Pumpkin Spice, стр. 12
His name was Richard Darling, he was a sixty-seven-year-old man, no hair, and was diagnosed with dementia.
His Doctor, Dr. Mangold, entered. She looked down at the ground. His red pill lying on the floor beneath him. Over the past month he had developed a habit of throwing his red pills on the ground. No one knew why, but they were going to have to start checking on him. Richard was a sneaky one, the nurses all enjoyed him.
Dr. Mangold picked the pill up and walked it over to Richard. “We can’t have you leaving your pills on the ground anymore, Richard. Come on, open up.” Richard was reluctant to do so. “It’s OK, Richard, you can trust the red pill. It’s good for you, it’s here to help you.” Richard looked over at Dr. Mangold. Mangold’s eyes lit up, for the first time in a while Richard seemed to respond to what she was saying. She couldn’t help but smile. “C’mon Richard, open up.”
Richard, ever so slowly, opened his mouth. “McKoul!”
McKoul stood in a dimly lit hallway of the lab. At the end of the hallway stood Red, alive and well. She tossed a machine gun towards him. He caught it with his right hand.
“C’mon McKoul! Whatta ya say we get the blazes out of here?”
McKoul smiled, slid a cigar into his mouth, and cocked his gun with a smile.
A WITCH FOR ALL SEASONS
There was a time just before we are aware when mankind and the witches lived in unison. During these dark times men and women lived in fear for what would become of them and their families had they crossed an evil sorcerer.
To say all witches were evil would be a lie. Many witches believed the human world and the witch world could co-exist. And so, it did. Witches and Warlocks swore an oath to not disturb the human realm. While the two beings co-existed, they kept their distance and respected their well-being as well as differences. A witch could work as a blacksmith, and the client would never be aware. This is how it would be. If a witch’s powers were ever revealed in the human realm the witch would lose their powers and face death at the stake or drowning. Not all witches were in agreement with this protocol. Eventually the witches returned to their realm and would only exist to humans in folklore.
The witches were led by the Oscuro Council. The Mapap warlock headed this council. Beneath him were the three Bruja’s, and the three Hexe’s. All decision for witches were put through this council. Members of the council would be voted in every six hundred and sixty-six years by all witches and warlocks.
A change was brewing in the witching realm. The witches and warlocks were growing tired of living in secret from their human counterparts. They had powers and wished to flaunt these traits to the lame world beyond their realm. They could rule both realms and witches would reign superior. This was the all being set up by the Mapap.
The head witch was called Esthrum, he had been the Mapap for two-hundred years already. He was voted in by his compassion for witches. He believed witches and warlocks were the superior species. His campaign was built on this fact. Since his election more and more witches were allowed to venture to the human realm and perform witch craft. This not only caused humans to once again fear witches, but also saw more and more witches being burned at the stake, this was something many witches saw as a direct threat to the witching community. Esthrum wanted the witching world to witness humans fearing and murdering witches, he was using these threats to start a war with the human world. The three Bruja’s were made up of Esthrum’s wives, so whatever he believed they would follow. The Hexe’s on the other hand were free spirits. There was Bathomir, a warlock whose wife had been burned at the stake when she ventured into the human realm to pick some beautiful flowers. Madeline, who once fell in love with a human male. Their courtship ended when humans discovered their affair and imprisoned her lover for the remainder of his life.
That left Sybil, the youngest of the Hexes, the youngest of all the council members in fact. Sybil was the only witch on the council who had yet visited the human realm. All she knew of their kind was of the dangers they posed to witches and warlocks alike. Sybil was smarter than she appeared, and read more than any other council member and most likely more than any other witch she had ever met. She believed humans were a danger to their kind, but in her gut believed there was more to them than just vile hunters.
Unbeknownst to many witches, but known throughout the council was Esthrum’s plot to reunite the witching realm and the human world once again. Esthrum always believed witches were the superior species and found it insulting that they had been essentially banished from humans. And when their identities were revealed to the lamer species, the witches would die because of it. And while a war between the realms was brewing, Esthrum had a grander proposition at hand. The Mapap and the council schemed up a plan that would reunite the two species, bring together the realms, and see witches dominate over all beings, without the casualties of war. All witches of the councils agreed, save for Sybil.
Esthrum’s plan was for him to enter the human realm, court a suitor, marry her, and their child would be a half-breed. It was always said the oath would be broken if man and the Mapap witch created life through love, not magic. This meant whomever Esthrum lured into his trap had to fall in love with him of her own free will.
Sybil objected to this plot. She