Cherry and the Twitches

chapter 3

"Well seems like we'll be on another adventure." Atticus smiled.

"Yep..." Mo shrugged, but had a smile since she got to be with him.

Cherry then leaned back on the couch. "Better relax for now..."

"Um, Cherry?" Patch pointed to the TV screen.

"What?" Cherry sat up and grabbed her video game control and removed the pliers. "What the heck!?" she then tried to make the bus move again, but since she had not kept her thumb on the button, the bus had ended up trapped. "The bus is stuck in the sand!" she then groaned. "They made the bus veer to the right on purpose... Ugh, they've thought of everything... Gosh darn you, Penn and Teller!"

The bus was then being towed and starting the game all over again.

"I suggest you put it away." Patch said.

"This is the most sadistic thing ever!" Cherry groaned, she took the game out, put it in its case and tossed it into the trash.

"So, um, who were those guys we just saw?" Mo asked her friends about Drell and Skippy.

"Those were Drell and Skippy." Patch told her.

"Drell's the Head of the Witch's Council." Atticus added.

"And a giant pain in the rear..." Cherry mumbled.

"The reason why he's a pain is because he's been torturing Cherry for a long time." Patch told Mo.

"Why?" Mo asked in concern.

"Because I'm a mortal," Cherry scoffed. "I'm basically his cosmic plaything."

"Yeah, which is just so wrong." Atticus added.

"Did you try talking to him about it?" Mo asked.

"Yes." Cherry said flatly.

"What happened?"

"He made a piano fall on my head."

"Yikes," Mo said, surprised. "By the way how are we suppose to find Camryn and Alex?"

"I may not be a witch by blood, but I heard from Sabrina that these crystal balls can usually locate any which anywhere," Cherry said as she looked at the one she and Patch were given. "How do you turn these things on?"

Patch put his paws against the ball, trying to see if he could help.

Michelle walked in then, carrying groceries, giving greeting nods to her daughters and her friends, she looked a little worried, due to the Darkness coming out.

"Mom, do you know how these crystal balls work?" Cherry asked her mother.

"I know someone who would." Michelle said softly.

"Granma, right?" Cherry asked softly back, knowing that she would now never be given the answer.

"Yes, and her friend in England," Michelle informed. "Luckily I have a way of communicating her free of charge."

"That's great, because we need to use these to locate Artemis and Apolla AKA Alex and Camryn." Atticus smiled.

"Excuse me a moment..." Michelle went down the hall into her home office.

Cherry kept trying to hit the crystal balls, but it didn't do anything, she then lifted the ball high in her hands and was about to strike it against the floor.

"YOU BREAK MY CRYSTAL BALLS, YOU BUY MY CRYSTAL BALLS!" Drell's voice was suddenly heard, making her lower the ball now.

"Well, how are we suppose to activate these crystal balls already?!" Patch asked.

"BE PATIENT!" Drell demanded.

"Man, he's good..." Mo was surprised Drell was there, even if he wasn't there.

Michelle came back with a special phone. "Here you go, sweetie, it's 'Aunty Eglantine'."

"Hello, Aunty Eglantine?" Cherry took the phone.

There was suddenly shouting which made Cherry flinch and remove the phone from her ear.

"I know, I know, I know," Cherry said to her, trying to calm the woman down. "Listen, do you know how to get crystal balls open so we can find the twin witches that Drell and Skippy told us about?" She then took out a notebook and jotted this down as the woman on the other line talked. "Uh-huh.... Uh-huh.... Uh-huh... Is that all? Oh, that sounds easy... Now I feel like an idiot... Okay, bye Aunty Eglantine... I... I love you too..." she then hung up the phone.

"So, what do we need to do?" Atticus asked.

"Put the balls on the table," Cherry instructed from her notes. "Side by side."

Atticus and Mo did as told, moving the balls together on her kitchen table inside of a pot so they wouldn't roll off.

"Press against the symbols of the balls." Cherry continued.

Atticus clicked on the sun symbol while Patch clicked on the moon symbol, making the balls glow instantly.

"Join hands all together." Cherry said, putting her notebook down and holding out her hands.

The others did as she said, Patch extended his front hind paws.

"And chant the ancient rhyme with the witches we want to see," Cherry said before bowing her head and closing her eyes, making the others do the same. She did the rhyme for them and when she finished, the four of them together said the names of the witches. "Apolla and Artemis DuBear."

The balls glowed even brighter and lifted out of the pot on their own, spun around the four of them rather quickly, making a strong wind and in an instant, they were all taken out of the kitchen with the crystal balls in a blast of bright yellow light.

"Good luck, dears." Michelle whispered.

Drell and Skippy saw this from their own crystal ball.

"Good luck, puny mortal..." Drell whispered about Cherry.