Witchin’ Sugar: Magic and Mayhem Universe

Chapter One

“Oh, fudge. That’s not going to work out well.” I double checked the ingredient list. Something about it didn’t seem right.

Then again, I could be reading it wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time, not that I’d told anyone.

I was supposed to be a cookie witch like my sisters. Well, they weren’t cookie witches. Kandy was a candy witch who made the most amazing sweet treats. Her claim to fame were little sticks of sugar called Witchin’ Stix. And then there was Kyla who could make any sort of cake your heart desired. Some of her creations were out of this world. Probably out of the next one, too. And just like them, I was spectacular in the kitchen, but in all honesty, these recipes that I’d unearthed in the attic from my great aunt’s storage trunk didn’t read like any other recipes that I’d come across before.

Oh sure, they were named right, like Chocolate Cake, Lemon Bundt Cake, Winning Sugar Cookies, but so far, the cakes hadn’t turned out quite right and the sugar cookies seemed more than a little dubious. “What am I doing so wrong?” I murmured.

“Talking to yourself again?”

I sighed at the sound of the female voice full of purr and determination. “I am.”

“You could talk to me.”

“No.”

“But why? I’m here to help.”

“I don’t need help.” She’d been offering for several months now. I hadn’t been then, and I wasn’t now in need of help. I got that she was a bit unsure where she belonged since her warlock had died, but I didn’t need a cat or a familiar, even though all witches were supposed to have familiars.

“Sounds like you do.”

“I don’t.” And I was trying to be nice about my refusals. I could only say no so many times, though.

“I think you’re in denial about it.”

“I’m not in denial about anything.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“I don’t think you are.”

“Will you please go away?”

“Why would I do that? You need my help. If I go away, I won’t be able to help you.”

“I already said that I don’t need any help.”

“Again, denial. Let me help. That’s my job.”

“Shari, that’s not your job.”

“Sure it is.”

“And what are the strings to that?”

“You’re so skeptical.” She sounded as bored with the conversation as I was.

“Not skeptical. Just wary when it comes to you and your brothers.”

“I totally get it regarding them, but I’m not them.”

“Well, I appreciate the offer, but no thanks.”

“You’re not as easy to please as your sister.”

“Which one? I have two.”

“Kandy. She’s easier and more receptive.”

“She’s been stuck with Larry for a while. When he wasn’t Barry, that is. But to use your words, I’m not her and she’s not me. Why don’t you go see if Kyla would like to have a cat?”

“Because.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t you want to know why?”

“Nope.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you. You don’t have to beg. Barry has a crush on her.”

I stood to my full height, which admittedly wasn’t terribly tall and looked at the black cat sitting on the corner of the kitchen table, grooming one of her paws.

She had my attention now. “Barry has a crush on Kyla?”

“Yep.”

“They can’t… I mean, you know that, right?”

She rolled her eyes and that was a first for me. I’d never seen a cat roll their eyes before. Then again, I didn’t know cats all that well.

“Of course I know that, but Barry doesn’t seem to think that’s much of an obstacle.”

“He’s in for a rude awakening,” I stated. “So, while he’s trying to woo her, you needed something to do, is that it?”

“Not exactly how I’d put it, but sure. I don’t have a place anymore. I don’t have a magical. I don’t have anything or anyone.”

I met her green gaze and had to admit, reluctantly, that she had seemed to become more and more sad the last few times she’d been at the house. Was that why she’d been so persistent?

She was as snarky as ever, but the repeated rejection must take a toll on her the way it took on anyone who’d ever lost pretty much everything and wasn’t wanted by anyone.

Well, fudge. Now I felt bad.

And she was the better of the three sibling cats. The smarter, at least.

“I’ll make a deal with you.”

Her ears perked up and she sat up straight, her front paws perfectly aligned. “I’m listening.”

I was the one who fought rolling my eyes now. Her haughty tone was back as I should have expected.

“You can stay here, but you have to pull your own weight.”

“What does that entail?”

“You make a mess, you clean it up.”

“I do that anyway.”

“I am not your servant.”

“I’m not yours.”

At least we were in agreement there. “You won’t sleep in the bed, but we’ll find you something suitable. In fact, you won’t sleep on the furniture at all.”

“My warlock let me sleep in his room. I had a small bed on the floor beside his rather massive one.”

“Do you miss him? Your warlock?”

“Yes. I didn’t have to do much, but he liked having me around and I liked being around him. He was nice to me. He was the first real family I had, the only one who’d ever really cared about me and what happened to me.”

That confession made my heart hurt. I didn’t know what that felt like. I was close with Kandy and Kyla and we had each other no matter what. I knew that if something happened to me that they’d miss me.

I couldn’t imagine going through life without them.

I couldn’t imagine going through life knowing I had sisters, but not seeing them.

Shari the Cat was going to run all over me because I was going to let her just so she never had to feel alone and unloved again.

“Well, this can be your new home,” I said, trying to keep my voice strong. I picked up the sugar cookie recipe, pretending to give it another read through so Shari didn’t see the tears filling my eyes at all she’d been through in her little cat life. I blew on a speck of dust, or what I thought was a speck of dust, but when the swirling began in midair, I began to realize that might have been a mistake. I backed up and dropped the piece of paper to the floor.

Apparently, this was not a normal sugar cookie recipe.

Flour flew into the air, taking shape in ways it was never meant to and the wooden spoon in the bowl lifted itself out, flinging sugar into the air.

“Kaydence?”

“I… I have no idea,” I said to Shari. She jumped from the table and came to wrap herself around my ankles. I didn’t know if she was freaked out or scared, but I could honestly say that I wasn’t sure which one I was, though I was leaning toward a combination of both.

I moved along the counter to the far edge of the kitchen. I wasn’t looking to escape, was I? Was I willing to leave my little house to whatever it was that was happening?

As shapes began to form and take on more human like qualities, I realized that yes, yes I was willing to abandon my house and run like hell for Kyla’s place.

“What are we supposed to do, Kay?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you know who they are?”

“Not a freakin’ clue.”

By the time I’d finished my statement, three corporeal beings made of flour and sugar floated several inches above the floor in my kitchen.

Two women and one man.

Clothing from another decade.

One of the women carried a cane. The man wore a Bowler hat on and small, round eyeglasses.

For a moment, I wasn’t sure if they even realized Shari the Cat and I stood on the other side of the room, stupefied.

I didn’t have to be unsure for long. All eyes turned to me and if I could’ve molded myself into the cabinets, I’d have done so in an instant.

“Gertie?”

“That’s not Gertie.”

“Of course, it’s Gertie. Just look at that mane of hair.”

“She’s too young to be Gertie.”

“Then who is she?”

“And if she’s not Gertie, what’s she doing in Gertie’s house?”

“Where’s Gertie, Missy,” the ghost with the cane asked, inching close, cane out in front of her and pointed in my direction.

“I-I don’t know her.”

“You look just like her.”

“And you freed us. She didn’t give anyone her spell recipes nor share her secrets with anyone, so fess up.”

Bowler Hat took a step forward drawing a hiss from Shari. He stopped, looked down at her and sneered. She sneered back.

“Is Gertie dead?”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“Fine. You don’t want to tell us, you don’t have to tell us. We’ll find out on our own.”

“What year is it? I don’t recognize anything.”

“2019.”

All three ghosts looked at me with ever widening eyes. Disbelief spread from one face to another. “We’ve been under the spell for all these years?”

“That doesn’t seem possible. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long.”

“How long?” I asked.

“Since 19… Since 19… I don’t remember. Do either of you remember?”

“I don’t.”

“Well, that’s not surprising. You couldn’t remember anything then either.”

“How do you know?”

“I… I don’t know how I know. It’s like I know some things, but not others. Like details. I don’t seem to recall details.”

“Maybe the girl is telling the truth. Maybe she isn’t Gertie.”

“I told you I wasn’t.”

“But you looks just like her.”

“Who is Gertie?” I asked. Again.

“How did you get this house?”

“It was passed down to me by my aunt.”

“Was Gertie your aunt?”

“No. Gracie was.”

I picked through my brain looking for any reference of a Gertie and couldn’t find one. And if she was my aunt, then she should be there, someone should have, would have mentioned her.

“Either way, Gertie is likely as dead as we are, and she’s not here, so what say we take ourselves on a stroll through town?”

“You can’t go strolling through town,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re ghosts and ghosts can’t just go anywhere they want to go.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.” I thought about all I knew about ghosts, which was hardly anything at all, I was sad to say.

“We were bound by the spell, but I don’t recall anything ever being said about us not being able to go out if we were ever unspelled.”

“Why were you spelled?”

“Because Gertie didn’t like us.”

“How are you able to remember that, but not anything else?”

“I don’t know. Things are coming and going and I’m not able to hold onto anything long enough to see if it’s relevant.”

“So, a spell was put on you by this Gertie person because she didn’t like you? That seems like a pretty flimsy reason to put a spell on a person, let alone three persons.”

“That’s what we thought, too, but…”

Bowler Hat reached for the kitchen door, but his hand slipped right through the metal of the knob. He tried again and Shari the Cat laughed. The ghost turned to her and hissed, his cheeks hollowing, his teeth growing long, his eyes sinking into his corporeal face. It was hideous and when Shari hid behind my legs, I couldn’t blame her. I wanted to hide, too.

After a moment, his rather kind looking smile returned, but I wouldn’t be forgetting the creepiness.

He turned back to the door, stepped into it, and then, through it.

“Oh, look, we can leave.” Cane Lady said in one breath, but when Bowler Hat reappeared, she sighed. “What happened? Why did you come back?”

“I didn’t come back. I was out there, outside and then I was back inside. I didn’t do it myself.”

“Maybe you didn’t do it right.”

“There’s a right way to do it?”

“There must be. You left and came back.”

“Then you try, you old biddy.”

“I will.”

Leaning heavily on her cane, she moved toward the door, motioned for her friend to move back, then she stepped through. Within seconds, she was back.

“See?” He cackled. “I told you.”

“Obviously, neither of you are doing it right,” the third ghost said. She was pretty unremarkable to look at. Her face was plain and her eyes bland. She didn’t appear to have any sort of personality which was likely why I hadn’t paid much attention to her until she spoke up.

Cane Lady huffed. “What would you know about doing it right?”

“That you’re not.”

She stomped toward the door. At least, the motion she made with her legs would indicate she was stomping, though there was no sound. Out she went, and back she came.

The three of them looked back and forth between themselves, then all turned toward me. “Lift your spell on the house.”

“I don’t have a spell on the house.”

“We can’t leave.”

“I told you I didn’t think you’d be able to.”

“But Gertie didn’t tell us we wouldn’t be able to, so this must be your doing.”

“Why would you think the woman who put a spell on you would give you instructions about what you could and couldn’t do if someone else accidently broke the spell or suspended it?”

And why was I arguing with ghosts?