The Familiars of the Lost Witch (ONC 2024)

2. Teen

I have a job for you. That was what the witch had said. Never could he have guessed what she meant by that. Luckily, his fear of being used as an experiment or worse -an ingredient- for a spell was unfounded. I have to go an a trip for a few days and  I want you to take care of my familiars while I'm gone.

How hard could it be to take care of her pets for a few days? No, familiars. Eiher way, they were just a bird and a cat, nothing dangerous, hopefully. At least the witch wouldn't even be there, if he took her word for it.

Maybe he could just avoid it without her knowing, but the thought of those two all alone got to him. He knew all to well how it felt to be left alone, plus it seemed like animals where the only ones not affected by his curse, so the stray cats of the city became his best friends.

After debating the whole night, not being able to sleep, he made a decision. The risk of her finding out was too high and the payment too good to back out now. Moreover she offered him to stay at her house with all the food it would provide. When was the last time he slept in a warm place?

As he followed the way that she had described, he had never been there because he had avoided the outskirts of the city since he knew a witch lived there, he hesitated several times. Just as the sun peeked over the horizon he arrived at the witch's house.

Should he ring the doorbell or knock? But if the witch was truly gone, there wouldn't be anyone to open the door for him. If it was locked, he would just leave, he thought to himself. Then he would have at least tried. Breaking in wouldn't please the witch either, right?

With a deep breath and a slightly shaky hand he reached for the doorknob. He pushed and pulled and just as he wanted to give up, it moved with a faint click. So it wasn't locked, you just had to turn it to the side, interesting.

Before he could change his mind again, he pushed the door open, wincing at the unfamiliar and way too loud noice the door hinges made. It seemed like nobody could sneak in through the front entrance without alerting the residents. But the witch was gone and no one else lived here, except for her familiars.

"Who's here?" At the sound of the croaking voice he froze immediately. Someone was here? He wanted nothing more than to run away, far away from the witch's house, but he couldn't move. Was it some kind of spell or was it just his fear keeping him in place?

Standing like a statue in the door frame, his heart hammering against his chest like it wanted to run away without his body, he stared into the darkness before him. A few steps ahead of him he could make out a half open door, It seemed like the sun was shining into the room behind it.

A small shadow appeared next to the other door, followed by another. Were those... ghosts? Was this place haunted? As the shadows slowly approached him, he realised what they were. A black cat and a crow, the two familiars and the reason he had come here. Nobody else seemed to be there, at least no one came out. Then did he just imagine the voice? Or was someone else hiding in the other room?

"What are you just standing there and letting the cold air in? Come inside and close the door, please." It wasn't the croaky voice he had thought to hear before, it was a female voice, but it wasn't the witch's either.

His heart, that had slowed down a little, skipped a beat and his breath got caught in his lungs. He had thought to be the only human here, but was there truly someone else waiting in the other room? But the voice sounded nearer than the one before, but there was nobody else here except...

His darting gaze fixated on the two creatures before him. "Come on, I don't want to repeat myself. Or are you dumb? Close. Door. Come. Inside", said the cat. The cat, the cat could speak!