Mena’s aunt was enveloped in a black cloud of smoke. When it quickly dissipated, a tiny kitten was left in her place. There was a red ribbon around its neck, and it shared her auntie’s shining green eyes. It licked its paws docilely, as her enemies celebrated their victory. Bubbel took a bow as Toila and Karen applauded her. Only Anguish was skeptical. “What did you do to her?” she asked.

“Well,” Bubbel said, her raspy voice raising in joy. “What she thought was a witch’s greatest source of energy were actually Meowshrooms, guaranteed to turn an elite witch into a mewling kitten.

“Perhaps,” Anguish said, her eyes permanently stuck in tearing terror, but a small smile curling on her lips. “We should give her to another crazy cat woman and see how she likes it...or…even better.”

Anguish’s tiny smile, broadened with cruelty as a morphing blot of shadow appeared in her hand. A golden eye shone within the darkness, and then expanded; several dark tendrils emerged from it too, and it made a disgusting writhing sound. Mena had no idea what it was, but the way it slowly loomed towards her auntie, who was haplessly licking her paws, made her realize she had to do something.

“Ladies,” Anguish said, her voice a bit shaky but brimming with sudden confidence. “Today is the day I end this longstanding feud with Grizzy and send her to the same place she sent me all those years ago: The nightmare void. Like me, she’ll relive her worst nightmares until she either becomes a miserable piece of vegetation or loses her mind…and well, then we’ll truly be two of a kind.”

“Fire blast,” Mena chanted with her hand to her head, “I want you to toast their…butt!”

A ball of fire erupted from her finger, and it streamed down onto her foes, landing directly on the nightmare void. The black portal glowed bright red and swelled larger; the four wicked witches all turned their heads directly towards Mena, taking their eyes off Grizabella for the first time.

“Mena, what are you doing?!” Straw Woman exclaimed, shaking her from behind the tree, but suddenly, a soft mewing filled the air, drawing the witch’s attention back to the kitten.

“Row-meow, row-hiss,” the kitten said, a green light emitting from her paw, matching her shining green eyes perfectly.

A wind whipped around the five, and even Anguish had a look of panic. She cast a furious glare at Bubbel who seemed in total disbelief. “You blubbering senile fool,” Anguish growled. “Grizabella can speak cat! She must have known what those mushrooms were all along!”

Mena sighed in relief as the black kitten gave a satisfied mew and scampered off into the woods. The gusts of wind were forming into a cyclone, and it grew larger and larger, tearing out the ground, plants and even Grizabella’s well-kept garden. Anguish let out an upset cry and swooped her jagged robe over her body, vanishing into the rip. “I’m not getting trapped in one of these vortexes again. Bubbel, track down Grizabella and the child and”—dark purple eyes glowed brightly from the jagged portal—“This time fail me and you’ll be spending some time in the Nightmare Void yourself!”

The void vanished leaving Bubbel, Toila and Karen to run as fast as they could to escape the cyclone, which had now grown into a twister. The tornado had sucked up the vegetable patch, torn out the clothesline and ripped into Grizabella’s cabin, shattering everything from windows, doors, tables, plates, shelves, and (sadly for Mena,) her books and her comfy quilted bed. Mena gasped as she saw pages from her book collection in the maelstrom, but she was endlessly thankful her auntie had escaped.

“Lovely weather for cycling,” Karen said as the three witches puffed and panted up the muddy hill.

“I don’t have time for your positive outlook, Karen,” Bubbel said, her bulk clearing causing her to run out of breath. “And you won’t either in the Nightmare Void. I don’t want to relive the Autolycus Witch Trials of 777!”

“Quick, Mena,” Straw-Woman shouted. “Let’s get out of here before those mean witches get up…”

“Heh he heh,” Toila laughed as the three witches hovered up the hill on broomsticks. “Did you forget we have these?!”

“Run!” Straw-Woman yelled, and Mena dashed into the fog as the witches divebombed her with bursts of green and red lights.

Mena’s heart pounded harder as she ran. She could not see the witches in the fog, but as a consolation, they couldn’t see her. She heard hovering brooms, snickering, chanting, and hollering in the fog, but none of their attacks reached her. The forest was endless, and besides, she did not even know where she was going.

After running for what seemed like a mile in never-ending fog, Mena put her hands on her knees and panted. She didn’t have a lot of weight to her body, but that didn’t mean she was in shape. Skinny-fat was the word she used to describe her physique. All around her Bubbel and her comrades cackled. “We know you’re out their dearie. Come clean so we won’t have to roast you!”

“What do we do now?” Straw-Woman asked. “I forgot you had lungs. By the way, can I have some when we escape to safety?”

Ignoring her, Mena gazed at the ground panting, and saw a small stone lying by her boots. A smile crept across her tired face. “Looks like I’ve got nowhere to go,” Mena called out. “Nowhere to go but up a tree! You’ll never find me there, you dumb witches!”

Mena hurled the stone with great energy, and it shuffled the branches of a nearby pine, causing a bunch of pine needles to spill out onto the forest ground. “I hear her,” Toila shouted.

“Me too,” Bubbel said, “She’s a noisy climber. Ladies, blast away with all your might. Together we will end this fight!”

A multitude of colored blasts fired at the pine. Much like when her auntie blasted a tree, this pine quickly buckled, crashing down and spilling out in a sea of green branches.

“Echo spell,” Mena chanted, “Carry my voice. Up ahead is my choice!”

A golden ball exuded from Mena’s finger and flew into her mouth tickling her vocal cords. It quickly flew out a whizzed over to the toppled tree.

“Augh!” Mena vocalized, trying hard to sound wounded and not laugh. “My spleen. The whole tree fell on top of me. I’m flatter than a pancake lizard.”

“You hear that?” Bubbel exclaimed. “We got her. Let’s gather what’s left of her!”

“Poor dear,” Karen said. “I hope she’s not hurt too badly.”

As the witches searched the fallen tree for Mena’s body, she and Straw-Woman tiptoed away into the fog and ran off. The further they ran, the more the red rain and scarlet mist dissipated. Mena could not run anymore and collapsed by a river. “Are you okay?!” Straw-Woman asked.

Mena’s lungs danced hard in her chest, but she felt a sense of relief for the first time. “I’m okay,” she responded. “I hope we got away. At least the rain and fogs gone…”

Mena flipped onto her stomach and observed the silver stream before her. The remains of Anguish’s blood rain traveled down the current, but the water was clearing up, much like the sky. The forest washed away the blood like a bad memory, but what transpired that night remained firm in Mena’s head.

An equally silver moon shone through the gaps in the trees, touching the young witch gently with a few of its beams. She crawled over and sipped from the stream, carefully avoiding the strands of blood that tangled with the fresh water. “I hope my auntie’s alright.” Mena said, but Straw-Woman could not answer her question.

“I’m sure she is,” Mena replied to herself. “Ever surrounded by some of the scariest witches, she still outsmarted them.”

“Perhaps we should rest here for tonight,” Straw-Woman said.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Mena replied and laid out on her side. “I can’t run anymore…Miserable magicaps, I miss my auntie already.”

Straw-Woman put an arm of straw around her, but Mena knew it wasn’t the same. Straw-Woman was an animated sack of straw embedded with a piece of her imagination. It was like hugging herself.

Mena shivered, still shaken by Anguish’s appearance. Her features burned brightly in her mind like infected scars. Especially those eyes. Thinking of those broken creepy eyes made Mena feel like she would never be safe or happy again. How could she go to sleep when the first thing she’d see when she closed her eyes were Anguish’s own?

“Mew.”

Mena opened her eyes and squinted hard. Across the stream, licking itself in the moonlight, was the same black kitten with eyes shining like a pair of glowing peridots in the night. Mena rubbed her eyes and it was gone. A calming feeling came over her mind and the tenseness of her body eased. Perhaps her auntie was still watching over her after all. Mena closed her eyes again, imagining her auntie standing before her, protecting her from all harm. She drifted off and did not stir until the sunlight warmed her body again.