Catastrophic

Chapter Nineteen

    Day falls and bows down to night as we go over the plan to get my proof, and I must say that going out into the woods and collecting nasty snakes in jars is worth it.

    We watch through Wenona’s window as she sits on her bed reading the book that is our goal to begin with. No ounce of pleading with her in our own heads makes her fall asleep, and it isn’t until eleven at night that she turns out her light and rests her head on her pillow.

    Although my green dress was good for camouflaging in the daylight, it is horrible for night burglaries, and Bryony comes to my rescue. The night is my dressing room as I reluctantly change out of my beautiful dress for the slim and slender black clothes. I stuff the dress into my backpack, causing horrid wrinkles to puncture the gorgeousness of the material. I stash my bag into a hollow tree and join Bryony, who’s waiting for me at the edge of the woods. The night has turned so dark that we can’t see one another, but I’ll take that if it conceals our bad duty.

    Bryony hands me a jar full of snakes and tells me my position as she takes her jar. She sets the 6 others containers full of garden snakes on the ground at the base of a tree, and then heads to the other side of the house. Bryony told me that Wenona had had some construction in her basement, and that there were still some holes in the ground that were big enough to transport snakes inside the house. I bewitch the snakes to not bite me as I reach inside the jar and pick them up one by one. I then bewitch them again to want to go to the master bedroom, and I set them on the ground. They take off like a rocket through the hole, and I run back for my second jar. I go to my second spot and do the same, just as I do the same for my third and fourth jar. Soon enough, our forty some snakes travel and reach their destination, and they slither into Wenona’s bed. It’s go time, before Wenona makes them vanish with her magic. Just as I am about to enter through the back door, Bryony stops me.

    “You are supposed to wait five minutes!” she hisses, and I give her a look that says she doesn’t understand.

    “Wenona has magic, Bryony. She’ll take care of the snak―” This time Bryony gives me a look that says I’m ignorant. “Who told you that?” she inquires.

    “Bryony, if Emilia has magic, then Wenona does too! How else did Emilia inhabit her power?” Think about it. Magic can’t just be made, it has to be genetic, just like blue eyes are genetic or big ears are genetic.

    “Magic is born within you, Kassie. None of your parents harness your power, and none of Emilia’s parents do either. For some reason, magic chose you. It’s a gift, not an expectancy.” So, Wenona doesn’t have magic, which means there isn’t a ward which means that that makes my job so much more simpler.

I wait five minutes like Bryony instructed, and then I blend into the wall. I waste no time as I run up to the master bedroom, dodging wires that connect from the walls. The wires slow me down as I try to go as fast as I can to her bedroom, where the electricity cable is. Our plan was vague, saying I would enter the house and pull the plug. Apparently, Wenona has a house that runs on a generator that has a plug run inside of these walls.  The only problem is that I don’t know whether or not Wenona’s wire will shock me or if it’s the right one. All I know is that it is a red wire I’m looking for, and there are a lot of those.

In exasperation, I reach for a red wire near to me. Enchanting myself so I won’t be electrocuted, I cut the wire with the pocketknife in my pocket. I can tell the electricity in her house stops, and I know I succeeded in cutting off the phone lines. No exterminator coming to her rescue today.  

I make myself disconnect with the wall, and I turn myself invisible. Creeping along, I enter Wenona’s bedroom in the hopes of getting the book. It’s dark and there are snakes all around, but those snakes are ordered not to bite me and I enchant my eyes to see in the dark. Wenona is standing on her bed, cowering from the slimy, slithering snakes. While I feel bad that we put her to this, at the same time, I feel she’s got what she deserved.