The Witch With the Glitch Read online

  “What’s that, boy?” asked Greta with a smile. “What have you found?”

  Oswald bounded off and grabbed another, dropping it a little closer to the woods, then another, then another. Soon there was a trail of the white stones that led all the way from the witch’s house to the point where the path to the village widened out.

  “He’s trying to get us to follow him,” said Greta, grabbing her brother’s hand. “Come on!”

  chapter nine - if the wind changes you'll stay like that

  Back at the village, Nina and Ivy had been trying their best to pretend they were normal girls instead of a ghost and a vampire. But it wasn’t entirely working. Sheila and a group of other adults who had gathered in front of the bookshop seemed to be quite happy to talk to them but other people kept their distance. Some walked past, muttering under their breath to one another, and a few annoying children kept running up behind Ivy and throwing pebbles through her.

  “I think it’s very rude to throw stones through a person,” said Ivy, getting quite snippy.

  Nina nodded and tried not to laugh, but was thankfully interrupted by one of the villagers coming over to tell them some news.

  “The blacksmith says that Van Helsing was in yesterday after his horse threw a shoe,” said the man. He was talking to Sheila and the others but his eyes kept flashing across to Nina and Ivy in a worried way. “He says that the horse was pulling a cart and the cart had a cover over it.”

  “And how does that help us, exactly?” asked Sheila.

  “Well,” the man continued. “Van Helsing was talking to someone or some thing under the cover and the blacksmith says that he called whoever it was ‘Izzy’.”

  Nina was about to question the man further when one of the crowd gave a shout.

  “Look, it’s the wolf! And on his back…”

  Nina and Ivy turned to see Oswald the werewolf trotting out of the forest at the exact spot they had arrived in the village, and on his back were two children. A boy and a girl.

  “Han,” a man’s voice shouted. “Greta! You found them!”

  “Thank goodness for that,” Ivy whispered to Nina. “I was getting a little worried.”

  Nina nodded and ran over to greet Oswald and the children.

  I won’t spend too long telling you what happened next with Han and Greta. Not that it isn’t an interesting story, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that it’s not our story. Our story is about Nina, Ivy and Oswald and right now the sun is plummeting toward the horizon and the moon is rising in the sky and they don’t have much time before the witch’s spell becomes permanent but…

  What’s that?

  Oh, very well… Han and Greta… But only for a moment… Because soon you'll want to know about Oswald being stuck in wolf-form too, won’t you?

  Once Han and Greta were sure they could trust the wolf (who we know was Oswald) they followed him but, because they had not eaten for so long, they were weak. Of course, as a wolf, Oswald could easily carry the children on his back like a big, shaggy, pony, so they hopped up and he carefully padded his way back along the white stone path to the village.

  As they arrived back, Han and Greta’s daddy raced to greet them and swept them up into his arms with kisses and cuddles. Their mother, however, was nowhere to be seen. As it happened, Han and Greta were soon telling their father a very worrying story indeed. The children had not wandered off themselves. In fact, their mother had led them deep into the woods on the first day. She had told them to wait in a clearing while she gathered firewood, and then she had left the children to be eaten by wild animals.

  When Han and Greta’s daddy confronted their mother she cried and cried, but the villagers all knew that she was a greedy woman and that the tears were not real tears but the tears of someone who loved money more than her own babies. In the days before Han and Greta’s disappearance, their father had inherited a modest sum of money and, preferring to spend the cash on dresses and jewels rather than clothes and toys, she had hatched a plan to rid herself of the children once and for all.

  When the truth came to light Han and Greta’s daddy didn’t hesitate in calling the authorities and their mother was thrown in prison for the rest of her days, as was customary in stories of this kind. Frankly she was lucky it wasn’t a different sort of story, because she could have come out of the whole thing a lot worse.

  Now can we please get back to poor old Oswald?

  Thank you.

  Once Han and Greta had clambered off Oswald’s back he trotted over to Ivy and Nina and gave them a half-hearted woof.

  “What’s the matter, Oswald?” asked Ivy.

  Oswald whined, his head hanging forward.

  “Why don’t you change back to being a boy?” Nina chimed in.

  Ivy looked him up and down and said, “I don’t think he can. Can you turn back, Oswald?”

  Oswald shook his head and then, glimpsing the bookshop behind them, he once more burst into life, running away from the girls and through the door of the bookshop.

  chapter ten - ghost-girl, wolf-boy and bat-girl

  “Even when he’s a dog he still wants to hang around bookshops like a bad smell,” said Nina.

  Ivy smirked and the two girls stared at the shop, trying to make out what was going on inside through the tiny, filthy windows. After a minute or two there was a sound that might have been a table getting knocked over and then Oswald came trotting out of the shop, a book hanging from between his jaws.

  “What’ve you got there?” Ivy asked.

  Oswald wafted the open book towards her but Ivy just shrugged. “Can’t grab it, dogface,” she said. “I’m a ghost, remember?”

  Oswald paused before turning to Nina and waggling the open book toward her. She took it from him and looked at the page he had been holding in his mouth.

  “The full moon,” she read from the book.

  Oswald barked and sat on his hind legs, pointing one of his front paws at the sky. The girls looked up to the darkening blue sky and the full moon was already there, waiting for night to fall.

  Nina skimmed down the page with her index finger.

  “Tides… superstitions… ah, here we are… werewolves.”

  Oswald gave a little woof of agreement.

  “During a full moon a werewolf is unable to change into human form,” Nina announced. “Oh dear, not so good for you then Oswald?”

  Oswald shook his wolf head, then prodded at the book with his nose.

  Nina kept reading until she came to the next part he was interested in. “Vampires… Oh, that’s me! Vampires can’t go out in the sunlight or they’ll burst into flames.”

  The girls pondered this for a second, glancing up at the sun shining in the sky.

  Oswald shook his head and prodded the book with his nose once more.

  “Oh… right, there’s more… unless it’s a full moon, in which case they can walk day and night in complete safety,” Nina concluded. “So good for me, not so good for you, Oswald?”

  “But good news you can do that turning-into-a-bat thing and not worry about being batman after that?” said Ivy.

  “Batman?” asked Nina.

  “Bat-girl?” Ivy wondered.

  “Bat-vamp-girl?” Nina added.

  “Wuh-woof,” Oswald barked.

  “He’s right, we should be on our way,” said Ivy. “Time is ticking on.”

  “Is there anything else we can do for you lovely, lovely, children?” Sheila walked over, an enormous smile plastered across her face. “We really, truly, can never thank you enough. Here…” Sheila handed Nina a dog’s lead. “In case you need it for your friend.”

  “Oh, erm, thank you,” said Nina.

  She took a map from her pocket, the map that Sheila had given her while Oswald had been off finding Han and Greta. It was frayed around the edges and yellowed with age but showed quite clearly the surrounding area. In the centre was the village itself, situated in a sheltered spot in a valley and surrounded by woods on all
sides.

  The children had come into the village from the south and, according to Sheila, if they followed the valley west they would eventually come across the castle of Van Helsing.

  “So you’re sure this Van Helsing character has Izzy?” asked Ivy, a little nervously. This was their only chance, and she didn’t want to risk heading in the wrong direction. Just as the moon had affected Oswald, it also seemed to have an effect on her. The higher the moon rose, the more solid Ivy felt, as if she might even be able to move objects about once more, but as clouds passed over the moon she felt like she faded away. It was as if, when the moon was no longer shining, she wasn’t a person or a ghost, she was a shadow.

  “You can trust Sam,” said Sheila with a reassuring smile. “He’s not a gossip, not one to spread rumours, all he’s doing is repaying your kindness. After what you children have done for us… We really are in your debt.”

  “I hope he’s right,” said Ivy, as she almost faded from view.

  “Tell you what,” said Nina. “Since you’re looking a little… pale, Ivy. And you’re looking a little… erm, ruff, Oswald…”

  “Ruff,” barked Oswald.

  Nina giggled. “Anyway, I really do have an idea. I’m going to turn into a bat, I’ll fly west and check where we need to go. Once I’m sure we’re heading in the right direction I’ll fly back and tell you what I see. Sound like a plan?”

  Oswald gave a loud woof then scratched behind his ear with his back leg.

  Ivy said something, but her voice faded away into nothing.

  “What was that?” said Nina, leaning in close to the faded ghost-shadow of her best friend.

  “I said ‘good idea’,” Ivy’s voice was as soft as a breeze blowing on a bag of feathers.

  “I know it is,” said Nina, giving her friends a wink.

  She concentrated for a moment, then the vampire fangs extended in her mouth and finally, with a sound like a piece of paper being crumpled up, she rose into the air while shrinking and transforming into a small, black, bat.

  Not wanting to waste any time, Nina fluttered away from her two friends and away from the village. She rose high into the air, still not quite sure of exactly how to work her bat-wings but fluttering them, beating them, to get higher and higher into the sky.

  As she fluttered upwards she caught sight of the witch’s house in the clearing to the south. She stared at it for a second but something caught her eye, something else in the sky. A large, white something that was travelling very fast. She hovered where she was, trying to work out what the creature was; her bat senses were giving her a lot of information, but it was different to people senses and she wasn’t quite sure what to make of the creature beating its wings as it powered faster and faster towards her.

  The clouds that had been covering the rising moon finally cleared and Ivy seemed to return to full visibility down on the ground.

  “Oswald,” she said. “Look at that…” Ivy pointed to the large, white, flapping creature tearing across the sky. “Is that… an owl?”

  Oswald gave a short, sharp woof of agreement.

  “But don’t owls eat bats?” Ivy went on.

  Oswald gave a pitiful whine.

  “Oh dear,” said Ivy, as the owl swooped above their heads, grabbing bat-Nina in its talons before spiralling back higher into the air. “Oh no! Quick, Oswald,” Ivy screamed. “Follow that owl!”

  chapter eleven - follow that owl

  The animal kingdom is a dangerous world, my dear reader. You lead a lucky life. When you walk down the street with your mum or your dad there’s almost no chance of you being scooped up by an enormous animal predator and eaten for their dinner.

  It’s a different story for most of the animals out there, though. Even the ones in your garden. Almost every animal you’ve ever seen has to be careful to avoid another, bigger animal that might eat it. For a bat, one of those animals is an owl, as Nina had found out to her peril.

  Nina got an enormous shock when the owl swooped out of the sky and grabbed her in its sharp talons. Until that point she had fixed her gaze in the direction the castle of Van Helsing was supposed to be in. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to spot it; in fact, in the spot the castle should have been stood a ramshackle-looking house. And then, suddenly…

  Whooooooosh

  She was travelling in the same direction but at breakneck speed. Nina had no idea how a bat would act if they were grabbed by an owl, but she knew exactly how a vampire-girl would act. She turned back into a girl, right there in mid-air.

  I would be very surprised indeed if you had ever seen an owl flying through the air with a young girl in its talons, and there is a very simple reason for that: young girls are far too heavy for owls to carry. If an owl somehow managed to flap its wings hard enough to lift a child high in the air then, as soon as gravity realised what was going on both the girl and the owl would drop to the ground as fast as two large stones.

  So, when Nina abruptly turned back into a girl what do you think happened?

  You’re absolutely correct. Nina plummeted downwards and the owl, whose talons were now caught in her trouser leg, plummeted just as quickly. As she dropped toward the ground a thought popped into Nina’s head. I’m not sure that was such a good idea, was what she thought.

  Luckily for her they were flying directly over the deep, dense, forest, so instead of hitting the hard ground, Nina and the owl hit a treetop.

  And then they bounced onto another, slightly lower treetop.

  Finally, they hit branch after leafy branch, bough after green bough, each one making them fall a little slower so that when Nina’s bottom hit the ground she was travelling slowly enough to suffer nothing worse than a sore bum.

  Of course, the whole of this very worrying incident was witnessed by Ivy and Oswald and neither of them wasted a second, moving as quickly as their legs would carry them to help their friend. Oswald bounded out once more, ducking and dodging left and right to avoid the deep, dense forest all around. Ivy quickly realised that trying to avoid the trees slowed her down so instead she ran in a completely straight line, finally embracing her ghostly abilities to simply pass through the trees.

  In spite of the lack of light as they got deeper into the woods, it wasn’t too difficult for Oswald and Ivy to locate their friend. They followed her voice. Falling out of the sky had made Nina very cross indeed and as they got closer to her they realised that she was telling someone off.

  “Do you have any idea how very, very dangerous that was?” Nina’s voice echoed through the woods.

  As they drew closer, the sound grew louder, but Oswald found his path blocked by thick, thorny bushes. He skidded to a halt, turning to bark at Ivy who nodded and walked right through them.

  “Nina!” Ivy shouted. “Are you okay?”

  “Ivy!” said Nina. “No, I’m not okay. My bum is really sore. And it’s this owl’s fault.” Nina pointed at a big, fluffy, pile of brown and white feathers.

  The pile ruffled itself and opened two big, dark eyes.

  “Hoo-who are you?” the pile of feathers twooted.

  “Who, me?” asked Nina.

  “Noo, you.”

  “Ooh, you,” said Ivy. “You’re an ool.”

  “An ool?”

  “I mean an owl!” Ivy giggled. “I’m Ivy, I’m a ghost. At least for now.”

  Oswald bounded to Nina’s side and gave a little woof.

  “Are you okay?” Ivy asked.

  The owl shook its feathers and drew itself up onto its legs. It turned its head left and right then extended its wings and gave them a flap.

  “Ow-woo!” said the owl, folding its left wing back down. “No-woo, I’ve hurt my wing.”

  “Well, what do you expect if you go grabbing innocent girls mid-air?,” Nina stamped her foot.

  “How-woo was I to know who you were?” asked the owl.

  “The owl’s got a point,” said Ivy, nodding in agreement.

  Nina grumbled under her breath an
d rubbed her arm, which was also sore.

  “Woof!” said Oswald.

  “Oh yes, good point,” agreed Ivy, somehow understanding what Oswald was saying. “Did you see Van Helsing’s castle?”

  Nina shook her head. “Afraid not,” said Nina. “There’s a house over there but no castle.”

  “Twit-twoo,” said the owl, giving its wings another flap. “That house is Van Helsing’s. And I think my wing is fine thank you-hoo.”

  “Oh right,” said Nina. “Well, I’m glad you’re not badly hurt, Mr Owl.”

  “Mrs.”

  “Sorry – Mrs Owl.”

  The owl flapped her wings and took off once more. “Good luck to you-hoo!” she cooed before flying out of sight.

  “Come on then,” said Nina. “It’s not far. Maybe we can get ourselves turned back after all!”

  chapter twelve - the castle of van helsing

  As Mrs Owl circled overhead, stretching her wings once more (and probably looking for some bats who weren’t girls to eat), the children made their way west through the dense woods. The trees were so close together that it was difficult for Nina and Oswald to find a path. Ivy didn’t have a problem, of course, as she slipped right through the trees, leading the way and encouraging the others to hurry along.

  The sun was getting lower and lower in the sky and the full moon was clearly visible, rising higher and higher with each passing minute. The clouds that had been so bothersome to Ivy earlier had also given up trying to hide their friend the moon and the sky was now completely and utterly clear.

  “How long do you think we’ve got before midnight?” Nina asked Oswald as she tramped forward. Twigs snapped underfoot with every step but the forest seemed to be thinning a little as they went on.

  “Ruh-roh?” barked Oswald.

  “I wish I’d put a watch on,” Nina continued. “But I suppose even that might not have been any use because what if it was a different time in the story to what time it was in the bookshop. Remember that time when we…”