Chapter 6

That night, Karen and Carmen and Kelly and Ryan were packing up more pineapples to give to Haven before leaving.

"So what'd Haven say this afternoon when you gave her the first batch of pineapples?" asked Kelly.

"She said that if the lessons keep going this way, we may never need pineapples again," said Karen, "and that every Tuesday could be Hawaiian night."

Kelly smiled. "Uh, I have a magic question."

"Good," said Carmen, "That'll keep us going at the right pace. What's the question?"

"What's the torture spell?"

Karen and Carmen both stopped packing the pineapples for a few seconds, staring at Kelly in shocked silence.

"What?"

Carmen sighed and put one last pineapple in the bag before closing it and sitting down, Kelly and Ryan looking at each other and following her example while Karen kept picking up pineapples. "The torture spell is the most horrific spell that is usually non-lethal. It can drive a person insane, make them lose control of their power, or even kill them about 5% of the time. It and 9 other spells are absolutely illegal, unforgivable, and intolerable in any dimension, even in the 7 Hells."

"The Terrorific 10," said Karen.

"Right," said Carmen. She sighed. "Anyway…there are only 100 people out of the entirety of the population of this realm still alive now that have ever seen this spell being used by a Dark Wizard, let alone experienced it. And every single time, the effects have been horrible and the caster punished to the extent of losing their magic forever and cast into a land of ultimate torture."

"So, basically, you're saying this spell is one of the worst," said Ryan.

"Exactly. In fact, it was the pivotal point in Mars' big plot. He killed the mortals' leaders and tried to convince them that Witches and Warlocks did it, and then vice versa, and he used the torture spell to keep out sane people knowing what he had done and reporting him. Luckily, no one believed him and the Anasalan authorities caught him before he could start any war or anything. One girl he tortured, Jupiter Strongleaf, the Witches' Council's head Witch and Warlock's daughter, disappeared entirely and was never seen again. Some people here think she's here, lurking about the castle and waiting for someone to break her from her delirium, but I doubt that's possible."

Kelly realized that it was possible. Because that's exactly what was happening! She nodded. "OK, that solves my question."

"How'd you hear about that spell, anyway?" asked Carmen.

"I…It's a long story. I guess I'd heard of one of the other 'Terrorific 10'…I think one of them is what killed my mom but didn't kill her the night her parents died."

"We heard that story," said Karen, "Didn't think she'd died. There was no way. But I guess it must be true. How else would she be the Listener?"

Kelly nodded. "Well, I gotta do a few things and then the 2 of us need to get some rest. Long day." She got up and left.

"Yeah, uh…ditto." Ryan got up and followed her.

"What's 'ditto'?" asked Karen.

"Must be a mortal term," said Carmen, shrugging.

Ryan stopped Kelly in the halls. "What was that? How'd you know about that spell?"

Kelly hesitated. "I told you it was a long story, Rye."

"Trust me, we've got time."

"I don't think she can handle it just yet."

"Who? What're you talking about?"

Kelly looked around. Her vision vibes (her gut) were telling her to just come out with it and tell him. But her Witch's sense (her other gut) was telling her that Jupiter couldn't handle anyone else in her current state. So I'll just work around it. I'll let Ryan see Jupiter, but won't let Jupiter see Ryan. "Come on, I've gotta show you something." As she led him to the hall, she told him the story of the crazy Witch girl she'd found in the hall and how she'd suffered through Mars' torture spell.

"You're kidding," said Ryan.

"You believe me?" Kelly asked.

"Why wouldn't I? We've been through enough that I can easily understand anything that happens to us."

"Good point." Kelly came to the hall and stopped Ryan outside it. "She can't see you," she whispered to her brother, so low that Jupiter would surely not hear them, "She's not even used to me yet." Ryan nodded and planted his feet to the ground against the hall as though they were nailed to the floor. "Good." Kelly peeked down the hall. "Jupiter?"

Jupiter came out of the darkness. "Kelly."

Kelly smiled and slowly came towards her. "Yeah, it's me. You expecting someone else?"

"No one else knows I'm here. Mars is the only other one to pass this hall. He thinks it's haunted."

Kelly smiled, holding back a giggle.

Ryan peered down the hall and saw the 2 girls together. He smiled and crept down the hall to go back to his room (which was also Kelly's).

Jupiter heard his footsteps and gasped. "There's someone else here."

Kelly went back to the mouth of the hall to scold her brother for scaring her, but found that he wasn't there. "No one else here."

"Right, I'm just crazy," said Jupiter.

Kelly looked at her. "No offense, but you kind of are."

Jupiter smiled.

Kelly smiled back. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"I'll be waiting." Jupiter watched her leave. "Right here." She went back to her corner. "Something's gonna happen. You probably sense it already. Psychic Witch. Something's gonna happen to you…and your brother…"

Ryan plopped down on his bed, zapping himself ready to go to sleep.

Kelly followed his example.

"So you went and made a friend."

"Yep. 1 friend in 20 acres of house and she's a crazy kooky."

"It's just like home."

Kelly grabbed her pillow and threw it at him.

He laughed and threw it back.

She laughed back at the 2 found themselves in a brief pillow fight. Suddenly, the headphone rang. Kelly picked it up and answered. "What is it, Mom? It's getting kind of late."

"I know, it's been an hour here," came Sophie's voice, "So we're limiting ourselves to calling at the end of every day/hour."

"Good, then we don't have to worry about carrying shrunken heads all over the place," said Ryan.

Kelly glared at him. "Hey, I forgot to mention earlier but really wanna know about now…" Wendy started drinking some water. "Do you guys know that Mars is here?"

Wendy did a spit take. "WHAT?"

"I take it you didn't know?"

Wendy snatched the headphone from her sister. "Mars is there? That idiot? That jerk dumped me and tried to wage an inter-dimensional war!"

"You dated an evil guy?" Duck asked.

"She dated lots of evil guys," said Daniella.

"I thought we agreed we weren't gonna tell him about that!" Wendy scolded her sister.

"Oh yeah. Oops."

Wendy glared at her.

"That's what you get for calling me a mindless hamster."

"Uh, still here…again," Kelly said.

"Right, sorry," said Wendy, "Danni, you take it from here."

Daniella took the headphone. "Watch out for Mars, he's dangerous."

"Yeah, you're telling me," said Kelly.

"Seriously. He can do serious damage to you guys!"

"What's he gonna do?" asked Ryan, "He has no magic."

"He doesn't?"

"You guys don't know?" asked Kelly.

"Don't know about what?"

"Mars got caught before his war could start. The authorities here turned him into a bird."

"Oh. Right. Animal imprisonment spell. Should've guessed that."

Sophie snatched the phone back. "Listen, guys. There's something I gotta tell you, just in case. It's gonna be hard for me to say, and I'm guessing a little harder to believe, but…oh, for crying out loud! I'm just gonna say it!" She started to say it, but was interrupted by snoring on the other side. Kelly and Ryan had both fallen asleep. "I gotta learn to get to my point faster."

10 minutes/10 hours later…

Kelly woke up first. She looked out the window at the horizon and smiled at the sight.

Ryan started to wake up. "Anything yet?"

"Nothing."

"You know…Karen and Carmen weren't gonna make us show up for a magic lesson until this afternoon…maybe we should stop by Mom and Aunt Danni and Aunt Wendy's old place and meet the family."

Kelly considered this. "Hmm…maybe that's a good idea. I'll just go tell Jupiter to—"

The headphone started vibrating.

"Oh, come on!" Kelly picked up the phone. "What do you want? I thought you said you were only gonna call at the end of the day."

"Well," Sophie said, "we were kind of trying to tell you something important."

"Forgive me for wanting to sleep," said Ryan.

"Could you hurry?" asked Kelly while Wendy sighed, rolled her eyes, and starting drinking some water, "We were gonna go meet your family—"

Wendy did a spit take. "What? They're meeting our family? NO!" She jumped up from the couch and ran over there to grab the headphone.

Kelly and Ryan heard a huge ruckus (yes, I just said ruckus) with shouting and banging and the glass-break-cat-screech thing (with some added sound effects).

Finally, Duck had Wendy pinned to the couch, holding her right hand and leg behind her back as he sat on top of her. "What is wrong with you?"

Wendy zapped him off and got up from the couch. "Sorry. But our family is crazy. It's why we only let you meet our parents, the levelheaded kookies."

Daniella picked the headphone back up. "Alright, you're pretty much safe with them, I guess. Just stay with Juniper, Tabitha, and Kestrel and keep AWAY from Skeeter."

Kelly looked at Ryan and gave him the "cuckoo" sign. "OK…" Ryan shrugged. Kelly shrugged back. "Later." She turned off the phone.

"Is your family really that crazy?" asked Duck.

Daniella sighed. "Let me put it this way: the most 'normal' day our family ever had was when Dad's brother Skeeter went out of town for a week and their sister, Galena, accidentally zapped up a citywide blackout and an army of Trolls."

"Yeah, the lake 20 miles away was dry for a year after that," said Wendy.

"I will ask no more," said Tech, grabbing his device and walking off to his lab.

Sophie sighed and followed her husband so she could go to the nursery and check on their kids.

"I wonder why Wendy's so uptight about their family," said Ryan.

"Well, I don't know," said Kelly, "But they're our family, too, and if they're anything like us…" She almost finished that sentence, then thought better of it. "…I better warn Jupiter to be prepared to leave the castle to zap away the literal circus." She left.

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Ryan asked his sister. Kelly glared at him through the door. He thought about that. "Yeah, you should probably go."

Kelly nodded and left.