Chapter VII
"Thanks for doing this, Mr. Dibs," Kat said quietly as the minivan pulled up in the Wainwrights' long driveway. "I guess I shouldn't be so mad at you."
"Never mind." Dibs shut off the ignition. "We'll discuss it later. It looks like Wendy's here," he added, nodding to Wendy's snow-crusted rollerblades situated by the front door, along with the three bicycles belonging to Vic and the twins.
When they got inside, Dibs headed for his office to get some paperwork done, and Kat followed the sound of teenage voices up to the third floor, where she found Wendy and the boys in the sunroom. They greeted her and she say down on the rug.
"So how long do you think they'll keep him at the station?" Casper asked Kat after she had explained the situation to them.
Kat shrugged and picked at the rug. "I don't know," she said truthfully. She looked around herself at the décor. The room was completely round. Most of the ceiling was an enormous domed window which let in the winter sun, and the walls were covered with elegantly embroidered tapestries depicting various scenes, some of which were rather strange to say the least. The large area rug they were sitting on was woven to look like the night sky, which Kat imagined looked creepy when the real stars shone through the dome above.
"Is this room...used for anything?" Andreas asked Wendy curiously.
"Uh," said Wendy, glancing at Kat and Casper, who could only shrug back. At this point it would probably be okay to tell the boys that she and her aunts were witches, but Wendy preferred to keep mum about it for now. "It's just...a room."
"Oh." Andreas looked back at the tapestry that covered the doorway they came in by. The tapestry had a picture of the hallway outside embroidered on it. Then he looked around at the other tapestries: rolling countrysides, jagged cliffsides, a mad scientist's lab, the inside of a freaky cave...He decided not to look anymore, and instead focused his attention on the back of his hand.
Kat scooted over next to Wendy. "Are you going to tell them?" she hissed.
"I don't know," Wendy shrugged. "I probably shouldn't. At least not right away. I've just...never had any friends who didn't already know before. I don't know what to do."
On the other side of the rug, another whispered conversation was taking place.
"So - don't you guys think this place is cool?" whispered Casper.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool," answered Vic. "I don't get it, but it's cool."
"I think it's weird," put in Andreas.
"That's what makes it cool," said Nicky. "We should have tried to be friends with Wendy a long time ago."
"Kat too." Vic sighed. "Casper," he said to the ghost, "you know Kat really well, right? Well, does she hate me for what I did to her at the dance? I mean, standing her up?"
"Not really." Casper frowned. "I mean, she was for a while, but...then she just thought you were kinda...well, flaky."
Vic was relieved. He was expecting a lot worse. "I'd better say something to her," he whispered, then scooted a little in Kat's direction. The two girls stopped whispering to look at him.
"Hi," Vic said. "Look, Kat, about what happened on Halloween - "
At that moment, the tapestry that depicted the mad scientist's lab was flung aside to make way for Viola, who marched into the round sunroom engrossed in a large maroon tome. Pavlov drooled its way along behind her.
The teenagers jumped to their feet, and Casper floated higher.
"Hey!" yelled Wendy. "That's one of my aunts' spellbooks!"
"Spellbook?" Nicky hissed to Andreas.
"Yes, and there's some wonderful recipes in here." Viola flipped the pages casually. "Did you know there are five newt's eyes in a typical love potion? What do you do with the leftover eye, I wonder?"
"Calamity Cocktail," Wendy suggested without thinking.
Casper flew over to Viola and grabbed one end of the book. "Let go!" he yelled. "Get your own spellbook!"
"That was the plan, dear." Viola cradled the book in the crook of her left arm and grabbed Casper's wrist with her right hand. "Don't mess with me, you little floating brat. There are plenty of spells in here that deal with banishing ghosts."
Casper tried to pull away, but to his amazement, he could not. "Hey!" he cried in surprise, tugging with all his might.
"How is she doing that?" gaped Kat.
"She can't be," answered Wendy. "You'd have to be able to...to tap into the Astral Plane, like us. Mrs. Laslowe's not a witch!"
"Witch?" Andreas hissed to Nicky.
"I am a witch now!" crowed Viola triumphantly. "Thanks to this!" In response, the glowing amulet she wore pulsated with a small explosion of light.
"That's the amulet that turned up missing from our study years ago, isn't it?" wailed Wendy. "You stole it?"
"It's not the only thing."
"You caused those hauntings last night, didn't you? It wasn't my uncles at all!"
Viola grinned at Casper, who was still struggling in her grip. "You're very bright, for someone whose brain decomposed years ago," she said. "And as for those rude uncles of yours, don't expect to ever see them again."
"What do you mean?"
Viola nodded toward her amulet. "Let's just say I took what I wanted and threw the rest in the trash. Now it's time for you to say goodbye," she told the horrified little ghost, then flung him at and through a tapestry. It was the room's oddest tapestry, with a purple landscape and a bright yellow sky. Kat waited for her friend to come flying back into the room, but he didn't. She surmised by the expression on Wendy's face that she shouldn't expect him to. Angrily, she stepped towards the widow.
"You have no right to do this!" she shouted.
"Kat Harvey, isn't it?" Viola smiled at the furious teen. "Why, you're that nice doctor's daughter, aren't you?"
Pavlov yapped enthusiastically, spewing saliva in a wide arc.
Viola sneered. "Well, I think I've found the perfect spell for you, Kat." The widow found the page quickly; obviously she had been in the lab for quite some time. "Gyf wonit phod eranum - " she read, her arm outstretched towards Kat.
"Kat!" yelled Vic, "what's going on?"
" - quaj killian borok - "
Dibs entered from behind the hallway tapestry. "What's all the shouting - " He gasped at Viola, who was still holding the book and pointing to Kat, only now some blue threads, like electricity, were creeping along the widow's arm as the magic gained in intensity. He knew a spell when he saw it, and he didn't like the looks of this one at all.
"Uncle Peter?" said Wendy helplessly from where she stood next to the tapestry Casper had disappeared through.
Thinking quickly (or rather, not thinking at all), Dibs lunged forward and grabbed Kat to pull her away, but it was too late: Viola had completed her spell, and she threw it.
However, her aim was not really very good. There was a brief flash of orange light.
Dibs, now a mousy brown alley cat, miaowed in confusion near Kat's feet.
"...Uncle Peter?" Wendy repeated, a bit more conviction in her voice this time.
"Drat!" complained Viola. "Oh well. You can't always be a witch. Pavlov, playtime!"
Pavlov was all too glad to comply. It yapped furiously and launched itself after the transformed lawyer. Dibs yowled and leapt onto the tapestry Casper had gone through and clung there, bristling. Pavlov barked while Viola laughed.
"You turn him back!" Wendy demanded.
"Not a chance!"
Pavlov seized the bottom edge of the tapestry in its small mouth and tugged. The tapestry came down with a ripping noise, sending Dibs careening to the other side of the chamber. Where the tapestry used to be there now was an opening leading to a land exactly like the one in the picture. The rope that had held the tapestry fell to the floor.
Vic and the twins unsuccessfully tried to grab Pavlov as it ran past, but the little dog was just too fast. Finally Dibs escaped underneath the hallway tapestry.
"That's enough, Pavlov!" commanded Viola, and the dog reluctantly teturned to its mistress. "And that's enough from you, too!" She pointed at Wendy, and the girl was blown, screaming, into the purple and yellow land. She dropped out of sight.
"Don't want any little witches around," smirked Viola, closing the spellbook. "And don't any of you brats even think about following me - I'll turn the lot of you into small crawly things." And with that, she and Pavlov re-entered the doorway hidden under the lab tapestry.
"What should we do?" moaned Andreas.
"You guys wait here," Kat answered him. "I'm going in after Casper and Wendy. If I'm not right back, worry." She leapt into the purple and yellow opening and disappeared.
Vic sat heavily on the carpet. "This is insane," he muttered aloud.
"No kidding," said Nicky.
"How long should we wait?" Andreas wanted to know.
Vic shook his head. "I don't know," he said, "but if this day gets any weirder, I think Kat's dad is going to have a new client."
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
"I see." James leaned back in his chair.
"Was that too confusing for you?" Mina wanted to know.
"Oh no, not at all," answered the therapist tiredly. "But I don't understand what use I could possibly be to you."
Wysteria frowned. "How could you ask that? You're the only ghost psychologist we know of. Viola Laslowe is controlling those ghosts somehow, and we need you to dissuade them if they attack again."
Before James could protest further, Broom appeared at the window. It tapped impatiently on the glass.
"What on Earth?" Wynona jumped up and slid the window open, admitting Broom, to whose bristles was clinging a brown cat. The cat immediately tumbled down onto the desk, weaving a bit. It miaowed miserably.
"Peter!" exclaimed Mina, taken aback. "Has Wendy been experimenting on you again?"
The cat, recovering from his mild air-sickness, yowled angrily and lashed his tail.
"Well for heaven's sake, don't yell at me," replied Mina sourly. "Who was it, then?"
Dibs miaowed, his tail twitching.
Wysteria knitted her thin brows together. "You expect us to understand that?" she demanded.
"Slow down," agreed Wynona.
Broom zoomed around the room, making circles near the ceiling.
James' jaw fell slack.
Dibs miaowed again.
Mina gasped. "Well, are the children all right?"
"What's going on?" James ventered to ask.
Dibs lowered his head and made a small noise, deep in his throat.
"Well thank goodness," sighed Wysteria.
"Come on," said Wynona, opening the door. "Viola's gotten into our private study, and the girls are still there."
Dibs miaowed timidy.
"What boys?" demanded Mina icily.
"Never mind," Wynona insisted. "Let's go. We'll take a squad car. Broom," she called to the ceiling, "fly on home, but try not to let anyone see you." The broomstick zipped obediantly out the window.
"Um," said James as they all headed for the door. "Can't we just...beam there or something?"
Wysteria gave him a trite look. "What do you think this is?" she asked him. "A fairy tale?"
Dibs leapt off of the table and miaowed plaintively at Mina's feet.
"No," Mina told her husband. "I won't turn you back. You'll be...safer this way."
Dibs howled unhappily.
"Let's go," hissed Wynona. Everyone, the transformed lawyer included, followed the Chief of Police out to the parking lot.