Zelda (2009)
33 - Let's partyThe day had gone by in a rather nervous atmosphere. Also Hilda and William were more tense than usual and they could not put a finger on the why. Maybe it was because they were teaming up with so many different people and groups to bring Zelda's terror to an end. Or was it that they had witnessed these inexplicable effects in the metal cathedral, the things that had unsettled Stephen and his fellows? They sat in the kitchen with Gladys, who had sort of taken them in. Remarkably enough, they all agreed, there had not been any Zelda-induced disturbances during the night, nor the day. "Makes me feel all kinds of funny," Hilda shared with them. "She usually is this silent only when she's up to no good." "Try not to worry about it," said Gladys. "Maybe she is just planning something." "But that's what worries me." Hilda sat back on her chair and made her coffee cup float over the table while she seemed to be engaged in some deep thoughts. William watched her face and read the frowns, the movement of her eyebrows and the twitches of her mouth, and decided that it was not a doomsday scenario that unfolded in the witchy mind. "We should start heading out soon," he said at the right moment. Hilda nodded and magicked all the coffee cups clean and back into the cupboard where Gladys had taken them from. "Oh Goddess," their host said, "I am so going to miss you guys." "We are not gone yet," Hilda said with a wink. "Let's first make sure that our biker friends made sure to collect the others." Stephen and some of his group had agreed to pick up Tory, Vivian and the witching crew, to get everyone in place at the right time. William would carry Gladys over, with Hilda on the lookout. The two of them were always Zelda's main target, so care had to be taken. "Are we ready?" Hilda asked Gladys as they were standing in the backyard of the house. "Nothing forgotten?" "I'm not sure what I could forget," said Gladys. "We're going for all or nothing tonight, right? I have to say that I am very scared, but taking something with me won't make much of a difference, will it?" Hilda nodded, and appreciated the attitude of this woman who was diving into something for her and William, something that she had no idea of. Actually, Hilda had no idea either. "Okay. Let's go then. Hang on, Gladys." As Gladys sat in front of William, there was not a lot she could hang on to while the brooms lifted off, but she appreciated the thought regardless. She was getting more or less used to riding shotgun on a broom, as she called it for herself. So long as she stayed away from the thought of flying on such a stick all alone. They sped upwards at a considerable pace. The afternoon had seen its best part already, and if all was well, the metal dome would be filling up with participants for this session of Zelda-bashing. "I'm going up a bit more, William," said Hilda, "so I can see more of what's happening from here." The wizard nodded. Gladys wondered what had caused Hilda to do this and asked him about it. "Just being careful," he replied. "Zelda has played tricks on us before, and those never were the kind we could laugh over." After they had passed over the town, where several people were in the streets and shouting up at them, Hilda lowered her broom back to William's level again. "Nothing Zelda. I don't like that." William agreed. He did not trust that witch further than he could throw her either. Miraculously though, they reached the enormous stack of containers without a problem. After touching down, Gladys hopped off the broom, thanked William for the smooth trip and then rushed off to find her sisters and Andy. "William, don't look over your shoulder. Say nothing. Zelda's around. I am not sure where, but she is here somewhere. We'll have to tell the others, but try to be calm about it." Hilda shrunk the brooms; William tucked them inside his robe and nodded. Then they walked off in separate directions, talking to the assembled group. Vivian and all the others were there. Stephen had an impressive twenty-nine person contingency with him. With so many people, the word of Zelda being near was spread quickly. Hilda suggested they all go inside and start as soon as possible. To the question of Vivian and Stephen about what to start, she said: "Improvise. Do what you normally do." One of the women in Stephen's group walked into the metal cathedral. Seconds later she yelled: "Hey, who brought their cats?" The magical couple frowned. Who in their right mind would bring pets to a venue like this, while knowing what they were planning to do? They entered the large metal structure, where Buster and Rodney were working on lighting all the candles. "Leave them to it, Hilda," William said, "this is their party too, and we should respect that." Hilda nodded. "Good thinking - oh, I have an idea. Come with me for a moment..." She grabbed one of William's sleeves and dragged him along, eradicating all forms of 'no' beforehand. When they returned into the light of the candles that by now were all burning, they witnessed a truly uncanny sight. In the middle of the space, Stephen and his people had painted a large black circle. Inside that, Vivian and her group had painted a white circle, with a large, be it slightly crooked, pentacle in it. The wiccan witches were dressed all in white and had put up loads of white candles. Outside their white realm, the devil worshippers were clad in black and deep red clothes. Some of them were preparing something that involved a large black cauldron, which was located to the side. The black mirrors caught the light of the candles but somehow forgot to reflect it. The whole spectacle as it was developing made William shiver and grin at the same time. "Dante would go crazy, I think." "Who?" "Dante Alleghieri. He wrote a book about Hell. I'll tell you more about that later," William said. "If there is a later, that is." "Negative, negative," the witch muttered. "Come, let's see what they are brewing up there." More sleeve-pulling happened. In the cauldron was a liquid. It was red and it looked very warm. Hilda frowned at the stuff. "Do you do that always?" she asked the woman who was pushing a ladle through the liquid as if she was winning a rowing contest. "Usually, yes. And better stand aside a bit, the stuff makes nasty stains," the woman replied. "Of course, we sometimes vary a bit. Serving tomato soup all the time gets boring. Last time we had chicken soup. Well, we made it anyways, before that bloody witch came and threw it all over us and the floor." William stared at the woman. "Soup." "Uhuh. Can get quite cold in here, and doing energy work can drain a person. So we always have soup ready for afterwards. And rolls with cheese. They're over there, behind the black curtain." She swung the ladle, leaving a trail of tomato soup drops in the air. Hilda acted immediately. The woman did not notice the result until she was rowing in the soup again. She dropped her oar. "What's up?" Hilda asked. The woman slowly pointed at the drops of soup that floated over the side of the cauldron. "That..." "What of them?" Hilda flipped a finger and the drops fell back into the hot soup. "They... hovered?" "Yes? So?" Hilda made the oar-ladle rise up, clean. "That's kid stuff." The woman fainted. William was just in time to catch her and guide her to the ground. Buster was near. "Wha's happening? Oh... Olga fainted." "Can you tell us why she did that? I did nothing." Hilda raised her hands in innocence. Buster looked at the still floating ladle. "Uhuh." Olga came to again and grabbed Buster's arm. "She's a fucking witch," she whispered. "A real one!" "Yeah. Stephen said, right?" Hilda grinned at the compliments. "But I thought he meant one of them!" Olga stabbed a finger at the members of the coven. "The innocent ones." Gladys and Jennifer heard that and glared over at the woman who was still sitting on the ground. After a word from Vivian they returned to what they had been doing. "Don't call them innocent until you've seen what they can do," said William. Buster helped Olga to her feet, while William explained a bit about what had happened a few days ago, in the forest. As he talked, the woman's eyes were drawn to some movement: the ladle moved to the side and then fell on the ground. "Hey, why did you do that?" Olga sounded angry as she bent and picked up the spoon. "Do what?" Hilda turned back to the cauldron. "I thought you had taken it again." There was a moment of silence among the people around the tomato soup. Before they could follow up on something, though, Stephen and Vivian called out for attention. William reached out and took the fallen ladle from Olga, trying to feel something about it. "Did you sense anything Zelda?" he whispered. The witch shook her head. "Hello everyone, we are ready, so let's begin. Let's work our magic!!" She shouted it out, and that was picked up by everyone in the metal cathedral, until the walls almost reverberated with it. Stephen and his band started doing what they usually did in their sacred metal dome. Vivian and her group started doing what they usually did, in their own sacred space inside the metal dome. Hilda and William stood to the side and watched the goings on for a while, not certain what they would be able to do except for Hilda keeping watch, for when Zelda approached. The shouting started, startling Vivian's group as well as the two magical people. It took them a few moments to discover that the noise came from Stephen's gang. William saw a movement in a corner. "What?" asked Hilda who had sensed his little jolt through their bond. "I thought I saw two cats..." "Cats," Hilda snorted. "Pets don't belong here." She shook her head. "Crappedy crap." Quickly she grabbed William's collar and dragged him to the ground as a heavy brass candleholder, including black burning candle, flew over their heads. It only missed them because of Hilda's action. "Zelda?" William asked as they got up again. "No," was the disconcerting answer from the witch, "and I have no idea who did that. There's only one witch around." They both looked at the group of white witches in their circle and then at the gathering of devil worshippers. "One of them?" As they saw Stephen's group perform some dance that did not seem to be disturbed by any choreography, suddenly a small white device fell from someone's pocket. Although... it did not actually fall. It dropped a few inches, then seemed to levitate upwards, as if it had a mind of its own. There was a string attached to it. "What's that?" Hilda asked. "Looks like an iPod," said William. "A music device." "Dwarf's bullocks," the witch muttered, "too small for that." "Guys?" Hilda said as she walked over to the group, pointing at the white thing on a string. "Does that happen often here?" The owner of the iPod stared upwards and searched his pockets. "Fuck. That's mine." The iPod had risen up too high to reach by ordinary means. As if it was mocking the group, the earbuds raised up as if they were plugged into someone's ears, and then music filled the enormous space. All ritual actions promptly came to a standstill. "Martin, you have Thriller on that thing?" someone asked in disbelief. Then the door of the container-cathedral opened and a wave of magic washed through the confines of the place. It knocked over some candles and some people. Hilda and William had their wands in hand and braced themselves. Zelda had arrived.
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