Cherry and the Twitches

chapter 11

Things were safe so far in the Supernatural Realm, no one had died or been killed, but it was very boring for Penelope. She couldn't even go out to the mortal world since school was over and she was forbidden from using the crystal ball so Drell and Skippy could keep in contact with Cherry, Atticus, Mo, and Patch on their mission with Alex and Camryn's destinies.

"That's it, I'm going out there..." Penelope hopped off her bed, grabbing her wand. "No one's gonna stop me, not Ben Ravencroft or any Darkness!" she then used her wand to make a clone of herself. "You stay here..." she told the clone.

The clone nodded, it looked exactly like her, but had a strange purple moon crescent on her forehead. Penelope then snuck out by teleporting out, so she could do something else then just stay in her room. There were three malicious laughs, two of them very familiar.

"Oh, boy..." Penelope grew fearful again. "Maybe I should turn back..."

'Leaving so soon?' a voice taunted her. 'I thought you liked the dark side... Come toward it, girly...'

Penelope let out a scream of fear.

Skippy knocked on Penelope's door and waited for her to answer, she didn't though, so he knocked again and put his hands on his hips. "Penelope, it's Uncle Skippy..." he called gently, hoping that would make her answer the door. He then opened the door and found the clone reading one of Penelope's 'boring' school books. "Look, I know you feel trapped here, but we want what's best for you... I mean, anyone could be out there right now. You could get seriously killed if you tried to sneak out right now."

The clone did not answer, Penelope did not give her information in order to do so.

"Penelope, listen, after The Darkness is defeated and Ben Ravencroft is trapped inside the spell book again, then you will be ungrounded." Skippy said.

The clone still did not answer him.

"Penelope, please talk to me, you know you can always talk to me..." Skippy said to her.

The clone merely blinked at him.

"Silent treatment, huh?" Skippy folded his arms. "I just thought since we're so close you wouldn't do that to me..." he then walked off. "I'll see ya later, Penelope... Stay out of trouble..." he then shut the door behind him.

Drell came to the kitchen to get some water from a goblet. "How is she?" he asked.

"She won't talk to me and she's reading one of her school books," Skippy replied. "I think she feels bad being stuck in her room all day."

"Oh ....Wait, she's reading one of her school books?" Drell asked.

"Yeah..." Skippy replied, seeing nothing wrong with that. "Why?"

"She's never done that unless it had to do with homework and she always talks to you." Drell said.

Skippy thought about it. "You're right..."

"Mortal or Witch school book?" Drell asked, putting down the goblet.

"Something called 'calculus'." Skippy remarked.

"Mortal..." Drell grumbled, then stormed over to Penelope's room, not even bothering to knock and glared at the clone. "All right, who are you and what have you done with my Penelope!?"

The clone did not answer him.

"HEY!" Drell yelled louder. "I'm talkin' to you!"

The clone merely blinked to him.

Drell picked the clone up by her collar and then noticed magic dust on Penelope's bed and saw her wand was missing. "She snuck out!" he concluded.

"What?! But how did she sneak out?" Skippy asked.

Drell looked all around, he also noticed Penelope's broomstick was missing and her window was open. "I got a pretty good idea... I should've known this would happen... I did the exact same thing at her age when my mother wouldn't let me see the Bubonic Plague live..." he folded his arms and shook his head.

"The band?" Skippy asked.

"No, the virus that wiped out half of Europe," Drell informed. "That girl is in so much trouble when I bring her back home. On the plus side, I could see that Artemis and Apolla met with Karsh and Ileana and are finding all about themselves... Though Artemis isn't all too thrilled like her sister is."

"Same here." Skippy said.

"She'll warm up to it... Speaking of which..." Drell said as he took out a strand of Penelope's hair and placed it on his wand.

The wand glowed a bit, flew out of his hand and went to find Penelope for him.

Penelope screamed as she was nearly swallowed by darkness, but the wand picked her up by her hood and brought straight back to her bedroom. She was now sitting on the floor and looked all around her. "How did that happen?" she muttered to herself.

"Oh, you can thank my wand for finding you after a strand of your hair was placed upon it." Drell said before something shocking happened.

"Oh, thank you for saving me, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Penelope cried out while hugging him.

Skippy then made the clone disappear and never be bothered with again.

Drell hugged her back, then let her go with a smile, that instantly turned into a frown. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT SNEAKING OUT!?"

"I'm sorry!" Penelope cried out. "I just--"

"Penelope, I make these rules for a reason, you're very predictable," Drell said to her. "You know why? I was just like you when I was your age! You're lucky I didn't leave you out there! My parents left me alone the last time the Darkness came out and forced me to find my way back home and decided that was punishment enough! Listen, I don't want you out of the house until Artemis and Apolla defeat The Darkness."

"I'm sorry..." Penelope repeated. "I'm just so bored here now..."

"I'm sorry too, but you have to stay inside, it's very dangerous this time of year," Drell said to her. "I'm not trying to be mean, but you really need to listen and get that through your thick little head!"

"He's right, Penelope." Skippy said.

"Okay, did you just agree with him?" Penelope asked.

"PENELOPE!" Drell and Skippy scolded her slightly.

"All right, I won't sneak out or do anything against the rules ever again..." Penelope promised, putting her hands behind her back and crossing her fingers.

"I know you won't..." Drell took out his wand. "Not only are you grounded from leaving the house, you're grounded from magic until this is all over.

"WHAT!?" Penelope yelped.

Drell zapped her with his wand, draining her of all of her magical abilities. "If you're still in school while this goes on, I'll have Ms. Magrooney and Mr. Snipe excuse you from witch training classes and you can make it all up after Apolla and Artemis destroy The Darkness."

"Wow." Penelope said.

"Oh, and don't even try to sweet talk your Uncle Skippy here," Drell put his arm around the smaller male."I've taught him to be more assertive... Go ahead, ask him something."

"Uncle Skippy, can I--" Penelope started to ask with puppy eyes.

"No." Skippy cut her off.

"But, I didn't even finish my--"

"No."

Penelope grew angry. "Knock it--"

"No."

Penelope then growled in frustration. She was going to say something else, but just stopped herself. Drell and Skippy smirked to each other, high fiving the other.

"Stay out of trouble, I mean it this time." Drell said, going out the room with Skippy, shutting the door behind themselves.

"This sucks..." Penelope scowled as she was trapepd, now without her powers.