By Jareth
Chapter Three: Winifred at large
“My God! This place is a mess!” said Winifred as she walked into the old Laundromat where her final spell had gone so horribly wrong. Apparently, after her arrest, no one had bothered to clean it. “Wait, if no one’s bothered to clean this dump, than…” Winifred ran over to a pile of dirty rags and began to sift through it. “Come on, come on, be here!” Winifred said hopefully. “YES!” Winifred shouted holding up a strange looking book. “It’s still here.” She hugged the book affectionately. The book was an odd book indeed. The front cover appeared to be made out of poorly stitched leather and was bound with what appeared to be human bone. On the cover, in big gold letters, read the title, (No, not magic for dummies) “VIGO CARPATIA’S BOOK OF SPELLS”. “Now,” began Winifred. “to see what went wrong.” Winifred opened the book to a page marked with dust rag, pulled out the crude bookmark, and flung it over her shoulder. She began to scan the page with her index finger for the spell she had used. “Ah! Here it is!” She said excitedly “the Tsuyosa Potion.” The book read:
Tsuyosa Potion:
Add the following to a full cauldron:
1. Elephant earwax
2. Lobster lips
3. Lightning bug bulbs
4. Chieftain’s hair
5. A piece of the moon
Hold the moon fragment over the cauldron and say: “Now, is the time whenst
all things regine, and the netherworld’s energy, addst to mine” anos
ononus, dodonrecair, send me to the netherworld, empower me there.
6. Step into the cauldron and you will supposedly be sent to the netherworld
and given great power from all demons who dwell there.
The Tsuyosa Potion, or “Ultimate spell” as it is sometimes called, was invented in Japan in 2343 BC. The Tsuyosa Potion has never actually been made due to it’s out of reach final ingredient, and is only based on magic theory. The potion works by taking one’s magic strength, and multiplying it a billion fold. The potion must not have any enhancers or extra ingredients. If it does, the witch’s/wizard’s dark power will be decreased a hundred fold and if the user does not poses such power, then their life energy will be taken to compensate, leaving them in a catatonic state for several hours and taking several years off their life.
“So that’s what happened!” Winifred spat angrily as she slammed the book shut. “Those miserable little rodents not only ruined my life, but shortened it as well! There must be a way to fix the damage that has been done” Winifred re-opened the book to the very same page and read on:
However, if the potion is concocted correctly, the user will gain eternal life and powers to rival the Devil himself.
Note: Do not use ordinary cheese as a substitute for the moon’s cheese. It will not work.
That was it. The only thing written under that was more spells, with ridiculous ingredients like werewolf fangs and powdered unicorn horn. One spell even called for wing of bat.
“Heh, wing of bat” Winifred said quietly, “I’ll bet Foxglove’s wigs would do well in that.” Winifred now stood up and began pacing. “I want to complete the Tsuyosa Potion, but how can I do it with no magic powers?” She stopped when she saw a newspaper clipping on the floor. It was the same clipping that she had cut out almost a year ago when she was looking for the dates when the moon rock would be on display. The clipping read:
“Mar. 12 - May 3 1995, Feb. 14 - April 9 1996.”
“February 14th?” Winifred said with an evil grin, “that’s
today.” She dropped the clipping and walked over to her cauldron. “If
I can get my hands on that moon rock again, my magic will be increased just
enough to complete the spell, and become a real witch.” Winifred peered
inside the fallen cauldron. She had expected the bottom to be encrusted with
lightning bug bulbs and lobster lips, but it was eerily clean. “Well, at
least I don’t have to spend hours cleaning this thing.” She said,
setting the cauldron upright.
“Now, lets see what I have to work with.”
Winifred walked over to the cabinets on the far side of the room and opened
them. Inside, she had kept some spare elephant earwax and lobster lips, but
had added all the lightning bug bulbs Lou had given her, to the potion. “Rusty
buckets!” Winifred said angrily as she slammed the cabinet door shut. “Why
did I have to add all the bulbs at once instead of saving some? Well, I’ll
worry about that later, because first, I need to steal the moon rock so I can
begin the spell.” Winifred looked down at her prison uniform. “But
before I do that, I need to change out of this stupid prison uniform!”