dramatic flourish, I sent a bolt of purple lightning arcing toward Tommy's feet. It struck the ground directly in front of him, leaving a smoking, blackened crater while he screamed in terror. The door to my hut slammed shut with supernatural force, cutting off his view.
However, horror washed over me as the scent of actual burning wood reached my senses, pulling me abruptly out of the spell's trance. I found myself back in my underground sanctuary with Paige and Cosmo, rushing to the monitors to witness each townsperson taking Tommy's encouragement to heart, throwing their torches onto my small wooden hut with vengeful enthusiasm.
"Perhaps I went slightly too far with the badass witchperformance," I admitted, watching my home transform into a bonfire.
"You think?" Paige whirled on me, hands planted firmly on her hips. "We need to escape immediately. They've locked up Callum, and we need to get him out before things get worse."
"What do you mean they locked him up?"
Terror struck me as I processed what they might have done to him, or accused him of, simply because he'd believed in my innocence from the beginning. I'd abandoned him there to face their wrath alone while I’d made my dramatic exit.
Guilt settled in my stomach like a lead weight, cold and unforgiving.
I stared at the monitors in growing horror as flames consumed the wooden walls of my beloved sanctuary. Years of carefully curated spell books, rare potion ingredients, and enchanted artifacts, all going up in smoke because of some small-minded, pitchfork-wielding mob with too much time and too little sense.
Though to be fair, most of the items upstairs were decoys. Still, I kicked myself for moving a few personal items upstairs in my recent effort to make the space seem more lived-in—nothing irreplaceable like my rare ingredients, but things I'd rather not lose to curious investigators.
"Well, there go my college textbooks and Aunt Helga's supposedly powerful spell collection," I muttered darkly. "And my limited edition Hex Girls concert poster. Those artifacts were absolutely irreplaceable!"
"Aunt Helga was a magical disappointment whocouldn't enchant her way out of a paper bag," Cosmo added with a dismissive growl, his tail flicking with agitation. "I wouldn't mourn those particular losses too extensively, poppet. As for the Hex Girls memorabilia, that was an absolutely horrific period for me. It's precisely why your music kept mysteriously disappearing." He shuddered as if recalling traumatic memories of me dancing around singing at maximum volume.
Paige grabbed my arm, her fingers digging into my flesh with desperate urgency. "Forget about your questionable taste in magical girl bands, Sage! We need to evacuate before the smoke suffocates us or the entire structure collapses!"
"The hut will burn completely and collapse dramatically, but it won't damage the underground sections," I murmured, rubbing my chin thoughtfully as flames continued consuming my decoy home while the mob cheered their apparent victory. "However, they'll discover the elevator entrance soon enough if they conduct a thorough search."
The irony wasn't lost on me that our own kind could be just as bloodthirsty as historical witch hunters. After everything we'd endured to avoid persecution, here they were, ready to burn one of their own based on speculation and prejudice. Though honestly, I really had liked that poster.
"Earth to Sage, this is genuinely serious!" Paige interrupted my reflections, grasping my arm with increased intensity.
I shook off her grip, forcing my mindto focus on immediate survival rather than material losses. "You're absolutely right. Okay, let's not panic unnecessarily. We can handle this." I turned to Cosmo, who was lounging on my favorite armchair with infuriating nonchalance, grooming his paw as if we weren't in serious danger. "Alright, Cosmo. You mentioned something about a secret escape tunnel?"
Cosmo blinked slowly, his starry eyes glinting with mischief. "Oh, did I mention that? It must have slipped my mind, what with all the excitement of angry mobs and impromptu fashion shows."
I growled, resisting the urge to zap him with a mildly unpleasant hex. "Cut the attitude, cat. Lives could supposedly be at stake here, including your own pampered existence. Now provide details before I transform you into a pair of fashionable winter mittens."
The feline familiar heaved an exaggerated sigh, stretching languidly before hopping down from his perch. "Very well, if you absolutely insist. Follow me, ladies. And do attempt to keep up, I'd hate for you to become lost in the labyrinthine depths of Sage's carefully planned paranoia."
He sauntered toward the back of the room with his characteristic arrogance, tail swishing with smug satisfaction. Paige and I exchanged wary glances before hurrying after him, the sounds of the mob's celebration and crackling flames fading behind us.
Cosmo led us to an unremarkable section of wall, indistinguishable from the rest of the rough-hewn stone construction. With a casual flick of his tail, he activated a hidden mechanism, and the wall swung inward to reveal anarrow, dimly lit passageway that disappeared into darkness.
"Ta-da!" he declared, his voice echoing in the dank tunnel. "One escape route, exactly as promised. I trust you'll remember this invaluable service the next time you're distributing gourmet treats, hmm?"
I rolled my eyes while pushing past him into the musty darkness. "Yes, yes, you're a regular feline hero deserving of commemorative statues. Let's just move before the mob decides to roast marshmallows over my smoldering remains."
