Chapter 14 – Chains of friendship
Tammy opened her eyes just in time to witness the last twisting contortions of the impossibly high column of fire. "Lord have mercy…" she whispered as the heat wave passed over them. It took many seconds for the air to be tolerable enough to breathe again. A rain of ashes and hot embers began to fall all over the city.
The cleric then rose to her feet and looked around to make sure her friends were safe. Dale and Foxglove laid on the ground wrapped in a protective embrace, with the bat tucking the head on her boyfriend's shoulder waiting for the echoes of the blast to die in her sensible ears. Next to them the despised witch stood frozen in shock, looking up at the ignited sky with both paws covering her gaping mouth.
Monterey Jack, on the other hand, had his gaze set on the scene unfolding right in front of him: Patrick was down on his knees, defeated; Chip and his swords looming over him threateningly. "Stop, mate!" He pleaded. "You got cap'n on the ropes already!"
"Surrender now, Patrick" Chip ordered ready to deliver the last blow. "It's over!"
The lizard simply drew a long, pained breath. "It's as you say, over" He slumped his shoulders in defeat. "The witch, the blonde witch, killed that necromancer! Now I feel… I feel free"
"Cap'n?" Both Monterey and Zipper stepped closer.
"Captain Lefevre…"
"Mercenaries" He addressed them with a weak grin. "So you are the only survivors of this massacre"
"You didn't make it easy for them, though" The ranger accused acidly. "For any of us"
Here Patrick coughed blood. "Too bad it ended this way" He lamented. "All of my soldiers are dead, yet you, ranger, live (Cough!). You fucking murderer… You fucking spawn of satan (Cough!)"
Chip stood his ground and watched the defeated lizard be consumed by hate in his last moments.
"I'm dying now… I won't see the next morning" Patrick said bitterly. "But you will, Maplewood. And when you wake up tomorrow, I want you… I want you to remember my name… and the names of Ceasar, Fabrice, Artus and Colombe"
A pained expression crossed the chipmunk's face, but Patrick didn't got to see it. He had crumbled to the ground, dead at last.
"Goodbye, cap'n" The mustachioed knight looked down and saluted. "Shame it had to end this way"
Tammy, who had kept her distance this whole time, finally stepped in. "He… is dead, isn't he? This musketeer I was so afraid of, the one who put me on that cage and caused so much sorrow to me and my young sister is finally dead!"
"Tammy…" Foxglove patted her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, guys" She looked away still distressed. "I wish I could forgive him that easily"
"So, Enzo Moretti is dead as well" Chip muttered pensive while sheathing his purple swords in the waist scabbards. "Also, at the hands of Lawhinie, if I understand correctly. Was that gigantic explosion her doing?"
"If it was, what an inmense power she has" Zipper looked at the distant smoke clouds and feared for the people living on that district.
"Perhaps it was Lawhinie's self-destruct spell?" Dale offered, and promptly covered his mouth upon the haunted expression the blonde mouse flashed at him. "Ups, I'm sorry Gadget, I didn't mean to say that"
"No Dale, you may be right" Gadget took a deep breath, refusing to let actual fear take hold of her. "My sister could be hurt! Or worse… could be hurting others! I must go to her at once!" She stated looking back at her friends.
"Wait, that could be dangerous" Foxglove argued as the mouse ran to pick her broomstick up. "That whole district is on fire, you could suffocate if you get too close!"
"I'll figure something out" The witch said with her eyes set again on the distant chaos. "I always do".
Chip hurried up to join his friend and her levitating broomstick. "Gadget, let me go with you!"
The way Gadget pursed her lips made the chipmunk freeze, but what she told next him next hurt him more than any sword wound would do. "I don't want you to come".
"W-What? But why?"
The witch lowered her gaze for a brief moment, if only to drown that little feeling called love and convince herself that Chip was, in fact, dangerous and unpredictable. Then she met the chipmunk eyes and said as bluntly as she could: "Because, I'm afraid you would hurt Lawhinie the moment you meet her again"
Chip's heart dropped. "No… I just want to help her!"
Gadget shook her head, each time growing more anguished. "I can't take any chances. Please understand!"
"I only understand… that you don't trust me" He said crestfallen.
For any answer, the witch jumped on her broomstick and lifted off the ground. "These two ravens aren't your friends, Chip. If you…" Here she gripped tightly the handle of the broomstick. "If you really feel something for me, then get rid of them!"
Chip threw at her a blank stare. "So you know about Huggin and Munnin?"
The blonde mouse flew in a circle around her friend, studying him up down with growing concern. "How could you change so much in only two weeks? You now have feathers were there should only be fur!"
"What? That's… not true"
"Witch, what are you talking about?" Tammy raised her voice. "Chipper just saved us all!"
Gadget turned her back on the ranger and hovered towards the cleric. "Here, Tammy. I give your grimoire back"
"Oh!" The cleric got hold of her mother's spellbook as soon as it came out from the magical cloak and promptly pressed it against her chest. "Glad you remember before leaving to your sister's side!"
"I advise you to look up for exorcism spells" Gadget said cryptically as she threw a glance to Chip over the shoulder. "Might need it later"
"E-exorcism?" Tammy raised her brows.
With only that parting advice the blonde mouse darted up to the sky on the direction of the catastrophe.
"Gadget!" Chip called one last time, to no avail.
"She really is gone" Tammy quietly said, carefully hiding her relief as her hated rival got lost in that tarnished night sky. "She really left Chipper behind"
"There, there, Chipper" Dale patted his friend on the back calling him by the pet name. "Our witch friend was right go leave you behind. If Lawhinie really is in town, she'd burn you into a cinder on the spot. She hates goody two-shoes like you with a passion!"
"Ugh" The ranger sighed in defeat. "I admit I didn't see it that way. Still… it hurts…"
Foxglove also joined the discussion, albeit timidly. "Guys, I think we should focus on ourselves for the time being. Have you… Have you realized we are like, free?"
"Free?" Both Tammy and Dale said in unison, with Chip still gazing at the distance.
"Yes, free!" She made a twirl to emphasize the meaning. "The musketeers, the inquisitors, they are no more! Only us and… oh…" All eyes, even Chip's, turned towards Sir Monterey Jack and Sir Zipper, the last remnants of the feared Rouen battalion. "We are free, right? The bat asked cautiously.
The mustachioed knight met their expectant gazes and after a moment of contemplation he raised the palms up in defeat. "I don't know what do you expect from me, laddies. I have no commander, no prison to take you into, no one to pay for my troubles. Any desire to stand in your way is gone. Right now my only wish is to see the sun rise again, simple as that"
Tammy couldn't agree more. "I think we all wish the same, Sir Monterey"
It took the weary Gadget one full hour before she could get to the district in which the epicenter of the conflagration was situated. One full hour of struggle against the hot wind which carried embers, debris and wailing screams from the people below. The entire city had fallen victim of chaos and fright, with every church tolling their bells in a massive call to invoke God's protection. The devil was loose in the city, the clergymen assured, and the fire was his doing.
By the time the blonde witch reached the zone of disaster the mile-high tongue of fire had faded to nothing and the flames that once engulfed these wooden buildings had extinguished as suddenly and mysteriously as it came to life. Astoundingly, miraculously, the fire that threatened to devour the entire Paris had burned itself out in a single breath. For Gadget this renewed her hopes to find her sister alive, as only she could command fire to extinguish itself. The grim consequences, however, remained for everybody to watch and tremble. "Oh sister, what have you done?" She muttered as she glanced from one burnt house to another, from one injured human to another, from one frightened rodent to another.
The path of destruction finally led Gadget to a certain alley of smoldering remains where soldiers, firefighters and many onlookers surrounded a scorched hole in the ground that used to be a workshop: the place where the first witnesses claimed the tongue of fire had been unleashed.
Nothing was left from that particular building except for its blackened foundations. That and a signboard that ended up encrusted in the wooden doors of the house across the street by the sheer force of the explosion. Said signboard read "Doll Store" and gave the witch an ominous, uneasy feeling. "The musketeer said something about dolls" She recalled. "Surrounded by dolls?"
Gadget made a quiet and soft landing on the damaged but still standing roof of the house closest to the epicenter. It was then that she finally noticed a group of firefighters holding in place a middle-aged man who wouldn't stop shouting about witchcraft at the top of his lungs.
"The devil did it!" The man exclaimed and everybody paid him attention. "He entered my workshop and possessed my dolls!"
"We all saw the flying doll!" A most perturbed citizen confirmed. "Bloody thing levitated in the air!"
The doll-maker covered his face and cried, as the whole haunting played again in his mind. "The dolls, my dolls, they attacked us as we ran outside the house. Oh God, they had fangs and claws! Fangs and claws!"
Gadget's heart dropped as she saw the wife of that man trying to calm their infant son down, but the child would not stop crying. His little face was covered in ashes, as were her mother's and everybody gathered there.
A pair of city guards took hold of the shaken man, tied his hands together and made him climb on a wagon. His wife protested but was pushed back violently. The whole situation escalated the moment some onlookers stepped in her and her husband's behalf while others sided with the guards branding the whole family as witches.
Gadget used this chance to cast invisibility on her and dive to ground level. On her way she passed by the crying child and, overwhelmed by guilt, she stopped to cast an illusion to comfort him at least for a short while, and to hide the reality of his parents getting arrested in front of him. In front of the boy danced bards, performers and trained animals under a sunny day, very much like a circus parade. Gadget put her whole heart in the creation of such graceful illusion, and undoubtedly the human mother would have appreciated the gesture. The bewitched child calmed down and even started to smile and giggle at the images that filled his mind. All of this while his father was taken away and her followed the wagon with him in her arms.
"If only I could offer a prayer for them" Gadget whispered crestfallen. She gave the humans one last glance. "But one needs a soul for it to work". She then turned towards the frontal frame of the building. The only sign that a house once stood there.
On the other side of the burned frame the mouse found a basement filled with charred wood. Gadget deduced correctly that the fiery explosion had sent the planks of the store floor one story down effectively creating a pot of searing embers and sharp wooden debris .
"So, this is the place" The witch looked anxiously around that ashen landscape, hoping to find any clue about the whereabouts of her twin. "Lawhinie actually fought a necromancer here" Her heart was now racing, trying to imagine the battle between one mouse and army of possessed dolls commanded by a black wizard. "Sister, what made you do such thing?"
No sooner had the witch spoke when the night breeze uncovered a doll head buried under a layer of ashes. The disembodied face stared at Gadget with black dead eyes and curled up lips that gave a most macabre smile. Very few things in the world were capable to disturb the mind of the genius scholar Gadget Hackwrench, porcelain dolls were oddly one of them. A cold shiver from head to tail overwhelmed her. "Golly!" She exclaimed rubbing her arms up down. "I must commend Lawhinie for defeat an army of these monstrosities"
She silently stared at the distance, uncertain of what to do next, when a certain crevice on the other side of the field strangely got her attention. A crevice not different in shape or concealing darkness to the multitude of gaps and fissures that made these ruins an ash-covered wasteland for someone of her size. There was absolutely nothing special about that place so far away, but the mouse nonetheless couldn't help but to be attracted to it. "I wonder…" She trailed off as she set out to make her way across the smoky landscape and investigate that crevice closer.
Halfway there Gadget started to doubt her actions. "Hmm, It's indeed a long shot, isn't it, Gustav? But my heart is telling me to hurry up and see that place for myself. I mean, if Lawhinie follows her guts instead of the voice of reason most of the time, her twin sister can do the same once every waning moon, correct?"
The blonde witch reached the crevice at the exact time when a cloud withdrew just enough to allow a ray of moonlight to illuminate its entrance. "Another signal?" With growing determination she stepped in, and soon found a narrow passage made of piled wooden planks and stones that lead deeper underground. "Glad I don't suffer from claustrophobia" She said under her breath as the threshold got out of sight and darkness enveloped everything again.
The brave and invisible mouse kept going one step at the time, pushed forward by an ever-increasing feeling of urgency. "Please be here, please be here" She muttered over and over as she quickened her pace to finally reach a broad chamber at the end of that tunnel.
Lawhinie Hackwrench was in there.
The evil twin was found resting flat on her back against the dusty ground of that chamber, seemingly still with the arms and legs wide spread. Her jet black velvet dress was ripped apart and her body showed a multitude of cuts and bruises. The long blonde hair fell on the rocks tangled and polluted. Her breath was fast and uneven, desperately gasping for air.
The good sister was about to run to her sibling's side when a strange thing made her stop mid-stride. She had just witnessed Lawhinie's dress slipping off slowly by itself, and her owner simply nodded and lifted her hips to help it happen.
"G-golly…" Gadget jumped one step back as she saw a mist falling over her sister and reaching for her neck. Even more shocking, was the way the evil twin welcomed and even wrapped her arms around it with lustful motions and a broad wolfish smile on her face. "Sis…"
Gadget's whisper was cut short the moment Lawhinie moaned in pleasure. The mist had settled on her bare breasts and was somehow applying pressure on them. In response and while biting her lower lip, the evil witch reached for her bloomers and slowly, sensually, pulled them down to her knees. A single name escaped her mouth as she again shivered in pleasure: "Sabrina…"
Unable to tolerate the scene any longer, the blushed-red Gadget turned back and left them alone. "Golly, oh golly…" She muttered over and over as she made her way out that cave and onto the open field. Once there she called for her broomstick and took off to the nocturnal sky, as high and away as she could.
Only until the cold air hit her senses was the witch able to regain some measure of self-control. "Oh god, Lawhinie" She muttered running a paw through her hair. "What have you done?"
Never had Gadget felt so disturbed in her entire life. Even the zombie carnage from earlier seemed to like a minor campfire-worthy anecdote compared to find out in the worst way possible her dear sister Lawhinie was a spectrophilic. A lesbian spectrophillic, to be precise. "W-well, at least she is in good health" She said in an attempt to comfort herself. "That's what matters most, right?"
"Sabrina…" Gadget murmured morosely. Among the many lessons on science, mature and mathematics that Mephisto taught to her came the revelation that ghosts existed and walked almost imperceptible to mortal beings. Ghosts were lost souls who either refused to leave this reality due to unfinished affairs, were chained to earth by their own sorrows or wrongdoings or simply weren't aware of their own deaths. Sabrina was a poltergeist, a type of ghost trapped in a cage made by their own suffering. A cage that usually corresponded to the physical space in were they died. According to that definition, Sabrina's cage was the Hackwrench manor in the distant city of Cologne.
Gadget had learned that from time to time sensitive people can perceive and even communicate with these wandering souls; her sister Lawhinie was one of these few gifted ones. It was Lawhinie who told her sister and parents the name and appearance of their house's ghost, though they quickly disregarded the revelation as another childish game of the unruly girl. Lawhinie's imaginary friend was the cause of a few too many arguments with their mother, while father was more patient and even encouraged her daughter to keep the friendship alive. "Perhaps because I preferred to read books than to spend time playing with my sister" The witch lamented.
Time passed by, Geegaw and Isabel Hackwrench died, and one certain night Gadget was busy choosing what book to read next when she realized the entire collection and the shelf itself had been dusted thoroughly. When she turned around and complimented her sister for finally stepping up and do house chores Lawhinie simply shrugged and nonchalantly affirmed that Sabrina would be the house maid from then on. The good sister would have considered that a bad joke except for on that precise moment the duster enveloped in mist floated by itself from one corner of the study to the exit door. That was the first time the house poltergeist interacted with the bookish mouse in such an unabashed way. On the following months the ghost maid won over Gadget's trust and even her esteem, even though it was quite clear she served Lawhinie first and foremost.
"And now" Gadget rubbed her eyes. "My sister somehow summoned her far away from home… And they are a couple! For how long have they nurtured that forbidden love?"
The troubled witch decided it was better to take a rest to decide the next course of action. Just like any other demonic entity, she needed a safe place to rest and hide during daytime. Still, she really didn't feel strong enough to come back to Chip's side again and retake the discussion about his horrible swords and horrible patron, and she sure as hell didn't want to come back to Lawhinie's side and be witness of her carnal activities again. "A hostel it is, then!"
She dropped down and made a soft landing behind some crates in a quiet street taking advantage of her invisibility spell. Once she stored her broomstick in the safety of her magical cloak she called off the illusion and dared to walk among the smallfolk as she had not done in months. She put her hood on, however, introvert as she always was.
Ashes were still seldom raining down when the cloaked mouse arrived at a rodent neighborhood. It seemed to her that any other night the place would be quite lively and bustling with activity, but tonight almost everyone had locked themselves in their nests waiting for the worst to come yet. Tonight fear permeated the air in that alley, as it did everywhere else in Paris.
Gadget ended up at the doors of a rodent inn with the curious name 'Le refuge du prince'. "The prince's hideout" She translated as she pulled its door open. A dozen of cheerless gazes fell on her the moment she stepped in. "Huh… Bonne nuit!" Gadget greeted the patrons in french with a few traces of german. There came no response, as both rodents and insects kept staring at her with suspense. Even the local bard – a red-nosed violinist hamster – halted his performance at the sight of the mouse draped in a black cloak who entered the place in such ominous night.
The witch gulped down and slowly turned around toward the exit. "Perhaps this wasn't a good idea" She thought as she bit her lower lip and reached for the doorknob.
"Wait, milady!" A mature feminine voice called out. Gadget looked over her shoulder and found a stocky middle-aged red squirrel with beehive hairdo waving at her from behind the counter. "Please milady, don't let these weirdos scare you off. Come, come!" She signaled. "Are you looking for a room?"
"Actually, I am" Gadget took her hood off. Collective murmurs and sighs of relief followed, as these commoners actually expected the cloaked mouse to be the devil who set the city on fire hours ago. Besides, none of them had ever seen such a beautiful mouse coming to this inn – coming to this neighborhood - before. Even the lady on the counter made a double take at the allure and charm this visitor radiated without the scary hood on. The blonde mouse, on the other side, felt double as embarrassed by the unwanted attention.
"Oh, milady!" The squirrel took a pair of acorns from under the counter and filled one with wine. "You are truly a blessed sight in this night of trouble". She then raised the acorn and addressed her customers. "Isn't that right, plebeians!?"
"Hear, hear!" The smallfolk joined the ovation enthusiastically, turning the overall atmosphere of the place a bit warmer and welcoming, if only for some seconds.
"Hear, hear" The squirrel grabbed the bottle of wine, poured some on the second acorn and offered it to the witch. "This one is on the house"
"T-thanks" Gadget took a sip. She wasn't particularly fond of fermented beverages, but tonight seemed like a good time to test their legendary ability to make people forget their problems.
"You'll have to pardon my clientele's behavior. Not even in their wildest dreams these poor saps would expect to meet a covered-up high-class woman like you. Me, on the other side, used to be lady-in-waiting for the royal family years ago" Here she looked away dreamily and grinned. "My noble lady and I used to slip out Versailles every other night to meet our lovers in secret, wearing black silken cloaks just like yours. Oh, good times!"
Gadget offered a comprehensive smile, took another sip and decided not to inquiry about how did her new drink companion and former lady-in-waiting ended up as an inn keeper in that modest district of Paris.
The old squirrel stomped her acorn hard against the table. "Eugene!" She threw a gaze to the minstrel. "Play something lively for our new guest!"
"Aye, Madam Tania!" The red-nosed hamster nodded and put actions to words in the form of a nameless tune that evoked nostalgic feelings on the patrons.
As the tune echoed through the place, Gadget took some moments to appreciate the peculiar scene playing before her, what with a fluffy squirrel innkeeper who very well could be the image of Tammy within thirty of forty years and a minstrel owner of a big red nose who fortunately wasn't a chipmunk or she would have no option but to label this situation as a major cosmic coincidence. "A conundrum, if you will" Gadget chuckled at such idea.
"So…" Tania stood straight. "You want a room to spend this horrible night in a safe place?"
The witch in disguise jolted out of her reverie. "Huh, what?"
"A room for tonight?"
"Ah, yes!" She affirmed with an energetic nod. "Do you have one available, then?"
"We have a few, yes. Ten gold nuggets per night, paid in advance"
Gadget made a motion as if searching in an inner pocket of her cloak. In reality, she made signals with the fingers to the octopus guardian to retrieve some coins from her travel savings. "Do you accept Cologne marks?" She asked as she put ten rodent-sized gold coins on the table
"Oh!" Tania gasped wide-eyed. "I'll even add a pair or meals, milady!" She promptly put the coins under the counter, away from peering eyes. "Second question: Are you a nocturnal mouse? Or a diurnal mouse?"
"Positively nocturnal!"
"Mhhh" The grey-haired squirrel pondered for a moment, then called someone over her shoulder. "Hey, Chev! Our rooms for nocturnal guests are all cleaned up, correct?"
Gadget blinked agape as a middle-aged black-nosed chipmunk peered from inside the kitchen. "Yes, woman!" He reproached. "I cleaned them myself yesterday, remember?"
"Yes, yes, I just wanted to be sure!" The innkeeper signaled the chipmunk to go back to the kitchen, then turned back to her customer. "We have high-class rooms for nocturnal beauties like you to rest safely and comfortably" She announced proudly, and her expression changed to one of concern upon the mouse's slacked jaw. "Are you all right, milady?"
"That… was a chipmunk?"
"Who? Chev?"
"Chev?"
"Did someone call my name?" The old grizzled chipmunk stepped out from the kitchen with two knives strapped to his belt. "It was you, Tania?"
"Not at all, now get back to work!"
Chev grunted and turned around. "Ugh, bossy squirrel!"
"Grumpy chipmunk!"
Upon Gadget's expression of incredulity, the old squirrel simply laughed off. "Oh darling, don't pay attention to us, hubby and I talk to each other that way all day long"
The mouse's eyes went wide. "You… are married?"
"Twenty-four years and counting on!" She rummaged in her apron's pocket and produced an engagement ring which displayed a humble orange opal on top. Then she leaned closer to the mouse's ears. "One word of advice, sweetie. Never listen to those people who say a chipmunk and a squirrel cannot marry and live happily ever after. Buffoons all of them, I say!"
"I…guess so" Gadget said struggling to remain calm as this situation escalated from peculiar to bizarre. "Tania and Chev. Tammy and… Chip?" The echo of that vision from nights ago where she foresaw them together in a distant future stung her heart again. It hurt now as much as it hurt back then.
Tania witnessed as her new guest lowered her gaze. "You look tired" She incorrectly guessed. "Come on, let me show you to your room"
"Thanks" Gadget said as she followed. "I really need to lie down"
"You'll find the beds here are quite comfy, dear" Tania confidently declared as they took the stairs down to the basement, where the hostel rooms were carved in the building's foundation rocks. "I'll even ask Denys to tone his performance down a notch so you can sleep easier tomorrow"
"Denys?"
"My hubby's cousin" Tania casually explained as she stopped in front of a room with the number five engraved in its door and fumbled some seconds with her keychains. "He's the daytime entertainer. Owner of a nose even bigger than Eugene's. Makes you wonder if having a red nose is essential to become a minstrel around these parts"
"Golly and a half…"
"Anyway, milady… make yourself comfortable. I'll send you dinner shortly"
A pair of hours later, Gadget lied on the bed staring intently at the ceiling of her darkened room waiting for the cursed slumber to overtake her. "Plan isn't going as expected, daddy" She said while hugging tight the silk cloak. "I was supposed to be in the middle of the sea right now, in my way to America, but I took a wrong turn…"
She immediately scolded herself for calling her encounter with Chip 'a wrong turn'. "No, meeting Chip not a mistake! That was… my fate"
A tear rolled down her face. Reincarnation. Rebirth. To cross paths with Chip every lifetime. That was her fate: beautiful, promising, exciting. And she screwed it all up by selling her soul to the devil and becoming a witch. The smartest witch in the world, with only one life left and a place reserved in hell for all eternity.
A dreadful thought flashed in the witch's already agitated mind. These horrible ravens mentioned that Chip had pledged himself to slay her master Mephisto in exchange to release her from the devil's contract. Wouldn't that practically make Chip her enemy? Would she be able to raise a hand against the chipmunk who just wanted to help her? What if her master gave the order to kill him?
Overwhelmed by these and a thousand other fears, Gadget finally decided the curse couldn't come fast enough and so she cast a sleep spell on herself.
The long night of the devil finally came to an end.
The next morning an unassuming human gardener got the scare of his life as he stumbled into the rodent battlefield filled with corpses of mice and rats. It was not a pleasant sight, and definitively not a pleasant job to get rids of all these remains.
Zipper, who had returned to the cringe-inducing field following his instincts and sense of smell, chuckled at the cascade of curses in french the poor human uttered as he went to retrieve a shovel. The scout, too, left the place and returned to the rodent palace.
"Good morning, Zipper mah pally" Monterey saluted from his place at the doors of the inquisitorial palace. The mouse was sitting on a rock, enjoying the morning breeze and the warm embrace of the sun and following the actions of that human gardener.
The fly fluttered towards the broad shoulder of his friend. "Good morning, Monty" He then looked at the distance, at these gardens were the battle had taken place hours ago and now all evidence of it ever happening was being buried again. "We all made it, didn't we? We all made it to see a new day"
"Aye, pally. The nightmare is over. No more zombies, no more death, no more fire. Only a peaceful September morning. And a foul-mouthed gardener to clean the mess"
"I'm hungry, though"
"Take it as a signal that we are alive. Come on, let's go look for the pantry"
The heavy steps of the knight as he passed through the corridor made Tammy wake up with a jolt and a squeal. She promptly covered her mouth ashamed, sat down and turned to her right side, where Chip was still in a deep slumber. The girl had spent the night next to the black-nosed chipmunk, soothed by his warmth and tenderness. She even remembered a certain moment in which her darling wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. "Or it was just a dream?" She asked herself blushing red. The cleric spent the next minutes delighting herself in the graceful and manly features of the ranger - her infatuation for him had only grown these days they were apart– and couldn't help but to praise the heavens for allowing her to be together with him once again after so many trials.
"Chipper, my chipper…" She ran a paw across the chipmunk's tuff. "You know I lov…" Tammy's confession got cut short when a loud snore at her back destroyed the tender moment. Dale and Foxglove where cuddled up together on the corner of the hall the group was using as safe ground. "Dammit, Dale" the squirrel stood up and stretched, all the time eyeing darts on the direction of the minstrel. "show some consideration for your friends and your girlfriend, will you?"
Foxglove snored loudly again.
"Oh…"
Later that morning the ranger finally opened his eyes. "Huhnng, where… where am I?" Memories from the day before fell on him like a stream of cold water. The battle against the zombies, Patrick, the fire, Gadget's sudden departure. "Gadget…" Chip jumped straight on his feet and looked around in a spin. Only the sleeping forms of Dale and Foxglove were there with him in the room. "Oh no!"
On that moment Tammy, Monterey and Zipper walked in, and a smile drew on the cleric's face at the sight of her beloved chipmunk. "Chipper! Good morning!" She waved and ran to him excitedly. "You won't believe what I found!"
"Tammy!" The ranger held her by the shoulders quite alarmed. "Where is Gadget? Did she come back already?"
The girl's expression dropped from one of joy to one of bitterness. "The witch, you ask?" Right then Tammy felt like screaming, but managed to control herself by clenching her fists so hard the nails dug in the skin. Still it hurt, it hurt in more than just one way. "Is always the same, isn't it?" She swatted off the paws of Chip and stepped away. "You only worry about that witch you barely know! What about me? What about…"
The insulted girl bit her lips and stormed off the room.
"Wow!" The not-so-small voice of Huggin quipped. "Look at how you repaid her kindness. Not even a 'good morning' for her. Truly, Romeo can't hold a candle to you, douche!"
"Seriously! That young mistress watched over your ass all night, even waking up to apply white spells every time you whimpered in dreams like the little crybaby you are. Ugh, you don't deserve her love"
Even Monterey and Zipper stared at Chip disapprovingly.
The black-nosed chipmunk scrubbed a paw over his face. "Dammit! You are right! I just panicked and… Argh, I'm such a dolt!" He bolted towards the exit. "Tammy, wait!"
"Easy mate!" Monterey managed to grab and held him back. "I wudn't go afta 'er if I wer ye'" He explained. "I saw the lass brandishing a sword mere minutes ago"
"Yeah, let her blow some steam off alone" Zipper added in sympathy. "We don't want any accidents here, do we?"
"Argh!" The ashamed ranger scolded himself one more time. "I guess it's safer that way"
"Douche…" The ravens echoed once again.
"But to answer your question" The fly rubbed his chin pensive. "Gadget hasn't come back yet. I wonder if she fell asleep in her way here"
That last statement sent alarms all over Chip's body, and the mercenaries immediately took notice. "Hey hey!" Zipper flew over and patted the chipmunk's shoulder. "You know she's a smart gal, I'm sure she got a safe place to rest and hide. Have some faith!"
"I guess… I guess you are right" The ranger took a deep breath of resignation. "Sorry I panicked there"
"Here mate" Monterey handed him breakfast. "Let's sit down, have some porridge, talk"
Chip accepted the offer and the bowl of soft food. "To Talk? What about?" He asked as he sat down and crossed his legs, thoughts still wandering off to his missing friend.
"Eh, you know" Monterey sat as well in front of the ranger with another warm bowl on his paw. Second breakfast for him that morning, but that was not worth mentioning. "Let's start with the future, shall we? What are you planning to do now that you and your friends are free?"
"There is only one goal for me now" Chip answered resolute. "I'm going to find and kill that devil, Mephisto!"
"Ahh, to vanquish the evil from the land of the living is always a glorious and blessed quest, just ask Saint George, slayer of dragons. Hell, after watching you yesterday I'm pretty sure you are up to the task. However…" Monterey shifted on his place uneasy, then leaned forward inquisitively. "What about Tammy and the others? Are you planning to take them with you in search of that monster?"
Chip opened and closed his mouth, as if he hadn't considered that before. "No" He finally shook his head categorically. "I was the one chosen to meet Mephisto in battle, not them. My friends have faced enough monsters for a lifetime. I want Dale and Foxglove and Tammy to forget all of this and live happy, peaceful lives from now on. Me, on the other hand, still have this last daunting quest on my shoulders"
Monterey sat straight again and gazed at the still opened door. "I can totally picture Tammy thinking otherwise. The lass would follow you to the gates of hell with our without your permission"
"No, that's out of the question!" The chipmunk raised his voice. "I would never let Tammy get close to that monster!"
Zipper, too, shared his own thoughts. "And what about Gadget? Isn't Mephisto his master? Is she going to betray him just like that?"
"I… we haven't talked yet" The chipmunk shrunk on his seat. "But all of this, I'm doing it for her own good. I'm sure she'll understand…"
"Women, blessed be them, have a knack to complicate things" Monterey said solemnly, but then he broke in a snicker. "You know, I once met another female, expert at foil one's plans. A mousette of slender figure, green eyes and hair down to her shoulders; one who talks with a heart-melting french accent and who will go to great lengths to achieve her dreams, even if that means becoming a thief, a pirate and a slaver"
Chip gulped down and looked at the knight curiously. The only name that could fit that uncanny description came out from him in a whisper. "Desiree…"
"Aye, Desiree" The burly knight sighed, almost expecting to hear another name for these labels. "You fought against her two nights ago, at the pier, didn't you? No need to lie, Foxy and the minstrel already told me everything"
The ranger shook his head dubiously. "If you already know, then why do you want to hear it again from me? Knowing Dale he should have described my duel with her at length and with great detail, perhaps even better than I could recall it"
Monterey waved his paw dismissively. "Oh, he did, he did alrite. And now I can only thank you, Chip Maplewood"
"Huh? What for?"
"For not killing Desiree. I was told you were this close to do it"
The ranger nervously took another spoonful of porridge. That was one victory he wasn't proud of. All the contrary, the idea -both scenario and consequences- of him failing at regain control on that last fateful moment had tormented him these last nights to no end. The ranger inhaled deeply to send that horrible thought away. "Contrary to what you've seen" He finally declared. "I don't enjoy murdering people. That's totally not who I am"
"Desiree D'Allure is my fiancée, you know?"
Chip's sudden stare of incredulity made the big mouse snort. "Hah! That's the same face Dale did. Oh, you chipmunks…"
"But… but…" Chip struggled to find his voice again. "She is a pirate and you… huh, you are a lawful knight!"
Monterey turned serious, even gloomy. "It turned out… it turned out Desiree is darn good at keeping secrets. I don't think even her father knows about the shady hobbies of her daughter. It falls on me to stop her, for her own good. I'll save Desiree from that path of evil, be sure of that!" He finished the sentence smashing a fist on his palm.
"Sounds like you also got served a daunting quest"
"Aye!" He nodded putting the bowl aside. Then he stood up, towering above his chipmunk companion, with Zipper fluttering above his right shoulder. "And for the first time in many ways I can see a clear path ahead of me! No more doubts, no more regrets, no more ambiguity! Only a righteous purpose"
"Any idea where she could be?"
"Les innocents. Revenot's crypt. Your friends heard Desiree mention that place many times during their time in captivity"
Chip offered the knight an approving smirk. "So you are leaving, huh?"
Monterey chuckled amused. "I already bid farewell to everybody here, mate. You are the last one on my list. Crikey, didn't know you were such a heavy sleeper…"
"Hey, give me a break!" Chip jested as he stood up. "Yesterday's was my first open battle ever!"
"And what a battle we fought!" Monterey Jack raised a fist quite dramatically, then turned to the chipmunk again and put a paw on his shoulder, glancing at him with a look of absolute pride. "You showed a big amount of courage and leadership in these difficult moments and for that, little ranger, have won my respect"
"And mine too, of course" Zipper saluted.
For the first time ever, Chip Maplewood and Monterey Jack shook paws. "Perhaps one day, we'll see each other again" Monterey smiled.
And for the first time ever, there was peace between the ranger and the knight. "I'm looking forward to it" Chip smiled back at him.
"One last word of advice" The mustachioed mouse pulled Chip closer. "Whatever you do, keep Tammy safe. Girls like her are a treasure, one you will gaze upon only once in a lifetime. I did everything in my power to protect her, and now I bestow upon you that responsibility. got it, 'Chipper'?"
Monterey and Zipper left the hideout and their new friends behind. Chip followed them from a spot next to the petrified scribe until they got lost beyond the sea of grass in their way to the main gate. He stood outside a while more, daring himself to enjoy the morning sun and recalling his own encounter with Desiree's D'Allure. The ranger's old mentor Andre used to say that the best way to gather knowledge about a person was to face them in a duel to the death, and by following that line of reason Chip could say he knew the dangerous villainess a bit too much. "I wonder if Monterey will be able to reason with her" He said out loud.
"To reason with who?"
The startled chipmunk quickly turned around, and found his squirrel friend leaning against the frame of the entrance doors, hugging the famed cooking book tightly and looking back at him with a dejected expression. "Tammy?"
"Sir Monterey Jack and Zipper have gone in search of Desiree D'Allure, right?" The cleric stood straight and looked past Chip. "I hoped they'd stay with us longer, that pirate doesn't deserve such level of devotion". There seemed to be a bit of resentment creeping into the edges of her voice.
The chipmunk negated with the head. "Love makes people forgive wrongdoings, I guess"
"Love? Don't talk to me about love!" Tammy suddenly exploded. Only then, when the girl came out of the shadows, did Chip realize the sword strapped to her back. One she quickly drew and pointed towards him. "Don't talk to me about forgiveness". Her eyes narrowed and her voice began to shake. "You hurt me with these words"
The white grimoire magically got suspended in the air next to her, which added another layer of hostility to the already incensed cleric.
Chip slowly raised his palms unthreateningly. "Tammy please put down that sword" He pleaded. "Listen, I'm sorry for what happened earlier. I should have been more thoughtful. Believe me, I didn't mean to offend you"
"I wanted… I wanted to show you this sword" Tammy's voice broke. "Don't you recognize it?"
Chip got silent. What the squirrel was wielding was a longsword, one light enough to be used by a female teenager like her. Besides that, the pommel at the end of the grip sent a faint familiar vibe, but right on that moment he was more concerned about defusing this strange situation than to recall a plethora of french heuristics symbols. "Can't say I do" He cautiosly admitted, only to watch Tammy swallow hard and her fur stand on edge. "Tammy, why don't we…"
"Then…" The cleric suddenly lifted the sword in a spin over the head and attacked her companion with a swift slanted slice. "Then look at it closer!"
The surprised ranger barely managed to dodge as the blade cut the air too close to his chest, thanks in part to the timely warning of his supernatural companions. "Whoa!" Huggin exclaimed quite amused. "This girl is going all out!"
"Pfft! You reap what you sow. Right, hero?"
Tammy didn't give Chip a moment of respite. She immediately chained that first strike with a flurry of relentless chops. The tears that ran down her cheeks betrayed her, though, as every move she made was accompanied by a cry of grief, which source the chipmunk still had to comprehend.
"What's to comprehend?" Huggin echoed. "You hurt her feelings and now she is going to wreck you good"
"Stop dancing around and summon us to your side, ranger!" Munnin demanded. "Let's discipline your mistress together!"
"No!" Chip refused. "I won't let you hurt her! I'll solve this myself!" He managed to kept control of himself, despite the efforts of his ravens to exacerbate hateful thoughts against the girl. "Tammy, stop!"
But the girl didn't stop of even slowed down. The lightning-fast attacks soon left marks on the chipmunk's shirt, cutting the fabric and the skin despite his best efforts to dodge and protect himself. Pain racked his body and made him flinch more than once, but still didn't dare to raise a paw against his friend.
"How could you forget!" She berated again as she gripped the sword with both paws and pulled it back with the intention of sending the weapon forward afterwards in a wide arc, pretty much like how the mustachioed knight would do.
And that's when the clever ranger saw a chance. Tammy's inexperience – or perhaps recklessness – caused her to leave the guard wide open as she started to drag the sword forward again. Chip used that split-second to jump in to close the distance and hold the squirrel prisoner in a hug. "Gotcha!"
"Let me go!" The young cleric twisted trying to break free, but Chip wouldn't allow it. After some more seconds struggling in the arms of the ranger, the girl finally gave in. "This is not fair" She wept as she hid her face on the ruined shirt and the sword slipped off her fingers and down to the ground.
"Just calm down, ok?" Chip whispered as soothingly as he could, giving her a caring embrace devoid of hard feelings, no matter how much the cuts on his body hurt. "Tammy, did you really wanted to kill me?"
"Of course not, Chipper!" She looked up to him with watering eyes. "I was ready to heal you up once I made you remember"
"Remember what?"
"The sword!" Her throat swelled up too much for her to keep speaking. Tammy sank to her knees and Chip quickly followed. "This is my father's sword!" She declared amid tears. "The one who was mounted in the walls of my family's hostel!"
Chip felt as if time had stopped right then and right there. Tammy was totally correct. The same coat of arms displayed proudly on a wall back at the Squirrel family's inn was also emblazoned on the pommel of that sword. This was undoubtedly the sword that disappeared the same day Gerald and Elizabeth Squirrel left the village. "Where… where did you find it?"
"It was stored in a room at the end of the corridor" The girl explained. "A strange room of studded doors and filled with cloth-covered furniture. It also had a shattered mirror, shards were everywhere. I was exploring it and then I recognized my father's sword tossed away in a pile of rusted weapons in the darkest corner! Tossed like garbage!"
"It can't be…" He whispered wide-eyed. "I went into that same room! How could I miss that sword?"
Tammy studied the face of disbelief of her friend. "You forgot everything about it, didn't you?"
"No, I…"
"Yes, you did!" Anger build up again. "You forgot about my father, forgot about my mother! You forgot about them the moment that witch entered into your life!" The sorrowful girl started to throw weak punches against the ranger's chest. "How could you forget about my family!"
"Enough, Tammy!" He grabbed the girl by her wrists and pulled her into another embrace. "I could never forget Gerald and Elizabeth, they were my friends too and it hurt me to learn of their deaths! The monster who killed them will die by my swords, I promise!"
"Mephisto…" She whispered. "That's what Lawhinie called him"
"A devil from hell, stuck in the body of a black cat" The chipmunk recalled.
Tammy's expression grew bitter again. "Now hold on a second!" She pushed herself away from Chip and stood up wiping the tears off her face. "You think I'm a fool? The only reason to battle that monster is to save your ditzy charming witch from his claws! My family's murder had nothing to do with that decision!"
"Whoa, busted!" Huggin broke into a sarcastic laugh.
Chip jumped straight on his feet, both offended and exasperated. "Tammy, I swear I'm doing this for Gerald and Elizabeth as well!"
"I… I really don't believe you, Chipper"
"Why not?"
Here Tammy dropped her shoulders and her hostility, leaving only a sad girl who was about to open her heart to her crush. "Because I know you very well and you are devoid of any malice or ill thoughts toward others. You are, on my eyes at least, a rescuer first and foremost. One who takes lives out of duty and for a greater good. That's why I cannot imagine you striking at that devil for vengeance"
Chip was left out of words.
"But my parents don't need a rescuer, it's too late for that" Tammy said honestly as she picked up the sword and stared intently at the crest on the pommel. "They need an avenger, one who will make their murderer suffer a tenfold for what he did before he exhales his last breath"
"Tammy, listen to yourself" The ranger pleaded. "Even if that Mephisto was turned into a common cat, it's still too dangerous to face an animal like that!"
"So what?" Tammy hung the sword on her back again and folded her arms across the chest defiantly, giving him a frown. "You want to do the same! So it's dangerous for me but not for you, is that what you try to say?"
"Well, it's dangerous for everybody" He admitted. "but I remind you I'm the only certified fighter in this group!"
"Plenty of things have changed since we left our village, Chipper! Now I have become a very competent cleric! I can heal wounds, cure poison, dispel curses, even revive the dead!"
"Huh, what?"
"Oh, forget about those zombies from yesterday, this is a white spell. For it to work the victim must be a fresh corpse, no more than ten minutes dead, and it promises to restore the party member to 'Alive enough' status, whatever that means"
"Wow, you really sunk your teeth into the grimoire, didn't you?" The ranger raised his brow as a smirk flashed on his face.
Tammy sighed with resignation, and Chip was thankful this turn in the discussion had calmed her down a bit. "I guess I owe that to Gadget" She conceded. "She was the one who convinced Desiree to lend over the book to me during these awful days we spend in a boat. If it were not for her quick thinking…"
"She is a smart one"
"Ugh, she is" Tammy scoffed glancing down, then went on to take the chipmunk's paw on hers. "Chipper… you have your own reasons to fight Mephisto, and I have my own reasons. Let's go to battle together, for my mother, for my father, for Gadget… Please, don't deny me my right to avenge my parents"
Chip pursed his lips, still doubtful. "I promised Monterey to keep you safe"
"The best way to keep me safe is at your side" The squirrel stepped back with a smug smirk she had learned to draw by watching the ranger. "Besides, I'll let you know that if you refuse my offer, I'll have to resort to some others, more furtive, methods to achieve my goal. One way or another, the moment you come face to face with that evil cat I'll be there next to you sinking this sword in his heart!"
Gadget opened her eyes and found herself walking through an unkempt, forsaken garden adorned with dusty marble statues depicting naughty naked fauns. A decayed fountain stood at the center of the place, where all the paths converged. The sun was at her back, setting down behind the mountains and casting long shadows that appeared to gather at the farthest and darker corner of the garden. A corner where climbing shrubs and branches had multiplied and entwined so much that a natural cave made of vines and dried leaves had raised from the ground. And the mouse felt compelled, even urged, to enter that pitch-black cave that attracted darkness and repelled the orange sunset light away.
But she knew the place wasn't real at all. She had learned to search for the threads that made an illusion work; the nuts and bolts that kept the scenery pieced together; the faint whisper that repeated over and over that this was reality when it was, in fact, an elaborate trap.
Gadget shook off the feelings of anxiousness that assaulted her and came to a stop right at the mouth of the breathing cave. ""I'm not in a garden" She flatly said to herself as she looked all around. "I'm not standing in front of a cave, either. I'm sleeping on a bed, waiting for dusk to come"
As the final words of that statement died off, the witch witnessed the appearance of a crack in the empty space right in front of her: tangible proof of the mouse's victory against this trap for the mind. The witch smiled with a feeling of pride at her achievement, only for it to be replaced with a growing wariness that made her fur stand on edge. She had just heard steps at her back. As she turned around her heart skipped a beat, for her Lawhinie herself was there as well. "Sis…ter?"
Strangely enough, the evil sister didn't answer or even glanced at her twin. She kept on walking towards Gadget and at some point she straight out passed through her, as if the illusionist was an illusion herself.
The perplexed sister turned around again just in time to see Lawhinie came to a sudden stop and then drop to her knees grabbing her head. "Ouuuh! What... where am I?" The alarmed Lawhinie looked around. ""How did I end up in this filthy garden?" She asked to herself. "And what time is it? I must return to..."
"Lawhinie! Can you hear me? Wake up, you are inside an illusion!"
The flame witch opened her eyes wide. "No…"
"Lawhinie?"
Gadget looked in the direction her scared sister was gazing at, and witnessed a slender black cat who leapt graciously out of the shadows. "Greetings Lawhinie" The cat hissed. "Long time we don't meet like this, right?"
The flaming white eyes of the cat gave Gadget full body tremors.
"M-master!" Lawhinie quickly bowed as low as she could, and Gadget did the same. "How... how did you called me to this plane again? You are supposed to be..."
"Sister, please!" Gadget warned in growing fear. However, it was obvious Lawhinie couldn't hear any word from her at all.
"Locked in mortal flesh?" Mephisto answered angrily, but his terrible gaze fell only on Lawhinie ignoring completely the good sister. "Doomed to live as a common cat for an entire life? Unable to summon you on the act, from whatever place in the world you happen to be?"
"Uh, yes?"
"Ah, it used to be like that, I used to be a cat, but not anymore! All thanks to you, my dear witch!"
"What? I did nothing to..."
"Oh, but you did! You just killed Enzo Moretti some hours ago! What a splendid success!"
"Wait, you wanted me to kill him?" Lawhinie was nonplussed. "You could have told me from the beginning! Instead, you just said he would help me gather an army to defeat these chipmunks! Look what happened to me by following that advice of yours!" Lawhinie pointed towards her scarred face.
Gadget gasped and covered her mouth in horror.
"Hah!" The demon laughed that off. "And that's why Enzo lowered his guard! You, my pretty mouse, became the perfect trojan horse. You had no idea of my plan, so he didn't suspect any hidden intentions. He just heard your pitiful tale of defeat and saw a chance to boast about his necromantic skills. However, I was confident that one would end up murdering the other, as soon as you sinners realized you shared a common acquaintance"
"Sabrina? You... you knew he was obsessed with my friend all time along and said nothing?"
"What?" Gadget blinked joining her sister in her outrage.
Mephisto just returned a cocky smile and leaned back, at ease and in control.
"Argh! If you had just told me! I could have gone there and kill him the first day we met instead of enduring that whole gross ordeal that almost cost me and Sabrina our lives!"
"'Gone there and kill him the first day', huh? I wonder if you had followed that order"
"W-what do you mean?"
"Lawhinie, Lawhinie! It's high time for both of us to lay our cards on this table. Enzo Moretti yelled out many interesting things about you while I cashed in his soul!" On that moment, the cat's eyes ignited in white flames and his fur crisped on edge. "Back stabbing witch! Want to break your contract with me, don't you? Oh yes, I know you are looking for that mage's grimoire, so you can finish the job she started! You traitor!"
As the cat adopted a threatening stance, the pale, busted witch stepped back and raised her paws in a last attempt to appease him. "Wait, wait!"
"Lawhinie, look out!" The illusionist yelled.
Mephisto jumped violently at his prey, pinning her down on the ground. Lawhinie's paws were crushed painfully under the weight of the feline's toes. The fang-filled muzzle came so close to the mouse's face that she looked away and let out a scream of terror, kicking around with despair.
"Lawhinie!" Gadget threw herself at the base of the cat's paw in an effort to release her sister from its grip, but it was useless. The brave mouse only passed through like a gust of wind, like if she wasn't there at all. "No!" After falling flat on the ground and roll over, she rose to her knees. "Master! I know you can hear me, please stop! Please forgive my sister!"
Mephisto stirred and growled in his place, as infernal leathery wings sprouted on his back. At the same time, black smoke began to steam out his body. "Ah yes, yes!" He exclaimed flapping the wings vigorously on top of the shocked Lawhinie, with Gadget just as horrified in her own parallel plane. "The spell is broken! I'm free! Hah hah hah! Hey Bethany, I hope you are suffering now in the other side! Your sacrifice was for naught!" Then, he turned again towards the blonde injured mouse below him. "Now, let's see if my flames have returned as well"
"No!" Both sisters yelled on top of their lungs, watching in horror as Mephisto opened his foul-smelling maw and got ready to burn Lawhinie's face. "Gggh... help! Someone help!"
On that moment, Mephisto stopped short, but kept his fulgurous eyes fixed on the witch. "You, asking for help? Pry tell me again, what was the wish I granted you?"
"I... I..." She mumbled while avoiding to glance at the murderous monster.
"Say it!" The winged cat demanded furious.
"Queen of the world!" She finally yelled. "But you tricked me! Months have passed and I rule nothing! That's why I betrayed you!" Her eyes were now brimming with tears of rage and frustration. "I want my soul back!"
Satisfied, Mephisto let her go. The witch immediately crawled a pair of strides back and covered her crushed paws under her arms. "Ugnhh" She flinched in pain.
"Oh god…" Gadget sighed in relief. "Lawhinie…"
"This world is too big, Lawhinie." Mephisto sat on his hind legs and spoke with a calmer voice, even though smoke kept steaming out his muzzle. "A mouse's soul is not enough to buy it whole. But you can't deny I gave you enough tools to raise yourself above animals and humans alike. Damn! You don't even need to lose time naming the spells you cast! And the hellfire burning inside you, fueled by your own wrath? Powerful enough to bring a city down to ashes, if you let it do it! However, my dear mouse... you lack patience. You want it all here and now. I've had many customers like you, too ambitious, too impatient for their own sake. All of them have ended in unmarked graves. Now, I have a proposal for you"
Swaying from side to side, enduring the pain, Lawhinie somehow managed to stand up. "Proposal? What proposal?"
Lawhinie blinked, and before her stood now a fat grey mouse clad in rich and exotic merchant clothes. Mephisto as she first had met him, months ago when she and Gadget signed their infernal contracts and their souls used as coin to pay one wish granted. It seemed so simple back then.
Gadget, as well, recognized at once the merchant of souls and his satchel full of unsigned contracts.
This merchant mouse stretched his arm towards Lawhinie, tilted the head and smiled generously. "Since you were a good witch and helped me break the spell I'm ready to give you another chance as my partner"
"Another chance, just like that? Why? What's the catch, Mephisto?"
"Ah yes, the catch" Mephisto drew his arm back and began to pace around the witch. "I really, really want to go back to Hell. Even while we speak, I can feel blots of white magic running down my body. It's disgusting! I want to feel again the warmth of Dis on my scales; to enjoy the wailing of the sinners we keep caged in there and..."
"Right! Get to the point!"
"Ahem! Turns out, I put too much hope on Enzo's soul. To my disappointment, and even though I squeezed it as much as I could, it wasn't tainted enough to both set me free from the lock and fill my pool of magic. Admittedly, is not a cheap trick to open a portal to hell. It seems I'll be forced now to twist the rules a bit and collect one of my contracts before its due time in order to add power to my spell"
"Wait, before the due time? So you mean, you want to kill one of your customers?"
Gadget gasped at such horrible idea. "He must be kidding!"
Mephisto crossed his arms and quickly explained. "Well, for a devil of wishes to kill his own customer in order to collect the soul sooner is against the rules, but if another person does it, then everything would remain legal. In short, yes, I want you to kill someone for me"
The evil witch frowned. "Who, exactly?"
"Oh witch, before I tell you, you must be aware that Bethany Lombardi and her party are the ones to blame for your actions from now on. They started this mess, two months ago, by targeting and killing my contracts all around the country. The fool thought she was doing a favor to the world. She only stopped when she realized that every black mage killed was a boost of power for me, their master. That's when the party of well-doers decided to go and confront me directly at the Parisian inquisition headquarters. By then, only three contracts remained alive. Enzo Moretti, you and your sister. Do you understand where I'm going with this?"
"Golly…"
"G-Gadget?"
"Exactly! Come on Lawhinie, hunt her down for me. Serve me well on this task and I shall reward you with treasures brought directly from my home in Dis! With these gifts you could become queen of the world in less than one year, I promise!"
Lawhinie scratched her head, visible disturbed. "W-Well, it's not that I haven't thought of include her in my revenge. I mean, I'm very upset with her right now for joining sides with that chipmunk, but to kill her for real, I..."
"Well, it's gone down to either you or her. And don't even think on challenge me again, I may not be able to summon the portal, but I'm strong enough to murder you like an insect! It just happens you are my favorite sinner around here, do you understand?"
"Give me... give me a moment to consider it, ok?"
Mephisto, the merchant, shrugged. "I don't see many options left for you, but ok. The sooner you convince yourself, the better"
"Sister!" The good witch ran to Lawhinie's side and confronted her, hoping against hope she could hear her voice this time. "Please, you can't seriously consider that offer! We… we are family!"
Gadget's heartfelt words had no apparent effect on the gloomy Lawhinie, deep in thoughts and pressing her lips together in a slight grimace. One could tell she was struggling through a storm of hurtful and conflicting emotions.
"My mother would say to go on with it..." The evil witch mumbled to herself, looking up at that blood red sunset sky.
"Excuse me?" Mephisto frowned.
"Lawhinie…"
Lawhinie turned back to Mephisto, her face now a mix of outrage and determination. "My mother would say to go on, to kill my own sister in exchange of power and riches. She would cross that line without any regrets or considerations. She did it once and killed my beloved father. But no! I'm not like her! I swore I would never be like her!" Then she called forth flames to her paws. "My sister, my family... leave them alone, demon!"
Gadget saw how her sister unleashed a colossal blast of fire towards Mephisto, so blinding, so powerful and so booming she couldn't help but to yell and cover herself, despite the fact the heat couldn't actually reach her. And yet she covered down, afraid of the raw and brutal magical power of her own sister. Lawhinie was indeed in a league of her own.
Because of that it was more incredible to behold the devil emerge from that explosion like some sort of draconic feline who rose to the air in a spiraling climb, completely unscathed and furious, his face twisted with outrage.
"You miserable mortal, insist on betray me!" Mephisto shouted with a grave voice. "So be it! I will kill you myself! I will kill your sister! Your souls will be tortured in hell for an eternity!"
Lawhinie stood on her place, and even managed a chuckle. "Yourself? Really? What about the rules? Now you want to blatantly break them twice? I bet whoever wrote them won't be very happy about it"
"Oh, I'll appease her with a gift. I intend to bring with me the soul of a suicide that is due from one hundred years ago: your ghost servant!"
"Never! I won't let you touch her!" The evil sister threw a fierce and booming lightning bolt at Mephisto. The winged cat withstood the attack with his paws. "Oh yes!" He licked his fangs. "I'll make sure she suffers the worse of punishments in the forest where she belongs! Maybe you will even be able to hear her from inside your cage!"
"No!" The witch exploded in rage. Suddenly, the whole place trembled victim of an earthquake apparently provoked by the witch's yell. Cracks broke through the floor and walls of the garden. Even further, reaching the sky that turned out to be just a sphere.
"Temper, temper!" Mephisto mocked her. "Look at what you've done, you broke this pocket plane. Our meeting is over, I guess!"
"We are not done here!"
"Wait for me in Paris, witch. Wait for the smell of sulfur!"
The ground around the twins collapsed into an emptiness which dragged them down into its depths. Gadget stretched her arm in an attempt to reach her sister, and just when it appeared she had managed to take hold of a shoulder, Lawhinie vanished in front of her eyes. "Lawhinie!" The good sister called, but to no avail.
Instead, a third voice answered. "Greetings, Gadget Hackwrench"
"M-master Mephisto?" The blonde mouse turned around, falling as she was, but only found blackness around her.
"I'm sorry you had to witness that unfortunate exchange" the devil lamented, and Gadget could swear a black silhouette followed her down the black emptiness. "You know your sister can be impulsive and inflexible sometimes"
"You… you knew I was there?"
"Of course! I called you both to that plane!" He explained. "But you, dear student of illusions, managed to break free sooner than I anticipated. You both witches have grown more experienced in these weeks I was out of reach. Two months ago I would even feel compelled to congratulate you"
"Two months ago you didn't plan to kill us!" She accused.
"Blame these heroes who raised their swords and spells against me!" Mephisto growled. "Condemned me to live in this filthy world, in this cage of flesh and bones and hunger and thirst! I want out, Gadget… I want to become a full devil again!"
"By killing the people who asked you for favors? You know there are consequences!"
"I don't care!" He roared. "I want my powers back and I will have them back! "Wait for the smell of sulfur, little witch!"
"Don't you dare hurt my sister!" The witch demanded defiantly. "Just get away from us!"
And with that, Gadget snapped her eyes open and found herself back in her room, covered in cold sweat. For the first time in what felt like hours she was able to take a gasp of air. "He is coming..." She said choking in her words. "Not a cat, but a dragon!"